Deadly Ties

by Kate Allenton

  “Um…okay.”

  “You’re going to need everything in your arsenal.”

  My brows pulled together, and I frowned. “You want me to bring guns and knives to the station? Is your budget that bad?”

  “Not those kinds of weapons. Whatever it is you use to deal with those ghosts or energy or whatever the hell that stuff is,” he whispered.

  Oh good God. “Is it a demon? Because I draw the line when I see red and horns.”

  “Cree. Get. Down. Here.”

  “Okay,” I said with a cheery voice. “I’ll be there in ten.”

  “Thank—” He never got the last word out. The line went dead.

  I threw the covers off and hurried to my closet.

  “What did he want?”

  “We have to go to the station,” I answered, sliding into a pair of jeans and a new top. I jumped to reach the top shelf and knocked off a box, catching it before it reached the ground.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  I lifted the box and pulled out a velvet bag containing a new bundle of sage I kept to get rid of any unwanted ghost. “Not sure but it sounded like he had a ghost problem he needs my help with.”

  I dropped it on the bed and stopped to kiss West. “Be a sweetie and pour me a cup of coffee to go while I brush my teeth.”

  “Do you want me to go with you? I don’t know how to get rid of ghosts, but I’m a fast learner.”

  I smiled. “Of course I want you to come with me. Someone has to drive while I drink my coffee.”

  ****

  I stood in the lobby of the police station. Papers, entire inboxes, and even a couple broken coffee cups lay on the floor. The officers looked confused and scared. Some had their guns out while others were picking things up and returning them to the desks, only to have them fly off again.

  I saw more than that. Two ghosts were creating that havoc. One was dressed in police uniform and old. He seemed to be enjoying scaring his old coworkers. The other I recognized immediately. Thomas Faraday. “Seriously? I had to get out of bed to deal with you?”

  Everyone in the room turned to look at me. The ghost dropped the items he held, making the cops jump. I tilted my head and pegged them each with my glare. “Get out.”

  “Excuse me?” the chief asked.

  “Not you…them.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “You can see them?”

  I nodded and pulled out my sage and lighter.

  “Uh, luv…how can I help?”

  I shoved my purse against his chest. “Hold my bag. I’ve got this.”

  A younger woman crossed the room. Her black hair and eyeliner hid most of her features. She held out her hand. “Give me some, and I’ll help.”

  “Who’s she?” I asked the chief.

  “Why are you asking him when I’m standing right here?” The prima donna asked, and I ignored her.

  “Veronica Blue,” he answered.

  “Roni” she corrected. “The cousin you never knew you had.”

  “Wait, what?”

  Veronica was dressed in Gothic attire. She was taking the whole psychic persona to a new level. With her baby-smooth face, she looked just barely twenty-one years old, but it was hard to tell beneath the makeup. She didn’t look like a Blue.

  “How are you related?”

  “I’ll explain later. Let’s do this shit.” She grabbed a sage stick from my hand and slipped a lighter out of her pocket, flicking it to life. “I’ll start on the right; you get the left and steer them out the front door.”

  Fifteen minutes later we’d managed to get the one I hadn’t recognized gone. Only one lingered just in the doorframe. Faraday’s brother. This isn’t over. Not until he reads the letter.

  “Your brother moved,” I said, catching the spirit off guard. “Now get out.”

  Moved? he asked, his apparition slowly disappearing and reappearing because of the smoke from the sage drifting through his form.

  “As in gone,” I explained. “And it’s time for you to do the same thing.”

  “You have to find out who killed me. They’ll be coming for my brother next.”

  “What are you talking about? Who?”

  He disappeared from sight, not because he wanted to but because Veronica was behind him using her sage to fill the area.

  “I wasn’t done getting answers,” I scolded Veronica.

  “Sorry.” She smirked.

  Sorry, my ass. I walked into the break room and grabbed a canister of salt and used it at the door entrance. The salt was the equivalent of repairing a bridge with a Band-Aid. It wasn’t as potent as Himalayan or black salt to keep spirits out, but it would do the trick for now.

  “Chief, they’re gone.” I grabbed my bag and started for the door.

  “I guess her work here is done. Chief, it’s always a pleasure.” West said before following behind me.

  “Wait,” he called out. “What about your cousin?”

  “Neither my parents or grandparents had siblings. I don’t know who this girl is, but she isn’t a Blue.”

  “She has an ID, birth certificate to prove her last name, Cree. We checked the credentials. She is a Blue, and she’s only seventeen. If you don’t take her in then, I’ll have to call child services and stick her in foster care.”

  West grabbed my hand and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “How sure are you that she isn’t related?”

  This so wasn’t happening. I clenched my eyes and pursed my lips. “Fine. Show me your proof.”

  Chapter 4

  My new found cousin and I sat facing each other on opposite ends of the dining room table. Neither one of us smiled, neither one of us happy we were stuck in this situation.

  “I’ll only be here until I turn eighteen. Then I’m out of your hair.”

  I crossed my arms and tilted my head. “That picture could have been Photoshopped.”

  She shook her head and pulled the locket from around her neck and slid it across my unscratched table. “Take out the picture and look at the back. There’s an inscription.”

  I opened the locket to find a picture of my Grammy with another lady of similar age. Both smiling, both with the same twinkle in their blue eyes. I took the picture out and turned it over. “Sisters forever.”

  The writing was my Grammy’s. I’d know it anywhere. It was on every one of her old written recipes. There was no denying it. I sat back with a huff. “What happened between them? Do you know?”

  “They both could see and talk to the dead, only your Grammy embraced it and my Grams was embarrassed about it and refused to deal with it. So like any old southern lady growing up back in those times, she pretended it didn’t exist, along with the family she considered an embarrassment.”

  My Grammy appeared in the room both Veronica and I turned to her. “It’s true dear. She is my sister’s granddaughter like you’re mine. Be kind to each other.”

  Just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

  “I told you I wasn’t lying.” Veronica smirked.

  I slowly nodded. That must have hurt my Grammy to be discarded over something she couldn’t control. My heart clenched at the thought. “When did your grandmother die?”

  “Last year,” Roni answered and glanced at West. “So are you like her husband or something?”

  “Yes,” West answered. “Although not officially…yet.”

  “Or something,” I answered.

  “So if she died last year, where have you been all this time?” West asked.

  “Staying wherever there was an empty couch.”

  “What changed?” I asked, unsure what had brought her into my life.

  “I got caught stealing from a grocery store, and I’m a minor. It was either here or foster care.” She shrugged.

  “Fine.” I rose from my seat. “You can stay on one condition. You have to finish school and stay out of trouble.”

  Roni stood and grinned. “I was homeschooled and already graduated.”


  “Great.” Not only was this virtual stranger going to be living under my roof but she was going to be continuously around. “Let me show you to your room.”

  I waited until Roni grabbed her garbage bag full of God knows what and walked out before I grabbed West’s arm. “Tell Freddie to go get some childproof locks for his firearms, and you need to use them too.”

  West kissed my forehead and smiled down at me. “We have an instant family.”

  “Are you coming or what?” the teen hollered out from the stairs.

  “Yeah, only we missed all the fun years and we got stuck with all the attitude. Lucky me.”

  “Consider it practice for when we have our own.” West smacked my butt as he followed me out of the kitchen.

  “Isn’t your country missing you, yet?” I glanced back and grinned.

  ****

  I opened the door to one of the empty rooms and let Roni walk in. The guest room was fully furnished with bed and dresser. It had been my parents’ old room years before. It was peaceful, Zen-like. More like a spa than a place to catch some Z’s and I figured I might need all the help I could get with this girl.

  I walked in behind her and opened the door to the bathroom, checking to make sure it was stocked with towels. “You’ve had a busy day. I’ll let you get settled and go start making lunch.”

  “Sure,” she said while walking around the room, touching everything in sight like a dog searching for the best spot to pee to mark their territory.

  I went to shut the door but paused. “I’ll take you into town to buy you some new clothes or toiletries, whatever you need.”

  She turned to me, meeting my gaze. “I don’t need your charity. I only need a permanent address.”

  “Listen, Roni.” I took a calming breath. “Like it or not, we’re the only family either of us has left, so why don’t you turn down the attitude knob just a smidge? You might decide you like it here.”

  “Not likely.” She fell back on the bed, resting her hands beneath her head.

  I left, shutting the door behind me. I’d even made it down the stairs toward the kitchen before my hands formed a circle, like they were ringing the teen’s dainty little neck. One year. I could put up with it even if our grandmothers hadn’t been able to get along. Less than three hundred sixty-five days….had I even asked when her birthday was?

  West Archer

  Chapter 5

  West pulled into the driveway and through the iron gates of the Lady Blue Plantation and had to swerve and hit the brakes to miss Cree’s Jeep, which was barreling down the driveway.

  “What the hell is Cree doing?” Freddie asked.

  West put the car in reverse and headed back out onto the road. “That wasn’t Cree. That was Veronica, the cousin I was telling you about.”

  “She drives like crap. I’m surprised Cree let her use her Jeep. It’s like her baby.”

  West shoved his foot on the gas, trying to catch up with the teen. “I doubt Cree even knows Roni took it.”

  “Should we call her?” Freddie asked, pulling out his phone.

  “Not yet,” West said, keeping a comfortable distance from Roni. “Let’s see where she’s going. Then we’ll call Cree.”

  They followed behind the Jeep, turning down several roads until the Jeep veered down a dirt road and parked the car in front of an old run-down wooden house next to a beat-up rusty truck parked in the drive.

  West parked behind some trees, giving them a view of Roni as she got out and approached the porch.

  “What is she doing?” Freddie asked.

  The door flew open, and a man stepped out. His shirt and jeans were covered in dirt and damp with sweat. “Well now, who the hell is he?”

  “Maybe she lied. Maybe she isn’t who she claims to be.”

  I glanced at Freddie. “I guess we should go find out.”

  West opened the glove box and pulled out two guns. He tried to hand one to Freddie.

  “I’ve got my own.” Freddie pulled his own 9 millimeter from beneath his jacket and grinned. West guessed the saying was true. You could get out of the gang, but you’d always think like a gangster. “Let’s go kick up some dust.”

  West and Freddie got out of the car. “You’ve been watching too much TV.”

  Freddie shrugged as he lumbered up to the front door. “I’ve had time to kill since Cree ditched her training and has been off gallivanting with you.”

  West paused on the rotting wood of the porch and met Freddie’s gaze. “Cree and I both know how you’ve been spending your time.”

  “Come again?”

  “I’m talking about Charlotte. You guys should probably consider fessing up.”

  Freddie gestured to the wooden door. “Ready?”

  West peered into the grime-covered windows and saw Roni being pinned to the wall by her throat. “Absolutely.”

  He slammed his foot against the door, breaking the hinges, and stepped in with the gun eye level in front of him. “Let her go.”

  The man’s gaze narrowed as he glared at them, and in that split second, Roni had the guy on his knees with his hand twisted at an unnatural angle.

  West and Freddie lowered their guns.

  “What the hell are you two doing here?” Roni asked.

  “Yeah,” the man on his knees said.

  Roni twisted a little harder. Sweat beaded on the man’s brows. His gaze lowered to the floor.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing, Veronica,” West answered.

  “It’s Roni,” she argued.

  “Stealing a vehicle is a crime.”

  “I didn’t steal it. I borrowed it,” she said, shoving the man’s hand away from her. “You’re the ones trespassing on private property.”

  “We heard someone yell help,” Freddie said and nudged my arm. “Isn’t that right, West?”

  “Yeah, and seeing how he was about to strangle you, I think that makes us heroes.”

  She rolled her eyes and tried to storm past West. He stepped in her way. “Who is he?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the guy on the floor rubbing his wrist. “He’s no one.”

  “So it’s like that? You’re dumping me? Is it for one of these guys?”

  She turned to face him. “You’re a douche. You weren’t there for me when I needed you.”

  “I told you the cops were coming. I had to split, or they would have picked me up too.”

  “Whatever.” She spun around and headed out the door. West let her go and watched as Freddie neared and squatted in front of the fallen man.

  “Forget you ever met her,” Freddie said, tilting his head. “She’s one of us, and we protect what’s ours. Are we clear?”

  The man sounded like he was about to clear his throat, but instead, he hocked a loogie right onto Freddie’s expensive Italian shoes.

  Freddie glanced back at West. “You should go wait in the car. This is going to get messy.”

  West crossed the room and pulled Freddie to his feet. “You’re above this, remember?

  Freddie headed to the door and paused, turning around to find West standing on the man’s hand, grinding his foot into the bones.

  “Hey, I thought you said we were above this,” Freddie growled.

  “I said you were. I didn’t say I was.” West leaned down to look at the man. The sweat on his forehead tripled, dropping onto the old wooden floor. “I’m a trained killer, and I know where to hide the bodies. So if you value your life, you’ll forget you met her. Are we clear?”

  “Whatever, man. She was a bad lay anyway.”

  West slammed his fist into the assholes nose. He fell to the floor, knocked out cold. “No one talks about a Blue that way.”

  “Man. You should have let me.” Freddie said and pulled out his gun and fired several rounds into the TV.

  “Are you done?”

  “No.” Freddie said and walked out the door, shooting another bullet into one of the tires. “Now I am.”

  Chapte
r 6

  “I’m so sorry. We aren’t going to be using Insight today. I guess I forgot to call and cancel with so much going on. Faraday moved out of state, and we’ve had a situation crop up. It totally slipped my mind.” I watched as a somewhat relieved expression crossed Doc Stone’s face. There were days I wondered if he dreaded helping me with Insight and seeing the visions in my head on the big screen. Maybe I should consider a warning that those scenes aren’t for the faint of heart.

  “Is everything okay? Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Did you say Faraday moved?”

  I nodded and crossed my arms around my waist. “I’m afraid so.”

  “Oh dear,” he whispered. “I’d hoped to have a chat with him today. Do you know how I might be able to reach him?”

  “Sure. I’ll call him and have you call you. Is everything okay?”

  “No,” he answered. His lips pulled into a frown, and worry etched his brow. “I spoke to the ER doctor that worked on his brother, and I’m concerned.”

  “About?”

  “His brother came out of surgery fine. He was even insistent about someone contacting his brother.”

  “Really?”

  “One hour later, he was dead, and granted, I didn’t do the autopsy, but I think there was foul play in his passing.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “I had a chance to view his records. He had a lethal amount of insulin in his system.”

  “Was he diabetic?”

  “I don’t think so. I couldn’t find anything anywhere to indicate that he was.” Doc Stone shook his head. “I’m sure the police already have an investigation started, but I thought I should tell Faraday what I’ve discovered.”

  “That does sound like foul play.”

  He rested his hand on my arm. “I thought so too, but that isn’t the worst part.”

  “There’s more?”

  “The hospital computers went down the same day he died.”

  “Were they hacked?”