Page 23

“I’ll go back with you,” Thierry said. “If he’s still there, he’ll come after me. But I really think he’s gone.”

“And the others?” Hank asked.

“I think they were trying to warn Sebastian that this was coming. Things were heating up.”

Hank grimaced. “I feel like this is?—”

“Oh, stop it,” Sebastian told him. “I’m glad Colton is here, and you can stop being all worried.”

Laughing, Hank held up his hands. “Fine. Fine! Does that mean you’ll finally come over to Secret Springs so all of us can have supper together?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, fine, I’ll come have Sen?r Dragon’s. Twist my arm.”

“I want to see this footage,” Gent said, and Law immediately bounced up. It didn’t take but a few seconds before they started rolling it.

It was weird, so weird to see all the things that were on the screen. It didn’t seem real. It seemed like the set of a play that was supposed to be his house. Or maybe like looking at old pictures of the houses that had been when it was first built, as opposed to just pictures, just film.

There was lots of it that was really unnerving, especially the whole thing with Thierry. He didn’t like that at all—this feeling of foreboding, of dread and anger that didn’t belong in the home he’d grown up in.

What he did like was when Colton said aloud Abby was his daughter, and that she was innocent and good.

He heard Gent gasp when that came out, and the whole crew sort of looked guilty. Apparently, the partner didn’t have any idea that there was a baby.

“You and I are going to have to have a chat, Colton,” Gent growled, and Sebastian shot a glance at his lover.

“Surprise?” he whispered.

“The best kind of one, yes,” Colton answered.

“We don’t need that kind of surprise, Colton. I have a niece? I’m going to kick your butt.”

“I’ll call you later. I swear.”

Sebastian wasn’t sure whether Colton’s expression was worry or amusement.

But whatever. The film started again, and he was watching, fascinated.

When Thierry made the awful noise, and the spirit who was possessing him left, though, something caught his eye, and he actually stood up. “Do you guys see that?”

Law immediately stopped the film, and Colton looked at him. “What did you see?”

“Did you not see it? All of the lights pushing at Thierry?”

Everyone shook their heads, and Hank blew out a hard breath. “Rewind it, guys. I want to see what Sebastian did.”

They went back and then forward, frame by frame, and sure enough, in one frame there seemed to be a dozen, maybe more, lights pushing on all sides of Thierry.

It was as if he was suddenly surrounded by these individual bursts in all colors of the rainbow.

“Whoa.” Colton sat back in his chair.

“See. That’s them. Those are our ghosts. Those are the Belle spirits. Not that…thing that was in Thierry.”

“No, that was Horus,” Thierry said. “And he didn’t die in your house. So he’s not tied to it. He was there to get what he thought was revenge.”

Sebastian was the one to growl now. “Well, he can fuck right off.”

“That was kind of the consensus,” Colton quipped.

He poked Colton in the ribs.

Once the whole video had run, Gent cleared his throat. “That is a content-may-be-disturbing-for-some-viewers warning waiting to happen.”

“You think?” Iago rolled his eyes. “This place is amazing. You ought to come and see it.”

Gent raised one black eyebrow. “I might have to. I have some things to discuss with my business partner, and besides, this is a really active situation. Is it usually this active? Mr. Belle?”

It took a second for Sebastian to figure out Gent was speaking to him.

“Sebastian, please.” He nodded and smiled toward the computer, unsure if Gent could even see him. “It’s active all the time, but not mean, just active. Books fall over. Lights flash. Cold spots, you know, just normal life things, not scary axe things.”

Speaking of scary axe things…

He looked over at Hank. “I don’t want that thing back in my house. Can you take it back to the historical society with you?”

“Totally. If we have problems with it there, we’ll stick it in a Faraday cage.” Hank didn’t seem worried in the least.

“Thank you, I just… I don’t want it around Abby. It makes me uncomfortable. In fact, if you want the entire trunk of things for a permanent display, that’s fine. It doesn’t seem to bother the ghosts when it’s gone.”

“God, I love that,” Gent said, and everyone looked up. “The way that he just talks about ghosts, like everybody knows that they’re here, and it’s no big deal.”

“They are here, and it’s not a big deal.” And that was that.

Mason nodded. “You have to come and see this house, boss. It’s intense.”

“Hopefully less intense now.” Bastian still had to live there with his daughter. “When can we go back home?” he asked Thierry.

“I’ll do another walk-through this afternoon and, as far as I’m concerned, you can go back in the morning.”

“Oh good!” That was great news. “Good. That’s what I want.” He glanced at Colton. “That’s what we want.”

Colton beamed at him. “That is absolutely what I want. To go home with you in the morning, yes.”

The whole room sort of went, “awww”, but Sebastian didn’t care. Sebastian was kind of feeling the aw himself.

He reached for Colton’s hand and held on. “So that’s what we’ll do tomorrow morning. We get to go home. It sounds perfect. I’ll make pancakes and bacon breakfast for supper.”

“What about us, boss? I mean, if you’re going there…” Iago sounded worried.

“Well, I need to talk to Gent. You guys can’t stay at the hotel indefinitely. I know Mason has been living out of a suitcase and a storage unit, and Iago, you’ve been renting a room from your uncle…”

Law whistled and studied the ceiling.

“And Law’s living situation has changed abruptly. So maybe we should see if there’s anything to rent here in Hot Springs Junction?”

Gent nodded. “I can see a whole series on the old mining towns around you.”

Sebastian brightened. “I know a place just off the park. About two blocks from me.”

“Send me the deets,” Gent said. “And I’ll contact the rental agent.”

Xavi snorted. “Mrs. Hoffman’s grandson Dillinger is the one who will rent it. He’s a lawyer in Secret Springs. No rental agent required. He didn’t want to have to drive back and forth, and she’s moved into an assisted living in Montrose.”

Iago tilted his head. “His name is Dillinger ?”

Xander grinned. “Yep. He goes by Hoff.”

“Did you go to school together or something?” Colton asked.

“Yep.” Sebastian chortled. “We called him Dillie.”

He defied anyone to say they bullied Hoff, though. He was as big an alpha as anyone Sebastian had ever met, and he’d defended him and Xavi the whole way through school.

“Well, if someone could get me his number, I’ll arrange for you guys to go have a look. And Colton, arrange a room at the hotel for me day after tomorrow.”

“Perfect.” Colton waved at Gent. “I’ll call in a bit.”

“You will?” Gent gave them a sharklike grin, and then he was gone.

“So you want to go back today, Thierry?” Colton asked.

“Yes. That way, Sebastian doesn’t have to wait for us tomorrow to go home. I hate that you’ve been displaced this long,” Thierry told him.

He glanced at Colton. “Oh, it’s kinda been fun camping out. But I do want to go home.”

Colton hugged him and kissed the top of his head. “Well, you get a hold of ‘Hoff’, and I’ll call Gent. Then we’ll head back to the house to do the clean out and have Thierry check.”

“I’ll come. We can leave Abby up here.”

“I can help watch her if Xavi and Xander need to get to work.” Hank beamed. “And you’re spending the night up here, right? You can bring the trunk up in the van and help me put it in the SUV.”

“Absolutely.” Colton looked pretty satisfied.

Sebastian felt the same way.

And nervous.

Because if the ghost issue was resolved, it was just going to be him, Colton, and Abby.

And that was going to take some getting used to.