Gwen shrugged. “What? Like you guys haven’t asked her to do the same thing.”
“Can I see her?” Keaton asked.
“When we move her into a private room, you can,” Dr. Myers assured us.
“And Patricia?” Jimbo asked.
“Patricia’s injury would have been lethal had we not gotten her here so quickly. Faith’s text to you probably saved Patricia’s life.”
“Pity,” Gwen mumbled.
“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll make sure she’s prosecuted,” Gwen’s boyfriend announced before kissing her cheek.
Keaton was liking Faith’s sister even more.
Reggie and the other police officers went home and the rest of them remained. After she was put in a room, they were shown in.
Faith looked frail. Her face, normally full of smiles and sass, was white. Keaton stood in the back of the room, giving the others the chance to visit. Even as they did, Faith’s gaze, throughout the conversations, met his, and it took everything Keaton had not to kick the others out. Not to pull Faith into his arms and never let her go.
One by one, they left with promises to see her the next day and sneak in some contraband. Nina pulled a bag of salt from her purse and set it in the bed next to Faith. She leaned in to whisper. Whatever words were exchanged made Faith’s laughter turn into a wince as she clutched the wound.
Nina ushered everyone out of the room, leaving Keaton the last person left.
Faith’s voice was thin, but her eyes were bright. “You just going to stand over there all night?”
He didn’t take a step, didn’t make a move.
“You almost died.” His words were a whisper in the room.
“But I didn’t,” she answered and held out her hand.
Keaton crossed the room and took it. Leaning down, he pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “I should have paid more attention. I shouldn’t have let you go off on your own.”
“You didn’t let me do anything.” Faith’s gaze softened. “There was no way we could have known Patricia was a psychotic stalkerish killer.”
“In my dreams, you're attacked at the hospital, but I can never tell by who,” he said, swallowing around the lump in his throat.
“You had dreams I was going to be attacked in a hospital and didn’t tell me?”
“I wasn’t going to let it come to fruition. I don’t know what changed.”
“Choices and free will is my guess.” Her face softened as she stared up at me.
Keaton knew she was right, but the part he had trouble processing was the fact that she’d almost died and he hadn’t been the one to save her. Hell, he hadn’t even been the one to figure out who the killer was.
“I know that look.” she held on to his hand as if she knew what was going on in his head. “You run, and I’ll send Jared to find you.”
Keaton leaned down and kissed her lips while stroking her hair. “You deserve better.” His eyes searched hers. “You deserve someone who can save your life.”
Her gaze softened. “Keaton, I believe in your visions we’re going to be together. I know that you’re the man who saves me. Maybe not my life, but my heart.”
He pressed his lips to hers and held them there as if this their first kiss and last all rolled into one. A myriad emotions racked through his body, but she was right. There was no walking away, not when happiness was in his grasp. The promise of their future.
He pulled back from her lips and whispered, “I love the thought of us.”
“I do too.” She smiled up at him. “So, don’t leave. Not yet.”
Chapter 21
Keaton’s arms around me felt like heaven as we stood on the porch watching Jimbo leave after our morning coffee. If it weren’t for the weekend, Keaton would be leaving with him to go to work. Within a month, Keaton had gotten a job on our police force. My best friend and future husband were working side by side to keep each other safe, and I couldn’t have been happier.
Keaton was my missing piece. My spirit finally felt whole in his arms. Even more so after eavesdropping on the conversation Keaton had with Jared where they made a pact. Keaton was to keep me safe from the anyone hurting me in the real world and Jared was in charge of doing it in the spirit world. It warmed my heart that he and Jared had made peace with each other.
“Are you ready to help Mary and the others find peace?”
I nodded. “Give me a minute to grab my things, and then we can go.”
Before I could even walk back into the house, Cassie turned into my drive and parked, pausing us in our tracks.
She got out and popped her trunk and grabbed a box, carrying it up to the porch.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as she approached.
“Sorry about this, but I needed a second opinion.”
“Uh, okay,” I said and led her inside to the sitting area where I worked with clients.
Cassie set the box down and lifted the lid. Inside the box was the plaster print of three hands. The Bennett name was written in the plaster at the top. The three Bennett brothers; John, Max, and Tom.
“Did you crack the mystery?”
Cassie nodded excitedly. “I think I’ve figured out the secret and found the rest of our family tree. I was hoping you could connect. Do your thing.”
Cassie hesitated, glancing over at Keaton.
“He can see ghosts too,” I said, patting Cassie’s hand.
“Oh well, welcome to the family,” Cassie said.
“All this time we thought the three Bennetts were brothers, but we were wrong. We know our grandfather was one and then the Abby’s clan came from another Bennett line, but we were missing the Max family line.”
We were related to other Bennett’s who had unique abilities just like ours. We didn’t see them often but we they’d contacted us and asked for help finding the last Bennett line. We couldn’t refuse, not when working together might produce results. Just to think that there were more twisted Bennett’s like us made me grin. “Explain.”
Cassie pointed to the hand in the middle. Smaller by only a smidge.
“What if Max was really Maxine? Not a Bennett brother, but a sister,” Cassie explained. “All this time and in all of our searches, we’ve been looking for a male. I think our assumption was all wrong.”
“How did you figure this out?” I asked, lifting my gaze. “Did you locate something?”
Cassie’s lips twisted into a smile. She pulled out an old weathered photo printed in black and white. The edges were torn and frayed. Two parents dressed in clothing, circa the late 1800s, with three children at their feet. An older boy sat at his mother’s feet. The boy and girl next to him were identical twins. My mouth dropped open. It wasn’t just a girl that I was looking at. She could pass for one of us. More importantly, she could pass for our sister, Talia.
Cassie jabbed the plastered handprints. “What if Fillpot was telling the truth, only he got the name wrong? What if he did have a Bennett all this time, only she’s not our sister but from our missing line? They were twins, Faith. And what if she really does need our help? All this time we’ve been trying to connect with Talia when we should have been trying to find the missing link. Her.”
I sat back in the chair as my mind raced at what this meant.
“Maybe there was a reason we couldn’t connect to the picture that Fillpot gave us. Maybe the girl in the picture really isn’t dead. Maybe she’s just a descendant from the twin Bennett’s. That could explain why they look alike.”
“Who’s Fillpot?” Keaton asked.
“He’s FBI and some kind of head organizer of a special program,” I answered. Fillpot had reeled Gwen in to the idea that Talia might still be alive. He’d gone to great lengths to test Gwen’s determination and ability. So when the FBI agent claimed that Talia wasn’t dead and just missing, Gwen was quick to believe, especially when he’d produced a picture that looked just like our sister. Only now…maybe it wasn’t our Talia that was missing but another Bennett tha
t needed to be found.
“He swindled our grandmother out of money to lure Gwen into finding him so he could recruit her help,” Cassie added.
Keaton’s brows dipped. “And he’s a fed?”
“Apparently.” I sighed and leaned forward. “Okay, so how are we going to find the Bennett-Talia look-alike?”
“First, can we quit calling her Talia? How about we call her Max, after her distant relative Maxine?” Cassie said.
“Fine by me. So how are we going to find Maxine?” I asked.
“We re-evaluate the situation, and we’ll form a plan,” Cassie answered.
“I’m in, but it has to wait,” I offered and rose to my feet. “We were on our way out. It’s time to put Mary’s soul to rest with the others.”
“You’re going to the woods?” Cassie asked.
“She loved it there,” I answered, crossing the room and pulling the satchel out of a drawer. We walked Cassie out, and I locked up.
Within thirty minutes of arriving in the forest and walking around, I found the perfect peaceful spot beneath a strong tree that overlooked the waterfall. “This is it.”
Keaton wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek. “I agree. So how about we send them home.”
I smiled, and we sat down. I opened the satchel and whispered words Mary had made me memorize. My hair flew around my face as a wind came from the pouch and circled around us, brushing up leaves in circles that surrounded us. One by one, the spirits shot up into the sky, disappearing out of sight until Mary’s face was the only one left. She whispered, “Thank you,” before she winked and shot up with the others.
The leaves and debris around us fell to the ground as if a light switch had been turned off, and the forest turned silent again.
A tear slid down my face. It was the end of an era. The end of a long line of witches.
Keaton pulled me into his hold. “Why the tears? She’s at peace.”
My heart clenched as I looked at Keaton. “Her legacy is gone. There’s no one to carry on their traditions.”
His brows dipped. “You’re thinking about your own mortality now, aren’t you?”
It was strange that he knew what I was thinking before I even opened my mouth, but he was right. Who would carry on the Bennett name if my sisters and I were to die tomorrow? None of us had children; there were none to carry on our line.
I rose to my feet, cupped Keaton’s cheeks, and kissed him hard. “I want kids with you.”
He eased me back. “We will have kids.”
“I want to start now,” I said and kissed him again.
And he eased me back again. “We have time, Faith. Let’s do this right. Marriage and then babies.”
“Okay,” I said as a smile lit my face. “Then marry me.”
He chuckled and captured her mouth with his. “You’re serious?”
“You’ve seen us married. We have kids. Marry me. Why wait?”
“Faith.” Keaton cleared his throat, all humor gone from his face. “You’ve only known me a month and a half. Your sisters might think you’ve lost your mind.”
“I love you, Keaton. I love us. Be spontaneous and marry me. We’ll figure out the rest.”
His lips twisted at the edges. “This isn’t how I saw it in my vision.”
My shoulders deflated as Keaton pulled out a box from his pocket and dropped to his knee. “This is how I saw it in my vision. Right here on this very spot. But it wasn’t you asking me to marry you; it was me doing the asking.”
My heart sped up as more tears gathered in my eyes.
“Faith Bennett, I loved you long before I met you. I’ll love you through all of our days. I’ll love you through all of our tomorrows. And I’ll love you in death. I even promise to help haunt your sisters.”
My tear slipped free.
“Marry me and be my partner through eternity.”
“Yes.” The word was a whisper as he slipped the engagement ring onto my finger and rose to his feet. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Cupping my cheeks, he kissed me like a man I knew would keep his promises.
The wind around us lifted again, tossing leaves as if we were in a cocoon. Mary and the others reappeared and twirled around us before shooting up into the air a second time; this time truly gone.
READ MORE BY KATE ALLENTON
ALL BOOKS ARE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
EACH FINISHED SERIES IS IN A BOX SET FOR EASY READING.
Not sure which series you want to start with? Get my Mystic Secrets Starter Box Set for ONLY 99 pennies! Three books that are all the first in their series by Clicking HERE!
Love your romance with a supernatural twist? Check out Skylar
Or maybe you like your Romantic Suspense without the supernatural additive. Then Check out Deception.
GO READ THEM ALL FOR FREE WITH YOUR KINDLE UNLIMITED SUBSCRIPTION!
About the Author
Kate has lived in Florida for most of her entire life. She enjoys a quiet life with her husband, Michael and two kids.
Kate has pulled all-nighters finishing her favorite books and also writing them. She says she'll sleep when she's dead or when her muse stops singing off key.
She loves creating worlds full of suspense, secrets, hunky men, kick ass heroines, steamy sex and the love of a lifetime. Not to mention an occasional ghost and other supernatural talents thrown into the mix.
Sign up for her newsletters HERE
She loves to hear from her readers by email at [email protected], on Twitter @KateAllenton, and on Facebook at facebook.com/kateallenton.1
Visit her website at www.kateallenton.com
Down and Dirty (Bennett Dynasty Book 3) Page 10