The New Paranormal
Page 1
The New Paranormal
(Haunthunters #1)
by
Jackson Tyler
About the Book
The relationship is fake, but the ghosts are real.
Roman Bula takes ghosts seriously. If he doesn’t protect the guests at the haunted Cressley Hotel where he works, no one else will. But grifter-turned-hotline psychic Isaac Baker isn’t a typical guest. He’s cocky and cute. Worse, with his spirit board and tarot cards, he’s laying out a welcome mat for dangerous forces.
Isaac knows better than anyone that superstition is for suckers. He won’t let some hot guy scare him away from a cheap roof over his head. But when weird things start happening in room 1405, Isaac’s belief in the natural order of things wavers, and only Roman can help.
Roman wants Isaac to leave the Cressley, but Isaac is as flippant as Roman is serious. When Roman’s preoccupation with ghost hunting gets him fired, Isaac offers the perfect opportunity to get back into the hotel: if Roman pretends to be a guest’s boyfriend, there’s no way his asshole ex-boss can tell him to leave.
With their chemistry, Isaac and Roman don’t have to try very hard to fake a relationship. The deeper they’re drawn into the mystery of the Cressley Hotel, the more they are drawn to each other. But with murder lurking behind rattling walls, Roman needs to stay focused, and Isaac needs to be careful.
Not only do opposites attract, they make a damn good team. Until one of them puts everything at risk.
The New Paranormal is a slow burn MM mystery/romance that includes a grumpy black cat, a genius conspiracy theorist, ghost tasers, and lots of bed-sharing. It’s the first book in the Haunthunters series, but it has a satisfying happy ending and can be read as a standalone.
Content Notes: violence; death of a minor character; racism mentions; estranged relatives (no reconciliation); discovering a body; explicit sex scene; supernatural horror; ableist and homophobic comments made by antagonistic characters; alcohol
THE NEW PARANORMAL
© 2019 by Jackson Tyler.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, situations, locations, and businesses either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All products and brand names mentioned are registered trademarks of their respective holders. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
About the Book
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
Author’s Note
About the Author
Contemporary M/M Romance by Jackson Tyler
Chapter One
Isaac
I returned home from the grocery store to an intervention. At least, I could only assume it was an intervention, judging from the dark looks on Sasha and Matthew’s faces.
The only one acting normal was Hannibal. The click-clack of his claws on the wooden floorboards was instant comfort. Tail in the air, he weaved between my legs and purred.
I shifted my brimming paper bag of groceries from one arm to the other. A head of broccoli wobbled precariously.
“What’s up?” I said cheerily, trying to pretend I was oblivious to the vibe in the living room.
Sasha was dressed as if for work in a generic blouse and pencil skirt, with inoffensive studs in her ears. But unless she’d been called in on her day off, she wasn’t working today. Her legs were crossed and her lips were pursed. I hated that expression. It always meant bad news.
Matthew sat next to her, arm possessively draped over around her shoulders. They stared at me severely.
“We need to talk to you,” said Matthew.
“Let me,” said Sasha gently. “It’s better coming from me.”
I’d been through a few interventions. There was the time I’d gotten hooked on party pills, there was the time my little shoplifting habit had gotten ‘out of hand’, and then there were all the ‘have you considered getting a real job?’ talks. I knew the drill.
I didn’t know what this intervention was about, but I must have done something wrong. Near the end of my relationship with Sasha eight months ago, I’d done everything wrong. After she cheated on me with Matthew, she bent over backward to be nice, but that seemed to be wearing off.
This figured. Life had been too easy for the past few months; it was time for another great upheaval.
“Can I put the groceries away before we kick off this intervention?” I said lightly, striding through the living room, past the sofa, and into the kitchen.
“It’s not an intervention,” scoffed Matthew.
I pulled open the fridge and stuffed the broccoli in a funky-smelling vegetable drawer. “That’s what they always say at interventions.”
Hannibal put his feet on my legs and gazed at me with pleading orange eyes. I could never resist Hannibal when he begged.
“It’s not food time yet,” I cooed, leaning down to scratch him behind the ears.
“Isaac, sit down,” snapped Sasha.
I put the cat kibble away and dragged myself into the lounge. “How long is this going to take? I was planning to work this afternoon.”
“Your clients can wait.” Matthew sneered at the word ‘clients’. He worked in an office, so he didn’t understand why anyone would be a low-paid phone psychic. Wouldn’t it be easier to get a real job?
He didn’t understand that lying professionally didn’t count as work experience. Even if I’d wanted to find a real job, no one would hire me.
I sat cross-legged on the floor in front of them like a child. “Alright, let’s have a serious conversation.”
“Can you take a seat first?” said Sasha.
“I’m comfortable here.” Hannibal nudged my hand for me to pet him again. I stroked his back. The touch of his silky black fur always grounded me.
Matthew rolled his eyes. “Let him do whatever he wants.”
I didn’t understand why Sasha had cheated on me with Matthew of all people. He wasn’t even that hot. I liked men as much as I liked women, but Matthew was the most generic looking brown-haired, white-skinned, clean-shaven man I’d ever met. He had a face that belonged in a crowd on Wall Street.
“Matthew is going to be moving in here,” said Sasha.
“Moving in?” I repeated. It took all my self-control not to visibly cringe. Well, this was going to be fun. We could be a sitcom: My Ex-Girlfriend, Her New Boyfriend, and Me.
“And we want you to move out,” Sasha continued.
“What? Why?” My name was on the lease. After the break-up, Sasha had said I could stay here as long as I wanted as long as I kept paying rent. I slept on an air mattress in the spare room, and that had been fine. Things were awkward
, but I hadn’t realized I was on the brink of eviction.
“Are you seriously asking why I might want my girlfriend’s ex to move out?” said Matthew.
“Are you seriously saying that you’re threatened by your girlfriend’s ex? That’s some fragile masculinity there, Matthew.”
“I agree with Matthew,” said Sasha. “We want to start a life together, and you’re… You’re baggage.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m baggage?”
“It’s weird that you still live here,” said Sasha. “People ask questions.”
“They assume things about us,” said Matthew.
“You said I could live here,” I snapped at Sasha. “This is the first I’ve heard that it’s too weird for you.”
“I’ve told you plenty of times that it’s weird,” said Matthew.
“You don’t count. You’re an asshole.”
“Isaac!” snapped Sasha. “I want you out too. Am I an asshole?”
I gaped at her. “Do you seriously want an answer to that question?”
“I know things didn’t end well, but-”
“Maybe I want you out,” I said defiantly. “My name’s on the lease too.” And I had nowhere else to go.
Now that I was getting visibly upset, Hannibal climbed onto my lap and nudged my chin with his slightly damp nose. I tensed up. I wasn’t leaving. I couldn’t leave this cat.
“We’ll move out if you want us to,” said Sasha. There was a smug, superior look on her face. “Can you afford the rent?”
They both knew I couldn’t.
“We’re not unreasonable,” said Matthew. “We’ll give you a week to find a place.”
“A week?”
“That’s when the lease ends on my apartment and I move in here.”
“Wow. You left this until the last minute.”
“I didn’t know how to bring it up with you, Isaac,” said Sasha.
“Here’s a tip,” I snapped. “In this housing market, give a guy more than a week to find a new place.”
“Oh come on, it’s not that hard.” Matthew tossed his hand in the air.
I glared at him. “Maybe it’s not that hard for someone with a real job-”
“You could get a real job,” sighed Sasha.
“In a week?”
“I know it’s inconvenient,” said Sasha. “But we want you out before Matthew moves in. He’s uncomfortable living with my ex-boyfriend.”
“That’s ironic,” I snapped.
“Not this again,” grumbled Matthew.
Sasha had the decency to look guilty. I took a deep breath. My instinct was to fight for my right to live here, but what would fighting do? Sasha wouldn’t leave Matthew. Even if I convinced them to let me stay, they’d make things as uncomfortable for me as possible.
“Isaac?” prompted Sasha gently.
“I’m thinking.” I never gave up my getaway bag. An old habit from my homeless days. I kept spare clothes, underwear, and blankets stashed away in a large rucksack, along with a few non-perishables and some cash. The bag was hidden in the back of my closet. Even when we were together, Sasha didn’t know it existed.
When we moved to the suburbs together, I hoped that phase of my life was over, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of my safety and security measures. Apparently, I’d made the right choice.
“Matthew can move in early,” I said. I gently placed Hannibal on the ground in front of me and got to my feet. My heart panged. “I’m getting out of here.”
“Now?” said Matthew. He smirked.
“Where are you going?” asked Sasha.
“That’s none of your business,” I snapped pettily. The answer was: I had no idea. I didn’t have any friends here in the suburbs. Everyone I knew lived in the city. I figured I’d drive back to Seattle and find somewhere to stay there. I wouldn’t be working this afternoon.
I was halfway through storming out of the house when I changed my mind. I stormed back inside, straight past Matthew and Sasha directly to the kitchen.
“What are you doing, Isaac?” said Matthew.
“I’m taking my groceries with me.” I angrily snatched up the broccoli and the boxes of cereal I bought. My heart broke at the sight of the cat food on the shelf.
“You should take your stuff, too,” said Sasha.
“Anything you don’t take will go to the landfill,” said Matthew.
Aside from what was in my bag, I didn’t need anything. Any memories of Sasha and Matthew could go straight to the dump with my trashy action movie DVDs. But maybe I should take some work things.
Hannibal followed me to ‘my’ room. Leaving suburbia was easy. Leaving my cat — that hurt more than anything Sasha and Matthew could do to me.
“Just leave,” I told Hannibal, but he stared up at me with his wide, pumpkin-gold eyes, unblinking. His pupils were huge, pleading.
I tore my eyes from Hannibal and surveyed the room. It was a cluttered union of the underused things Sasha kept in storage and everything I had to my name.
I had a tattered deck of tarot cards in my getaway bag, but I had nicer decks in my chest of drawers, so I tossed them haphazardly into my bag. I took a couple of colorful tapestries as well, and of course my spirit board.
There was a double air mattress on the floor — it wasn’t technically mine, but I couldn’t afford a proper bed. The least Sasha owed me was something to sleep on. I was unlikely to get a furnished apartment.
Everything around the house belonged to Sasha. She was the breadwinning lawyer; I was her oddball ex-boyfriend from her days on the wild side.
I never belonged here in the first place.
I hoisted my getaway bag onto my back. Hannibal let out a small mew.
“Please don’t do that,” I implored him. Hannibal never made a sound unless he was stressed. His cry conjured an ache deep in my chest. A cat-shaped part of my heart would be hollow after leaving him.
I gave him one last pat. His mouth opened into a feline smile. The adoration on his face made this hurt even more.
“See you guys,” I yelled. I slammed the front door and sucked down a breath to keep it from choking me.
Sasha had begged me to let her buy me a new car, and I was glad I’d stubbornly refused. I liked my beat-up hatchback, even if it didn’t fit in with the shiny, middle-class cars in our cul-de-sac. Now I got to drive back to my old life in something that didn’t remind me of her at all.
I dumped everything I owned in the trunk of the car. I tried not to think about Hannibal.
Was it reckless to leave on the spot? Maybe. But would anything be different if I waited a week?
Anything beat being here with Sasha and Matthew for a second longer than I had to. Matthew was uncomfortable living with me? That was rich. Did he think Sasha would cheat on him or something?
I got into the front seat of my car and composed myself before I turned the key in the ignition. The fan belt screeched as the engine started. Another reason Sasha hated this car.
“Isaac, wait!”
I turned around to see Sasha running my way, bundle of angry black fur in her arms. Hannibal was hissing — he hated being manhandled by anyone who wasn’t me.
I paused, foot on the pedal. This car was too old for power windows, so I had to roll my window down by hand. The crank was half-stuck. It took all my strength to turn it.
“What?” I said. I reached out my hand to soothe Hannibal. He tried to start climbing up my arm.
“You should take the cat,” she said.
“I- I-” I didn’t know where I was going. How could I take Hannibal when I couldn’t promise him a good life?
“You’re the only one he doesn’t hate,” she said. “He’d be miserable without you.”
I’d picked Hannibal up, a scrawny stray on the side of the road, when he was less than a year old, according to the vet. He’d been limp in the middle of the road, and I’d thought he was dead. I’d made Sasha pull over. If someone had lost him, they’d want closure.
“I can’t afford it,” I said meekly. “I can’t afford surprise vet bills.”
“I’ll keep paying his pet insurance,” said Sasha.
I looked at her in shock. “Are you serious?”
“It’s only $50 a month,” she said. That was a lot to me. “It’s the least I can do.”
The least she could do was not kick me out with a week to find a new place, but this was — this was more than the least she could do. I nodded.
“Put him in the car,” I said. He was stressed in Sasha’s arms, writhing and twisting and biting. She was holding onto him better than she usually did.
Sasha smiled sadly and opened the back door to let Hannibal in. “I’ll get his carry-cage and his food.”
“Thanks,” I said. Without Matthew there, it was easier to be civil with Sasha. She wasn’t a bad person, even though we’d grown apart, but she handled us growing apart like an asshole.
Hannibal immediately climbed through to the front seat and nudged my face with his. My heart warmed. I didn’t have to leave him after all. Maybe things would be okay.
Chapter Two
Roman
Elliot pulled the Jeep up to a wire fence.
“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked cautiously.
“Not much farther,” he said.
“That isn’t an answer,” I said.
“Well, no, but-” He turned away from the steering wheel to offer one of his pointy grins. “This is a shortcut.”
I clenched my jaw. I hated being left in the dark, but all I knew about my plans tonight was that Elliot and I were checking out a rumored crop circle in the countryside. I didn’t put much stock in crop circles myself, but it was better to investigate a false lead than to ignore a real one.