Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2)

by Denise Moncrief

  Gray wasn’t ready to open the discussion. He doubted he’d ever be ready, but what he needed to say couldn’t wait.

  He addressed Ashley first. “Josh was a little concerned Lucy had done something to you. I’m glad to see you’re all right.”

  She turned and stared at him, then glanced toward Josh, a question in her hazel eyes.

  The silence became awkward. Maybe Josh hadn’t told her anything.

  “Well, I just assumed he’d tell you what happened out at Victoria House.”

  Ashley shuddered. No doubt, her memories of being in the house were not some of her favorites. She’d reminded him of it often enough when they were still friends. Maybe they could all be friends again...

  Tori untwined her fingers and rubbed her hand up and down his upper arm. “It’s all we’ve been able to talk about or think about.”

  So Josh had told Ashley about what happened at the house. Why were they all acting so weird? He rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess it would be.”

  He caught Ashley’s eye. Was that tears glistening on the edges of her lashes?

  “She could have killed Josh.” She paused and swallowed hard. “She could have killed all of you.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  Josh cleared his throat. “I heard from Courtney.”

  Gray sucked in a deep breath. “And?”

  “She’s okay, but she’s in hiding. Deep hiding.” His pause seemed very significant. “She won’t even tell me where she’s at. She just wanted me to tell her mother that she isn’t dead.”

  Ashley put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “What is she still hiding from?”

  “This isn’t over, Ash. Whoever Lucy Kimbrough worked for will want to know what Courtney knows. He’ll track her down until he finds her.”

  Haskins. They were talking about Haskins and didn’t even know it. Or maybe they did. It wouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

  Josh stared straight at Gray. “What if he gets to her...”

  Gray needed to keep him from indulging in what ifs. It did no good to think about what could happen when they needed to concentrate on what was going to happen. “Bennett won’t stop until he locates her. You should let him do a dump on your phone. Maybe he can figure out where she called from.”

  “Good idea.”

  It was time. Gray couldn’t avoid the inevitable conversation any longer. He sighed and arranged his thoughts, sorting them into a logical order, into something that might make sense to the people sitting around the table with him.

  “The three of you are the three most important people in my life. The people that matter to me.”

  He glanced at Josh and then at Ashley, removed Tori’s hand from his arm, wrapped her hand in his again and squeezed. She’d come into his life late in this game, but his past had the potential to affect her future.

  “I know keeping the secret of how Jeremy died ruined our friendship. I regret that. More than anything. I think it’s time we stopped acting like we hate each other, because after what I did today, we’re going to need each other more than ever.”

  Ashley’s eyes widened as she slid into a chair beside Josh. “What did you do, Gray?”

  “I told Haskins what happened.”

  Her mouth flew open, but before she could say anything, Josh had blurted his opinion.

  “Why did you do that, Gray? Why didn’t you just put her in cuffs and haul her off to jail? Haskins will never rest until she’s in the women’s pen. That place will kill her.”

  “I told him I was the one driving.” He stared at Ashley, giving her time to absorb the impact of what he’d said.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Gray. Maybe it’s time you quit covering that up for me.”

  “Doesn’t matter. What he told me changed everything anyway.”

  Josh scooted his chair closer to the table and leaned his elbows on the wood tabletop. “I’m not liking the sound of that.”

  “What did he say, Gray?” Tori’s soft voice melted in his ear.

  He wanted to take her away right that minute, make love to her, and promise her he was never letting her go. He hoped after he told her about his parentage she’d still want to be with him.

  “He’s never going to push Halsey to close Jeremy’s case because...I’m his son.”

  The chunk chunk of the refrigerator dropping ice into the bucket rattled the quiet that had descended on the room.

  “What did you just say?” Josh managed to be the first to speak.

  “You heard me.”

  “Oh, my God.” Ashley seemed thoroughly aghast, as she should be. Being Haskins’s son was nothing to be proud of.

  “We have a sort of truce.” He shifted in his seat. “I’m not going to investigate him for running the meth operation in northwest Arkansas, and he’s going to leave everyone important to me alone.”

  That wasn’t exactly what Haskins had said, but Gray had read between all of Haskins’s vague admissions and subtle threats. They’d finally settled on a compromise on which they could both agree without ever having spelled out their agreement.

  Josh sucked in a ragged breath and then exhaled slowly. “He admitted to running the meth operation?”

  Gray pulled a digital recorder from his pocket. “I recorded every word. I listened to it on the way over here from his house. This new model picks up sound really well.”

  Tori pointed at the device. “You recorded that without his permission.”

  “I know I can’t use it as evidence, but it’s my insurance that he’ll never hurt one of us. He’d be foolish to think I didn’t record our conversation. How do you think he’s survived all these years? He knows how the game is played. So that was our deal. He won’t try to punish us for Jeremy’s death, and I won’t use what I know to prosecute him.”

  “How can you live with yourself knowing what you know, Gray?” Josh seemed appalled that he’d made such an unholy deal with the devil. “How can you ignore the fact that man is responsible for ninety percent of the meth distribution in Arkansas? Probably reaches further than that. It’s a big network, and you know how long we’ve been trying to bring it down.”

  Gray smiled. “I never said I wouldn’t stop someone else from investigating him. I’m going to make sure Bennett has a copy of my conversation with Haskins.” He replaced the recorder in his pocket. There was no need to play the recording for them.

  “I’m telling you all this because you need to know what happened and you need to be careful. We have to have each other’s backs. We can never allow ourselves to be divided again. It wouldn’t be healthy for any of us.”

  “What about her? Why does this concern her?” Ashley nodded toward Tori.

  “Because I’ve asked her to stay with me, and unless I abide by my agreement with Haskins, she’s going to be a target for his retaliation.” He wrapped his arm around her and turned to face her. “You should probably run while you still can.”

  “Are you afraid of Haskins?” she whispered.

  “No. Not any more. I’m going to make sure no one is ever afraid of him in this town again. He just won’t know I’m the one doing it.”

  He rose from his chair and reached his hand out to the man who should have never stopped being his best friend. Josh hesitated only a moment before shaking.

  “I’m leaving town for a while. You and Ashley watch after each other. When I come back, we have some things we need to catch up on, and some things I’m going to need your help with.”

  “Like what?” Ashley’s question was inquisitive rather than sharp.

  He glanced at Tori before explaining his plans. “I don’t think the paranormal activity at Victoria House is going to stop until we discover who murdered Victoria Hamilton. Tori and I are going to help Victoria get the peace she asked for.”

  Josh nodded. “Yeah, you’re going to need help with that.”

  He glanced at Ashley.

  Her hands shot up. “Don’t look at me. I gave up ghost hunting.”
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  Maybe she had, but Gray could see the old thirst for adventure spring into her hazel eyes. He turned toward Tori, offered his hand, and then pulled her from her chair.

  “Let’s get out of here, baby. I want to leave this town so I can be alone with you without everyone knowing my business.”

  She smiled at him, and the hope on her face warmed him down to his toes, setting off an unmistakable reaction in his manly regions.

  When they were finally alone in his car, she leaned over and kissed him, pulled on his lip until he groaned from the sheer pleasure of anticipating things to come.

  “It’s stopped raining,” she said with her lips close to his.

  He grinned at her. “I was thinking about driving until I caught up with the storm. I love kissing you in the rain.”

  She laughed, and her laughter sounded good in his ear. He didn’t want to live another day without the sound of her happiness surrounding him and filling up the hollow places in his heart.

  The End

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Denise is a Southern girl. She has lived in Louisiana all her life, and yes, she has a drawl. She has a wonderful husband and two incredible children, who not only endure her writing moods, but also encourage her to indulge her writing passion. Besides writing romantic suspense, she enjoys traveling, reading, and scrapbooking.

  Accounting is a skill she learned to earn a little money to support her writing habit. She wrote he first story when she was a teen, seventeen handwritten pages on school-ruled paper and an obvious rip-off of the last romance novel she had read. She’s been writing off and on ever since, and with more than a few full-length manuscripts already completed, she has no desire to slow down.

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  OTHER TITLES BY DENISE MONCRIEF

  Deceptions Of The Heart

  The End

  Cross Examination

  The Memory Catcher

  Victoria House (Haunted Hearts #2)

  Ashley Ridge (Haunted Hearts #3)

  Shaw’s Landing (Haunted Hearts #4)

  An Impostor in Town (Colorado #1)

  Purgatory (Colorado #2)

  Twin Rivers (Colorado #3)

  Crisis of Identity (Crisis #1)

  Crisis of Serenity (Crisis #2)

  COMING SOON

  Crisis of Security (Crisis #3)

  Chelsea Land (Haunted Hearts #5)

  BONUS MATERIAL

  ASHLEY RIDGE

  Haunted Hearts Series: Book Three

  Chapter One

  Ashley Ridge

  Halloween 2010

  Tree branches clattered and snapped against each other as the wind picked up and howled over the ridge. Cherish Duncan stared through a gap in the foliage at the overcast night sky. A second later, an angry cloud obscured the moon and the forest plunged into thick darkness. She picked up her pace. Zach Halsey held the only flashlight a few feet ahead of her. From the moment he’d suggested a moonlight walk along Ashley Ridge, she’d regretted accepting his invitation. She’d said yes, figuring she couldn’t be any safer on Halloween night than with the sheriff’s grandson.

  Zach glanced over his shoulder and caught her eye. “Keep up, Cher.”

  She hated it when anyone shortened her name to Cher. She was nothing like the singer. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Cherish was petite and couldn’t sing a lick, and she knew it. For most of her life, she’d believed there was nothing at all appealing about her. Plain vanilla when the rest of Hill County was filled with more interesting people. In fact, she had no idea why the quarterback of the Fairview High School varsity football team would want her company.

  Zach’s muted voice wavered over the rising wind. “It’s just ahead.”

  She finally caught up with him and grabbed his hand, pulled back. “It’s creepy out here. Let’s go back to the car.”

  “No, we’re almost there. It’s over that hill.”

  Cherish bit her bottom lip before speaking again. “I’m not sure I want to see it anymore.”

  He stopped and turned, presenting her with a magnificent scowl. “It took a long time to get out here and now you want to go back before we get there. You know I could have asked anyone to come up here with me.”

  His comment was sharp and pointed, and pierced her heart. Cherish wasn’t foolish enough to believe she was Zach’s first choice. She wasn’t girlfriend material. He probably asked her because he believed the rumors about her. Maybe Zach thought he’d be the one to take her virginity, but he’d be wrong. She hadn’t taken self-defense classes for nothing. If he tried anything with her that she didn’t want to do, he’d be crippled with a sore member for a while. Sure, Monday at school, he’d label her a tease and all the boys would shun her for a while, but she was used to that.

  It wasn’t easy being old man Duncan’s granddaughter.

  Just as she was about to run the other way, he pulled her forward and his strength surprised her, although maybe it shouldn’t have. Fear settled into her heart. What if she couldn’t stop him if he wanted something she wasn’t willing to give him?

  As he had said, the Love Shack was over the hill. She could just make out its outline in the near distance. One of the supports holding up the left end of the front porch had rotted until the roof sagged on that end. All of the windows appeared to be shattered. The tin roof was rusted just like in the song by the B-52’s. She’d never seen the shack before, but in her opinion there was nothing appealing about it.

  Ashley Ridge was one of two popular Halloween destinations for the Fairview High jocks. Every year someone ventured out to the Ridge and nearly died from fright or broke into Victoria House and nearly suffered from a gunshot wound to the backside. She’d never been inside the house. Had never been invited. That was a thing for the popular kids, and Cherish wasn’t part of that crowd.

  So what was she doing here with Zach Halsey?

  He placed one foot on the first riser and tested its weight before climbing the short steps to the front porch. He turned toward her, a gleam in his eyes that glowed bright even in the darkened night. For the first time since she met him in the first grade, she was afraid of Zach.

  “I’ve heard this place was haunted.”

  She pulled back on his hand. “We aren’t going in there, are we? It doesn’t look safe.”

  “Come on, Cherish. What are you afraid of?”

  You. I’m afraid of you. She bit her lower lip, unwilling to voice what she really thought. Her feelings wouldn’t matter much.

  He released her hand, walked a couple of paces into the small front room, and did a full circle. “This place is a wreck. Perfect spot for a ghost to hang out on Halloween.”

  Cherish lingered in the doorless entry.

  Zach returned to stand right in front of her. “Probably haunted by the ghost of all the babies made in this shack. I hear more babies are made here than in all the rest of Hill County.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

  She stepped back. “I don’t want to make a baby. Not right now. Not with you. Not with anyone.”

  He laughed and the sound of his derision shot through her. “Not a problem, babe.” He shoved the flashlight into his jacket pocket and pulled out a foil packet.

  She shook her head. “Not happening.” Condom or not, she wasn’t having sex with Zach Halsey.

  Zach leaned one hand on each doorpost on either side of her head. “What did you think we came out here for?”

  She had known. Deep down the truth had settled into her soul, but she had refused to listen to the little voice in her head that told her Zach didn’t want to be her boyfriend. He just wanted a hook up. Cherish suddenly felt stupid and foolish.

  “No.” She folded her arms across her chest.
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  “Did you expect some place nicer for your first time?” He leaned forward and his face was only inches from hers. “The shack is good enough for old man Duncan’s granddaughter.”

  Without thinking, she clawed at his handsome face.

  He pressed his hand to his cheek and then stared at his palm. “You bitch.”

  She lifted her knee and aimed for his groin, but he was faster than she was. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her further into the shack. Cherish kicked him in the shin and he released his hold on her. She made a move to run, but once again he was faster and got between her and the door. Zach grabbed her shoulder, spun her around, and yanked her arm behind her back.

  “You’re gonna pay for that.”

  Cherish twisted, but every movement sent a stab of pain up her arm and into her shoulder socket. When she finally stopped struggling, they were facing the door. She closed her eyes and prayed as she’d never prayed in her life. Oh God, please help me! If she could just get loose from Zach and out the door, she’d run like crazy. She probably couldn’t outrun him, but at least, she’d go down fighting.

  The howl of the wind increased, shook the loose pieces of tin on the roof. The house seemed to shudder with the cold air buffeting it. Cherish sucked back a sob. She refused to show fear in front of the jerk. The temperature dropped and she shivered from the sudden loss of body heat.

  He released her arm and spun her around to face him in one swift motion, planting his hands on top of her shoulders, digging his fingers into her flesh through the thick fabric of her jacket and the t-shirt underneath. Her hopes of getting away vanished. Zach was too fast and too strong for her. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to swipe them away.

  Over his shoulder an amorphous dark mass formed in the center of the room, thicker than the darkness surrounding it. She gasped as it began to take shape and coalesce into something a bit more solid.