The Prize: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Diamond Lake Romance Book 3)

by K. L. Middleton

  14

  Adam

  It was snowing when I arrived at Chloe’s on Friday night. The weather reports claimed that we were going to get dumped on, but the worst of it was supposed to happen after midnight. I figured we’d be fine as long we left Lancaster before the roads got to be too bad.

  I knocked on the door and she answered, looking as gorgeous as ever. She had on a white parka, skin tight blue jeans, and mountain boots. Her blonde hair was tucked under a light green Love Your Melon hat, which really brought out her eyes.

  I was about to compliment her when she looked past me, toward my truck, and frowned. “Where’s Rory? Is he meeting us there?”

  I grinned. “No. It’s just going to be us.”

  She looked alarmed. “I thought you two did this ghost hunting thing together?”

  “Normally, yeah. He couldn’t make it tonight. He’s helping his parents move.”

  “Oh.”

  I watched as she stood there hesitantly, as if she was thinking about canceling on me. But then she stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind her.

  I relaxed.

  Chloe shivered and pulled out a small pair of black gloves from her jacket pocket. She looked up at the sky. “I heard we’re supposed to get a lot of snow.”

  “Yeah. We’ll be fine in my truck. Plus, the worst of it won’t happen until after midnight. That’s what I heard, anyway.”

  “Yeah. I heard that, too.” She put the gloves on and then we headed toward my vehicle. “Times like this I wish I would have moved to Florida with my parents.”

  “Oh, why’d you stay?”

  “Because they moved out there,” she said wryly.

  I glanced in her direction as I moved toward the driver’s door. “You don’t get along with them?”

  She shrugged. “Yeah. I do. We’re just so different. They don’t understand me and I definitely don’t understand them.”

  “Sounds like me and my dad. He’s high on life all the fucking time. And if you’re not on his cloud, he’ll go on and on about how great life is and why you shouldn’t take anything for granted. Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes I wonder if he’s on some major drugs.” I grinned. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind finding his stash.”

  Her eyes widened. “Do you think he is?”

  “No. I’m sure it has to do with him dying a couple of years ago. It did a number on him.”

  She gasped. “Wait, what?”

  “He was ice-fishing with some friends. He fell through and drowned. They say he was dead for almost fifteen minutes before they managed to resuscitate him. Luckily, one of his buddies was a paramedic and had started CPR on him before the ambulance arrived and took over.”

  “Wow. I guess that makes sense. I mean how can you not appreciate life when yours almost ended.”

  I thought about my car accident and how close I’d come myself. Then there was the depression afterward during those weeks of physical therapy. I’d felt sorry for myself. Hell, at one point I’d almost wanted to die. Then I met a thirteen-year-old kid from Lancaster who had spent his entire life in a wheelchair. Charlie Severson. He’d written me a letter telling me what a huge fan he was and how he wanted to meet me someday. We started writing to each other and eventually, I made it a point to go and visit him. I could still remember how excited he was when I showed up at his birthday party. There’d even been tears in his eyes. Then in mine. Talk about a rush of emotions. The surprising part was that he was confined to a wheelchair and had never mentioned, complained, or showed any evidence of self-pity in the letters. In fact, he’d written about how he played basketball and how much he enjoyed sports. He refused to let what life had thrown his way stop him from living. At thirteen, the kid was already a stronger man than me. It had been humbling.

  “What about your accident? Did you come close to dying?”

  I smiled grimly. “A hair away they say.”

  There was a moment of silence between us and then she suddenly looked horrified. “I’m sorry. I imagine it was a horrible time in your life. I shouldn’t have brought dying up so casually. That was stupid.”

  “No, don’t apologize. I was just thinking back. Trying to remember that day. Sometimes it’s foggy.”

  “I suppose that can sometimes be a good thing.”

  “Yeah. The truth is I barely remember anything. I blacked out and woke up in the hospital.”

  “That must have been scary and confusing.”

  “Yeah.”

  As we drove to Lancaster, I noticed that she was starting to relax. We talked about Rory and Blair. Our web show. College. Everything but high school. As much as I wanted to bring it up, only to apologize again, I had a feeling that avoiding it was the best move. Dredging up the past would have to wait until she trusted me more.

  “Are you hungry? Did you eat at all?” I asked, when we passed the Lancaster sign, welcoming us to the city.

  “No. I had something before we left. Are you?”

  “Getting there. I made some sandwiches. They’re in the cooler if you change your mind and want something to eat.”

  She looked surprised. “Okay. Thank you.”

  “No problem. I made a couple of different kinds, since I didn’t know what you liked. Ham and cheese. Tuna fish. Peanut Butter and Jelly.”

  “Wow, I’m impressed.”

  “You’re not allergic to nuts or fish, are you? I didn’t even think of that.”

  “No. I’m not. They all sound great. You really didn’t have to go through all that trouble.”

  “I didn’t want you to go hungry. Sometimes ghost hunting takes a while.”

  “Like, how long?”

  “We staked out this one place for two days.”

  Her eyes widened in alarm.

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll only be at this place for a couple of hours.”

  She relaxed. “Good. I have homework to do this weekend.”

  “You’ll be back in time. How’s Sunday afternoon?” I asked with a straight face.

  Chloe looked anxious again. “What?”

  I grinned. “I’m just messing with you. I’ll have you back before midnight.”

  15

  Chloe

  I could see that Adam was trying his best to make me feel more at ease, since it was just the two of us. I’m sure he noticed my reaction at the house. It wasn’t as if I could back out easily either. He obviously needed someone to help with the job.

  “So, is it always just the two of you going on these ghost hunting gigs?”

  “Yeah. Most of the time.”

  “What about a medium? Have you ever used one to communicate with the dead?”

  “A couple of times. In fact, there’s one in California that Rory contacted earlier today. She’s going to meet us at the hotel when we start our investigation.”

  “Is she legit?”

  “I believe so. Earl recommended her. He said she was widely known in Santa Barbara and had been on a few radio talk shows.”

  “You trust Earl?”

  “Not really. But, Rory checked her out and says she’s legit.”

  “Do you have to pay her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How much?”

  “Ten thousand dollars. But, she’ll be with us for the entire weekend.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “Wow. That seems excessive.”

  “It’s pretty hard finding a real, authentic medium, willing to help out at such short notice. Plus, she’ll be available the entire time.”

  “Oh, that’s good. So, tell me a little more about this house we’re going to.”

  “This guy Rob, and his wife Lina, just moved into a new place. Well, new for them. Apparently, it’s a pretty old house and they’re restoring it. Anyway, for the past few weeks they’ve been hearing strange noises, but haven’t been able to figure out exactly what’s going on. It’s not the pipes and they haven’t found any mice or rats where the noises have been coming from.”

  “Where are
they coming from?”

  “Mostly from the attic and cellar.”

  “Oh.” The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I shivered, imagining what could be waiting for us at the house.

  Adam went on. “A couple of nights ago they thought they heard music coming from the cellar. When he went to check it out, there was nothing.”

  Another shiver went down my spine. “Okay. That’s not creepy at all.”

  He smiled. “I did a little digging into the history of the home and didn’t find much. Sometimes, we’ll find a murder that happened in the past or some other tragedy.”

  “Like a fire or a suicide?”

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  “Has a spirit ever made physical contact with you?” I told him about a non-fiction book I’d read where a malevolent entity had clawed several people.

  “Nothing like that. I’ve never been touched, but Rory claims something tapped him on the back a few times.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “If we ever do run into a really dark presence, we won’t be sticking around. That’s what the church is for. We just call them and hopefully they can exorcise the place.”

  “Have you ever encountered anything you sensed was malevolent?”

  “Just once. It was throwing objects and having some kind of a tantrum. It scared the shit out of us and we got the hell out of there. When we returned the next day, the owner of the building was making plans to have the place demolished. Wouldn’t even let us back in to take another look around.”

  “Interesting. Hopefully this ghost we’re visiting today doesn’t mind us stopping by.”

  “No shit.”

  A short time later, we pulled up to an old, white farm house. Behind it was a rickety old gray barn missing half of the roof.

  Adam parked and turned off the engine. He then reached behind his seat and pulled out a black sports bag.

  “Is that the official ghost hunting gear?” I joked.

  He nodded.

  As we were getting out of the truck, the porch lights turned on and the front door opened. A bearded man in his thirties, wearing a flannel shirt and a baseball cap, waved at us.

  We raised our hands in greeting and met him on the porch.

  Grinning, the man stuck out his hand. “Wow, Adam Knight. It’s an honor to meet you in person. I loved watching you race.”

  Adam smiled and shook his hand. “Thanks, Rob. It’s nice meeting you, too.” He turned and introduced me.

  “Nice to meet you, Chloe. Well,” he held the door open for us, “come on in. Just watch your step and ignore the mess. Like I said on the phone, we’re giving this place an overhaul and it’s in pretty rough shape at the moment.”

  “No problem,” Adam replied.

  We entered into the unfurnished living room, where it appeared that Rob was in the process of removing the carpeting.

  “My wife is at the hardware store. Somehow, all of our hammers have disappeared,” Rob lifted his cap, ran a hand through his hair, and pulled it back on. “Talk about odd.”

  “Do you think the ghost might be responsible?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. We’re missing both of them and they were around before we left for work this morning. Can’t find ‘em now and we’ve looked all over the house.” His eyes shifted nervously around the room. “It’s almost like, whatever, or whomever, is doing this doesn’t want us tearing up the place.”

  A low groaning noise came from somewhere in the house.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked, anxious.

  Rob chuckled. “That’s just the furnace kicking in. We need to replace it. Let me bring you upstairs to the attic, where we’ve heard most of the strange noises.”

  “So, you said you’re working during the day?” Adam asked as we followed Rob up his rickety staircase.

  “Yeah. I’m an electrician and Lina works at St. John’s Church, right off of HWY 61. She’s a nurse.”

  Adam nodded. “Yeah, we passed it on the way here. I bet you both put in some long hours, huh?”

  “Yep. Especially, Lina. She works in the maternity ward and they’re always short-staffed. Anyway, she’s the one who started hearing the noises after arriving home from work. Me, I sleep like a log, so I never caught anything until she started telling me about it.”

  Adam scratched his chin. “So, most of the noises occur late at night?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you living here now?” Adam asked.

  “Yep. It probably doesn’t look like it. Most of our stuff is still in storage. We wanted to do most of the repairs before moving the rest of our furniture inside. All we really have is what’s in the master bedroom and the dinette in the kitchen.”

  “Makes sense,” Adam replied.

  When we reached the top of the staircase, we walked down a hallway, passing three bedrooms, to another flight of stairs.

  “It’s up here.” He turned on the light switch and we followed Rob upstairs, to a large attic. It was mostly empty, except for a few boxes and an old cedar chest. Although there were some cobwebs, and it smelled like mothballs, it actually wasn’t as creepy as I’d imagined.

  “I think I hear Lina. I’ll be back in a moment. Make yourselves at home.” Rob turned and headed back downstairs.

  We took off our jackets and set them on the floor.

  “It’s chilly up here,” I said, rubbing my hands together. I smiled. “Does that mean we’re not alone?”

  He nodded toward a window on the other side of the attic, which we could see had frost on it. “I think it’s just from the cold weather outside. It’s not very well insulated.”

  I walked over to the window and peered outside. The snow was really coming down now. “It’s getting worse out there.”

  “The snow?”

  “Yeah.”

  I thought about the accident Mackenzie’s parents had been in. The one that had taken their lives the year before. They’d traveled during an ice storm, losing control of their vehicle. It was now always in the back of my mind when I knew bad weather was approaching.

  Adam must have noticed something in my expression. “Don’t worry. We’ll be fine,” he replied.

  I smiled. “Yeah. I’m not worried,” I lied.

  He kneeled down and unzipped his duffel bag. “We’ll get started right away so we can get back on the road.”

  “Good idea.”

  “He pulled out a small hand-held device that looked like something out of Star Trek. I asked him what it was.

  “An EMF meter. It detects spikes in electromagnetic energy. It lights up and starts buzzing when it senses energy or communication from the dead.” He handed it to me.

  I looked around the attic, wondering if something was with us right now. It gave me goosebumps. “So, if a ghost is trying to talk to you, this thing will pick it up?”

  Adam nodded. “Or, if it’s moving somewhere in the room, it should pick that up, too.”

  “Cool.”

  He pulled out a camcorder. “Now this thing here is specially designed with night vision and full spectrum of light capability.”

  “Could you dumb that up for me?”

  “Spirits aren’t always visible to the naked eye. Sometimes they are on a spectrum of light that that we can’t see. Like infrared light. Or ultraviolet. This camera increases our odds of spotting paranormal entities.”

  “Interesting.”

  He went on. “Ever noticed how cats and dogs stare at seemingly nothing? Some think they might just be seeing something we can’t through a different spectrum of light.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Have you captured anything that was seen in a different light?”

  “Unfortunately, not yet. We’ve encountered spirits, but didn’t get them on film.”

  “Bummer. Did you see them?”

  “No. But, believe me. They were there. We’ve encountered noises, moving furniture, and one time… I was almost hit by a flying plate.”

  “Was it so
meone you pissed off in high school?”

  He smiled sheepishly. “No.”

  I grinned. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

  “I deserved it.” Adam pulled something else out of the bag.

  “Okay, what’s that?”

  “This is a radio frequency sweep scanner. It’s supposed to help them communicate back to us, through static.”

  “Supposed to? So, it hasn’t worked for you yet?”

  “Nothing has tried communicating directly with us. Not yet, anyway.”

  Oddly enough, the more he talked about tracking ghosts, the more intrigued and less spooked I was.

  He pulled out a tripod and set it up. As he was attaching the camera, we heard footsteps and voices. Rob and Lina were returning.

  “Adam. Chloe. I’d like you to meet my wife, Lina.”

  Lina was a short woman with dark red hair, freckles and a pregnant belly. From the expression on her face, it was obvious that she was relieved to see us.

  We greeted her warmly and she smiled. “Thank you so much for doing this. Hopefully, you can get rid of whatever is haunting us. I haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep in ages.”

  “We’ll certainly try to do our best,” Adam replied.

  “How far along are you?” I asked as she rubbed her belly.

  “Seven months.”

  “Do you know what you’re having?”

  She smiled. “No. We want to be surprised.”

  “Well, congratulations,” I replied.

  “Thank you. By the way, can I get you anything? Coffee? Soda? Water?”

  We both declined.

  Rob put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Let me know when you want to see the cellar. Most of the activity happens up here, though.”

  “How about right now?” Adam replied.

  “Okay,” Rob said.

  16

  Adam

  The cellar was, as I’d suspected, cool, dank, musty, and filled with cobwebs. There wasn’t much there, however. Just a lot of empty shelves.

  “So, this is where you heard the music?” I asked Rob, walking around with the EMF meter. So far, it wasn’t registering any energy changes.