Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2)

by Denise Moncrief

  It all depended on Tori. His desire was to protect her from predators, natural or otherwise. She had the choice of taking care of herself or asking for help. He was glad she had chosen to let him help. She was an extraordinary woman, and he was certain it wasn’t going to take him long to fall in love with her. He was already sliding down that slippery slope. She was filling him up with so many emotions he wasn’t used to that he felt like an overfilled balloon about to pop.

  The roar of an engine filtered up from the highway below only moments before the hood of her car appeared down the driveway. He breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been afraid she’d back out at the last moment. Moving into Victoria House seemed brave and foolish all at the same time. Was it wise of them to face the unknown with nothing more than the spirit of adventure to guide them in their decision? Maybe not, but if she was willing to face whatever was haunting Victoria House, then so was he.

  When she pulled to a stop, it didn’t take her long to hop out of the car and rush across the gravel drive. She threw her arms around him and hugged him close. His lips seemed to automatically gravitate toward hers. Her kisses were becoming a very sweet addiction.

  He disengaged and leaned back to study the glow of anticipation on her face. “Took you long enough to get here.”

  “Did you miss me?” She practically chirped her question.

  He chuckled and wrapped his arms tighter around her. “If I admit that I have, will I sound pathetic? It’s only been about thirty or forty minutes.”

  “That felt like forever, and I was afraid...”

  “Afraid of what?”

  “That you would change your mind.”

  He wasn’t going to admit he’d had the same fear about her. He stole another quick kiss, just because he wanted one. “Not likely. Let’s go inside and eat. We can bring our stuff in later. I’m starving.”

  He released her and grabbed the bag of food off the front seat of his car before taking her hand. Together they climbed the steps onto the flagstone porch. She reached into her pocket and withdrew the key to the front door. She stalled and turned to face him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  The experience they had shared the other night could still cause his insides to spasm, his stomach to drop all the way to his toes. The way the bed shook and the eerie unreality of Tori’s terrified scream still haunted his waking hours. What would happen when he finally closed his eyes and tried to sleep?

  He remembered how the entity in Laurel’s garage had captured him and almost kept him from escaping. If Josh hadn’t been there to pull him out, there was no telling what might have happened to him.

  Considering everything she’d gone through in Little Rock and considering that she was still standing, he believed she could probably take care of herself. She might bend a little, but he doubted if the woman would break. In her eyes, he glimpsed the spirit of a survivor.

  Still he had to ask, “You’re the one who’s had the weird experiences. Are you sure you’re up to this after everything you went through in Little Rock?”

  Her expression turned serious. “That was horrible and I’ll probably never get completely over it. The awful things that happened to me... A living, breathing human being did those things to me. He’s dead and he can’t hurt me anymore.”

  “No backing out then?”

  “No, let’s do this.” She turned the key and they entered the house together.

  ****

  Tori pushed the wrapper of her breakfast burrito away from her and wiped her mouth on a paper napkin. “That was good.”

  He chuckled. “You must have been hungry, because fast food burritos are not world-class cuisine.” He poked the meat left over on his wrapper with a plastic fork. “I’m not sure what this is. It might not even be real meat.”

  “I don’t think I’ve eaten very well the last few days. The last good meal I’ve had was when we ate pizza the other night.”

  He moved around the island to toss his trash into the waste can she’d pulled out of the trunk of her compact car. When she’d opened the lid, Gray had commented with amusement and a bit of awe on how much she had managed to shove into the small compartment.

  The light streamed through the window over the sink and lit his hair with fiery golden brown streaks. She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his middle with his back still to her. His arms covered hers and she leaned her head on his broad shoulder. She smiled with relief when he didn’t tense at her touch. Maybe they were getting comfortable with each other, but she didn’t want to get too comfortable. She liked the sizzle between them and didn’t want it to ever end.

  “I’m so glad you’re here. Moving in seems a little easier to cope with now that you’re with me.” Was that too sentimental for him?

  He turned to face her. His blue eyes flared with fiery darts of longing. Once they were alone, anything could happen and she wondered how far things would go. It was the middle of the morning, and they were both beyond exhausted, yet she could feel the need for being next to him in the very core of her being. A yawn escaped despite her best intentions.

  “Perhaps we should try to get some sleep. I told Halsey we’d be back in the office sometime today.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I could use a little sleep.” But she didn’t want to sleep. Not yet.

  A nervous smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. “So how are we going to do this?”

  “What?”

  “As much as I’d like to do other things with you, I need sleep. Are we going to stay together or are we going to sleep in separate rooms? It seems to me there are risks with both options.”

  His meaning jumped from his words and heated her core. His eyes twinkled with mischief. She loved the way the flesh around his eyelids crinkled when he thought he was being cute.

  “Or should we just crash on a couple of sofas in the living room?”

  She wouldn’t mind falling asleep in his arms. A slow smile spread across his very handsome face as if he had read her mind.

  “Some risks are worth taking, but I think you’re right. We need rest. I’m about to fall asleep standing up, and there’s just too much temptation to do other things besides sleep.” She turned her head so he wouldn’t see the blush rising up her neck. “Besides, the bedrooms need cleaning and airing out. I’d probably have an allergy attack if I tried to sleep in one of them. Let’s crash on the sofas in the living room and take a nap.”

  He grinned. “Might be a long nap. Are you sure you can wait that long?”

  No! She couldn’t verbalize her answer with the enormous lump in her throat. “I’ll set an alarm on my phone,” she managed to croak, and then cringed at her obvious discomfort.

  His smile broadened. He wasn’t making it easier.

  She had to move away from the topic. She released him to put away her trash. “Did you bring the digital recorder?” she asked over her shoulder and caught him smiling to himself.

  He glanced up and their eyes locked. “I did. You want to listen to it now or wait until we’ve had some sleep?”

  They’d just tossed around that same question. Now or later? The underlying context blared like a screaming siren. The anticipation of later was building furiously within her.

  She took his hand and dragged him toward the kitchen door. “Now. Let’s settle in and then you can push the play button. Okay?”

  He pulled back and her heart sank a little. “I need to find a bathroom. Is there one downstairs?”

  She relaxed when it became obvious he simply needed to take care of necessitates. “The only one in the house is upstairs.”

  “Really? In a house this big?” He rubbed his chin where the stubble of his beard was growing. “I’m not sure I want to go up there.”

  She smirked. “Are you afraid of going alone, Gray? Big boys don’t need someone to hold their hand while they potty.”

  He returned her sarcastic attitude back to her. “Funny. No, I am not...Well, maybe just a little. Okay
, yeah. What happened last time nearly scared the crap out of me.”

  “You’ll be okay. Just scream if something messes with you. That’s what I’d do.” She tilted her head and gave him the full force of her sassy attitude.

  He pushed through the swinging kitchen door with her following close behind, and moved the few steps to the bottom of the stairs. His shoulders straightened before a shudder ran through his entire body. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” He glanced back as if to get her reaction.

  She crossed her arms and smiled sweetly. “I’ll wait for you here. It’s on the left. Yell if something gets you. Okay?”

  He grunted and took the stairs two at a time. She watched his muscled back as he climbed. The man looked good coming and going.

  “Checking me out, Tori?”

  “I told you to get used to it.” Her singsong answer echoed around the large front entry.

  He laughed and then he was out of sight. The bang of first one door and then another closing followed soon after. She waited and waited. How long did it take the man to do his business?

  When he finally reappeared, he was smiling as if he knew a wonderful private joke. “What’s so funny?”

  He waited until he was next to her to lean in and whisper in her ear. “You are. Waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. Are you scared to be alone, Tori?”

  She punched him. He knew she was. Jerkface wadcake.

  They moved into the large living area and selected sofas across a round cocktail table from each other. The heavy table featured a round marble top held up by four clawed feet. The furniture had been covered in cream-colored upholstery. The dust had creeped into the warp and weave of the fabric until light-brown blotches discolored the material.

  Gray stretched out on the sofa opposite Tori and kicked his lace up shoes from his feet, wiggling his toes in his black socks. Tori slipped off the athletic shoes she always wore to work and flexed her sore calf muscles. The trip up and down the slope in the mud when they had located Jared’s truck had taxed her already aching muscles to the limit.

  He covered another yawn with a large hand. She admired his long fingers for a moment, fantasizing about how nice it would feel... She shook the thought out of her head. Too much temptation. Too soon.

  His eyes were already half closed. He’d be asleep soon. She wanted to hear the recording while he was still conscious enough to help her interpret it if necessary. “Hit the play button.”

  He groaned, pulled the device from his pocket, dropped it on the tabletop, and pushed a green button. Then he settled back into his prone position, wiggling down on the sofa arm and shifting until he was apparently comfortable.

  The recording began. “Mitchell Grayson and Victoria Downing at Victoria House. The time is...ten twenty-three p.m., Monday, April twenty-eighth, two thousand fourteen.” Scratchy static popped and crackled. “Is there anyone here with us tonight?” Just the hint of an eerie whisper.

  Gray popped up from his reclining position, stopped the recording, adjusted the volume, and then backed it up.

  “Is there anyone here with us tonight?”

  You know who I am.

  Gray stopped the playback again. Suddenly, he seemed wide awake while Tori was on the verge of drifting off into lullaby land.

  “Did you hear that?” he whispered. “Sounded like he said, ‘You know who I am.’”

  “A man’s voice. Keep going.”

  He pushed play again. “What is your name?”

  Michael.

  Tori’s eyes popped open. “No, it can’t be.” The distorted voice horrified her. Too familiar.

  “Do you know what happened in this room?”

  Death.

  A cold chill crawled up her backbone. Tori covered her mouth to keep from screaming.

  “Do you know who murdered Victoria Hamilton?”

  Death.

  Tori’s tear ducts filled. She pushed one hand in front of her, but couldn’t make any sound come out of her mouth. She needed Gray to stop the recording. Her heart thudded and seemed to stop, then pounded harder. She stared at Gray, but he wasn’t paying attention to her reactions, so engrossed was he in the playback.

  “Is Victoria Hamilton here?”

  Death is here. The voice rang from the device clear and crisp. Precise. Leaving no room for doubt.

  Tori leaped across the short space and slammed her palm onto the device to stop the playback, but it was too late. She’d already heard enough. Too much. She trembled and doubted if she would ever stopped shaking.

  “What’s wrong, Tori? You’ve gone pale. Are you okay?” He wrapped an arm around her.

  She gasped for breath. Suffocating. “That was his taunt. He kept saying it over and over and over until I thought I’d lose my mind. By the time he was done torturing me, I almost wished I had died.”

  “You know the voice?”

  She nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. “That’s...that’s Michael Palmer.”

  The man who had killed Lipton and accused her of falsely accusing him. Accused her of being delusional and in need of psychiatric evaluation. The man who had escaped from the city jail and broke into her house. The man who had cut her and left her for dead. Only he’d done a poor job of it. She’d managed to reach the gun she kept in her nightstand, but he’d knocked it out of her hand. She stopped before the awful memory finished replaying in her mind for the millionth time.

  He’d died that night. That was all that mattered. At least, she’d thought so until she heard his malicious voice on the digital recording.

  She sucked in large gulps of air. “It’s impossible. How could he follow me here?”

  She peered into Gray’s eyes hoping he’d have the answers. Pleading with him to help her understand the inexplicable.

  Fear and concern erupted in his eyes. “Tori, what are you talking about?”

  She twisted in his arms and gripped Gray’s shoulders.

  “It’s him, Gray. That’s the man who cut me.”

  He leaned back as if she’d smacked him hard in the face. “Are you sure that’s his voice?”

  She shook as if the earth were quaking beneath her.

  “I’ll never forget his voice as long as I live.”

  Gray’s eyes shifted toward the ceiling as if he could see into Victoria’s room above them. He shivered once.

  She lifted the tail of her shirt. “Do you want to see what he did to me?”

  His eyes traveled downward to her stomach. He seemed to study the fading red scar for a long moment. Then he traced it with his finger, the most comforting touch she’d ever felt in her life.

  “I’m so sorry he did that to you.” He lifted his eyes to meet hers. “He’s done enough damage. Don’t let him mess with your mind. I’m here now. I’m here to help you stay grounded in reality.”

  “Are you going to be my stabilizing influence, Gray?” She allowed a slight smile to creep across her lips.

  He nodded. “We could be good for each other, don’t you think?”

  “I can face this as long as you stay with me.”

  “Then we’ll stick together.” He paused just long enough to let her know he wasn’t running into the situation impulsively. “You still want to see this thing through? It could get rough and really messy. And to be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never been here before.”

  His confession surprised her. Not what he confessed but that he would confess it.

  “What do we do?”

  Passion for the challenge flashed in his deep blue eyes. “We give him incentive to move on.”

  This time her laughter was brittle. “Sounds too much like a contrived plot for a bad horror movie.”

  “Do you want to live here in peace?”

  She nodded.

  “Then we find out what he wants from you.”

  He settled back onto the sofa and pulled her next to him. Their legs tangled together as their arms wrapped around each other.

  �
�But right now, we can’t fight what’s going on here if we don’t get some sleep.”

  He didn’t have to be her knight in shining armor. Her rescuer. That’s not what she wanted from him. But maybe if they watched each other’s back, they could both get through the coming ordeal unscathed.

  Before she could reply, he was emitting a soft snore. She closed her eyes, snuggled further into his shoulder, and allowed the sleep of exhaustion to overtake her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Long, thin fingers curved around her wrists and then jerked her from the bed. Suddenly wide awake, her heart pounded nearly out of her chest, her breath left her in ragged bursts. The man pulled her closer until his face was centimeters from hers. The blurry black blob morphed into Michael Palmer’s face.

  He leaned in close, his mouth next to her ear.

  “Did you think I was dead? I’m not, Victoria.”

  The scratchy hitchy way he said her name drew a scream from deep in gut.

  “Death is here.”

  His laughter ripped through her, tangling around her internal organs and choking the vessels that carried blood to her heart.

  Her nails clawed into his skin, but before she could do any damage, his flesh and bone disintegrated in her hands. The screams kept coming, rolling from her in waves, powerful and as uncontrollable as a storm surge.

  He loosened his grip, and raised a long thin knife above his head, but that made so sense. How could he hold her or hold a weapon if his hands had fallen apart?

  The crack of shattering glass woke her, or maybe it was Gray shaking her.

  “Tori, wake up.”

  His voice wiggled through her panic.

  She grabbed the back of the sofa and pushed up onto her knees, straddling his legs with her hands pressing into his chest. The golden rays of the late afternoon sun flickered through the partially opened living room curtains. She blinked and refocused. The shadows in the corners shifted and slid, grew darker and then lightened.

  Her eyes darted from one side of the room to the other. “He’s here, Gray. I know he’s here.” Her body trembled with a fresh burst of fear.