Noah pushed to his feet, feeling the need to pace, expend some energy. “Yeah.”
“And these dreams you’re having. You’re sure the woman is named Kate?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Hell.” John stood, one hand finding his hip, the other crunching the plastic bottle in his grip so hard the crinkle was as loud as a garbage compactor. He turned back around, met Noah’s gaze. “You believe any of it?”
His easy-go-lucky brother was acting damn strange all of sudden. Noah lifted one shoulder. “Don’t know what I believe anymore.”
“And this other woman, Emma, you still have feelings for her?”
Smiling bitterly, Noah shook his head and looked away. “You know it’s not like that.”
“What’s it like then?”
“Lust. Attraction. That’s all. That’s all I’m capable of.”
“This guy removed the lust spell that you were under, and you’re still thinking about her. I’d say you’re capable of more than you want to admit.”
“I’m just like dad. So are you, only at least I don’t fight it. I’m incapable of loving any woman. You know that.”
“You love Jennifer and Kristina, don’t ya? And mom?”
“That’s different.” Of course he loved his sisters and mother.
“No, it ain’t. Not when you boil down to it.” The bottle crackled again in his brother’s clasp. “You think you have to be like dad, but you don’t. It’s a lifestyle choice, not some stupid disease.”
“Whatever.” Noah considered it more of a family curse than anything. He might be capable of loving someone, but he’d eventually do something to turn it all to shit. Better to avoid that unpleasantness altogether.
Tossing the empty bottle aside, John blew out his cheeks and slowly let out the air. He gestured to the recliner. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“Why?”
“Sit. Down.” John’s voice boomed out the command. It wasn’t a request.
Hands on his hips, Noah met his brother’s gaze long enough to make it clear he was only sitting because he wanted to. John shifted on his feet in front of him.
“You know I love you, right?”
Grimacing, Noah moved to stand again, but John pushed him back.
“I mean it.”
Noah looked around, wishing he’d never started this conversation. “Yeah. Same goes.”
“I’m only telling you this because I think you really need to know it, and mom’s halfway across the country right now. She told me once I could tell you if I ever felt you needed to know, if anything ever happened to her.”
Noah stilled. “Tell me what?”
Cursing, John spun around and paced toward the outside wall. “Should I be doing this? Hell.” Grabbing the thick curl of hair at his forehead, he faced Noah again. Took a deep breath. “We’re not related by blood.”
“What?”
“That didn’t come out right.” He swore. “Mom and dad adopted you when you were a baby. I remember the day they brought you home. Didn’t think they could have any more kids, and dad was trying to make sure mom didn’t leave him after she found out about one of his other women.”
The room crumbled around Noah as his mind reared with the implications. “You’re joking, right?”
“I wish I was.”
Adopted. He was adopted? Nausea filled his gut, along with a healthy helping of denial. He pushed unsteadily to his feet. “You are. You’re joking.”
John’s eyes held none of the mischief they usually boasted. They were dulled by the sheen of something close to sadness. “Thing is, I snuck around once and found your papers. Mom would have killed me if she knew, but the name of your real mother, the one listed on the papers? It was Katherine. Noah, your birth mother’s name was probably Kate. I don’t remember the last name, but I do remember that.”
Shuffling back a step, or maybe two, Noah sank into the chair that hit against the back of his knees. It took him a few seconds to find his voice, which sounded shaky to his own ears.
“Tell me everything you know.”
***
Stabbing her finger repeatedly against the down arrow on her keyboard, Spider stared blankly ahead at her laptop monitor, barely seeing the file names through which she scrolled.
“Meow.” The familiar growl that accompanied this vibrated with menace. The chorus of whining that followed was downright pitiful.
Stilling, she looked over at the cat now perched beside her on the sofa. Abbott’s bland expression probably mocked her own. Below him, Costello and Charlie stared at her with big eyes full of longing, their heads resting on the edge of the cushion. She glanced at the clock and abruptly erupted in surprise, nearly tossing her laptop to the floor as she jumped up.
“Fiddlesticks! I’m sorry, boys. I’m sorry!”
This time, she was almost a full half hour past the animals’ feeding time. She was getting worse, not better. Doggone it!
Rather than mentally cursing Noah as she’d done the other times, she accepted that no one else was to blame but herself. The cat seemed to forgive her, if the way he weaved in and out of her legs was any indication. Charlie and Costello joined the kitchen circus with their nightly shenanigans, twirling and prancing around her legs. They gobbled up their food like a pack of hungry wolves when she scooped it into their bowls.
Squatting, she patted each of their heads as their frantic crunching filled the room. “Sorry, guys. I promise I will do better. Pinky swear. Er, paw swear. Or whatever.”
So far, she was an epic failure in the pet-sitting department. Not her forte, apparently.
Since the incident with Noah, she’d fallen into a funk of self-pity unlike any she’d ever known, which she knew was stupid. Everything about her reaction to that man was stupid. Seriously, someone needed to slap her. She hadn’t even been this messed up when she’d called off her engagement to Paul.
It ended now. No more feeling sorry for herself. No more scattered mind. She was over it.
Moving to her feet again, she stepped toward the sofa and paused. Her laptop was gone.
Shifting her eyes around the room, she sighed. “Funny, ghost. Ha ha. Where did you put it?”
This had been a nightly occurrence since she’d closed herself off to the outside world again, going out only for walks with the dogs. Things disappeared. Objects moved. She heard sounds.
At first, it had scared her near-to-death, but it was all getting a bit annoying.
A clank beside the couch was her first clue the laptop had been moved there. Peeking around the corner table, she saw it lying on the floor. She knew she hadn’t put it there.
Picking it up and trying to decipher what the ghost was attempting to tell her now, her gaze zeroed in on the video file pulled up on the screen.
She’d spent the last few days scrolling through the contents of Noah’s hard drive, not finding anything to explain what he’d been doing here. He deserved points though for keeping his files organized and easy to archive though. Bonus points.
She’d been saving the folder full of videos for last, simply because it had contained over twenty video files of boring stuff she had no desire to watch. The one she’d opened as an experiment had been of some guy doing yard work and had lasted for more than an hour.
Total snooze-a-palooza.
She looked at the date on the file that had been opened for her. Only a few days old. If that jerk had videotaped her doing something dumb, she’d chase him down and knee his groin again.
Tapping play, she fell back onto the couch.
The screen showed Noah entering his living room. Okay, that was not what she’d been expecting. He sank into the chair and sprawled his long limbs out, shifting to get comfortable. Why on earth had he recorded this? Unless…
Funny that he had forgotten to mention he had video evidence of his haunting. Imagine that. Scumbag.
She fast-forwarded the clip, stopping when he sprang out of the seat again. She rewound it a little, hearing the loud kn
ocking that must have woken him up. The scene that unfolded was peculiar, to say the least. His TV turned on and off. It sounded like a marching band was roaming his house. And then, something else. A whisper?
Charlie jumped onto the sofa beside her, swiped the side of her face with a few licks, and settled in as if to watch the show with her, which was crazy since he was blind. She cranked it up to full volume and rewound the footage.
The dog tilted his head at the screen and made a sound that resembled, “Huh?”
She looked at him. “You heard that?”
Another swipe of tongue across the face. She’d take that to mean yes.
She played it again, but the whisper was so inaudible, she still had no idea what was said. Charlie again tilted his head and grumbled at the screen. Costello even shambled over to inspect it.
All right. Good clue. Thanks, ghost. This was progress.
It took her a few minutes to determine the best software for decoding EVPs – electronic voice phenomena – and less time to download and install it. She messed around with the settings, adjusted them, played the clip so many times she’d memorized every movement her jerkface of a neighbour made in it, and finally decoded five distinct words spoken in a soft, feminine voice.
“I was killed … near here.”
Seconds later, her mobile screamed out in its robotic tone, “You have a call. Answer it now or prepare to be terminated.”
Spider squealed and dumped her laptop on the floor.
Heart pounding – she was gonna have a heart attack if this didn’t stop soon – she reached for her phone. “Hello?”
“Spider? I only have a few minutes to talk.”
Connor’s voice was curt, as if he was bothered to return the ten or so messages she’d left for him over the past couple of days.
“It’s about darn time you called me back, you … you creep!”
There was a pause. “Why am I a creep?”
“Oh, I thought you were Mr. Psychic and knew everything.”
“Spider.” He drew her name out in a threatening manner.
“You knew about Noah and you didn’t tell me? I’m sorry. I thought Alexandra sent you here to help me, not him.”
“I thought I was helping both of you.” He grumbled something incoherent. “Look. As far as Noah is concerned, there’s a reason for everything. Remember that.”
“O-kay. Could you be any more cryptic and vague?”
“Yes, but I won’t.” She could hear a smile in his voice now. He sucked in a breath. “Something happened there. Are you okay? You’re scared. Nervous.”
“Duh!” She described the EVP. “What am I supposed to do now?”
He sighed. “I can’t leave here for a few days.” He hesitated, and she picked up on voices in the background. Loud, angry voices.
“Where are you?”
“Not in Georgia.” Again with the vague and cryptic. “I have to hurry. Have you been having any dreams or anything? Anything that would help you identify who she is?”
“I keep having a weird dream about—” She caught herself before mentioning Noah’s name. “Elton John, singing a song about elephants and unicorns to me beside a lake. Weird, I know, but there it is.”
“Recurring?”
“Yes.”
“Before you go to sleep tonight, tell her out loud you welcome her to communicate with you through a dream as long as she doesn’t try to harm you. Ask her to be clear about what the other dream means.”
“That’s it?”
“I have to go. Spider?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful. I’ll call you when I get back.”
“But—”
He’d already hung up.
She heard a car door slam somewhere outside and moved to the window. Pushing back the curtain, she watched Noah grab his bag from the back seat, shut that door and turn to look towards her.
Excitement danced along her nerve endings when one side of his mouth kicked up in a half smile and he lifted a hand to wave at her.
Frowning, she dropped the curtain and moved away from the window.
Blockhead. Who did he think he was?
She paced along the rug, gaze darting to the front door in anticipation of his inevitable visit. She wouldn’t open it if he came over. No way. Not gonna do it. She crossed her arms and waited.
Minutes passed. Nothing happened. Her shoulders slumped in relief that he wasn’t going to approach her tonight. Good.
“I was killed … near here.”
Slapping a hand over her chest, Spider jumped at the sound playing from her computer.
Crap. She’d almost forgotten about that.
“A little warning would be nice.” She addressed the ceiling, although she doubted any ghost worth her while was actually floating up there.
She scooped up her laptop and chewed her bottom lip. Maybe she should go play this for Noah? Obviously, the message had been meant for him.
Her brain drifted to the video setup Kellan had left in Zach’s office. Hmmm. Should she be bad and go see what he was up to?
Pfft. He’d done it to her, hadn’t he?
She ran to the monitor on her boss’s desk. Flipping it on, she smiled in triumph, seeing four squares appear on the screen. Noah moved into the frame on the top right square. His bedroom. She had an eagle’s eye view of the room, looking down on him. Clicking to maximize that screen on the display, she watched Noah toss his bag onto the bed, sit down and stare at the wall for several seconds.
Something about his slumped posture seemed … sad. Defeated. Like a little boy without a sled on a snowy day. Leaning closer to his image, Spider wished she could smooth away his worry lines, make him smile, give a hug. Something to bring back that sexy sparkle of interest always so evident in his eyes. Even if he was a creep, no one deserved to look so hopeless.
Wiping a hand over his face, he stood again, lifting his hands to unbutton his shirt.
“Oh. Well, maybe I shouldn’t—” Jerking back, she looked around, as if anyone could see what she was doing and then chuckled at herself.
Who was she kidding? She should. She totally should watch him undress. Consider it his payment for being such an a-hole. Noah West still made delicious eye candy.
Leaning forward again, she watched him yank his shirt off and toss it toward the corner of the screen.
“Nice,” she murmured to herself.
She’d tried not to stare at his muscular chest and biceps the day she’d caught him just out of the shower, but her gaze was glued to him now. Nice pecs. Great abdomen. Strong, muscular arms. His fingers were long, too. Wasn’t that an indication of, um, other body parts?
She tugged at the collar of her shirt and shifted on the chair. A nice heat was beginning to spread from her belly outward, making her wet in places she hadn’t been in … too long.
Then he reached down and popped the button on his jeans, revealing a pair of boxer briefs. She might have recognized the brand from advertisements, and, oh my, he looked so much better than most of those models she’d drooled over.
“Meow, mreow.”
The slow drawl of the feline suspiciously resembled an accusatory, “What are you doing?”
She shoved with her foot at the black and white animal that crept around the desk. Noah was tugging off his jeans now. “Go away, cat. I’m busy.”
Abbott leapt onto the stained wood and manoeuvred his fluffy body right in front of the monitor.
“Move, cat!” She brushed him away.
With a vicious protest, Abbott flopped onto his side, latched his claws onto her hand, and began bunny-kicking her wrist.
“Owwww!”
Growling, the cat leapt away and scattered off again. Clasping her throbbing hand against her stomach, Spider yelled after him, “I thought we’d gotten to be friends!”
That brat!
Glancing at the monitor, she realized Noah was no longer on the screen. She clicked out to look at the other rooms.
&
nbsp; “Bathroom? Shower. Didn’t Kellan put a camera there?”
Of course he hadn’t.
Clicking the monitor off, Spider retreated to her own bathroom to put ointment on the wounds Abbott had left her with, no doubt in return for making him wait for his dinner. She supposed she deserved them. Watching Noah undress had been kind of a pervy thing to do.
She let the dogs out and changed into a fresh pair of pajamas since she’d been wearing her others all day. Gathering her laptop, she climbed into bed and reviewed the EVP footage again.
Should she share it with Noah?
No.
Maybe later, but not now.
She saved the audio of the file as a clip and considered her options. One, her father was the most obvious resource she had. He would know about any unsolved murders in the area, might even be able to point her toward a specific case file. Not that she knew anything to give him the specifics he’d need to do so.
Shoot!
Two, she could present her findings to Noah and let him have at it. Wipe her hands clean and be done with the whole mess. Get back to playing Days of Adventure with her online guild in peace and passing her time here without any interference whatsoever. The vacation she had wanted and deserved.
Three, she could handle this on her own. Prove she could handle an investigation without help from anyone.
Yeah, she quite liked option two, but she liked option three better.
She could do this.
Stretching her arms out in front of her, she cracked the joints in her hand, wiggled her fingers, and started with what she knew best.
Internet research.
Chapter 11
“Hey, kiddo. Haven’t seen you in a long time. Is your dad in Zone 2 today?” Officer Van DeLorenzo leaned across the front desk, his large hand outstretched, fingers wiggling so that Spider felt obligated to smack palms with him in the private handshake they’d established years ago.
DeLorenzo, who usually ran the supply room, had often been saddled with babysitting her at the precinct whenever her dad was on duty, her mom was working late, and they hadn’t been able to find a sitter. Nice guy. She liked him. Plus, he didn’t seem very busy at the moment since the lobby was empty.
So far, so good.
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