by Paige Tyler
Robert was the only one who seemed uncomfortable by the whole exchange. “Did you put some herbs around in case it is a ghost, Logan?” he asked, obviously hoping to change the subject.
“Yeah.”
“Herbs?” Presley asked curiously.
“For some reason, ghosts don’t like garlic and sage,” Robert explained. “One whiff of the stuff and they take off.”
“If there is a ghost, the salt Logan sprinkled across the doorway will keep it from getting into the rest of the house,” Brielle added. “Ghosts can’t cross a line of salt.”
While Presley had to admit the stuff about the herbs and the salt could possibly come in handy—if it turned out ghosts really existed—she still couldn’t help feeling a little let down.
“You aren’t disappointed we didn’t see a ghost, are you?” Brielle asked as they got in the Hummer a few minutes later.
“Maybe a little bit,” Presley admitted.
Logan glanced at her from the front seat. “This was your idea to come along. I told you the house probably wouldn’t be haunted.”
Presley had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something she shouldn’t. She’d had enough of trading barbs with the ghost hunter for one night.
On the way back to Sleepy Hollow, Mav suggested they stop at a diner and grab dinner. Presley was all for that. That granola bar she’d eaten on the way to the ghost hunters’ office was long gone and she was starving. That wasn’t the only reason she wanted to stop. She hoped Logan and Mav might be inclined to open up about what they did for a living in a more relaxed setting. She thought she had her answer already, but she needed to be sure.
To Presley’s annoyance, Logan was as reluctant to talk once they got the diner as he’d been earlier. He barely said two words as he wolfed down the burger he ordered. She was all for the strong, silent type, but this was ridiculous. Mav wasn’t much better. While he let slip he’d been in the Army Special Forces, he didn’t say much about his current occupation as a ghost hunter.
Fortunately, Brielle and Robert were more talkative. In between eating, Robert revealed he was a financial management consultant who lived with his wife and two kids over in Paterson, New Jersey.
“Paterson. Wow,” Presley said. “That’s quite a drive, isn’t it?”
“Not really. It’s only about twenty miles.”
She nodded and dipped her spoon in her soup. “That’s not bad, then. Doesn’t your wife mind you spending your free time hunting ghosts, though?”
He shook his head. “She’s okay with it since Logan helped us out so much.”
Presley glanced at Logan to see his jaw tighten. She wanted to ask again what he’d done for Robert and his family but didn’t. She wondered why the ghost hunter didn’t want to talk about it. Was he that much of a reluctant hero or was he simply being the jerk Brielle said he was?
Ignoring Logan, she turned to Brielle. “How about you? What do you do when you’re not ghost hunting?”
“I’m a nurse in New York City. My hours aren’t as regular as Robert’s, though, so I don’t get out here to help as often as he does,” the woman admitted. “What about you? Do you write full time?”
Presley smiled. “Not yet. Someday, maybe. Right now, I’m a counselor at a high school in Stamford.”
“That must be rewarding,” Brielle said.
“It is most days,” Presley agreed, but knew she should stick to her cover story. “I’ve always wanted to write, though.”
That wasn’t really a lie. She had always wanted to write a book someday, but this was the first time she’d ever admitted it out loud to anyone. She couldn’t believe she was sharing it with four people she’d just met, two of whom didn’t like her very much. But Brielle seemed interested, so Presley told her about how she had written in high school and a little in college. But she also found herself sharing more about her life than she intended to. She was careful to leave out the part about Del Vecchio, though. The less she talked about what happened that night, the better.
By the time they got back to Sleepy Hollow, it was almost ten o’clock. Presley waited in the garage while they put the gear away, then went inside along with everyone else.
“Remember to show up a little earlier tomorrow, so we can demo the equipment before we head out again,” Brielle said before she left.
“And take one of these, too,” Robert added, handing her a business card. “It has a twenty-four-hour emergency number on it in case you need to get hold of us for something.”
Brielle grinned. “Like if the ghost hunter in your book is in a tight spot and you need help figuring how to get him out.”
Logan and Mav both scowled at that.
“On second thought, maybe you’d better not,” Brielle muttered.
As Presley drove back to Stamford a little while later, she had to admit she’d had a good time, despite how rude Logan had been. She was more exhausted than she realized though, and by the time she walked into her sister’s apartment, all she wanted to do was fall into bed. She obviously wasn’t as recovered from her ordeal as she thought.
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror as she brushed her teeth, her eyes went to the scar above her left breast of their own accord. Pink and jagged, it was almost completely visible above the low-cut tank top she’d changed into when she got home. She frowned as she studied it. The doctors had told her the scar would fade with time, but she wasn’t so sure. Even if it did, the memory of what had happened that horrible night would never go away. By rights, she shouldn’t even be alive. Somehow, Del Vecchio’s blade had miraculously missed her heart. If he had stabbed her an eighth of an inch more to the left…
Shuddering, Presley tore her gaze away from the mirror and swallowed hard. That asshole was dead. He couldn’t hurt her ever again. She needed to stop thinking about him.
Going into the next room, she pulled back the blanket and climbed into bed. She didn’t bother to set the alarm clock. Thanks to those godawful nightmares, she’d be up early anyway. But hey, at least she hadn’t seen any ghosts today. Maybe that meant she was getting better.
CHAPTER TWO
WHEN PRESLEY WALKED into the Paranormal Investigations Unlimited offices the following afternoon, she found Brielle and Robert sitting at the table in the front room, an EMF meter and thermal scanner in front of them, along with a lot of other equipment she didn’t recognize.
Brielle smiled. “We were wondering where you were. Robert and I wanted to make sure we had a chance to go over this stuff with you before we leave.”
“I stopped at the café down the street to get something to eat.” Presley looked around. “Where are Logan and Mav?”
“They had to go on an emergency call,” Robert said. “They’ll be back in a little while.”
Presley wanted to ask what kind of emergency, but Brielle and Robert launched into an explanation of the equipment before she could say anything. Deciding that a real author writing a real book would want to know details about what kinds of tool ghost hunters, she pulled out her notebook and wrote down everything they said.
They went over the EMF meter they’d used the night before—in greater detail this time—as well as several other types of meters. Presley was surprised to learn the detectors ranged from the inexpensive hand-held kind to the top-of-the line tripod-mounted version. She had no idea that much thought went into the tools a ghost hunter used, or that there would a be a need for so many different kinds. She also realized this group of ghost hunters, at least, were serious about their work. The equipment on the table added up to more than a ten-thousand-dollar investment.
Next, they showed her the thermal scanners. Like the EMF meters, these came in various shapes and sizes, ranging from the cheap ten-dollar variety to the expensive one Presley had seen them use the night before. They even had a non-contact variety that could measure the temperature in a room from twenty feet away using an infrared beam.
After that, Brielle and Robert took her out to the garage
to show her the rest of the equipment. There was one locker with nothing but different types of cameras in it. In addition to the regular high-speed digital camera she was familiar with, there was a motion-detection camera and an infrared camera, as well as a video camera.
“I thought ghosts couldn’t be captured on film,” she remarked.
“You’re thinking of vampires,” Brielle said.
The other woman shuddered a little as she said the word and Presley wondered what that was about. She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to even believe in ghosts, so she sure wasn’t going to worry about whether vampires existed.
“Do you have any footage of actual ghosts?” she asked.
“Some,” Robert said.
“Can I see it?”
He pushed his glasses up on his nose and gave her an apologetic look. “You’d have to ask Logan about that.”
Presley groaned inwardly. She could forget about it then. Mr. Big Bad Ghost Hunter was never going to give the okay for that.
She turned her attention to Robert as he opened the next locker. The shelves were filled with containers of salt, sage and garlic as well as bottles and bottles of holy water. While not as interesting as the other stuff they’d showed her, Presley jotted down a quick note about it anyway.
She expected them to give her a tour of the other storage lockers, too, but when they made no move to open them, she assumed they must hold personal gear.
While Brielle and Robert packed the things they’d need for that night’s excursion, Presley wandered back inside so she could look at the EMF meters and thermal scanners again. As she walked past Logan’s office, however, she found herself stopping in the doorway. She hoped it would give her some insight into the mysterious ghost hunter, but besides the desk and two chairs in front of it, there wasn’t much in the room, unless she counted the file cabinet in the corner. Logan was definitely a minimalist. Then she noticed the framed photos on the wall. The temptation to look at them was too great to resist. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Brielle and Robert were still in the garage, she went into Logan’s office to take a closer look at the photos.
The first one was of a group of men standing in organized rows. From the uniforms and shiny badges they wore, she realized they were police officers. She read the caption along the bottom. New York City Police Academy, December 2004. She scanned the men’s faces and was surprised to find Logan among them. He was younger in the picture and just as handsome. There seemed to be an innocence about him then that wasn’t there now, though. That was to be expected, she supposed. He’d been a rookie and hadn’t seen all the atrocities and horrors of the street yet. As a cop, he’d probably seen and experienced things other people never had to.
Her gaze wandered to the next photo. In it, Logan was standing with another man in what looked like a bar. It was obviously taken several years after the first one and although Logan wasn’t wearing a uniform, the badge at his waist told her he was still a cop. She wondered why he’d traded in a detective’s badge for ghost hunting.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing in here?”
Presley whirled around at the sound of Logan’s voice, her heart racing. How the heck hadn’t she heard him come in? She felt her face go red as she frantically tried to think of something to say.
“I…um…I was just looking around,” she finally stammered.
He regarded her coldly. “Well, there isn’t anything in here that’s going to help you write a romance book, so you can leave.”
Not unless you counted a rude, arrogant jerk who could probably piss off Mother Teresa without even trying. If she was looking for hero material, it definitely wouldn’t be him, that was for damn sure.
But because she had to stay in his good graces for the next two days—well, as much as she could anyway—she didn’t say that out loud. Instead, she settled for giving him a glare, then brushed past him and walked out of the room.
* * * * *
Logan clenched his jaw as he watched Presley go. To say he was furious at finding her in his office was an understatement. He was damn pissed. What the hell had Brielle and Robert been thinking letting her wander around by herself? He was going to have a little discussion with both of them about security.
Swearing under his breath, he walked around the desk to check his laptop and was relieved to see it hadn’t been turned on. He was afraid Presley had gone through it looking for interesting information to add to that stupid book she was writing.
“Why do you have to give Presley such a hard time?”
Logan looked up to see Mav standing in the doorway. “What are you talking about?”
“You know damn well what I’m talking about. You haven’t said a civil word to her the whole time she’s been here.”
Logan scowled. “She was poking around my office and I told her to get the hell out. What’s wrong with that?”
Mav shook his head. “Your social skills suck, you know that?”
Logan ignored the insult. He could always count on Mav to give a blunt assessment of a situation, whether his opinion was wanted or not. “We don’t have time to entertain would-be romance writers who want an up close and personal look at our world. It’s bad enough Robert has us doing those damn dog and pony shows at the local colleges. Now we’re bringing civilians on our investigations. I don’t like it.”
“Damn, Logan. It’s only for the weekend. Lighten up a little bit.”
“What we do is dangerous, Mav. People can get killed.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Mav shook his head. “Look, we’re simply taking her on a couple of routine calls. We aren’t going to get her involved in anything dangerous. Besides, Robert and Brielle will keep an eye on her.”
“Like they were keeping an eye on her a few minutes ago?” Logan crossed his arms over his chest. “What about the house we’re going to tonight? Unlike the place in Moores Mill, there’s a good chance this one really is haunted.”
“I know, but it’s still your standard everyday ghost. The thing probably won’t even materialize while we’re there.”
“And if it does?”
His friend shrugged. “Then we show Presley what we really do for a living.”
“And traumatize her in the process,” Logan muttered. “Great.”
Mav frowned. “Presley doesn’t strike me as the type who scares easily. Or backs down from a fight. She certainly stands up to you.”
Logan snorted. That was true as hell.
“Not only that, but she’s damn easy on the eyes, too,” Mav continued. “If you stopped being such an asshole around her, maybe she’d ask you for some one-on-one ghost hunter training.”
Logan glared at him. Sure, she was pretty, but he wasn’t going to admit it. “If she’s so damn easy on the eyes, why don’t you offer her some personal ghost hunter services then?”
“Because I’m not the one hurting for female companionship.” Mav shook his head. “No wonder you don’t get laid. But whatever. I’m going to go help Brielle and Robert load the Hummer. Let me know when you’re ready to head out. If you’re so worried about Presley’s well-being, you can always let her hang out with you when we get to the house.”
Logan didn’t bother to answer. There was no way he was going to babysit anyone. Especially her. He let his gaze follow Mav as his friend walked over to where Presley stood at the conference table. She was writing something in a notebook and she looked up to give him a smile.
Mav was right. Well, not the part about him never getting laid. He got laid. Sometimes. When he went to the trouble of picking up a girl in a bar for a one-night stand. It was the part about was his social skills sucking that Mav was right about. Logan wasn’t sure interpersonal relations had ever been his strong suit, but he had to admit they’d gotten even rustier over the past five years.
In the outer room, Mav and Presley disappeared into the garage. Logan cursed. His friend had been right about something else, too. He shouldn’t have given her
such a hard time about being in his office. She was only looking at the photos. That’s why people put them on the wall, after all.
His gaze went to the picture of him and his old partner. One look at the stocky blond-haired man and he immediately remembered why he was so serious about the job he did. The monsters he hunted sometimes won and when they did, people died. People like his ex-partner, Tom.
Cursing under his breath, he left the room without a backward glance.
* * * * *
Presley did her best to ignore Logan when he came out to the garage. However, ignoring six-foot-four-inches of broad shoulders and hard muscle was difficult to do when he was standing right beside her. Reminding herself what a jerk he was underneath that great body, she grabbed another duffel bag and put it in the back of the Hummer with the others. She hoped they were actually taking her on a real investigation this time and not some stupid paranormal home inspection again. She looked around for Brielle or Robert so she could ask but didn’t see either of them. She considered asking Logan, but figured he’d make some sarcastic remark. She’d wait to talk to Brielle and Robert.
Unfortunately, they were busy running around packing other duffels, so she had to contain her curiosity until everyone piled in the Hummer. Once again, she was in the back with Brielle and Robert.
“Where are we going tonight?” she asked as Mav turned onto the main road.
“A house up in Delhi,” Robert said. “A couple bought it about a year ago. According to the husband, the place needed a lot of work but it was a real steal, so he and his wife couldn’t pass it up.”
Presley knew where this was going. “Let me guess. The reason the house was such a good buy is because it’s haunted, right?”
He nodded. “A little while after they moved in strange things started happening.”
“What kind of things?”
“The usual,” Brielle said. “They’d close a door when they left a room, then come back and it would be open. Or they’d put something down on one table and it would be moved to another.”