Stolen Dreams

by Stacey Kennedy

  “Come on,” Zach said, snapping me out of my wonderment.

  Following him up the porch steps, I waited for him to unlock the door. He opened it and waved me in. I stepped through the door to find an open concept modest home―gray painted walls, bamboo hardwood floors, sleek contemporary black leather couches with matching stainless steel coffee table, which only heightened my surprise. But something else left me flabbergasted. The neatness, the order and lack of dust. I was unable to hold back my shock. “You live here?”

  Zach shut the front door and walked past me. “No, we live here.”

  “Who is we exactly?”

  “Kipp and I.” Zach nodded toward to kitchen. “You want a beer?”

  “Sure do.” A hundred of them to wash away the past hours sounded even better. As I settled on the couch, I was pleased to note neither laughter nor tears were on the brink. My found strength came from the fact that on the drive over, I was able to catch Zach up to speed on the past events, and he never doubted a word of it. Feeling less crazy was a good thing.

  “What about this place surprises you?” Kipp asked from the leather recliner across from me.

  “That it’s clean.”

  “Pardon?” Zach called out from the kitchen.

  “I was talking to Kipp. He was wondering why your home surprised me.”

  Zach was smiling when he came out from the kitchen holding two frosty beers. “A good surprise?” He handed me a beer.

  I nodded, taking a big gulp from the bottle, almost sighing in pure pleasure as the crisp taste swept through my mouth. I lowered the bottle and shrugged. “It’s really nice. Just surprised me, you have such good taste.”

  Zach downed half his beer then brought the bottle down, wiped the remnants away from his mouth. “Not me.”

  My head snapped to Kipp, a warm smile greeted me. “You did all this?”

  “I did.”

  Dammit, I was being too obvious. My interest was showing right on my face, I was sure of that. Nothing about him should interest me, but darn it, it was. And the look on Kipp’s face said he knew it and enjoyed it. It only left me aggravated. I scowled at him.

  He grinned.

  “So...” Zach took a seat next to me on the couch, drawing my gaze away from Kipp. He pulled a bag onto the table then extracted out a large brown expandable file folder. “You found something without telling me?”

  “I didn’t find anything out,” I retorted.

  Zach grinned as he lifted his gaze from the file to me. “Yes, I know that. I wasn’t talking to you.”

  “Oh.” I gave a nervous laugh, feeling like a complete fool. “Right―you were talking to Kipp.”

  “Go to the witness report,” Kipp instructed, clearly ready to get this show on the road.

  I sighed deep in preparation for an exhausting game of telephone. “He wants you to look at the witness report.”

  Zach shifted through the file folder until he lifted out a thick stack of paper stapled together. “All right here it is.”

  “Page thirty.”

  I took a sip of my beer before I conveyed, “Flip to page thirty.”

  Zach did so and read down the page as he ran his finger along the words. Minutes later, he glanced up. “Am I supposed to see something here?”

  I shrugged, unknowing. “I have no idea.”

  A smile played at the corners of Zach’s mouth. “I didn’t think you would.”

  What was I missing here? He was looking right at me asking the question. I looked around a few times before I met his gaze, confused. “Then why are you looking at me when you’re asking?”

  Zach laughed and shook his head in disbelief. “Because I haven’t the faintest idea where Kipp is.”

  “Crap, sorry.” I giggled. “I keep forgetting that.” I pointed to the leather recliner across from us. “He’s right there.”

  Zach followed my gaze, his eyebrows furrowed. “I would just like to point out how incredibly fucked up this is.” His gaze stayed glued on the recliner as he asked, “What did you see that I don’t?”

  “Her best friend said on the day before she was declared missing, she saw Hannah coming out of a house on Allandale.”

  A little tinge zapped in my heart. Kipp wasn’t only sexy as sin, he was damn good at his job too. Thoughts of just how intriguing he was becoming to me kept my mind busy for a moment. I grabbed my beer and took a sip to wash away these feelings which were going to land me in heaps of trouble.

  When I lowered the bottle, I realized nothing had been said in a while. “What?” I asked, glancing between Zach and Kipp.

  Zach sighed a very tired sound. “I did not hear what he said.”

  I giggled, both in nervousness that I was letting my mind run away with silly thoughts, and also because I kept forgetting Kipp was a ghost. “Sorry, I’m not used to this. I’ve never shared a conversation before.” I cleared my throat, feeling the burn on my cheeks. “Hannah’s friend said she saw her coming out of a house.”

  “I said more than that,” Kipp snipped.

  Rolling my eyes at him, I looked back to Zach and added, “Right, she came out of a house on Allen.”

  “Allandale.”

  “Allen...” Zach started.

  I raised my hand to cut him off. “Allandale.”

  Zach grinned. “Now that makes more sense since Allen isn’t a street here.”

  Shrugging away the knowledge my listening skills sucked, I glanced at Kipp who winked. “I thought this might be an easy thing to do, but with you, apparently this is going to be frustrating.”

  My smile came quick with attitude, just to dig at him. His sly grin sent a shiver of something naughty through me. Realizing what I had just done, I clamped down on it and looked away. Jesus, now I was flirting with him. Oh this was getting sick, mentally unstable sick.

  “I’m taking it you looked into the house?” Zach broke the awkward moment.

  I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see Kipp’s gaze remained on me. Not like I needed to look, I could feel his eyes all over me. My breath held until he looked at Zach. “It’s a safe house.”

  My head snapped toward him, the lingering steamy feelings resolved. “A safe house?”

  “A safe house?” Zach quipped.

  Kipp nodded.

  I nodded, lost in this conversation. Shouldn’t a safe house be a good thing? Judging by the distressed expression on Zach and Kipp’s faces, it wasn’t. After a long silence, my curiosity couldn’t be stalled. “And this is bad because?”

  “The only way she’d go into the house was if a cop was with her. There was no reason why Hannah would have needed to go there. Her record is clean. She was a good kid. It was for personal reasons, I am sure of that.”

  I understood the implication of his words. “You think a cop murdered her?”

  Kipp inclined his head, a solemn expression flashed across his face. “It was where my thoughts were heading, yes.”

  “What did he say?” Zach demanded.

  My focus stayed glued on Kipp, I just couldn’t look away. The thought that one of his own was capable of this pained him. An agony I wished could be erased.

  With a clenched heart, I glanced at Zach. “He said it’s a cop.”

  “Shit,” Zach exhaled.

  Silence filled the room while he stared down at the floor, as if he were trying to sort everything out. He finally looked up and glanced toward the recliner. “I know now why you kept this a secret, but from me?” His expression filled with anger. “I could have gone with you.”

  “It was just a hunch, I truly didn’t believe it could be true. I didn’t expect to be shot when I got there. I was just going to nose around.”

  “He was only guessing,” I responded. “He didn’t think it was dangerous.” I added for his benefit.

  “I never said that.” Kipp’s voice held a slight hint of annoyance.

  Zach slammed his beer on the table, leaned in toward the recliner. “Well look what your guess cost you,”
he spat.

  “It wasn’t his fault!” I cut in.

  Kipp sighed in exasperation. “I never said that either.”

  “Really? It wasn’t his fault?” Zach growled. “If he hadn’t gone out there alone, he wouldn’t have been shot.”

  “Can I...” Kipp began.

  “No you cannot.” I snapped my gaze back to Zach. “He was obviously protecting you by not sharing this information. And let me just tell you, he has annoyed me beyond belief these past days to get me to come and talk to you. So, you need to suck up your pride.”

  “I...I…” Zach started.

  “You miss him, I get it.” I sighed, calming my tone. Suddenly I was aware I had just lashed out to protect Kipp. Never had I felt so protective of a ghost before. Maybe I was just at my wits end with all this, that theory sat best. “He doesn’t have much time here. So, don’t waste it being angry about what happened in the past. Be nice to him.”

  Zach stared at me for a moment longer then a smile grazed his lips. I was surprised to see the wonders it did for his stern look. His eyes softened and even his body seemed to settle in response. He glanced back over to the recliner. “All right, I’ll leave it be, but it still doesn’t mean you’re not a stupid fuck nut, Kipp.”

  Kipp laughed.

  Right then, my cell phone rang. I dunked my hand into the back pocket of my jeans then looked at the caller id. “Uh no.” I groaned as I flipped open the phone and held it away from my ear.

  As expected, Caley’s voice came roaring through the speaker. “Oh my God, where are you?” she shouted. “I have been calling for hours. You tell me there is a ghost in your room, you scream like a banshee, and then you turn your phone off. Do you know what you’ve put me through these last few hours? Seriously, do you know?”

  I brought the phone back to my ear. “Sorry, I was at the cop shop. I only just turned it back on a bit ago.”

  Right now, I was glad I did. I suspected Caley had called non-stop these past few hours. With what I had gone through in that room, having Caley bugging me too, would have tipped the scales.

  Silence fell over the phone, then Caley whispered, “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  Trouble? Hell, I was in a shit load of it. I was stuck in some sick attraction to a ghost. But I wasn’t in the kind trouble she was thinking of. “No, I’m...”

  “Where are you?” Caley interrupted. “I’m coming over.”

  Quite abruptly, the phone was ripped from my hands and Zach pressed it to his ear. “This is Zach Foster of the Memphis Police Department. Tess is fine and with me. She will contact you when it is appropriate to do so.”

  I laughed. “Oh dear, this is going to be good.”

  “What...” Kipp started, but as Caley screamed at Zach, his mouth clamped shut.

  Zach paled before my eyes. I had a hard time not laughing. Caley never responded well when she was told to do something and it didn’t matter this man was three times her size, she’d level him.

  “Miss...” Zach tried, but it just earned him another round of insults and screaming.

  After her rampage, Zach cleared his throat then said, “2500 Cedar Bark Cove.” Apparently, that was when Caley hung up on him since he lowered the phone and grinned at it. He raised his head and handed me the phone. “Who was that?”

  “Caley, she’s a good friend of mine. She doesn’t understand the meaning of no.”

  “I gather,” Zach commented. Then, he glanced back to Kipp. “You were obviously onto something when you went there.” It seemed he had moved past his anger and settled back into detective mode. “Why else would you have been shot?”

  “Exactly.”

  Unable to hear him, Zach continued, “It’s hard to imagine a cop is capable of not only shooting you, but also killing Hannah. Did you get a look at him?”

  “No, he hit me from behind.”

  I shook my head in answer.

  Zach rubbed his hands along his face. “So, that is why you were at the safe house then? The old lady next door heard the shot, called the cops and they found you there. ” He lowered his hands, looking back to the recliner. “No one could make any sense out it.” He gave his head a shake and made a tired sound. “There are hundreds of cops who work within the department. I’m not sure how to even begin to narrow down the list of suspects.”

  “Find Hannah,” I butt in.

  “What?” Zach and Kipp said in unison.

  “Go find her ghost,” I explained. “She is likely still hanging around because her case hasn’t been solved.” Of course, it was only a guess but the ghosts I’d met always died in a tragic way. Murder fell into that category.

  Kipp’s eyes widened with anticipation. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”

  Before anyone could respond, the front door slammed open and Caley stood in the entrance pissed. I wasn’t at all surprised to see her here so quickly. She actually didn’t live far from this end of town and I was sure she drove like a mad woman to get here. Which is why I loved Caley. So protective.

  “Thank God, you’re safe.” She rushed forward. “They haven’t hurt you, done weird tests on you, have they?”

  I laughed at the fury on her face. “No. I’m fine.”

  Caley was about to say something when she caught sight of Zach. She stopped dead in her tracks and ran her gaze across his body. She gave one of her pageant smiles as she met his gaze. “Well, hello there,” she said in a purr and stepped toward him. “And who might you be?”

  “You coming with me?” Kipp’s voice suddenly came from beside me.

  Stay here and watch Caley and Zach flirt, or go find a ghost? It wasn’t a hard decision. “I’m coming with you.” I walked to the door before Kipp could even respond. “Just get me the hell out of here.”

  If I had to sit and watch these two lusting over each other, I might take the gun out of Zach’s holster and blow my head off.

  ***

  Chapter Six

  The front door shut behind me and I let out a long, deep breath. “Thank God, we’re alone.”

  Kipp grinned with a playful edge. “You want to be alone with me, do you?”

  My cheeks burned at the insinuation. I’d meant to get away from the two horn-dogs. Hadn’t I? If only I had the chance to solve that mystery. Kipp stepped in closer to me. The coldness of his ghostly form created goose bumps across my skin and my breath froze.

  "I enjoy that I make you blush.” His voice came out in a warm purr which eased the cold air around me.

  Immediately, I snapped away from the spikes in my temperature and forced my gaze to the ground. I couldn’t allow this to go any further than it already had. Who knew if he was acknowledging my attraction to him, feeding off it to pump himself up―he could be one of those types of guys or if his advances were due to a mutual attraction. Whatever it was, it needed to end.

  Kipp chuckled, a deep throaty sound. “Are we on our way then?”

  I glanced up, nodded and headed off. I only got five steps down the street before his voice came again. “Mind telling me where you’re off to?”

  My feet came to a dead halt. I stood staring at the tree-lined street, the night was dark but the streetlights were lit enough in order not to see a soul in sight. I glanced back over my shoulder, slightly annoyed and a little bit embarrassed. I’d been so wound up from our conversation moments ago, I hadn’t realized I didn’t have the slightest clue where I was going.

  “Coming back then?” Kipp’s tone was well amused, teetering on mocking.

  A few curse words echoed in my mind before I walked back to where he stood. “Where to then?”

  He grinned, cool and collect to my fluster before he collected himself, his expression serious. “If you were a young woman who was murdered, alone and afraid, where would you go?”

  Good question. Where would I go? Wander? I doubted that. To a friend’s house? It was a possibility. But one place stood out more than the rest. “I’d go home.”

  Kipp gave an approvin
g nod. “My thoughts exactly.”

  “You know where she lived?” He’d worked the case, I suspected he knew everything about the life of Hannah Reid.

  “Just a few blocks away.” He nodded down toward the left, in the opposite direction I’d been going. “That way.”

  He may not have been laughing at me directly, but the look in his eye was. Not responding to it, I spun on my heels and walked down the street.

  “You choose interesting company,” Kipp said, catching up with me.

  It wasn’t something I hadn’t heard before. “Caley can be a bit much at times, but she’s a good friend.”

  Kipp gave a knowing glance, a hint of a smile on his face. “Apparently, since she practically broke down the door to make sure you were all right.”

  “She’s got more balls than an entire soccer team.” I laughed and gave a slight shrug. “No one’s perfect, I take her for how she is.”

  “As she does you.”

  I stopped and gave him a firm look. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I wasn’t about to stand for insults from a dead guy, no matter how my body reacted to him.

  “You can’t deny you’re interesting yourself.”

  “Interesting how?” My eyes narrowed. Just where was he going with this?

  Kipp seemed amused by my glare, although he never laughed. “For starters, you see and talk to ghosts. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

  He’s lucky. He came very close to a second death. “Like I said, no one’s perfect.”

  “I may have to disagree with you there.” His gaze focused on mine, exposing a little of himself and not hiding anything.

  Oh yes, I heard and saw what he was implying. He’d also answered a question I’d been wondering. The attraction was clearly mutual. I wouldn’t deny it made me want to smile or say that I felt the same about him, but I needed to be strong here. Indulging in this line of thinking would get me nowhere.

  Diverting the conversation, I changed the subject. “Do you like being a cop?” I asked as I began walking back down the street.

  Kipp said nothing as he fell into stride with me. At the end of the street the road forked and he pointed to the left down Grand Cedar Lane. Continuing on, we made our way down the street, and he finally answered. “I loved being a cop.”