Kiss of Souls

by Morgan Kelley

  Here was her proof.

  The team was on the same page, and they wanted to help Julian carry this burden.

  He wasn’t alone.

  “I want to do whatever I can to help Beau. We’re family. I married into the Littlemoons, and I will do whatever it takes to get him free from this bogus arrest.”

  Both Julian and Tori appreciated it.

  Kane stood. “I’m not taking a salary either. This isn’t work. This is about taking care of our own. Chrissy and I talked about it. We’re going to make sure we help. She’s down for any research or searches you need her to do. She can do them while watching the baby.”

  Roman and Mattie stood.

  “We’re in. No salary, no stopping, and no way we leave Beau behind. We aren’t just employees here. This is about our family. Someone has tried to frame one of us. We all fight now,” he said.

  Tears began slipping down Tori’s cheeks. As hard as she fought to stop them, she was helpless to the emotions. They were coming out, here and now.

  Justin focused on his sister-in-law. “Your blood is our blood, Army. We will help him or we all go down trying. This is far from over.”

  She wiped her eyes.

  Julian dropped his arm around her. “We appreciate it. Let’s get Beau and Nyx in here, and we’ll start this case. Until we clear it, all other cases are on hold. For now, ‘Littlemoon Investigations’ is closing to help Beau, and until we get him off, we stay closed down.”

  They all agreed.

  This was likely going to be their biggest case. It wouldn’t bring them money, fame, or clientele, but it would give them one thing.

  Their family back.

  “Thank you,” Tori stated. “Help me save my brother. I can’t lose him too.”

  They all started talking amongst themselves, trying to find the best way to do just that.

  This was why Julian was so damn proud.

  These people...

  They were good, honest, and had their backs.

  Julian buzzed Lena. “Is Beau and Nyx out there?” he asked, waiting for a reply.

  Nothing.

  “LENA!”

  Her voice came over the intercom. “What? I’m working!” she stated.

  Julian swore he heard her mutter ‘asshole’ at the end of that, but he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Maybe he was hearing things.

  He glanced over at Claire.

  ‘See?’ she mouthed.

  Julian heard the aggressiveness in her voice, and he didn’t like it. While he’d tolerate so much BS in the workplace, he wouldn’t tolerate disrespect in his office.

  Not for him.

  Not for Tori.

  And not toward each other.

  “Can you send in Beau and Nyx?” he asked, knowing he asked them to take a seat in the waiting area—like he would any client. That’s what they were. They were now his biggest, most important clients.

  “Sure.”

  The intercom shut off without any of Lena’s normal pleasant banter.

  What the hell?

  Yeah, he was going to be having a discussion with her later. He was HR, and he was going to kick the secretary’s ass back into line, and fast.

  Enough was enough.

  When the door opened, a beat down man walked into the room. His face said it all. There were stress lines where there had been none before, and he looked like shit.

  “Beau.”

  Before Tori could say a word, he spoke, “I’m sorry, everyone. I went there to stop her from damaging ‘Littlemoon Investigations’, and I only did that plus more. Julian, you shouldn’t have put up your business to bail me out.”

  Again, Tori began crying. To see her brother this beat down, battered, and hurt…it was killing her. She wanted to wrap him up, protect him, and stop all the pain.

  Only she couldn’t.

  This was out of her hands and her control.

  Tori glanced over at her husband, helplessly. In all honesty, she didn’t know what to say. She was at a loss for words and a solution to this mess.

  “You’re our brother. We fight for what’s ours, Beau. We have your back.”

  He sniffled.

  “I’m so damn sorry, Victoria,” he whispered, running his hands through his hair. “I shouldn’t have gone. Had I not…? Maybe this would be different.”

  “You can’t play this game, Beau. It happened, you can’t change it, and we move forward.”

  Tears filled his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  Julian and Tori moved toward him. Julian pulled the man into his arms and hugged him tightly to his body. It was clear that the man was on the edge.

  He was beaten.

  Julian knew that look. He’d seen it so many times before in his career.

  “Beau, we’ve got you. You have the best agency working for you.”

  Tori hugged him from behind. “We’ll fix this. I promise you that we’ll make this right, and then we’ll move forward, putting this mess behind us.”

  The dam broke.

  Beau sobbed.

  The wall crumbled.

  He’d held up for as long as he could, and it was just too much weight for him to bear.

  “It’s okay, honey,” Tori whispered, trying to comfort the man. She understood his pain.

  She got why he was broken. Her brother was mourning his mother. She and Trey didn’t, simply because they mourned losing her all those years ago—when she chose to leave.

  They’d gotten accustomed to her being gone.

  Now Beau was hurting, despite the horrible things that Shelby had done. It was still his mother. For the longest time, she was the only person he had in his life, and now everyone thought he’d killed her.

  “We’ll fix this,” Julian promised.

  “I’m going to jail—not because I did it, but because people look at a soldier and think I snapped. I wouldn’t kill her, Tori. I swear to God I’m not that kind of man.”

  She knew he wasn’t. Beau was the opposite of all of this, and he needed a break from the hits.

  They just kept coming.

  “We will work on this,” Julian promised.

  “We have you, Beau,” Justin said, moving toward him. “We’re Littlemoons, and you’re ours. We love Tori with all of our hearts, and you’re her blood. We will get you clear of this.”

  “How?” he asked, as Nyx wiped his face.

  “With what we do best. We’re going to start at the bottom and work our way through this mess,” Julian stated. “We’re going to find the person who killed your mother. We are going to solve this murder.”

  God!

  He needed them to do just that. If he were going to survive, he was going to need one hell of a miracle.

  He was led to a chair by his sister.

  “From this moment on, it’s all day Shelby Christensen. We put everything on hold,” she stated.

  “No business whatsoever?” asked Beau.

  “Nope. If we don’t solve this, there won’t be a business,” Julian admitted.

  Beau wept harder at those words. His choices had destroyed their lives too.

  He was responsible for all of this.

  Tori agreed. “With all of us, we should be good to go. You have nothing to worry about, Beau.”

  Or so she hoped.

  Tori really prayed she didn’t just lie to her brother. She was all he had left, and she couldn’t let him go down for this bullshit.

  “How about we discuss this?” Julian asked. “We can get the ball rolling.”

  They all took their seats, grabbed their notebooks, and waited for Tori’s brother to tell them everything.

  “Beau, walk us through this, and you can’t leave anything out. One thing, and we might be at a disadvantage,” Tori stated. “We need to hear everything.”

  He got it.

  This was his life or his death.

  “I called Shelby earlier that day.”

  There was the scribbling of notes.

  “Was she happy? Sa
d? Busy?” Tori asked, making notes. She was focused on his words. Gone was the mourning, worried sister, and in her place—an investigator.

  It was time to do the job.

  “She was surprised to hear from me. When I called, she was talking to someone in the background. I heard her say, ‘hold on a minute’, before she realized who it was.”

  Tori wrote it down. They were going to have to figure out who she was talking to before the call. For all they knew, that might have been the killer.

  Anything was possible at this point.

  “What else?” Julian asked.

  “She was excited to hear from me. She told me that she knew I’d be calling her back because I was…”

  He stopped, not wanting to hurt his sister. Beau knew that anything he repeated was going to sting.

  Shelby really hated her daughter. He saw that now, and it was horrifying.

  “It’s okay, Beau,” Tori offered. “Nothing you can say will upset me. I know how she felt about me. It was mutual.”

  They all stared at Tori.

  Hearts broke for her. There was no love lost for her mother, and honestly, they couldn’t blame her.

  Look at this mess.

  Beau took a deep breath.

  Then he continued, “She said I was the good one. Shelby was pissed that you didn’t let her see the baby.”

  Tori laughed at the audacity of the woman. “I’d rather dangle Veronica over the fiery pit of Hell than let that woman…”

  She realized how that sounded.

  “I mean…”

  Julian patted her knee. “It’s okay, Victoria. We all get it.”

  She rubbed her eyes in frustration as she struggled to get composure. If there was one person in the universe who could piss her off, make her lose control, and turn her into a bitch, it was Shelby Christensen.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Julian got it. He stepped in to take control so his wife could regroup.

  “Continue, Beau,” he suggested.

  “I asked her if we could meet and discuss what was happening. She suggested later because she had some things to take care of during the day. I asked her when, and she suggested nine at night.”

  Tori made more notes.

  “And?” Julian asked, glancing back and forth between the brother and sister. This was a balancing act. Keep Beau talking, but keep Tori from flipping her shit.

  It wasn’t easy.

  “I was good with that time, since I wanted to sneak there and back. Nyx doesn’t close the shop until ten, and I figured I could be back before she got home. No one would be any the wiser as to what I was planning. I’m a freaking idiot.”

  Nyx leaned over and kissed Beau in support. “I love you, Beau,” she stated. “We’ll get through this and then get married. Hang in there.”

  That was his other fear.

  He wanted to make her his wife, but with this mess, it wasn’t likely to happen. As of that moment, it was like an uphill battle to get Nyx to the altar. Now it seemed like it was uphill, wearing a one-hundred-pound pack, and all while trudging through hardening concrete.

  It sucked.

  “What else?” Julian asked, trying to keep them on track. “Tell us about your whole day.”

  “I did my normal things.”

  “Like?” Tori asked. They needed specifics so they could help lock down his timeline. It was the start to saving his ass.

  “I got up, had breakfast, and made love to my girl,” he said, glancing over at Nyx. “I’m sorry. Maybe that was TMI.”

  She patted his hand and smiled at him. “Beau, I’m pretty sure they all know we have sex. You’re good.”

  It made him laugh. It was the first and ONLY one in the longest time.

  “LOTS. OF. SEX,” Trey chimed from the radio on the table. “IT. DOES. MY. HEART. PROUD.”

  “Trey,” Julian warned. He knew the man was trying to help alleviate the mood, but this was about getting Beau through his details.

  Trey went silent.

  Tori wanted to cover all of her bases. “Did you feel like you were being followed?” she asked.

  “What?” Beau asked.

  “I’m just making sure we don’t miss anything. What if this wasn’t about just killing her, but hurting you?”

  “Why me?” Beau asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tori replied. “We may have to break your day apart, too, so we don’t miss anything. We won’t get a second chance at any of this.”

  She was right.

  Julian was proud of his wife. His wife was running this like Beau’s life depended on it because it did.

  “That’s a good idea,” Julian stated. “I think we should divide up the team and work that angle.”

  She agreed.

  “Beau, did you feel off?” Tori asked, knowing as a soldier, he’d be hyperaware of his surroundings. If Beau had a tail, he’d likely know it.

  She always did.

  As did Justin.

  “I don’t think I was followed at all. I didn’t feel off about anything,” he offered, replaying it back through his mind.

  “Why don’t you walk us through the rest of your day?” Julian suggested.

  Beau could do that.

  “I dropped Nyx off at the store. She had to work, and I wanted to get some things ready for our date night.”

  “Like?” Tori asked.

  “I went to the florist and picked up some of her favorite flowers.”

  Tori made notes.

  “Which florist did you stop at?” Julian asked, helping his wife nail down the timeline.

  “It was the one over by our place. I think it’s called ‘Flowers by Alberta’.”

  Tori knew the place.

  She often got Clarissa her flowers there. It was a huge place, and really busy. Plus, they had odd flowers that catered to unusual tastes.

  “When you were heading there, you didn’t see a tail?” Julian asked.

  Beau thought about it.

  His brow scrunched up, and he was drumming his fingers nervously on the tabletop.

  “No, but honestly, I wasn’t paying attention. I was thinking about the night and getting this mess handled.”

  The team made notes.

  “I just wanted to talk to Shelby and get it over with. I thought about stopping at the motel early, but then that might piss her off. I didn’t want her angry when I confronted her.”

  They got it.

  “Where to next?” Julian asked.

  “I hit up the grocery store. I was going to try and make dinner for Nyxie. I wanted to surprise her.”

  Well, he’d done that alright. He’d had to call her and tell her he was in jail.

  Surprise!

  He was an idiot.

  “Did you meet anyone or talk to anyone while you were grocery shopping?” Tori asked.

  Again, Beau pondered it.

  “I said hello to a few people in passing, but that’s it. I talked to the cashier. She was pleasant, and she asked if I was cooking all the food.”

  They wrote it down.

  “What was the next stop?” Julian asked.

  “I headed to the mall. I wanted to pick up something for Nyx.”

  “What?” Julian asked.

  Beau stared at him. “Really, Jules?” he asked. “Do you need to know that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sexy girly things. I don’t care how much you say you’re going to help me. You don’t need to know about my girl’s panties.”

  Nyx laughed.

  Hell!

  Everyone did. It was probably the sputtering and look on Julian’s face.

  Then they all looked at Nyx.

  “They were red,” she offered.

  Beau even looked horrified.

  “What? This should embarrass me, not you,” she teased, trying to lighten the mood. “You’re talking about my underwear, and I didn’t even get to wear it.”

  Tori laughed too. “It’s okay, Beau. Every male in here is ma
rried. They all know what it’s like, and I’m willing to bet they’ve bought lingerie before.”

  Justin wiggled his eyebrows, but before he could say anything incriminating, Vivian pointed at him.

  He closed his mouth.

  Fast.

  “Did you talk to anyone?” Julian asked, trying to keep the conversation on track.

  For a change.

  “Just the sales clerk. She asked if I needed help, and I said no. I knew what I wanted.”

  Tori really felt bad for her brother. He had been planning a really great night for himself and his fiancée, and it went to hell in a handbasket.

  “Where to next?” asked Tori.

  “I hit the liquor store to buy some wine that Nyx likes, and then I headed right home to start prepping for the night. I stayed there the entire time, cooking dinner. I put it in the oven on warm, and then I headed to Shelby’s motel to do the meeting before I picked Nyx up at ten.”

  “So, basically, nothing unusual happened?”

  “Well, things were moving around in our place,” offered Beau. “The knives kept sliding off the counter, and it was chilly in there.”

  They all knew what that meant.

  Spirits.

  “Someone was likely home with you. Maybe it was Bethany,” Nyx offered, covering for Evangeline. As of late, she was getting damn hard to control. She didn’t want to be quiet, and if Tori picked her up, she was in trouble.

  Nyx didn’t doubt Beau would dump her for lying and hiding this.

  Truthfully, she was desperate to get her gift back, and now she realized it had been one hell of a mistake.

  Evangeline had seemed like a good idea, but now she was hard to handle. She was draining Nyx, and she was a threat to everyone she loved.

  But what was she supposed to do?

  She wanted her spirit back, but Trey had already made his home in Tori. As of yet, there were no spirits willing to take a spin in her head, so she was stuck with Evangeline.

  Being without her gift all those weeks sucked, and this was the only way to be a productive member of the team.

  Was she as strong as she once used to be?

  No.

  But it would get better. That’s what she kept telling herself to get through it. Beggars, after all, couldn’t be choosers.

  When no one questioned the spirit in their home, Nyx relaxed. It looked like her secret was safe one more day.

  That was one hell of a relief.

  “Then you went to see Shelby?” Julian asked, urging his brother-in-law on.