Page 11

Chapter

Ten

“ O kay, Boss,” Law said. “We got the cameras all set up for the first walk-through shoot. Then we’ll do the night shooting over the next couple of days, so we’ll have to re-set.

” He pushed his hair back off his face, then took a huge gulp of his third latte from Xavi’s.

Apparently, he’d gotten them and then put them in the fridge to heat up during the day.

No coffee pod crap for Law.

Yesterday, Sebastian had come down to do an on-camera walk-through, talking about the history of the house, and about how bad the ghosts had gotten.

Which, of course, meant the ghosts had been completely silent the whole time Sebastian had?—

“Ow!” Mason jumped back from a bookcase, rubbing his head. “Man, who’s tossing, uh…” He bent to pick up a little brass trophy. “Best-show rabbit trophies at me?”

Law goggled. “Show rabbits?”

“Such a city kid,” Mason teased him. “I showed pigs.”

Colton chuckled. “I showed heifers.”

“Sure. You had money.”

Colton shrugged. “My folks were horrified that I did 4-H. The housekeeper signed me up.”

“Wow.” Iago came in with his clipboard. “You had that childhood, huh?”

“You’ve met my folks.” Colton felt his back start to stiffen up just thinking about them.

“We have.” Iago made a face, crossing his eyes. “Evil overlords. No way would they go to a cow show.”

“They wouldn’t come to the hospital. And they gave away all my rights to my kid.”

Mason blinked, and he remembered then that while Iago knew, no one else had. Until now.

“So she is yours?” Law motioned to Abby’s picture.

“Yeah. And I need to make it up to her and Sebastian.”

“You mean you’re not just going to run?” Law teased, and Colton would be damned if a book didn’t fly right off the shelf and almost hit Law in the head.

“I’m not just going to run.” He made sure that all the truth and belief he could muster was in his voice. “I think, guys, that part of the problem is Sebastian’s been so unhappy. I think the ghosts are trying to protect Sebastian and Abby.”

Iago frowned, and Law turned the cameras on. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why drive them crazy if they’re protecting them?”

He put on his game face. “I don’t know, exactly, but we’ve seen this before—the communications can get very convoluted. Distorted, even.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we can just ask them.” Mason rolled his eyes. “We do have one of those spirit boxes. We have EMF readers; we have all the things. This is our job. Hello, focus.”

Every so often, Colton wanted to hit Mason, just pop him right between the eyes. He didn’t, but sometimes he really wanted to.

“Well, that’ll be one of the focuses. I want to get this show on the road.

We want to set up equipment here in the parlor because that’s where the alphas were murdered.

The children were killed on the third floor.

” They’d do a historical rundown, too, but he wanted to get Law as much footage as possible so Gent had something to edit.

“So, what’s up there on the third floor again?” Iago asked. “It’s just storage, right?”

Colton nodded. “Yes. Sebastian said he wanted to do a playroom slash office, but the activity was just too intense. Abby wouldn’t stop crying, and now she won’t go up there.”

“Hell, if you were an omega and you and all of your children were murdered up there, you wouldn’t want anybody up there either.”

“I think we just really want everyone to be able to relax. Especially Abby.”

His little girl.

Colton knew he had to be really careful not to think things like that because she was Sebastian’s, but biologically, she was his too, and he wanted to be something in her life, something good.

He would never, ever, ever have denied her, and just knowing that she spent three years with her dad believing that he had made him sick.

Colton cleared his throat. “So yeah. Walk-through now. Find any and all hotspots. Set up the night cameras. I want some kind of bait on the third floor. The teddy bear or the ball or something they can interact with…”

Iago was scribbling, Mason pulling out equipment, turning on the EMF reader and the spirit box and all the other crap he dealt with. He’d already set up a small command center in the kitchen.

“Okay. Let’s start with a basic history. Colton, Mason—you’re on. Iago, stay in the background a little for this, all right. You’ve got crazy hair, and it’s distracting.” Law grinned from behind the camera.

“Crazy hair?” Iago’s eyes went wide. “Colton?”

“Hush. You need some conditioner or something—that’s all.” That blond mess was a little…frizzy. The dry air here was really making Iago static guy.

“Oh.” Iago patted his hair with one hand and moved behind Law. “Fine. I’ll be the disembodied voice.”

“No one does disembodied like you, man.” Mason couldn’t be drier if he tried.

“Right. Goody. Let’s roll.”

Colton moved to the formal living area. “This is the room where four alphas were found murdered with an axe after their poker game, including the owner of the house, Abraham Belle. Apparently, Belle held a standing poker game here every third Thursday night. This wasn’t a rowdy game.

This was snifters of brandy and what amounted to penny-ante poker.

It was simply a way for four friends to be together.

While there have been many, many suspected murderers, no one has ever found any definitive proof as to who committed the grisly deed. ”

“Yeah?” Iago grinned at him from behind the camera and Law’s shoulder. “Who did they suspect, Boss?”

Colton spread his hands. “I’ve heard everything from a random stranger to a disgruntled omega who was dating one of the alphas to the fifth alpha who was supposed to be in the card game who ended up staying home with his sick children, Horus Marken.”

He heard the slam of a book as it hit the floor out of the camera’s sight.

“Whoa, did you hear that?” There was Mason, right on cue. “I did. This is one of the most active homes we’ve been in. Anything loose is fair game.”

“Who else was in the house the night it happened?” Iago asked.

“Abraham’s omega was here, Jeremiah. As well as the three youngest children; there were three older ones who had already left home. One had gone to boarding school, one had departed for college, and one that was off, apparently, gallivanting in Denver in an aimless way.”

“So, the owner of the house is a direct descendant?”

He nodded to Mason. “He is, and so is his child. This house has never not been in the hands of a Belle, and I think we should keep it that way.”

“That’s wild,” Mason murmured in his on-camera monotone. “A one-family house from the 1850s.”

“I know. That’s really unusual,” Colton said to the camera.

“This was a mining town, but this house would have been for someone in the administration of the mine. Someone not as well off as say, the owner, but nonetheless, someone of status. So, a major murder like the one committed here would have been a huge scandal.”

Iago made a give-more motion from behind the camera.

“Just think about it. This might have been the wild west, but this was the American Victorian era, and it was damn near as important to be proper and scandal-free to these families as it would have been back East. The miners would have been expected to cause issues, but not family men in fancy houses.”

A piece of china rattled on its saucer, and he glared. “You break that, and it’s really going to upset the current owner of the house, buddy.”

The cup stopped in its tracks. Iago gave him a wide-eyed stare, and Law’s jaw dropped open.

Mason, on the other hand, leaned into it. “We do hear you, though, and if you have something to say, speak into this box. That way we know what it is you want from us.”

“That’s it. There are ways to—Ow!” This time the book hit him. “Really? The Great Gatsby ?”

The ghosts sure were well-read around here. And pretty pointed in their choices.

Iago burst out laughing, and Law cut the camera, cracking up hard. “Wow, Boss. Are they suggesting you’re a crooked bootlegger?”

“No, but I do think they’re saying I’m less than honest.” He shook his head, glad they’d stopped filming. “Okay, to the next room.”

They all trooped to the dining room, which was so pretty with its built-ins and the Chippendale-style dining table with its burgundy upholstered dining chairs from maybe the 1910s.

A lot of Sebastian’s stuff was…dainty for him. He felt like a great ape wandering around the house. Sebastian had always said if he was going to spend a lot of time in Hot Springs Junction they would have to get him a great big recliner to put in the family room up on the second floor.

He grimaced. “Okay, you lot. No tossing breakables, and no knives or forks stuck into people. Got it?”

“Boss—” Iago started.

“I was talking to the ghosts.”

“Oh.” Mason burst into gales of laughter. “They’re like family.”

“They are, a few generations removed.” He frowned. “Though Abby says there’s a bad man who shakes her feet and wakes her up.”

Law, who had been about to turn on the camera again, stopped. “Wait. So a ghost is physically touching that little girl?”

“That’s what she says. Bastian says he’s seen it.”

“Dude, that is so not cool.”

Mason nodded. “That’s beyond good TV. So, we don’t mention that, just that the ghosts have gotten physical, right?”

“Right.” God, he loved his crew. They were the kind of people he wanted around him, unlike his family and their lawyer.

Iago nodded, frowning around the room. “Y’all have to be decent to that little girl. She’s innocent.”

There was a hum, almost, a sound as if several entities had joined together to give some energy. It raised the hair on the back of his neck, made his teeth rattle.

Mason’s mouth dropped open. “That’s wild. Start filming, Law. I’ll check the spirit box.”

Colton looked at the camera. “We’re hearing a hum, a thrumming as if the spirits are trying to communicate…”