Kiss of Souls

by Morgan Kelley

  “Well, no.”

  They all looked up.

  “First, I stopped for a coffee. I was a nervous wreck. I needed something to calm me down. Honestly, I wanted to tell her to stop, but I was afraid to face her,” he admitted.

  “Why?” Julian asked.

  “I wanted to hurt her.”

  They all stared at him.

  “I know. I’m ashamed to admit it. I wanted to hurt my own mother, the woman who wouldn’t end my life when she carried me. I was so irritated with how she was treating Tori and Julian. Someone had to stand up for them. I decided it should be me.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t tell the police that,” Vivian stated.

  “Hell no!” he replied. “I’m not crazy.”

  Well, they at least had that.

  “When I got to that dive motel, I finished my coffee, and I stared at the motel door for a good ten minutes. Something in me was telling me to leave, but I ignored it. I think it was my gut warning me that it was a horrible idea.”

  It likely was.

  Tori knew she often got that feeling when she was about to do something questionable. It was her internal warning system going off.

  “Yeah, for the record, the next time you feel that, run,” Julian stated.

  Who was he kidding?

  Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a next time. Julian wanted to get ‘Littlemoon investigations’ off the crazy train and onto the tracks again. He liked his business before this nonsense.

  “What did you do?” Tori asked her brother.

  “I went to the door, I knocked, and when she didn’t answer, I pushed the door open. It wasn’t locked. In fact, I remember thinking, ‘why is this open’? It was right then that I was scared.”

  They all would be.

  Julian knew this was going to be the hardest part of retelling the tale. How could it not be?

  “And then, son? What happened? I need you to close your eyes and relive it.”

  Yeah, this was going to suck.

  Still, he pushed on.

  “I walked in, and I smelled blood. I looked around the room, and I saw her lying on the floor. A part of me knew something was wrong and I shouldn’t touch anything, but the son in me knew I had to check on her. I checked for her pulse, and there was none. I picked her up, trying to hold her,” he said, staring down at his hands as if he were seeing something that wasn’t there.

  Tori reached over and took one of his hands in hers. The second she did, the blood that he’d been seeing disappeared. It was just his sister’s smaller fingers on his.

  “Then what happened?” Julian asked.

  Beau looked up, and there were tears in his eyes.

  “I was staring down the nose of a nine-millimeter gun. Someone had called the cops, and they caught me holding Shelby. By then, I was covered in her blood.”

  The tears slipped down his cheeks as he rested his head on the conference room desk.

  “I screwed this up.”

  Tori patted him on the back. There was no way in hell she was going to beat the man while he was down. Had he listened, this wouldn’t be happening, but you couldn’t fix the past.

  You could only work on the future.

  Julian took over.

  “Okay, Vivian, we need someone at the police station to help us out. What can you do to hook us up?” he asked, hoping she still had some clout.

  She thought about it.

  “Well, I may have a few connections. Will they give me anything? I can’t be sure. This case is huge. The town will be putting their best on the case in an effort to close it. Once this made the national news, we became the focus.”

  Beau groaned.

  “I’m dead.”

  “No, you’re not. Stop thinking like that,” Tori stated. “Nyx, take Beau home. Stay inside, and make sure the media knows you’re there. We want their eyes on him, and not us. We can’t work if we’re being followed.”

  Julian agreed with his wife.

  “We have work to do, and time is going to matter on this one.”

  Nyx stood and held out her hand. “Come on, babe. We’ll go home, make some popcorn, and stay out of trouble for the next couple of days.”

  He stared around the table. Before he could leave, he needed to say one thing.

  “Please save me.”

  The team would do their best. Beau wasn’t going down for this one—especially since he was innocent.

  Nyx led him out, glancing over her shoulder at the door. Her face said it all.

  She was desperate. They got it.

  Everything was on the line.

  When they were gone, the whole team got down to work. It was going to take all of them for this one.

  “Okay, it’s time to divide and conquer,” Tori stated. “We’re going to divide this up. Julian and I are going to head to the crime scene later to break in.”

  “We’re what?” Julian asked, glancing over at her. He must not have heard her correctly. She knew that was the ONE place they couldn’t be seen. If they got caught there, they’d be tossed into jail for obstruction. It would look like they were trying to destroy evidence.

  She smiled at him.

  “Victoria!”

  “You heard me, Jules. Not only are we doing a little breaking and entering, but we need Beckett too. He’s going to tell us what the hell happened in there.”

  “Like I said, I’m in,” he said. “You get me inside the room, and I’ll get you everything I can on who hurt Shelby.”

  “That’s my plan,” Tori stated.

  “It’s a horrible plan,” Julian said. “If we get caught…”

  “Then we can’t get caught,” Tori stated. “We go in, the three of us, we do the deed, and we get out.”

  Claire agreed, but added one thing, “Where he goes, I go. I’m his anchor. I have to be there so I can make sure he comes out.”

  Tori was good with that.

  “Then that’s the plan.”

  “Wait,” Julian stated.

  Tori didn’t give him a chance.

  “Julian, we have no choice. We need to get in there. I have to get Beau out of this.”

  He held up his hand. “We aren’t going to storm the place after nightfall and break in.”

  She stared at him.

  This was no time for him to lay down the law.

  “Jules.”

  “We’ll rent a room, wait until dark, and go in the back way. If we pull up in front, we’re going to be busted. I suggest you and Claire go get your hooker on. We’re going to be buying us some sluts.”

  She stared at him.

  “Who are you?”

  “Some man who clearly has lost every last shred of his sanity. I’m going to break the law, I want my wife dressed like a hooker, and I called her a slut. Here’s your proof. I’m three days past sane right into the loony bin.”

  Tori started laughing. “You surprise me more and more each day.”

  Yeah, he horrified himself day after day.

  Still, they had a job to do.

  Julian wasn’t finished. “It’s a shithole dive. Who is going to go there and hang out?”

  “Druggies, pimps, Johns, and killers?” Claire asked, ticking them off her fingers.

  “Exactly. This isn’t a tourist trap. So, Beckett is going to go rent us a room—close to the one Shelby was in—and we’re going to wait it out. While we’re there, you never know what we’ll find out.”

  Tori was getting excited. This was going to work. She could see it now. They were going to save Beau.

  “That’s part one of the plan,” he offered.

  “Then what?” she asked.

  “Justin and Vivian, you get on the police informant. We need that autopsy report, the trace reports, and anything else you can acquire,” he offered.

  “We could call in a favor,” Kane offered. “Elizabeth Blackhawk…?”

  He abruptly cut him off. “We can’t call her. Take that option off the table.”

  “Wh
y?” Justin asked. “She’d help out. Elizabeth is a decent person. For Tori, she’d swim in a pond of piranhas.”

  While that was true, it couldn’t happen.

  Julian weighed his options. Did he tell them about what had gone down in Blackhawk land? Or did he keep it to himself.

  “Tell them,” Tori stated.

  Well, the choice was made.

  “Elizabeth has left the FBI. We can’t tap her for any help. She’s out of the game.”

  Yeah, and she left Ethan. That was the most incredulous part of all of it. No one saw that coming.

  When he spoke to Ethan, and he told him, Julian couldn’t believe it. Ethan had called to offer him some side work, and he’d ended up spilling the details. The man was a mess without her, but he was busily holding up the FBI while Gabe was on leave fighting cancer.

  “What?” Justin said. “How is that even possible?” he asked. “She was the FBI. That was her jam. She’s Fed to her core, and sadistic like one.”

  “She got hurt on the last case, and she left. She’s taking a hiatus to find herself.”

  He left it at that. Since most of the team had never met her, he was going to keep it private.

  There was no need to spill their friends’ secrets.

  Elizabeth was down a man, and that was astounding. Julian would have bet that she and Ethan would have been a couple until the end of time.

  He and Tori really hoped they worked it out.

  “We can’t bother her right now. Besides, she has a broken arm, she’s on the downed list, and her head isn’t in the game. We need everyone ready to work for this.”

  He had a point.

  “She’d never think it was a bother,” Justin said, thinking about how much Tex loved Tori.

  “No! It’s final.”

  Justin shut it down. He got it. Julian didn’t want to call in the big guns. He didn’t get why, but he’d respect his wishes. After all, he was the boss, and they were in the Blackhawk inner circle.

  They didn’t want Elizabeth’s help.

  So, they were on their own.

  Vivian took over. “I’ll see what we can dig up. Justin and I will head out now, and we’ll find something to use.”

  “Thanks,” Julian stated.

  “What do you want us to do?” Roman asked.

  “You two are going to work on Shelby’s cell phone. Work your magic, Roman, and find a way to get a list of people she called.”

  Tori rattled off the number. “I hope you can find anyone she’s been in contact with. This is going to be a hard one, but we know you can pull it off. You two are hell on details.”

  And they were.

  “Give me a couple days. I’ll get us something. I promise,” he said, taking Mattie’s hand, as they left the room to get to work. He loved a challenge, and this was certainly going to be a huge one.

  “Are you sure you have this?” Justin offered, before he and his wife got ready to do their part.

  No, he wasn’t sure, but what choice did they have? It was sink or swim, and Beau’s future was on the line. They’d go down swinging.

  “Yeah, head out and, Vivian, get us something. Without FBI assistance, we can’t get that autopsy.”

  She got it.

  This was where she hoped she didn’t let them down. That would suck.

  When she was gone, Kane waited.

  “You’re on this place. We need someone to muscle back the media. You’re going to have to play enforcer,” Julian stated. “I’m sorry, but we need to secure our domain. The media is out of control.”

  He was aware.

  “If you’re leaving, give me your keys. Take my truck,” he offered. “I parked it down the block. You can get there out the back.”

  She was grateful.

  “Thank you, Kane.”

  He cracked his knuckles. “No problem. Just get Beau off. He’s a good guy.”

  They were aware.

  “We are going to do our best to do just that,” Julian stated. For the man and for his wife.

  With that, Kane headed out.

  When everyone was gone, Julian faced his wife. “Are you going to be okay?” he finally asked.

  Honestly, he was waiting for the meltdown. It was going to come. It was simply a matter of when it happened. It could be now, it could be a year from now, but he knew his wife. She was going to mourn the passing of her mother.

  He’d seen it before.

  Julian wanted to be there for her when she lost it—like a good husband.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  The pen slid across the counter.

  Tori ignored it, hoping Julian would just assume it was Bethany. The last thing she wanted to deal with was the discussion of her channeling her dead mother.

  Julian didn’t bat an eye when the pen fell into his lap. Instead, he picked it up and placed it back down. He wasn’t going to say a word.

  No.

  Freaking.

  Way.

  It would open up a conversation that was surely going to end in a fight, a divorce, or possibly someone’s murder.

  His.

  “Well, do you want me to…?”

  She leaned into his body. “I really just need you to hold me,” she whispered. “I really just need to know that this is going to be okay, and that you love me. I’ve never been this afraid, Jules. There is so much on the line. I need you.”

  “Oh, Victoria,” he said, lifting her chin. “You are my wife, the mother of our daughter, and my partner. I’ll hold you all day long if that’s what you need.”

  She did need that.

  “Don’t feel bad,” he offered. Julian was a smart man. There was no doubt why his wife was upset.

  “But the business.”

  He shrugged it off to protect her heart. “If we lose it, we start all over, but we keep going. We’re Littlemoons. Nothing stops us.”

  She laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Your mother said the same thing to me.”

  “She’s right.”

  “I know she is.”

  “Let’s go deal with Lena, and then some paperwork. I should get ready in case this blows up. I have to have our backup plan in place to save what’s left of our assets.”

  She got it. Julian wasn’t only fighting for her brother. He was fighting for the whole family’s survival.

  He was her hero.

  “Let’s go,” she said, holding his hand reverently in hers.

  Together, they headed out.

  It was just another day at ‘Littlemoon Investigations’. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be their last.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Delta Falls

  Police

  Something wasn’t right.

  Detective Arsen Woods was feeling off kilter. It was that feeling he would get, each and every time the pieces to the puzzle weren’t fitting into place.

  This was one of those cases.

  No matter which way he spun the evidence, trying to get it to fit, it simply wouldn’t work.

  He couldn’t find a way to prove that Beau Christensen, in a fit of rage, killed his mother in that hotel room.

  It was way off base.

  Granted, Commissioner Anders wanted the man locked up, but he didn’t get why the boss was so intent on breaking the Littlemoons in the process. Surely, there had to be a better way than forcing the DA to file murder charges.

  It was crazy.

  Honestly, Arsen was beginning to get the feeling that there was some grudge match from a past incident.

  He acted as if the Littlemoons were public enemy number one, and they were hell bent on world domination.

  Someone was being a tad bit melodramatic.

  When Arsen was handed this case, he’d been told the man arrested for the killing was guilty as sin.

  Was a soldier.

  He had PTSD.

  And he needed to be locked down.

  Only, what the man wanted, and what Arsen could mak
e happen were two different things. The evidence wasn’t working for him.

  The pieces were all a jumble.

  The more he looked at Beau Christensen, the more it wasn’t coming together.

  He’d interviewed people who knew the man.

  Fellow soldiers.

  They said he was the least violent person they knew, and when he served, all he spoke about was his mother and one day finding his sister and brother.

  That was hardly the attitude of a killer.

  Plus, the physical evidence wasn’t working either. When the victim, Shelby Christensen, was examined, it didn’t fit. With her body having that many abrasions, bruises, and marks, Beau would have had some damage to his hands.

  Something.

  Since they didn’t find the murder weapon there when the police arrived, then it had to be his fists.

  Arsen flipped over the picture.

  There wasn’t a scratch on Beau Christensen. He was cleaner than a pair of freshly laundered sheets.

  Yes, he was covered in blood, but he’d held his dead mother. Wouldn’t he have done the same?

  Wouldn’t the commissioner?

  Then toss in the anonymous call that wasn’t tied to his cell phone. It felt off. He goes in, grabs his mother, and within a minute the cops are there?

  That screamed suspicious.

  What Arsen had to consider was could this man have been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

  Was he telling the truth?

  Was someone framing him?

  Arsen needed to get to the bottom of it, and fast. His partner, Detective Jamie Bender, thought he was guilty as sin too.

  He was wrong.

  Arsen knew it.

  But now he had to prove it, and when he tried, he was going to make the bosses very angry. Commissioner Anders did NOT like the Littlemoons, and this could very well ruin his career and any chance he had of being a cop in Delta Falls. Going against the bosses meant one thing.

  Job Russian Roulette.

  Truthfully, he wished he had help of some sort. Yes, he had his partner, but all Jamie kept saying was ‘toss his PTSD ass in the clink’. That was a piss poor attitude to have regarding a case, and he knew it.

  Cops were supposed to be neutral, and they were supposed to look at the facts, and only the facts.

  His partner was biased.