Soul Food Spirits (Southern Ghost Wranglers Book 1)

by Amy Boyles

  “I hope I don’t have to go running anytime soon,” because I didn’t need my boobs flapping in my face.

  I toweled dry and opened the laptop. I’d remembered the password written on the piece of paper. The ink was now gone, washed away by the creek.

  I typed it in. “Come on. Come on.”

  Xavier’s e-mail was easy enough to find. I did a search for Anita and any variations I could think of. After a few seconds—

  “Viola!”

  I’d hit the jackpot.

  There, in bold letters was an e-mail from Anita Tucker telling Xavier what a wonderful time she’d had. Then she word vomited about the Ghost Team. She mentioned me. My heart thundered.

  She causes trouble. Thinks she’s better than everyone else. Oh well, Blissful is about to be gone soon. Just wait until I find the right dirt to sling her way.

  So it had all been planned like Xavier said. From the very moment Anita took the job she had decided to oust me.

  I was about to forward the e-mail to myself when a file blinked at the bottom of the screen. I pulled it up.

  It was another e-mail, but this one had been saved separately. It was from Meredith Wilkes to Xavier.

  My gaze scanned the text, and my jaw slackened.

  A knock came from the door. “Just a minute.”

  I glanced at the handle. Crap. I’d forgotten to push in the lock button. The knob turned, and I found myself staring at Meredith.

  She clutched a knife in her hand.

  “You doing some cooking?” I raised my voice in a pleasant manner, hoping that she was going to use the cutlery to chop something other than me.

  Meredith shook her head. “No, I’m afraid this knife is for you, Blissful. From the look in your eyes, you know my secret. I can’t let you leave here alive.”

  TWENTY-THREE

  Several thoughts raced through my head. I could throw the computer at Meredith, but I hadn’t sent myself the e-mail.

  Dang it. Why hadn’t I done that? Why had I allowed myself to get distracted by a blinking file at the bottom of a screen?

  I guess I was like many women—I enjoyed bright, flashy bling. As much as I hated to admit it, that was true.

  “I don’t understand,” I said coolly.

  “I know you saw his files,” Meredith said. “Come out. I don’t want to get blood on the bathroom floor.”

  I slipped from the room and noticed a plastic sheet had been spread on the floor. “Doing some painting?” I said hopefully.

  “That’s so you don’t make a mess,” she said.

  I tucked the computer under my arm. “Care to explain?”

  Meredith gestured with the knife as she spoke. She reminded me of a blade thrower at a carnival.

  “Xavier was going to back out, see. He discovered I have some, um, financial problems and wasn’t going to back me on the building.” Her voice rose, becoming frantic. “I couldn’t have that. I must buy this building. We argued the night of the shooting. He said he wouldn’t give me any money. He made me so mad, so angry that I waited for y’all to come out. I figured that stupid ghost in the place would scare you sooner or later. She’s horrible.”

  A disgusting gleam glinted in Meredith’s eyes. “When he came out, I killed him. It was easy.”

  “But now you don’t have the money,” I said.

  “Well, as soon as I get into his computer, I’m going to change that. I’ll just wire myself some cash from his bank and I’ll be all set. The only thing standing between me and that laptop is you.”

  And she’d be getting this laptop over my dead body. Meredith was no match for me. I could punch, kick and shoot like a man. It was all that Ghost Team training. We had to be physically fit to keep up with spirits. I was the best on my team.

  I gave her a solid front kick to the chest and sent her pinwheeling back. But Meredith, though she looked fragile, was strong. She only wheeled back a couple of feet.

  But it was enough for me to dash from the apartment down the stairs. The main door was locked. I pulled and yanked, but she must’ve had a key. I turned around. The only other door led into the restaurant.

  I made a break for it, shoving the double doors wide open. Footsteps clambered down the stairs behind me.

  “You can’t run away from me, Blissful. The whole place is locked up.”

  I ran past the dining room and tugged on the door to Meredith’s office. It was unlocked. Sweet!

  I grabbed what I was looking for and headed into the commercial grade kitchen. Darkness enveloped me. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. I reached out and touched what felt like the rim of the fryer. I could just make out the moon’s reflection in the grease.

  An arm wound around my collar. I felt the sharp jab of metal on my neck. “I know all the nooks and crannies in this place. You can’t get away from me.”

  What was Meredith, a cat? How’d she get here so fast?

  “Cut me and I’ll drop the computer in the oil.” Meredith paused. My arm was extended over the fryer. “This isn’t a bluff.”

  “Hand me the laptop and all this will be over. You’ll be messy,” Meredith said, “but I think I can get you cleaned up before folks start coming in.”

  Where was Nancy when I needed her? Seriously. All I wanted was for the big, bad, scary ghost to show up, but she was hiding out.

  “Give me the laptop,” she said tightly, “before I cut your throat.”

  “Make one more move and I’ll drop it.”

  Meredith released her hold. I turned to face her. We were at a standoff. She held the knife out as if to cut me, and I poised the laptop over the fryer.

  “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to get my hands on it,” she said. “Slick was on to me. He took the laptop for safekeeping, reaching Xavier’s house before I did the night of the murder. How lucky that you found it for me. I’ll say you dragged me over to Slick’s, brought me back here and I killed you in self-defense.”

  Come on, Nancy, was all I could think.

  Meredith watched me. The kitchen was dark, but enough moonlight entered the windows that I could make out her features.

  “I don’t have time for this.”

  She lunged for me. I had two choices, drop the computer and fight, or let her cut me.

  This computer could save me. The information on it would bring back my old life.

  You know, sometimes your life wasn’t the reality you thought it was. You thought it was roses, but when you peeled back the petals, the flower was rotten.

  I smirked. “You don’t have your talisman, Meredith. I do.”

  The computer slipped from me and fell with a splash into the fryer. I knocked the knife from Meredith’s hand as she screamed.

  “No!”

  A ghostly figure appeared. Nancy, in full form, loomed in front of Meredith. Meredith glanced up.

  “No! No! Don’t hurt me.”

  Nancy opened her mouth and bellowed. It was glass shattering. I plugged my ears and watched as the ghost wrapped herself around Meredith and squeezed, draining the life from the restaurant owner.

  When the spirit was finished, Meredith slumped to the floor. Nancy turned to me. I raised my hand and showed her the ghost mark.

  The spirit studied it and nodded. “She killed me years ago,” Nancy said. “Stole the restaurant and told everyone I’d just vanished.”

  The large woman’s gaze was sad. My heart tore for her. “I’m sorry.”

  She sniffled. “I’m done. I’m ready to go to the light.”

  I raised my hand and closed my eyes, concentrating on the light. When I opened them, a beam shot down from the ceiling. Nancy gazed into it. Her body slowly slipped away, drifting up into the heavens until she disappeared.

  I stared at Meredith’s body, sad that people had to die at her hands. Her spirit slipped out, glanced back at her body and then looked around frantically.

  “There’s a light for you, too. It’s dark though.”

  A dark hole opened in the floor.
Meredith screamed and fought, but she was dragged toward it by unseen forces.

  “Hmm,” I said. “I always wondered if that was true. I guess it is.”

  “No! No! Nooooooo!”

  Her head slipped out sight as the back door burst open. Sheriff Kency Blount barged in, shining a light.

  “Don’t move. Police!”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  I sat on the front steps of the bed-and-breakfast, sipping a warm cup of coffee.

  Roan sat beside me. “You okay?”

  I nodded. “I’m fine.”

  “You’ve had a helluva of night.”

  I shot him a tired look. “If it hadn’t been for you, it would’ve been a lot worse.”

  Roan sipped from his own mug. He gazed out into the autumn morning. “It was lucky I had been out walking.”

  I nudged his knee. “Yeah, I guess your stalking paid off.”

  He grinned. “Seems like.”

  Apparently Roan had been the one walking by Slick’s house the night before. He’d heard a commotion and shone his flashlight through the window. It hadn’t been the cops. At the same time, Kency Blount and her team had matched a set of fingerprints from Xavier’s body to Meredith. When they started digging, they realized the previous owner of Soul Food and Spirits had disappeared, never to be found.

  Kency put two and two together and, well, came up with four. Four being that Meredith killed Nancy and Xavier.

  I handed Roan the coffee and rose, stretching my arms over my head.

  “Where are you off to?”

  I glanced around the sleepy hamlet. “Oh, I don’t know.”

  That was true. I didn’t. I didn’t have Lucky; I didn’t have an e-mail to prove Anita had always planned on kicking me off the team. I was pretty much lost.

  I had the house I’d inherited from my father, but there was a lot of figuring out I had to do. Who was my dad? Was what Lucky Strike told me true? So much to think about.

  I glanced down at Roan. “You know, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

  He rose. “Well, if you decide to stay around here, maybe we could spend some time together.”

  “Doing what? Kneading bread?”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of baking cookies.”

  I barked a laugh. “Sounds awesome.”

  He pointed down the road. “There’s a house for rent up the street. Word is that it’s haunted.”

  I nodded. “Maybe.”

  “But seriously, this is a great town, though it is rather podunk.” He nudged me with his elbow.

  A trail of fire snaked up my arm. “It’s not that podunk.”

  We were standing close. So close. His gravitational pull sucked me in. “But seriously, if you stayed, I’d like to take you out.”

  “See if our sarcasm works in the real world?”

  “Actually see if you’re less sarcastic when your heart thaws.”

  “Ouch. My heart never thaws.”

  He laughed.

  “But honestly, you think I can be less sarcastic? I don’t think I’d know who to be.”

  A spark filled his dark eyes. “I’m sure you’d figure it out. Over dinner.”

  I swallowed. We were so close. He was so right, and for the first time in my life I felt like someone was staring into my soul and taking notes. The right notes. Never in my life had I met a man who challenged me like Roan. Granted, I hadn’t known him that long, but the thought of spending time with him excited me.

  Yep. I was in trouble.

  “You could stay, you know.” Susan popped up beside Roan. “We like having you in town. After all, you got rid of that nasty Nancy.”

  Hmm. Well, she wasn’t so nasty after all. She had her reasons.

  A Caprice Classic screeched to a stop in front of the bed-and-breakfast. A large magnet had been affixed to the door.

  SOUTHERN GHOST WRANGLERS

  The window hummed down, and Ruth craned her neck out. “Blissful, we’ve got a job to do the next town over. Supposedly a house is seriously haunted. We need your help.”

  I heard Roan muffle a laugh behind me.

  “Did you change the name of your company?” I said.

  Alice stepped out of the driver’s side. “Yep. We decided that since Xavier’s gone, we could piggyback on the name. We added the Southern, though, for good measure.”

  “I see.”

  Ruth palmed the door. “Listen, are you with us? You coming? We need to get going. The house is full of activity.”

  I thought about all the things pulling me in my life. There were several different directions I could go, but the one that made the most sense right now was staring me in the face.

  I shouldered my purse and flashed Roan a quick, “Goodbye.”

  “So you think you’ll be staying?” he said.

  I smiled. “It looks like. And dinner sometime?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I can do that.” I strode toward the Caprice. When I got inside, Alice spoke.

  “Fasten your seat belt, Blissful. From the sound of it, we’re going to be in for one heck of a fight.”

  I smiled. That sounded like fun.

  What I wanted was fun.

  Ruth gazed back at me. “You got the lasso?”

  I pulled it from my purse. “Come on. Let’s go wrangle some ghosts.”

  THANK Y’ALL!

  Blissful’s adventures continue in Honeysuckle Haunting, the next book in the Southern Ghost Wranglers Series.

  Click HERE to order HONEYSUCKLE HAUNTING.

  I love to hear from you! Please feel free to drop me a line anytime. You can email me amy@amyboylesauthor.com.

  Also by Amy Boyles

  SWEET TEA WICH MYSTERIES

  SOUTHERN MAGIC

  SOUTHERN SPELLS

  SOUTHERN MYTHS

  SOUTHERN SORCERY

  SOUTHERN CURSES

  SOUTHERN KARMA

  * * *

  SOUTHERN GHOST WRANGLERS

  SOUL FOOD SPIRITS

  HONEYSUCKLE HAUNTING

  * * *

  BLESS YOUR WITCH SERIES

  SCARED WITCHLESS

  KISS MY WITCH

  QUEEN WITCH

  QUIT YOUR WITCHIN'

  FOR WITCH'S SAKE

  DON'T GIVE A WITCH

  WITCH MY GRITS

  FRIED GREEN WITCH

  SOUTHERN WITCHING

  Y’ALL WITCHES

  HOLD YOUR WITCHES

  * * *

  SOUTHERN SINGLE MOM PARANORMAL MYSTERIES

  The Witch’s Handbook to Hunting Vampires

  The Witch’s Handbook to Catching Werewolves

  The Witch’s Handbook to Trapping Demons

  About the Author

  Amy Boyles grew up reading Judy Blume and Christopher Pike. Somehow, the combination of coming of age books and teenage murder mysteries made her want to be a writer. After graduating college at DePauw University, she spent some time living in Chicago, Louisville, and New York before settling back in the South. Now, she spends her time chasing two preschoolers while trying to stir up trouble in Silver Springs, Alabama, the fictional town where Dylan Apel and her sisters are trying to master witchcraft, tame their crazy relatives, and juggle their love lives. She loves to hear from readers! You can email her at amy@amyboylesauthor.com.