Never Forget (Haunted Series Book 15)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Why are we here anyway?” Bev asked. “If the phone is destroyed, then Ted will be out from under the control of the hex.”

  “But Beth will still be able to influence Ted because he still has the memory of trusting her. Roumain thought this one through. Even if we broke his spell, it would live on through human weaknesses. Beth will always hate me for Ted having no backbone and taking responsibility for himself, and Ted will feel guilty because he’s Ted. She’ll be a thorn in my side forever.”

  “Are you going to kill her?” Bev asked, looking at her nails. “Because, had I known, I wouldn’t have worn this white dress.”

  “I can’t kill her. I want to, but I can’t,” Mia said. “I will, however, make sure Roumain can’t use her anymore.”

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  “I’m not sure,” Mia said. “I thought it would just come to me. But so far, it hasn’t.”

  “She’s still going to cause trouble. I know women like that.”

  “I realize that my marriage is probably a memory, but I’ll be damned if she’s going to have anything to do with my son. I have to make Ted seem like the most awful person in the world.”

  “Good luck because, right now, with the love you are radiating for the bozo, you’re not going to be convincing. Better leave that part to me.”

  Mia looked at Bev a moment and nodded.

  ~

  Ted was in the farmhouse. He was busy taking Mia’s clothes out of the dressers and closets. He tossed them out the guestroom window onto the front lawn. It was raining her underpants when the guys arrived.

  “That’s a chick thing,” Burt said. “Beth must have written another text or email.”

  “It will keep him busy so I can destroy the computer in the barn,” Cid said.

  “Make sure Jake isn’t in it at the time,” Burt said.

  Cid looked at him. “I’m not an idiot.”

  “Sorry, it’s a detail I may have overlooked,” Burt said.

  “I’ll distract him and see if I can get his phone,” Murphy said and left them.

  “Well, look who’s slunk back,” Ted said when Murphy approached him. He had just lit the bonfire. “I’ve been ringing your bell all morning.”

  “Why?”

  “We wanted you to know that we decided not to evict you from the property. Beth says you may come in handy with our new ghost hunting enterprise. One wrong move, however, will have us tucking you in with a couple of magnesium flares.”

  “Why are you being so mean to me?” Murphy asked.

  Ted looked confused. “Am I?”

  “Yes. What did I ever do to you?”

  “Fucked my wife.”

  “No.”

  “Fucked her before she was my wife.”

  “No.”

  Ted scratched his head. “I don’t know then. You seem like a decent chap.”

  “I am. You asked me to be Brian’s godfather.”

  “I did. So I don’t know why Beth says we have to watch you. Because you’re sneaky? But if Beth says I have to watch you, I will.”

  “Are you her doormat? Mia never made you a doormat.”

  “She didn’t.”

  “Did she laugh at you because you act like a child?”

  “No.”

  “Did she save your life?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why are you doing this?” Murphy pointed to the large pile of Mia’s belongings burning in the front yard.

  “Because Beth says it will send Mia a message that she need not return for her stuff, because she no longer has any stuff.”

  “Mia’s not coming, Ted.”

  “It seems that this must be working then.”

  “Would Mia burn your stuff, Ted?” Murphy asked.

  “No.”

  “Then I ask you again, why are you burning her stuff?”

  “I’ll ask Beth.” Ted pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and hit redial.

  “Hello, Ted,” Beth answered.

  Murphy snatched the phone from Ted’s hand, tossed it down on the cement porch and smashed it with the axe.

  CRACK! CRACK!

  “What have you…” Ted fainted.

  Murphy proceeded to Whitney-ize it, chopping it into so many pieces that ants wouldn’t be interested in it. He then swept up the pieces and tossed them in the pile of burning clothes.

  Cid and Burt ran over and added a pile of paper to the fire.

  “Beth sent over a manifesto on how Ted was to handle his divorce and even suggested a military school for Brian,” Cid said, disgusted.

  “But he’s just a baby.”

  “She was taking no chances that Ted would form an attachment to his and Mia’s child,” Cid said.

  “Is that all of Mia’s stuff?”

  “Yes, sir, Ted was very complete,” Murphy said, pushing his hat back on his head.

  “Where is Ted?”

  “When I smashed the phone, he fainted. I put him up in the guestroom, out of harm’s way,” Murphy said, admiring how fast the fire had reduced the clothes and personal items to ash. “He used a flare to start it. He said that I better be good or he and Beth would burn my bones. They also have set up their own ghost hunting business.”

  “That was fast,” Cid said.

  “Oh, Beth’s been working on this for years,” Burt said. “She wants to bankrupt PEEPs and steal its best assets.”

  “Ted and Murphy,” Cid said.

  “I’m not an ass,” Murphy said.

  “Asset, you know, valuable.”

  “Yes. Oh look, Ted burned Mia’s picture of her grandmother,” Murphy said, walking into the flames trying to rescue it.

  “Leave it. I found another one at the house, along with one of you.”

  “I think we better go and revive Ted,” Burt said.

  Cid shook his head. “Let him come to by himself. What kind of person burns another’s grandmother’s picture?”

  Burt put his hand on Cid’s back. “One being controlled by a psychopath. Ted’s going to be inconsolable when he sees what he’s done.”

  “Good,” Cid said and walked away.

  “I’m worried about that one,” Burt said. “Ted was his hero.”

  “He was Mia’s too.”

  “Roumain and Beth have a lot to answer for. A broken marriage, a broken friendship, and two broken hearts.”

  Murphy nodded.

  ~

  Beth redialed the cell phone for the fifth time. Still no answer. Ted had called her, but then there was all this static. She shook her head and dialed the office phone.

  “Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners, Cid Garrett speaking.”

  “Hello, Cid, put Ted on the phone.”

  “I’m sorry, but Ted’s not in the office. Call his cell.”

  “He’s not picking up his cell that’s why I called the office number,” she snapped.

  “Who is this?”

  “Beth”

  “I’m sorry, who?”

  “Beth Bouvier, you moron!”

  “Sorry. There are so many women calling for Ted that I can’t keep track.”

  Cid watched the computer while Jake traced the call. He needed to stall until Jake found where Beth was calling from. The dog still had his binoculars on, searching.

  “I’m living over the office, otherwise your call would have been picked up by the computer.”

  He heard her sigh.

  “Would you like me to go and look for Ted? I believe he was out in the front yard burning something.”

  He heard her laugh. “Oh yes, I forgot. I’ll hold. Go and get him.”

  “Sure, toots,” Cid said and sat there.

  The dog gave him a thumbs up, and he hung up the phone. He immediately programed her number into the blocked number database for the office and the home phone, and to add insult to injury, he sent it to a telemarketing company, gratis.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Beth slammed the phone down hard. “That son of a bitch!
I’ll have him on the streets just as soon as I send this…” The email returned non-deliverable. She copied it and sent it to the PEEPs email. This time it was returned with a note. “We’re sorry, but PEEPs have decided that your solicitation is undesirable. Kind Regards, Cid Garrett.”

  Beth was enraged. Who was he to mess with her love life? She grabbed her keys and ran out to her car. She was going to drive all the way to Illinois just to witness Ted beating the crap out of Cid Garrett.

  She opened the garage door and saw that a black SUV blocked the drive. Beth tossed her purse in the car and stomped over to the large vehicle and tapped on the window. The window rolled down exposing the driver, a rather attractive male in a chauffeur’s uniform.

  “Excuse me, but you’re in my driveway.”

  “I’m sorry. We’ll only be a few moments.”

  Beth heard a commotion in the house. She ran back in to see a team of four men searching through her stuff. One of them handed her a search warrant.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “This has to be some mistake?”

  “We’ve received a tip that you were waging a war against missing-in-action military families. A cursory search has been done, and the letters M I A keep coming up in your emails, your texts and on our phone taps.”

  “Mia is a person!” Beth shouted as she watched her computer’s hard drive be removed and a box full of flash drives and CDs along with it. Her laptop left under the arm of someone that simply handed her an inventory of the confiscated equipment. They left her hardcopy of her dissertation but took all other printed paper with them. The contents of her drawers and closets were tossed in the middle of the bed during the search.

  She caught on to what was going on only after the last person exited the house. She ran after him, shouting. “They’re lying!”

  “Who’s lying?” Mia asked from the corner of her front porch.

  “I’m calling the cops. You can’t be here,” Beth said, pulling out her cell phone. She saw that she no longer had service. She flung it at Mia who caught it in midair, looked at it and sent it to the ground. Mia smiled as she raised a bat and smashed the phone with one swing.

  “There, now don’t you feel better?” Mia said. “How was that?”

  “You smashed my… How was what?” Beth asked, looking around.

  Behind Beth, on the other side of her porch, was a woman with an expensive-looking video camera, her face hidden behind designer sunglasses. She lowered the camera and spoke to Mia, “I thought that your delivery was a little flat. You sounded like you didn’t care.”

  “Oh sorry, I’ll do it again.” Mia brushed a piece of lint from her sleeve and smiled ghoulishly.

  “Roumain, you scared the shit out of me. I thought you were Mia,” Beth said, patting her chest.

  “Don’t I look like her?”

  “You look better than her. I don’t remember her looking that good.”

  “Really? If she looks this good, then why would anyone be interested in you, Beth Bouvier?”

  “Why are you changing the deal? You said you’d give me Ted and take Mia away. All I had to do was harass him and send him the text on time. I did that.”

  “But then, Beth, you decided to continue to hurt Mia. I can’t have that. You see, Mia is everything to me.”

  “Take her then. Take her fucking kid too. All I want is Ted.”

  “Does Ted want you?”

  “Why are you asking this? Your charm worked like a dream! He’s mine,” Beth said triumphantly.

  “But, dear, wasn’t he yours before the Judas hex?”

  “No, he was cordial, but that was all. He simply answered a few questions, and once he wrote me a reference letter.”

  “Then why did you tell me that Mia ruined your life and you’d do anything to get rid of her?” Mia leaned back and looked down her nose like she’d seen Roumain do a number of times.

  “You came to me. Don’t you twist things! You came to me and…”

  Mia watched as the realization hit Beth hard.

  “You used me, Roumain!”

  “How could you say this? What did I do?”

  Beth proceeded to tell Mia, Beverly and the camera the whole sordid plot. The loophole that Roumain sought was that Beth wasn’t a friend of either Ted or Mia. He helped her to deliver the code after he placed the thought into each of their heads.

  “It was a long time to wait, but we got our revenge, didn’t we?”

  “Oh, I’m not finished yet,” Beth boasted. “I’m going to ruin that kid. Make him hate his mother.”

  “But if you hurt the boy, won’t it upset the daddy?”

  “I told Ted that the kid was Mike Dupree’s. I doubt Ted will stand in the way of a few punches and kicks.”

  “Who are you?” Mia asked, dropping the Roumain persona. “What did I do to hurt you so?”

  “I can’t fucking believe this. You bitch! How dare you come to my home and…”

  “Mia, I’m bored. Can we go home now?” Bev whined. “My feet are killing me.”

  “I think we have enough evidence. Beth, I never hurt you. Did Ted lead you on? I don’t know, but he told me he only had eyes for me. He promised me that you meant nothing to him, or I would have steered clear. We were friends. I wouldn’t poach on another friend’s property. I see we were both misled and used. I’m sorry.”

  Mia took a moment to take off her glove and grip the other girl’s hand firmly. She read all she needed to know before she let go.

  “Again, Beth. I’m sorry. I thought you were possessed by a flitch, but there is none there. Then I thought maybe Roumain left a thought and activated a Judas hex, but I couldn’t find one. Please complete your dissertation and move on with your life. You’re a smart and capable woman. Don’t let Ted destroy you as he has me.”

  Mia walked away. She was getting into the rental car when Beth called after her.

  “He didn’t lead me on, Mia. He was just Ted, kind and gullible. I’m sorry it has gone this far. How you can be so decent to me is amazing. I was going to ruin your child.”

  “No you weren’t. I would have killed you first.”

  Beth stood looking at her open-mouthed.

  “How was that?” Mia asked Bev who was still filming. “Fine, it had the right level of emotion.”

  Bev put the camera down and got into the car.

  Beth watched them drive away. Soon the black SUV returned, and the four black-suited individuals returned Beth’s computers and equipment. She didn’t bother to look if her emails and other saved Ted taunts were there. She knew they weren’t. Beth shook her head at her stupidity for getting involved with the tall Haitian in the first place.

  ~

  Angelo lowered the screen. “I hope you saw it clearly. I worried that, with the glare, you may have missed the subtleties.”

  “I did nothing wrong. The promise was not broken,” Roumain said, flashing his beautiful smile.

  “Do I look like Sariel? You must be blind,” Angelo said, flexing his wings. “We had no promise. I just thought that I’d put this little film on file just in case someone may take issue with how you’re running purgatory. Perhaps you need to step down. You have hurt Mia past the point of her health. Coopers die of broken hearts, or did you know that? Was that your plan? You wanted to kill Mia?”

  “It is no business of yours, birdman.”

  “Maybe not. Leave her be. Let her live her life, and I will have no reason to show this to the Council of Women, the sages or the Demon Cartel.”

  Angelo flew off, taking the recording with him. Roumain watched as a hundred birdmen followed him. He considered what could have happened had Angelo taken issue with Roumain. He shivered.

  ~

  Ted smelled something burning. He found himself in the guestroom overlooking the front yard. He looked down and saw the remains of what had been a large bonfire. It took him a moment to remember who was burning what.

  “Oh my god, what have I done?” Ted asked.

&nbs
p; “You burned all of Mia’s things,” Cid said from the doorway.

  “Why didn’t you stop me?” Ted asked, panicked.

  “Murphy asked you why you were doing that, and you said, ‘Because Beth says it will send Mia a message that she need not return for her stuff because she no longer has any stuff.’”

  Ted patted his pockets looking for his phone.

  “Your phone had a little accident,” Cid said. “Here’s a burner to use until you can get it all sorted out.”

  Ted looked at the cheap phone and said, “It seems like a bad dream.”

  “Oh, for Mia, it was a nightmare, I assure you,” Cid said acidly. “She’s not coming back, Ted.”

  “I wouldn’t expect her to. Not after that.”

  “There’s more, a lot more. Do you remember what you said to her in the cellar?”

  “Some of it.”

  “Listen, I recorded it just in case you doubt that Mia isn’t coming back.”

  “I don’t know what the fuck is happening. One minute we’re fine, enjoying our son, our jobs, and my home. And the next minute, I get to thinking that you’re just putting in time before the next great adventure. Beth’s right. You’re an adrenalin junkie. You have to get us all into deep shit and then play the hero. You or Murphy, it doesn’t really matter. We were fine before you, Cooper, and we’ll be fine again.”

  “I don’t know how much of that was the spell you were under and how much you meant, but I’m not happy with you right now. We all, Mia included, worked day and night to free you from the Judas hex. It’s up to you to fix the rest of your life.”

  Cid walked out the door and came right back in. “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you that Mia’s fine and Brian’s fine. Mia was hexed also, but Mike managed to stop her from fulfilling the hex’s intentions. Roumain was behind it. It’s been sorted out. Consider yourself damn lucky Mia insisted we try.”

  Cid left, and Ted looked at the empty guestroom closet. He then looked at what he had done to the clothes in their combined closet and drawers. It all was gone. He’d erased his wife.