“I can’t make it.”
“There’s something bigger than your dream in life? What the hell, Lennox? We’ve worked damn hard to get this for you. You promised me that you’d let me get you fame, and now you’re backing out.”
She ignored him.
“Milo.”
“Think about this, Lennox. This could put you on the map. At least talk to me tomorrow.”
She would talk to him, but it wouldn’t change her mind. Yes, she’d always wanted this, but now she needed something more.
She needed love.
She needed Everhart Rose, the man who was born on the same day and was meant to be hers.
What the heart wants, it wants.
“I can’t believe this!” Milo said, over and over again.
She could. In fact, tomorrow, it was going to get worse. After this show, she was pulling her art from his gallery. She’d already made her choice.
It was Hart.
It was always going to be him.
“I’ll be there tomorrow. We’ll talk about it then. I have more important things to do.”
“More important than this?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve lost your damn…”
She hung up.
Maybe she was crazy, but it didn’t matter. She knew what she needed to do, and it was all going to come down to the man using her bathroom. Lennox would give everything up for him and Ivy. She’d toss it all.
All she needed was a sign from him, and she’d give her heart to him forever.
One little sign, was all it was going to take. Then she’d know she was doing the right thing.
Hart stood under the water and made up his mind. As soon as this case was over, he was going home. He’d heard enough.
Lennox Easton was going to go off, live her life, and never see him again. He was a smart man. He could see the writing between the lines.
He didn’t need to have his heart handed to him. Lennox was getting her dream, and he was losing his. There was no way he could put in the time and fight for this. It wouldn’t end well. Hart knew he didn’t have anything he could offer her.
He was a single father.
He lived in a shoebox apartment.
He was…out of her league.
It killed him to think any of that, especially since he’d just made love to her and meant it. He’d fallen for a woman he couldn’t have, and he was a fool.
What could he do?
Nothing.
Hart washed her scent from his skin, and he forced himself to try and forget that with it, down the drain, went his hopes and dreams.
They were gone.
Love wasn’t for some people.
He was one of them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
In her room, Tori, Julian, Beau, and Nyx went over what they’d found. There was a plethora of information in the books, and a good investigator always started there.
While they knew what Evangeline had told them, they couldn’t hand that over to Sheriff Byrd. They needed a little thing called proof.
Speculation didn’t lock up criminals or solve cases.
“While we were down there, Evangeline was talking about what they did to her.”
“It was horrible,” Nyx stated.
Beau glanced over at her. “Who was hosting the bitchiest ghost?”
Tori tried to change the subject, but it was too late. Nyx outed herself.
Nyx cleared her throat.
“Was it you?” Beau asked.
“Yes, it was. She just jumped me. I didn’t invite her in. I swear.” She knew that wasn’t exactly the truth. Evangeline was copping a squat in her head. She could hear her in there. If Beau and the rest of the team heard that…
Yeah, it was better to lie.
“Hey! It’s okay, baby. I’m not mad,” he said, when he heard the fear brewing in her voice. “I was curious. That’s all.”
He held her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Nyx relaxed.
Had he really bought that?
Seriously?
“I get that she needs to communicate with someone. It’s fine,” he reassured.
“She’s really angry. It’s like mother bear when you mess with her cubs, angry,” Tori offered.
“She said she had kids, right?” Julian asked.
“Yeah.”
“Maybe they want revenge. What if all of them are ganging up on the people who ruined their mother?”
Tori thought about it.
“Here’s what I don’t get.”
“What?”
“She had kids—plural. How long was she their victim? Was it weeks, months, or years? To have kids, she had to be doing this for a decent amount of time.”
He agreed.
“Maybe the books have something?” Nyx offered.
That was a good possibility.
“We should start digging,” Tori offered, grabbing one of the old journals. “Oh look, it’s in Latin.”
Yeah, that was going to be of no help.
They all started digging until they found a spell book and what looked to be an accompanying journal.
“Do we double team them?” Julian asked.
“Yep.”
They broke up into two groups, and they began pouring over the books. They dated back quite a while. While Mariah was killed ten years ago, at fifty, these books dated back to when she was in her twenties.
“If this is indicative of her time of death,” offered Tori, “it’s going to be over thirty years ago.”
“So we’re looking for kids in their thirties.”
“Yes,” Julian stated.
They kept searching.
“We have a shitload of fertility spells,” Nyx said, flipping through their book. I can’t read the words, but the herb list is in English. They translated it.”
“So fertility spells, a woman who gave birth, and then a corpse. What does all that mean?” Julian asked.
Tori placed her hand over her own belly.
“I hope nothing nefarious with the babies. There are some crazies out there—especially Satanists who take it a little too far.”
They’d both seen cases.
“I think your ghosts are wrong,” Nyx said, breaking the silence.
“What?” Tori asked.
“It’s not Satanism. Oh, it’s darker than witchcraft, but it’s not devil worship either.”
“Well, what is it then? Bethany and Trey said it felt dark and dangerous.”
She flipped the journal around. “See these markings?” Nyx asked.
“Yes,” they all said.
“It’s only something I’ve seen once or twice before. It’s not Santeria, it’s not Voodoo. Its Hoodoo.”
“What the hell is that?” Julian asked.
“It’s where the practitioner uses the premises of Voodoo, but more spell work with working with ritualistic herbs. It’s a combination of Voodoo, Native American practices, and some wayward Christianity thrown into the mix.”
“Really?” Julian asked. “You’re not making this up?”
Nyx shook her head. “Nope. The ghosts were wrong. It’s definitely holding the woman here, but not because her soul was offered up in some dark ritual.”
“Then why?” Tori asked. Thank God they had Nyx and her knowledge of religions on their side.
“They did the fertility spells wrong. They used the wrong herbs. I can explain it with the Latin, or you can just believe me.”
They already knew what route they were going to take.
“We believe you.”
“I figured you would,” she said smiling at them. “In these journals, we’ll find the reason why they did it.”
She could hear Evangeline in her head. While she was still angry, finding her body had released her. She wasn’t bound to the anger.
She was still pissed, but it wasn’t making her violent. Well, for now…
That was all they needed to hear. It was time to dig t
hrough the journals until they found something.
Tori started reading. An hour had gone by before she hit pay dirt.
“Wait!”
Julian looked over from his side of the page. “What did you find, honey?” he asked.
Tori pushed the book toward him.
“You have to read this.”
Julian read it out loud.
‘My wife wants babies. We’ve tried for years, even having my brother try to impregnate her. Nothing has worked. Mariah wants children so badly that we don’t have any other choice. Society expects it, as does my mother. We need to keep the Easton line going, to make sure the next generation knows how hard our family worked to become who we are today. Wisely, we’ve had to take a surrogate. She’s been well paid, and while she doesn’t know she’s going to give us the children, she will. We’ll record her with us, and if need be, blackmail her. For my wife, I’ll do anything.’
Tori stared at him. “We thought she was taken and used for shits and giggles. She was someone to give them children.”
“And they were just going to steal her kids? I thought our mother was bad,” Beau stated.
“Jesus! People are really sick,” Julian stated. “So if they couldn’t have children…”
Exactly.
Who were Cornell and Lennox? Were they Evangeline’s children?
This was going to be one hell of a blow.
“So she slept with them in some Hoodoo ritual, only to have her kids taken away. That would piss me off as a spirit,” Tori admitted.
Julian too.
“I almost want to call Evangeline out to see if this was what happened,” Tori stated.
Nyx held her breath. If they did that, she’d have to be honest and tell them she could hear her.
“NO!” Julian stated. “That is definitely not happening. We’ll figure this out, and Lennox Easton can get DNA tests and work on it. We’re here to stop a killer, not be slaughtered by a pissed off ghost out to kill her stolen child.”
His tone said it all.
It was a definite no on that one.
“Keep scanning. There has to be more,” Tori stated, flipping through more pages.
They all went back to work. A few pages later, they found it.
“She gave birth to a son,” Tori said. She recognized the date. “Wait, give me your phone.”
Julian handed it to her. She pulled up the reports that the team had done doing research. “I have his birthdate. It matches someone we investigated.”
“Who?” Nyx asked.
“Cornell.”
Well, they confirmed one child.
“Keep reading,” Nyx stated.
Around them, the room began getting chillier. They didn’t notice, since they were so stoked to find this information.
She flipped through the pages looking for Lennox’s birthday as the next child appeared.
Only, it wasn’t so.
“Wait. We have another boy.”
They looked at each other.
“Is there a name?” Julian asked, keeping his fingers crossed.
Tori read further. “Oh, no.”
“What?” they all said. It was pretty comical. This was incredibly dramatic—movie worthy.
“They have here that the baby died. She gave birth to a stillborn while she was out in the world. That had to hurt. All of this is a mess.”
Julian agreed.
They kept flipping.
They found Lennox’s birthdate next.
Tori didn’t get it. “They got what they wanted. Why did she die? Apparently, something happened in order to make them kill her.”
Julian flipped toward the end. “Yeah, I think I know what it was,” he offered. “Listen to this.”
‘Today, we had to erase her from the face of the earth. While she was giving birth to my daughter, she hatched a plan. Right after receiving her money, she tried to take Lennox. She was going to steal her and then Cornell too. When I found her in my son’s nursery, I lost it. She took the money we offered. We gave her a place to live, and she betrayed us.’
“Wow, someone’s cuckoo. They held her prisoner, drugged her, and stole her children,” Tori stated. “How dare she want to escape?”
Yeah, they all felt the same.
“Keep reading, Jules,” Beau stated.
‘When I dragged her back down here and began hurting her, she admitted the truth. My second child didn’t die. He’d lived. She snuck him away to a safe place. I was enraged. I beat her and tried to get her to tell me where he was. He was my sire—my child. She had no right!’
Tori was appalled. “No right to keep her children? This family is jacked up. I feel bad for Lennox. We’re going to have to tell her all of this.”
Yeah, they were aware.
Julian kept flipping until he found more.
‘Today we sealed up the room, and we decided to not use it anymore. My mother has demanded we stop, and we will for now. Mariah doesn’t want more kids. In fact, she’d decided they aren’t for her after all. Thankfully, we have nannies to handle Lennox and Cornell. I hope the middle child never comes to find us. Babies are not our thing. Now, as for the sex, and the spells, we will continue them. They are addictive. Women, under the influence, are so much better in bed. We tested this with Mariah, and soon we’ll find more willing women. My mother said no more kids. She said nothing about fucking until we can’t walk. The playroom has been sealed. We left everything inside. One day, it may come out, but we won’t be here. So it really won’t matter. We don’t have to care.’
“Wow,” Tori said. “Orwell Easton was an asshole. He forced a woman to give him kids, then he takes them, kills her, and hides her body. He didn’t give a shit. I can’t believe this.”
“And Jessie Russo?” Julian asked.
Tori and Nyx knew why.
“Like he said in his journal. They liked the sex. This is all kinds of gross and inappropriate.”
And it was.
Tori leaned back on the bed. “This is crazy.”
Julian agreed.
“We know Lennox isn’t the killer, and we can eliminate Cornell. We have to find that middle child. He’s going to be the killer.”
Julian was overwhelmed. “How do we even go about doing that?” he asked.
Tori had no idea. This case was over thirty years old, and they didn’t have a clue.
Literally.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Sunday Morning
It had been a horrible night.
Lennox didn’t know what she had done, but Everhart was keeping his distance.
At one point, he actually slept with his back to her, making sure she couldn’t rest against him.
He’d gotten cold.
He’d become bitter.
Now, as she was heading down to breakfast, he’d opted to skip it for a shower.
It was as if he was trying to wash her from his life, touch, and body. He’d just showered after they’d had sex the night before, and now he was doing it again.
It spoke volumes.
And it hurt.
Lennox had never known such pain before, but here it was, like she’d expected, staring her in the face.
It sucked.
God!
This was the ugliest day of her life.
It couldn’t get any worse.
As she arrived in the dining room, they were all there waiting for her.
That didn’t bode well when Julian dismissed Beau and Nyx to talk to her alone. In fact, it scared her. She really wished Everhart was there, but he’d abandoned her too.
“You’re going to hurt me, aren’t you?” she asked, taking a seat.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.”
“I’m ready. Let me have it.”
They told her everything that they’d found out about her parents and uncle.
“Your grandmother covered it. When we talked to Jessie Russo, she mentioned that when she was fired, she’d heard Estella tell her sons that s
he’d covered for them before, and it was done.”
Yes, today really sucked.
“Larissa told us that the previous attorney paid off some woman, and we really believe that it was Evangeline. At first, we thought she didn’t get the money. Now we know she likely did, but when she double crossed the Easton men, they killed her. As soon as the truth came out, she was dead.”
This was a nightmare.
“Jesus. This is horrible.”
They didn’t disagree.
“I have a headache.”
“We’re so sorry, Lennox. I wish we could tell you something to soften the blow, but we can’t,” Tori offered. “I wish this didn’t end like this.”
Lennox began crying. “I can’t do this today. My mother wasn’t my mother, my father and uncle impregnated this poor woman and paid her off for kids they eventually decided they didn’t want, and we still don’t know who she was. My real mother is dead in the bowels of this house. This may be my breaking point.”
“Do you want me to get Hart?” Tori asked.
She looked up at them. “That’s over too. I’ll be fine. I just need to get away for a while.”
Tori got it. This was like a slice to the heart.
“We have the journals if you want to see them.”
Lennox stood from the table. “I’m going to the gallery. I have to decline a showing in New York. When I get back, I’ll listen to all of this, but for now… I can’t.”
They got it.
“You should take Hart with you.”
She wanted to laugh at how funny that was. “He’s not speaking to me. I don’t know what I did, but I think I’ll risk my chances with a killer.”
She stopped at the door. “Thank you for finding the truth. I promise I’ll help you with this in a bit, but right now, I have to come to grips with it. You just turned my world upside down.”
They were well aware.
When she was gone, Julian called Hart.
“Yo.”
“You have to get to a ride and tail Lennox.”
Forbidden Secrets Page 38