A chill touched his spine and he shook it off. “Bree’s upstairs?”
Kylie rose from the chair and glided to the stairs. If she hadn’t just been speaking to him somewhat coherently, he could’ve believed the trance still had her in its grip.
He followed her, trying to slough off the creepiness that had claimed his flesh.
She took the stairs, one step at a time, her footsteps creating a heavy and foreboding dirge.
Matt wanted to break the mood. He raised his voice. “What did you see, Kylie? Where are you going? What do you know about Marissa St. Regis?”
Ignoring every one of his questions, Kylie plodded on. She reached the second-story landing and turned her head toward the railing, blinking her eyes, as if expecting to see another body dangling there.
Then she continued across the landing toward the vast bedrooms. She stopped in front of one open door, cocking her head. “No.”
“No, what? What are you looking for?”
She jerked her head toward the double doors at the end of the hall. That room must front the ocean side of the house, and it had to be bigger than the other rooms on this floor, given its heavy double doors.
Kylie seemed to hone in on this room and her pace picked up as she trod down the hallway.
Matt’s heart hammered in his chest. Whatever force was drawing Kylie to that room couldn’t be good. In a few long strides, he caught up with her.
“Let me go in there first.”
She swiveled her head around, a surprised look in her glassy eyes, as if she’d forgotten his existence. She reached out a shaky hand and placed her palm against the closed door. “She’s in there.”
Matt doubted if the room contained Bree Harris but if Kylie sensed the significance of this room, he trusted her.
He nudged her aside. “Let me.”
Grasping the handle of the door on the right-hand side, he pulled in a deep breath. He twisted the handle and shoved open the door.
A chilly breeze swirled through the room, tossing and twirling the drapes pulled aside at the open French doors, which faced the churning sea. The sound of the crashing waves reverberated in the room and Matt could almost feel the spray of salt water on his face.
Kylie crowded in behind him, her breath hot on his shoulder blade. “The doors are open.”
Matt edged toward the French doors, his flashlight trailing over the four-poster, canopied bed and the wavy mirror that topped a claw-foot dresser. He stopped where the doors gave way to a wooden balcony and pointed his beam of light into the darkness of the night.
His heart lurched in his chest, and Kylie screamed in his ear as the light flickered over a body dangling from the top of the deck.
Chapter Twelve
Kylie clamped her mouth shut on the next scream that barreled up her chest. Her knees buckled, but Matt was there to catch her fall. Her rock.
He cursed and kicked the leg of an Adirondack chair to reposition it from its view of the body. “Sit.”
He waltzed her three steps to the edge of the chair, since her muscles wouldn’t obey any command she gave them to move, and settled her in its depths. She collapsed against the back of the chair, her head hitting the solid wood.
“Who is it?”
“Well, it’s not Bree Harris.”
The beam of light played over the figure, swaying grotesquely, pointed toes brushing the edge of the railing around the balcony. Light brown hair fluttered around a bent head, lifeless eyes staring into the crashing waves.
Matt approached the body, blocking Kylie’s view of the all too familiar tragedy. He caught the woman’s wrist between his fingers. Cursing again, he spun around and withdrew the phone from his pocket.
“It’s Mindy.”
Kylie drove her fist against her mouth. They’d just spoken to her that morning. Was it something they’d said?
“Matt…did we, I mean…”
“Shh.” He crouched beside her and placed a steadying hand on her bouncing knee. “Don’t start taking responsibility for this. Mindy was obviously a very disturbed young woman.”
He barked into the phone, giving the 911 operator the location and situation. Then he took Kylie’s hand. “We don’t need to be in this spot.”
As he led her off the balcony, she glanced over her shoulder. Another suicide at Columbella. “How long has she been there?”
“Not long.”
By the time they reached the front of the house, they could hear the sirens coming up the road. An ambulance, a fire truck, and three cop cars came hurtling down Coral Cove Drive. The vehicles came to scattered stops along the street, and the emergency personnel poured onto the sidewalk and streamed through the front door, which Matt had left open.
One of the cops, Lt. Trammell, stayed outside with Matt and Kylie. “The young woman hung herself?”
“It appears that way.”
Matt had his arm around Kylie’s shoulder—the only thing keeping her from slipping to the ground.
“Did you ID her?”
“Mindy Lawrence. Do you know her?”
Trammell’s gaze darted up from his notepad. “That young waitress at the Whole Earth?”
“That’s the one.”
The lieutenant sighed. “She had a drug problem.”
“She did?” Kylie’s voice squeaked. Maybe Mindy’s suicide had nothing to do with their questions about Bree and the memories of her disappearance—of course, that didn’t make Mindy’s suicide any more acceptable.
“We’d picked her up a few times for possession.” He tapped his pencil. “How’d you two happen to be here?”
Matt hugged her closer. “Kylie’s mom killed herself here, too. She was just trying to get some closure.”
“Yeah, I remember that. Sorry.” He pushed the hat back on his head. “Damned creepy coincidence, but then I never liked this house. Just this summer, we had a couple of incidents and a few more people died here. When’s it going to stop?”
Matt said, “Maybe when Mia St. Regis tears this place down.”
Lieutenant Trammell questioned them for another fifteen minutes before heading into the house. “You two don’t have any plans to leave town, do you?”
They shook their heads and walked out to the car parked amid the flashing lights. Kylie squinted at the vehicles. “When are they going to take her out of there?”
“When the coroner’s van shows up.”
She grabbed the handle of her car door. “Do you think it had something to do with her drug use?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned against the car. “Do you think it had something to do with our investigation?”
“What if—” she bit her lip and stared at the house “—what if her death wasn’t a suicide?”
Matt ran a hand through his short hair. “Here we go again. It pretty much looked like a suicide to me.”
“What if someone lured her here? Knocked her unconscious and then strung her up to make it look like a suicide?”
Matt opened the door for her and nudged her inside the car. “Then the autopsy will show that. But why would someone want to kill Mindy now? We already talked to her. She told us everything she knew.”
“Did she?”
Matt slammed her door and stalked to the other side. “And if she didn’t tell us everything, how would the killer know one way or the other what she said?”
Kylie gripped the steering wheel and rested her forehead between her hands. “My mom knew Bree was in trouble, Matt. That’s why she killed herself. She knew and she didn’t warn her.”
“Is that what you got—” he jerked his thumb at Columbella House “—from there?”
“I could feel her regret.”
“Would she have known the specific threat against Bree? The specific person?”
“No. Just that she was in danger.”
“She probably did warn her, Kylie. She warned her and Bree wouldn’t listen.”
“Maybe, but she wasn’t able to prevent Bree’s murder.�
�
“Maybe you and your mother didn’t receive your gift to prevent. Fate may have already been in play.”
She turned her head and studied his face. “You believe in fate like that?”
“Who knows?” He brushed a strand of hair from her battered cheek. “Fate brought me here to work with you, even to save you a few times.”
Her lashes fluttered at his sweet touch. Then she blinked as headlights flooded the car, and she peered into the rearview mirror. “I think that’s the coroner’s van.”
“Let’s get out of here. It’s been a long day.”
She turned on the engine, and Matt touched her arm. “What did you mean back there about three dead women?”
Kylie eased the car forward and made a U-turn while taking a last look at Columbella out the window. “Mindy, Bree and…Marissa St. Regis. She’s dead, too.”
* * *
THE HOTEL BUZZED with life and activity. Kylie took a deep breath and soaked it all in. Life, not death. She didn’t even mind when a couple of preteens left puddles of water in the elevator after their dip in the hotel pool.
When the doors closed on the kids’ giggles, Matt raised his brows. “Looks like everyone is having a late night. It’s close to eleven o’clock.”
“History repeats itself, doesn’t it?” Kylie slumped against the elevator wall.
“Listen.” Matt grabbed her shoulders and pinned her against the wall, straightening her posture in the process. “You had no idea Mindy was going to kill herself. You weren’t questioning her as a psychic. You were questioning her as a detective, and detectives don’t know that stuff. So don’t get any crazy ideas about blaming yourself for her death.”
She tilted back her head. “I was not blaming myself for Mindy’s suicide. Don’t worry. I’m no more like my mom than you are like your dad.”
His grip loosened into a caress, and he traced a thumb along her throat. “Good to hear. So when you said history repeats itself, you meant Mindy and your mom, not you and your mom.”
“That’s right.” She couldn’t help the silly smile that claimed her lips. “But thanks for your concern.”
His dark eyes got darker as they dropped to her mouth, but the elevator doors slipped open on their floor before he could make good on their promise.
Her shoulder bumped his arm as they walked down the hotel corridor in silence. She stopped at her room, and Matt crowded her as she unlocked the door, giving every impression that he intended to follow her inside.
And she had no intention of stopping him.
When they entered the room, Matt took a turn around it, even poking his head into the bathroom and whipping aside the shower curtain.
“All clear?” She bounced on the end of the bed and flicked on the TV.
He held up his index finger and left her room, pulling the door closed behind him. She could hear him going into his own room next door, and several seconds later he slid the lock on the adjoining door and knocked.
She pulled it open and he jerked his head back toward his room. “Now it’s all clear.”
Leaving the connecting door open, Matt sauntered to her mini fridge. “Is this your own water or the hotel’s?”
“That’s mine. Help yourself.”
He took two glasses from the credenza and poured water into both. Handing one to her, he said, “You probably need something stronger. We can go back down to the bar if you want.”
“Water’s fine.” She held out her hand and he gave her the glass.
He sat in a chair and stared at the talking heads on the TV. “So you knew Mindy was dead and Marissa St. Regis and we already figured Bree was dead, but were you able to see how or why?”
Kylie gulped some water and put a hand to her head. “It was all too confusing. You’d think Columbella House would be a great place for a medium to communicate with the dead, but there’s so much death in that house it all becomes one big jumble.”
“Like information overload?”
“Something like that. All those women were clamoring to send me signals, anything important got lost in the maelstrom.” She pinned her hands between her knees. “That’s how it was for my mom almost all the time. She had no filters.”
“She had no filters when it came to you either, did she?” He sat next to her on the bed, and the mattress dipped so that she tilted toward him. “She warned you about everything and everybody.”
Her gaze flitted to his strong jaw and the sympathy in his dark eyes. “Yes.”
“Terrible burden to place on a child, on a young woman.”
“She was just trying to protect me.”
“But she regretted placing that load on your shoulders.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because in the end, she didn’t want to do the same thing to Bree. She sensed some danger, but she let it go that time. Bree had probably come to her full of excitement and high hopes for the future, and Rosie didn’t want to dash those hopes…like she’d dashed yours so many times.”
Her nose stung and she blinked her eyes against the tears that threatened to spill onto her cheeks. How many times had her mother warned her against boys, dating, getting into a relationship? Just because her own had failed, she didn’t want her daughter to suffer the same fate.
But Mom had chosen a man who couldn’t handle her gift…and Kylie hadn’t blamed him. Even sharing Mom’s gift, Kylie’d had a hard time living with her. In the end, that’s why she moved away.
But Matt wasn’t like her father. Matt admired her gift, respected it.
He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, his finger tracing her lobe. “I’ve brought back some sad memories.”
A smile trembled on her lips. “You brought me a lot more than that, Matt Conner.”
Cupping her face with one hand, he brushed his lips against hers. Then he kissed her again, this time sealing his mouth over her mouth. The tentative touch became hard and demanding. And she answered the call.
He moved closer to her on the bed, and she sank against him, brushing her breast against his chest. He draped an arm around her shoulders and fell back on the bed, taking her with him. They turned toward each other, their legs still dangling over the side of the bed, tangling and twining.
He pulled his T-shirt over his head and Kylie gulped at the shifting slabs of hard muscle displayed on his bare chest. She ran her palms over his smooth flesh, sprinkled with springy black hair, and he sucked in a breath.
Her hands trailed down his flat stomach, and he cinched her wrist with one hand. With the other, he bunched the material of her T-shirt in the front.
“May I?”
She glanced at his fist. “You’re not going to rip it off me, are you?”
“Sorry.” He released her T-shirt and smoothed it across her belly. Then he rolled it up, and she lifted her arms so he could pull it off.
After he shoved the T-shirt to the floor, he slipped one warm hand under her back and unclasped her bra. He skimmed his hand to her front and cupped one of her breasts.
He nudged her bra aside with his nose and kissed the tip of her nipple, sending a river of shivers down to her toes. He gathered both of her breasts and buried his head between them. “Mmm, I love your curves. I want a woman who’s not going to break.”
Straddling her, he rose on his knees and tugged at the button on her jeans. He yanked them, along with her panties, over her hips and tossed them both over his shoulder.
As his gaze raked her body, she squirmed, feeling, well…naked. And exposed. She felt exposed.
She hitched her arms around his waist, pulling him down. His long, large frame flatted against her, whooshing the air from her lungs.
Hiking up on his elbows, he grinned. “Sorry about that—almost knocked the wind out of you.”
“You take my breath away, anyway.” Her hands clawed at his belt and fly. When his jeans gaped open in the front, she shimmied her hands down the back and dug her fingers into his muscular buttocks.
&nb
sp; He groaned and sat up again. “It’s a lot easier to get undressed before we get into bed.”
Rolling to the side, he yanked his jeans off and kicked them to the floor where they joined hers.
She drank in his naked body and reached out for him. When he made a move to lie next to her, she stilled him with a flat hand on his belly. “Wait.”
Her hand trailed to his erection, and she caressed his smooth, tight flesh. Matt squeezed his eyes closed and hissed through his teeth. When she closed her lips around him, he dragged his fingers through her hair.
His voice rasped from his throat. “You’re going to drive me crazy.”
She wanted to drive him crazy. She wanted him to desire her without pity or a comforting hand. She didn’t need slow and tender and sweet.
He withdrew from her mouth and nudged her back against the pillows. Then he straddled her again and outlined the curves of her body with his rough palms.
“You’re a goddess.”
He entered her at the same time he landed a hard kiss on her mouth. Nothing slow, tender or sweet about him now. His tongue invaded her mouth, keeping pace as he drove into her, hard and fast.
She met every thrust, curling her legs around his strong frame, holding on for dear life.
He slipped a hand between their bodies and molded her breast. He broke away from their heated kiss and sucked her nipple into his mouth. A zap of pleasure shot down from where his mouth was sealed over her flesh to where their bodies were sealed together.
The tingles spread to her toes, and her muscles tightened as she clamped her legs around him tighter. Talk about someone who wasn’t going to break. Matt’s body was solid…hard.
Just as Matt finished with the first breast and turned his attention to the second, Kylie felt the heat and pressure build in her belly. He licked her nipple…just once…and the tension in her body unraveled.
Pleasure suffused her in warm, liquid waves. Her legs fell from around his waist. She flung her arms over her head, which lolled to the side.
Matt chuckled and kissed the side of her neck. “I think that worked better than the massage.”
She blinked and widened her eyes. “Are you…have you…”
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