“Make your decision, Kaylyn. I can take you back to my house, where you’ll be safe.”
“Why?” When she noticed Jonah’s face harden, she continued. “I mean, why will I be any safer at your house? Aren’t you concerned that whatever torched my house will do the same to yours?”
“It’s a spirit-free zone. I learned a few tricks from my mother.”
“Of course. Why doesn’t everyone know these tricks? Information like that should be in the Aicil handbook.”
“Right next to the dress code?” Jonah stepped back and crossed his arms, but his face softened with the hint of a smirk. “Maybe then I can convince you to read it.”
“Hardy har har.” With effort, Kaylyn managed to keep a straight face. “I assume you’re not going to explain?”
“Family secret.”
Do not punch him in the face, she told herself, crossing her arms over her chest in case they got any rebellious ideas of their own. “Fine, I’ll take you up on your offer, but…” What the hell kind of an ultimatum could she give him?
He raised his eyebrows, then dropped his arms to his sides, picking up Kaylyn’s duffle. “I’m sure you’ll figure out your terms and have a contract drawn up by the time I get off work.”
Kaylyn
Once again, Jonah left Kaylyn to keep herself busy at his house. A couple of hours after he dropped her off, she was ecstatic to see the locksmith arrive, allowing her to retrieve her laptop from the car. But after a series of fruitless internet searches that didn’t help her understand what was after her, the doorbell interrupted her.
“Where would you like the furniture, Mrs. Troyer?” A tall man in a dark blue jumpsuit asked.
“Uh…” Kaylyn cocked an eyebrow but suppressed the sarcastic comment, “It’s Miss Anderson, thanks. There’s an empty room upstairs, arrange it however you like.”
Kaylyn watched the men in jumpsuits rush up and down the stairs with plastic-covered furniture and tools. It didn’t take them long to set up the room, and by the time Jonah called to check in an hour later, the men had cleared out.
When Kaylyn couldn’t find anything else to do, she slid her laptop to the side, checked on Frank, and then went to the kitchen to round up something for lunch. However, instead of opening the refrigerator, she found herself standing in the middle of the room and staring at all of the boxes. She traced the tape that held a box of cookware closed, then ripped it off and tossed it in the trash. She piled the new cookware near the sink to be washed, flattened the box, and made a pile near the door so it could be recycled.
As she slowly got the kitchen in order, she also rounded up ingredients, placing a Dutch oven on the stove and filling it with water, and then adding some chunks of chicken breast, to be followed by scoops of fresh dumpling batter and carrots. She put a lid over the pot and let it all simmer while she finished organizing the kitchen.
It was after six by the time Jonah walked in the door. He dropped his keys onto a table in the living room and sniffed the air. “You’ve been busy.”
“I got bored,” Kaylyn said, snapping her laptop closed. “And you’re lucky I didn’t eat it all without you.” Suddenly, she felt like half of an old married couple, so she jumped off the couch and went to the kitchen, before the situation could grow more awkward.
Jonah dropped a stack of off-white folders onto the coffee table and entered the kitchen as well. He stopped in the archway and his mouth fell open but it took him a few seconds to speak. “You put my kitchen together…”
“Are you pissed?”
“Why would I be pissed, it’s… You didn’t have to do that.”
“I came in to make lunch and got tired of staring at all the boxes.” Kaylyn pulled a couple of plates down from the cupboard above the sink and scooped on a pile of mashed potatoes, green beans, and a ladle full of dumplings into the center of the potatoes. “Hope you don’t have anything against starchy food. This is one of a few meals I can make from scratch.”
“It smells and looks great, thanks.” Jonah took the plate, settling at the small dining table near the window. “I assume you’ve come up with your terms for our working together?”
Kaylyn sighed, taking a seat across from him with her own plate of food, “Not exactly. Any developments on the hotel?”
“Don’t ask. I’ve been taken off the case, and so has Cole. Emerson believes I was showing favoritism toward you by not removing you in the first place, and that I might manipulate the ‘evidence’ to support your case and save my ass.”
The sound of Kaylyn’s fork dropping onto the stoneware plate echoed through the house. “And if something really happened?”
“As far as I know, they’re still going to look, they just don’t trust me or Cole to judge.” Jonah sat back, and laid his fork on the edge of his plate. “How about a beer?”
“Love it,” Kaylyn nodded.
Returning a few seconds later with beers in hand, Jonah popped the top off a bottle and handed it to Kaylyn.
Jonah sat down, and popped the top off his own beer, “I didn’t think the Council would be so quick to step in.” He rolled the beer bottle between his fingers, and then chugged down half of the bottle. “Guess we do have something in common—we don’t like to be dictated to.”
Kaylyn shrugged. “You could’ve been less of an ass when you showed up.”
He leaned over the table toward her. “And how would you have reacted then? ‘Kaylyn please dress appropriately.’ What would you have worn to work the next day?”
Kaylyn opened her mouth to answer but Jonah cut her off.
“Be honest.”
She twisted in her seat, and squeezed her lips together, knowing he already knew the answer. “Jeans.”
“And I imagine you still would have called me an ass as soon as you turned your back.”
Kaylyn bit the inside of her cheek and stared at the glass bottle in her hand. She looked up and met his gaze. “You didn’t have to come in acting like you were better than everyone else.”
“Did I?” He waited for a response, but Kaylyn returned her attention to her food. “Sometimes you can’t come in, be nice and get what you want. Tell me one thing I said to you that you didn’t deserve.”
“Can we drop this conversation now?”
Jonah shrugged and swigged the rest of his beer. “If I did, I apologize. Does that make you feel better?”
Kaylyn fidgeted again, but didn’t answer.
“No?” Jonah leaned down trying to see her face under her down-turned head. “Kaylyn, I don’t—”
“I get it.” Kaylyn stabbed at the last green bean on her plate, “And to be honest, I liked you better when you were a complete ass.”
Jonah scoffed.
“Can we just figure out how to fix the problem so things can go back to relative normalness?”
“Which of the many problems?”
Once Jonah was finished eating, he cleared his section of the table and returned, a few moments later, with the stack of files he’d brought home.
“What is all of that?”
“Some are copies of the files on the Teague Hotel. And this is your personnel file.”
“And how did you manage that?” It wasn’t as if Kaylyn didn’t expect him to have access to her file. He’d probably read it before meeting her, but that was a lot different than him standing in front of her waving the stack of papers when she had no idea what they contained.
“Why the hell do you think I got out of the office so late?”
Kaylyn took her plate to the sink as Jonah spread the folders across the table.
“Anything else you can remember from your dreams?” he asked as she sat down.
“You think that my dreams are somehow connected with the hotel and the fire?”
“Convince me they aren’t.”
Kaylyn scoffed, she couldn’t look away from the folder with her name scribbled on tab. “I’d never been in Teague Hotel before. The dreams started months ago.”
“But you’ve always been interested in it.”
“I was a history major; I like a lot of old buildings.”
“In 1988, the room you were investigating caught fire. The fire was confined to one room. It burned itself out before anyone could do anything about it—just like the one in your house. They were never able to attribute a cause, or explain why it didn’t spread.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean it’s connected to my dream.”
“What about the fire in your parents’ bedroom?”
Kaylyn’s face went blank, “What fire? Our house was never on fire.”
“You don’t remember?” Jonah pushed a folder toward her. “Aicil investigated it. That’s how they knew about you in the first place.”
Kaylyn shook her head and snatched the folder from his hand. She scanned the words and images as Jonah summarized.
“In July of 2000, you and your parents were the only ones in the house, your sister was staying with a friend. You threw a fit, passed out, and your parents took you to the hospital. They kept you overnight, but while you were all there, a fire broke out in your parents’ bedroom. It also burned itself out before authorities even arrived. Still think it’s not connected?”
“I remember playing in my room, and then waking up in the hospital. We went to stay with my aunt for a week. They said I had an allergic reaction to something in the house and it needed to be cleared out.” Her ribs felt like rusty iron gates, refusing to move as she tried to suck air into her lungs. “Let’s say I buy your theory, that they’re all connected. What’s causing it? And why is it so… random? Different times, different places.”
“The last two weren’t so random—they were centered on you. And, you mentioned that the previous owner of the hotel attempted to remodel it, but gave up. What year was that?”
Kaylyn shook her head and flipped open the Teague file. “I don’t remember exactly.”
“It was during the summer of 2000—”
“I think I’m going to need another beer.” Kaylyn moved to stand, but Jonah rested his hand on her forearm.
“Something forced you out of the hotel, when you got sick. It also brought you back in to get us out. Then, you showed up here in the middle of the night without remembering how you got here. And, just before the fire in your kitchen, you said to ‘get out.’ Odd as it seems, maybe there is something protecting you.”
“It could be nicer about it.” Kaylyn’s free hand moved across her stomach, remembering the pain she felt in the stairwell of the hotel. “So are there two separate entities? One trying to kill me and one trying to protect me?”
Jonah shook his head and rubbed his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking out at strange angles. “What year were you born?”
“You’re not pinning that one on me. I was born in ‘89. My family never even talked about the hotel. Dad was a lawyer. I can’t think of any reason for him to be in an abandoned old building, and Mom, she subbed at the school sometimes, but…” Kaylyn shrugged, as a gust of nostalgia came over her. Homemade dinners, family vacations. She thought about how much of a brat she could be when her parents tried to rope her into big family activities, especially the yearly family reunions.
“Kaylyn? Are you listening?”
“What?” Her head snapped up realizing Jonah must’ve been talking the entire time.
“Not really important. Are you okay? Relatively speaking, that it is.”
Kaylyn nodded and leaned over the table, propping her head up on her hand. “Two entities. In my dream, there’s a brunette woman, but there’s also this black mass… The house. I need to go back to the house.”
“But the firemen—”
“No, my parents’ house. It was empty for a long time, but I haven’t been by there lately.” Kaylyn stood and headed toward the front door.
“Whoa, Kaylyn,” he grabbed her arm, swinging her back to face him. “We can’t just go running in. What to you hope to gain from going back there, anyway?”
“Please, Jonah,” Kaylyn’s hands curled into fists at her sides, “You wanted to help, so help. What if this thing goes back there? What if someone gets hurt?”
Jonah closed his eyes and raised his face to the ceiling. “Fine, but…” he motioned toward the yoga pants and T-shirt she’d changed into while lounging around the house. “Can we at least look all business?”
“Business? I’m suspended.”
Jonah leaned toward her, “And I’m putting my ass on the line. If someone else is living there, the less questions they ask, the better.”
“I guess I owe you that much.”
“Owe me that much?” Jonah scoffed. “Just wait until you see the bill.”
Kaylyn bit her lip, hesitation gnawing at her insides until she saw the smirk creep across Jonah’s face.
“Get changed. I’ll gather what we’ll need.”
Jonah
Jonah shrugged on a jacket while he waited for Kaylyn to change. Within ten minutes, she came bounding down the stairs in a pair of black pinstriped pants and a dark blue button-up blouse, with her hair pulled into a low ponytail. She pulled on a black leather blazer and flipped her hair over the collar.
“You’re staring at me again,” she said, “like the first day of work. Still not good enough for you?”
For some reason, he suddenly wanted another beer. “You look surprisingly professional.”
“Ah, just as shocking, then? At least I’ve still got that going for me.”
Outside, Kaylyn headed straight for her car, but Jonah corralled her to his car instead. “I’m driving, and you’re riding with me. I have more questions before we barge in to your childhood home.”
“Always have to have it your way, don’t you?” Kaylyn scuffed the bottom of her shoe against the drive, and climbed into Jonah’s car. “It’s about fifteen or twenty minutes from here, near Brown Ridge.”
Brown Ridge? Jonah shifted the car into reverse, and backed down the driveway, pausing before pulling out onto the country road. “You really expect that I know where Brown Ridge is?”
“Oh, it’s about ten miles east on Route 54.”
Jonah’s road let out at the highway, and he turned right, following her instructions. “S,o your family lived in the house until you and Cole left for college, and no one ever talked about what happened?”
“Yeah.”
Jonah waited, hoping that he wouldn’t have to pry every detail out of her, but Kaylyn showed no signs of opening up on her own. “You’re still close with your parents? They don’t live far away, right?”
“Yeah, they got divorced the year Cole and I moved into an apartment together. But… aside from Cole, I was never that close with anyone, even my family. And now the dream is so real, I wake up every morning believing that my parents are dead.”
Jonah’s hand moved to his chest where his mother’s pendant normally rested.
“Your mom?” Her voice came out so quiet, Jonah could barely hear it over the sounds of the road, “Was it an accident or…?”
Jonah glanced over, then back at the road. “Car accident. Nothing paranormal, but…” It was unfair to ask Kaylyn to open up about her past when he couldn’t do it himself, but he hadn’t discussed his suspicions with anyone, even his dad.
“But?”
“I think she knew it was coming.” He glanced at her again. “She always promised to make me a pendant, but she never found the right materials.”
He took a deep breath and lowered his hand to the shifter, preparing to slow the car to follow the exit into the residential zone. “During finals week of my first semester, I got that pendant in the mail. I thought she’d finally made one, so I didn’t think much of it. There was a bad snowstorm, and I had to go home two days late, because the airports in Alberta were closed. The day after I was supposed to be home, she and Dad were driving home from the store. The roads weren’t too bad where they were, but she hit a slick patch. Mom was good at driving in bad weather, and she got
the car under control, but an SUV came up on them. The SUV was speeding, and once it hit the ice, it lost control and hit the driver’s side of the car.”
Jonah wet his lips, and swallowed hard, “She died before they reached the hospital. Dad, he was fine.”
“Jonah.” She twitched, as if she was going to touch his arm, then she pulled back and tucked her arms around herself.
“The letter she sent me with the necklace. It didn’t make sense at the time, but with finals, I just passed over it. It said, ‘I wanted to be able to give you this myself. You’ll make a great member of Aicil, just like your father, and this will keep you safe.’ I always wondered why she didn’t just wait until I got home.”
“I’m sorry.”
Jonah nodded, trying to concentrate on the road as memories overwhelmed his brain. Shake it off, he told himself. In the corner of his eye, he saw Kaylyn with her legs pulled in and her arms tightly crossed. “More than you wanted to know about your asshole boss?”
He heard the snap of Kaylyn picking at her nails, but she didn’t speak until they reached the end of the block. “It’s the second house on the next block. On the right.”
Jonah parked in front of the yellow house, turned off the car, and set the parking break. The yard was enclosed by a split-rail wooden fence. One section was crowded with toys, a tall slide, and small playhouses. Kids raised the stakes, and he worried that bringing Kaylyn into the house would only aggravate the spirit.
Kaylyn hesitated as well, her fingers curled around the handle but her eyes closed. He closed his hand around her wrist, and her attention snapped to him.
“If I’m going to help you, I need you to be honest with me. No withholding details and hiding your feelings.” Jonah felt her pulse spike under his fingers as her face flushed.
Fractured Legacy (Darkness Bound / Frqactured Legacy #1) Page 10