by Minard, Tori
“Maybe a good workout will perk you up.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it will.”
I glanced across the intersection toward the student union and saw her. The blonde who’d been in my room the morning Paige had brought over the doughnuts. She stood at the bottom of the steps leading into the commons. She wore the same white tunic with blue embroidery over bell-bottom jeans. Her hair was so long it came all the way down to her butt. And she was looking at me. Staring.
I grabbed Paige’s wrist. “I’ve seen her before.”
“Who?”
“That blonde standing under the light-post.”
Paige wrinkled her brow. “What blonde?”
“Can’t you see her? She’s right there.” I pointed.
“There’s no-one by the lamp-post, Caroline.”
“Yeah, there is. Right there.” I pointed again.
The blonde spun on her platform heel and dashed up the steps into the student union commons. I bolted after her, scattering pedestrians and bicyclists in the street. People hollered at me and I ignored them.
I yanked open the commons doors and ran right into a wall of man. A warm, muscular, male-scented wall that instantly made me tremble and ache. Which was weird and completely out of character.
“Hey, are you all right?” It was a familiar voice. It explained my reaction, too.
I looked up into Max’s concerned eyes. “I’m fine. Did you see her?”
“See who?”
“A blond girl. She just came this way.” I leaned around him, trying to see if I could pick her out in the commons.
She seemed to have disappeared. It was the middle of the afternoon, and the dining area was only sparsely occupied. The blonde seemed to be nowhere in the room. Where had she gone?
“I didn’t see anyone,” Max said.
“God, that’s so weird,” I muttered. “She was right here.”
“Caro, are you all right?”
I looked up at him. Max. My conversation with Trent came back to me and chills broke out all over my body. This was the murderer I’d almost kissed. And I still reacted to him, still got all breathless and filled with idiotic butterflies who didn’t know they were fluttering over a guy who’d killed his own brother.
“Fine,” I said, taking a step away from him. “I’m fine.”
“Who were you chasing?”
“Just some chick I thought I knew.”
“Hi, Max,” Paige said behind us. “Caroline, what were you trying to do there?”
“I wanted to talk to her.”
Max looked over my shoulder at my friend. “Do you know what girl she’s talking about?”
“I didn’t see her,” Paige said.
“She was the same girl who was in my room,” I muttered to myself.
“What girl? In your room? What are you talking about?” Paige’s eyes were wide and startled; she was starting to sound agitated.
“Come and sit down,” Max said. “We’ll figure it out together.”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. Could he tell I knew his secret?
“No, I can’t. We don’t have time,” I said. “Paige and I were on our way to the gym.”
“You seem pretty upset. I think you should tell me what happened.”
“Yeah,” Paige said. “I want to figure this out, because you’re starting to scare me.”
I looked back at her, then at Max. They both looked worried. Did they think I was losing it? Did I care that a murderer thought I was losing it? No, not really. But if I was scaring Paige, it would be worth sitting down with him in order to reassure her.
“Okay. Fine. But just for a couple of minutes.”
We chose a nearby table. Somehow, I’m not sure how it happened, I ended up sitting next to Max instead of Paige. He turned to me with a serious expression on his face, the kind I imagined a psychiatrist might use. Which was pretty funny, coming from someone like him.
“Tell me what you saw.”
I made a vague wave gesture. “Just a girl. Dressed in seventies clothes. She was standing by the lamp-post at the bottom of the stairs outside there.”
“But you said you saw her in your room,” Paige said.
“Yeah, I did. When you were pounding on my door that morning. I opened my eyes and there she was, standing by my bed and looking at me. When I blinked, she was gone. I thought it was just a dream. And then I saw her here, and I didn’t know what to think.” Now I thought about it, the blonde was so much like a ghost it gave me a case of the chills all over again. But I didn’t believe in ghosts. I refused to believe. There was no way I was going down the Aunt Jo Highway to Hell. That was not an option.
“God, that’s bizarre,” Paige said in hushed tones.
“Sounds like a ghost to me,” Max said.
I looked at him warily. “A ghost? I don’t believe in that crap.” And I never would. Unlike Jo, I didn’t want to. All that woo-woo stuff was just too silly for me.
“I’m not saying it’s for sure or anything,” he said evenly. “But it does sound like a classic ghost encounter. How else would you explain it?”
Paige leaned across the table, seemingly fascinated. I just raised my eyebrows.
“Coincidence,” I said. “She just happened to look like the girl in my dream. I had no idea you believed in ghosts.”
“I believe in all kinds of things,” he said.
Very evasive. Did he believe in murder?
“I’ve never seen a ghost.” Paige sounded jealous.
“It wasn’t a ghost,” I said. “Come on, guys. It had to be a coincidence.”
“Then why did you run after her that way?” Paige said. “If you really thought it was just coincidence, you wouldn’t have tried so hard to catch up with her.”
I shrugged. “It was just a momentary impulse. It didn’t mean anything.”
The only person I’d ever met—until Max—who really believed in ghosts was Jo, and she wasn’t a person I wanted to emulate in any way. She lived in some hazy, drug-addled underworld where her imagination mixed freely with reality and gave her visions, not just of ghosts, but of angels and demons and who knew what else. I didn’t want to go where Aunt Jo lived. Ever.
I rubbed my arms, trying to calm the shivers that had inexplicably taken over my body. “I’m not going to worry about this. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“You might be right,” Max said.
I raised my brows at him. “Why do you say that? I thought you believed.”
“Ghosts aren’t normally hostile. Most of them are just hanging around. She might not want anything with you in particular. Maybe she’s just going through some kind of routine.”
“Really? How do you know all that?” Not that I was giving his nonsense any credence.
He shrugged, looking modest. “I’ve done a lot of study on the subject.”
“You’re just full of surprises.” There was too much bitterness in my voice. “I never expected you to be a ghost hunter.”
“Oh, I don’t hunt them. I let them come to me.”
Paige laughed. I merely looked at him. Maybe he could tell that I knew what he’d done; I wasn’t doing enough to hide my anger and confusion from him if I didn’t want him to guess.
Max met my gaze steadily for a moment before looking to Paige. He knew. He had that look in his eyes, as if he knew exactly what was going on in my head. I dropped my gaze and stared at the table top, hoping he’d decide he was wrong. I should have smiled or said something lighthearted. That would have cast more doubt than me being unable to even look at him. By acting uptight around him, I was only confirming his suspicions.
Why did I even care whether or not he realized I knew? He was the guilty party, not me. There was absolutely nothing for me to be ashamed of, yet here I was, trying to hide my thoughts from him. It made no sense, even to me.
He turned back to me, his jaw tense. “You know, don’t you?”
I met his gaze head-on instead of flinching away like I wanted to. �
��Yes.”
It seemed to be his turn to look down, to avoid contact. “So.”
“Is it true?”
“Every word.” His voice had a flippant tone that made me want to smack him.
Paige was looking back and forth from me to him. I could see in her expression that she knew something was going on but she couldn’t guess what it was.
“Do you mind cluing me in?” she said.
“I can’t,” I said. “It has to do with Trent.”
“Oh.” She looked back and forth between us again. “Okay, then.”
“Sorry,” I said. “We didn’t mean to be rude. I’d much rather talk about ghosts anyway.” Right now, a root canal sounded better than yet more elliptical conversation about Max’s past misdeeds.
“Okay, then what if the ghost comes back?” Paige said. “What should she do then?”
“Like I said, they usually don’t mean any harm,” Max said, carrying on as if he hadn’t just confessed to murder. “But if she does anything that seems threatening, Caro, don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll be happy to help.”
I refrained, just barely, from rolling my eyes. “How would you do that?”
“There are a number of things I could do. I can try to communicate with her and find out what she wants; I can banish her and I can put a protective seal on your dorm room to keep her from coming back. It all depends on the circumstances and what you want.”
“I want to forget all about it.” I picked up my gym bag. “Come on, Paige. We should get to the gym before it gets crowded.”
He frowned slightly, watching me as I stood. I could see that he was trying to figure me out, trying to make sense of my curt behavior. It should be obvious to him. I’d found out about him and I couldn’t stand to be near him anymore. There was nothing ambiguous about it.
I made myself smile at him. “Thanks for the advice, Max. We’ll see you around, okay?”
“Sure. Have a good time at the gym.”
“Will do,” Paige said with a broad smile.
I turned and stalked toward the door. I was being rude and bitchy and I knew it, but at the moment I didn’t care. Ever since Trent had told me what Max had done, I couldn’t look at or think of him the same way.
He’d only been ten years old when it happened. Maybe I should have had more compassion for him. It was the no-remorse part of it that bothered me the most. Accidents happen, sometimes tragic accidents, but to have no remorse and no sense of responsibility, that was unforgivable.
“Are you mad at me?” Paige said as we left the commons for the sunshine of the outdoors.
“No. Why?”
“You seem mad.”
“I told you; I’m tired today. It’s making me cranky.”
She sent me a wide-eyed, disbelieving glance and started down the stairs. “If you say so.”
I couldn’t tell her about Max and Carter. I just couldn’t. Trent would be furious with me if I did. He’d had a difficult enough time trusting me with the information in the first place; if I betrayed his trust, he’d never tell me anything again.
Still, it would be good to get an outside perspective on the situation.
“You were kinda rude to Max in there,” she said.
“I know.”
“Is he the one you’re mad at?”
“Paige, I’m just tired. That’s all it is.”
“Sure.”
I sighed. “There’s some stuff going on with Trent. I can’t talk about it.”
“I knew it! I knew you weren’t just tired. So tell me all about it.”
“I told you; I can’t. He’d be pissed if he found out I told you.”
She stopped me with a hand on my forearm. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
I almost laughed. “No. Not pregnant.”
“Whew. Good.”
“It has to do with his family. It’s not something he wants to get out.”
“Ooh. Mysterious. Now I have to know.”
“I’m not telling,” I said in an overly dramatic tone. “Nothing you can do will make me betray my secrets.”
She put her hands on her narrow hips and gave me a menacing glare. “I have ways of making you talk.”
“No! I’ll never talk.”
We both laughed as we broke into a run for the gym.
Chapter 6
Max
I had only a few seconds to contemplate Caroline’s hostile behavior before Fred showed up. He took the seat across from me and clasped his hands on the table, smiling like I should be glad to greet him in the middle of a very public place. Which I was not. Since I was the only one who could see him, I’d look like a loon sitting here and talking to him. I didn’t mind being unconventional, but carrying on a public convo with my invisible friend was something else again.
I bent my head and muttered at the table top. “What are you doing here?”
“Talking to you. What does it look like?”
“I’d rather not look like a nutcase in public, thank you.”
“No-one is paying any attention to us.”
I glanced around. The commons was nearly empty and, at the moment, his statement was true. But who knew when someone would walk past my table, probably at the worst possible moment?
“You couldn’t wait until I was alone at home?” I said in an undertone.
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Okay, what’s so damned important, then?”
“There’s a spirit attempting to contact you.”
I raised my brows at him. “So? I thought we’d already established that.”
“Before, all I knew was there were spirits gathering around you. Now, I’m aware there is one in particular who wishes to speak with you.”
“Who?”
He spread his hands. “I don’t know yet.”
I shook my head. “When you find out, let me know. Until then, stop trying to embarrass me.”
“You know I’d never deliberately embarrass you, Max.”
“Do I? Sometimes I think you spirit types forget what it was like to be alive. You forget how freaked out people get when they see anything the least bit unusual.”
He gave a short nod. “Perhaps we do.”
“Try to remember that we mortals do care about the opinions of other mortals.”
“Even you?” His dark-blue eyes crinkled at the corners. “I thought you were above all that.”
“Not me.”
“There was a time when you claimed you didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought of you.”
“Yeah, and I was about fifteen at the time. I didn’t know any better.”
“So you’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and become entirely conventional?”
“Of course not.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “Just because I care a little about how others see me doesn’t mean I’m going to turn normal.”
“So you care, just not very much.”
I grinned. “That’s it in five seconds.”
“I could materialize, and then anyone passing by would see me as an ordinary person.”
Yeah, except for the fact that he was dressed in nineteenth-century clothing. What was with the sack suit, anyhow? It was kind of ugly, if you asked me—not that he ever had. But he could change his appearance at will, so maybe it would work out, except for the minor detail that it could make the room as cold as the inside of an industrial fridge.
“Wouldn’t that take an awful lot of energy?”
He shrugged. “Yes. But it might be worth it. I don’t want to embarrass you, after all.”
I decided to ignore that. “Did you hear Caroline’s story?”
“About the ghost?” he said, raising his brows.
“What do you make of it?”
“I’m not sure who her ghost is, but I am sure she’s connected to yours.”
My breath left me in a rush. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Why afraid?”
“Let’s just say it’s damned inconvenie
nt. How can I help her or find out how her spirit is connected with mine with Trent hanging around? Plus, I think she’s mad at me.”
“You want your brother’s girl,” he said with a knowing look.
I sighed. “What’s your point?”
“Trent could make a lot of trouble for you. Give him any excuse and he’ll be after you.”
“Thanks. I didn’t know that.”
Fred tilted his head slightly to the side. “Are you trying to provoke a confrontation?”
“I’ve got nothing to hide. You know that. What could he do to me that he hasn’t already done?”
“You’re breaking the law, Max.”
“Not at the moment,” I said with a shrug.
He smiled wryly. “Quit smoking marijuana. I don’t want to see you go to jail. After all, I’d have to visit you there and I’ve seen enough of prison to last me for eternity.”
Fred had gone to jail for a few years in his youth for an unspecified crime. Unspecified to me, that was.
“Why would you have to visit me there?” I said. “Not that I don’t appreciate the offer, understand.”
“You’re my descendant. It’s my job to look out for you.”
I stared openly at him, forgetting all about the other people in the room. “You’re what?”
“I’m your great-great-something or other grandfather on your mother’s side. Didn’t you know?”
“I had no idea.” In all the years I’d known him, I’d never guessed he was my ancestor. No wonder he looked so familiar. We were relatives.
“It’s why I came to you in the first place.”
He’d appeared to me when I was eleven, still so torn up over Carter’s death I could barely function. I’m not sure I would have survived if it hadn’t been for Frederick. He talked to me in a way my dad couldn’t—or wouldn’t—and helped me understand that the accident was just that. An accident. Not that I fully believed him—I had been playing with a gun, something I’d had no business even touching.
“Your mother was gone,” he said. “And your dad didn’t seem to care about you anymore. In fact, I was starting to think he was going to murder you during one of his rages. I had to do something.”
“Thank you,” I said through a tight throat.
Here I’d thought no-one gave a shit about me and all along Fred had been looking out for me. Even if he couldn’t physically interfere with my dad, he’d kept me sane and whole in my mind. He’d made it possible for me to survive long enough to grow up. If we hadn’t been in a public place, I might have given him a hug, something I rarely did with anyone. There were too many potential witnesses here, though.