by Harte, Marie
“Mama shoved me in that closet for days, listening to me say I was sorry. Her belt hurt, but the knife became my friend.” He absently stroked the scars on his chest through his shirt. “She taught me good, Cecilia. She did. Just the way I’ll teach you, you filthy whore,” he whispered, desperate to show her how much he loved her. His mother had loved him somethin’ fierce until the day she’d died. The day he’d shoved her off the roof and watched her neck snap like a twig when it hit the hard earth below. She’d danced in the fires of hell, like Cecilia would once again.
Finn couldn’t have her. Not this time. No sir. He’d have to die again. And maybe Michael would find out just who that pretty newcomer was. She’d thought no one had paid much attention to her at the cantina. But he knew everything that happened in this shitty little town. Time to investigate. And to have some fun.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a familiar number. “Hey, Shelly, honey. Let’s get together tonight. I’ve been missing you.” His hand tightened around the switchblade in his pocket. “A lot.”
* * *
Chloe couldn’t have said why, but when a shiver crept over her spine, she felt as if someone had walked right over her grave. Shee-it. No wonder Noah had wanted backup. The bad vibes in this town were enough to send her packing like yesterday. The plane trip from hell, followed by a beer can on wheels, then that crappy little motel Noah had so “thoughtfully” booked for her, added up to a major downer of a vacation.
She’d been jealous when Keegan and James left a few months ago to do a PWP job that Jack insisted wasn’t PWP. Keegan had been bitching about working at the gym since day one, so it made sense to send him. Plus, she knew Keegan irritated Jack more than anyone else at the gym did. James tagged along to keep Keegan out of trouble. Too bad it hadn’t worked.
She snorted with laughter, remembering how annoyed Jack had been when the guys returned not only with the locket they’d been sent to retrieve, but with some woman who claimed the locket belonged to her. Apparently their client had settled things with Rory, and now she and the guys had some happy little threesome going on. That kinky, crazy Keegan.
Chloe grinned, thinking she wouldn’t mind being Rory in a James-Keegan sandwich. Oddly enough, all the guys from the PWP were hot. Handsome or intriguing and now totally buff, muscular because they had to exercise—physically and mentally—to keep the psychic demons away.
She strolled near another art store and decided to go in. As she perused the pottery and glass sculptures, she wondered about Lara Graham, Noah’s lady friend. The woman was tall, pretty, and intense, just like Noah. No wonder they fit. She didn’t need voices to tell her what her intuition clearly noted.
To be honest, she was glad Noah had found someone to bring him back to life. Unlike the rest of them, he didn’t get crazy from lack of psychic or physical stimuli. Instead he retreated into the past. She’d be talking to him at the gym, and his eyes would lose focus. He’d just drift away, and she worried one day he might not come back. That’s why she’d ratted him out to Jack. Not that she’d needed to. Their enigmatic boss saw everything. But she was in charge of the night shift, and she didn’t like the way Noah had been ghosting through life lately.
No longer a problem, she thought as she remembered what the voices had told her. Noah and that chick had a future together. But depending upon what Chloe did here, that future might be no more than a few days at best. Time to figure out who was who and what was what before it was too late.
So thinking, she smiled at the shopkeeper and edged her way out of the store. Then she followed the voices to a charming little apartment. The name on the mailbox said Frank Hanover. She climbed the outer staircase to a second-floor landing and knocked.
A handsome man opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw her. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She should have been more surprised, but she wasn’t. She sighed, and to the voices in her mind, sent the thought, “Sometimes I wonder if you’re trying to make me crazy.” As usual, she got no response. She faced the man calling himself Frank. “Trust me. If I’d known you were on the other side of this door, I would have run the other way.” She pushed her way past him, not surprised to see that after he shut the door, locked it, and turned back to her, he had a gun in his hand. “So when did you get paroled?”
* * *
Noah lay back on the bed with Lara, wondering where to go from here. “Chloe is going to scout out the town and see what she can pick up. You know, since you and she have a similar vibe going on, you might learn some things about your abilities from her I can’t help you with.”
It didn’t surprise him when she tugged her hair out from under his arm and scooted away. Lara didn’t like to talk about being psychic. He could relate.
She sat on the edge of the bed, looking so damn beautiful he couldn’t look away. That long dark hair, those soulful eyes, that soft mouth that would curl into a smile with the slightest provocation… Sexually sated, his mind didn’t jump to carnal analogies as swiftly as it had before, but he couldn’t help remembering just how good her lips had felt, snug around his cock.
“Good Lord, Noah. Does that thing ever go down?”
He cleared his throat and tried to act like he had a shred of discipline in his body. “Just ignore it.”
“I’m trying to.” But she didn’t look away from his erection, now encased in jeans. “Oh man, you’re smiling again. When you do that, I just want to give you whatever you want so you don’t stop.”
He chuckled. “Good to know.” He sobered as he decided how to say what needed to be said. “As much as I would like to shut the world out, we have some serious problems to deal with.”
“I know.” She sighed and leaned down to kiss him. So tactile, his woman.
His woman.
She cleared her throat and glanced from his face to his crotch again.
His cheeks heated. “It’s not my fault. It’s you. Before I came here, I used to get lost in history and the past. Now I’m lost in you,” he grumbled.
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me yet.” Lara grinned. “Now finish telling me all the bad stuff so we can go get something to eat. I barely touched my sandwich with Bill because I was worried about you. I’m starving.”
Male satisfaction threatened his attempt at staying on track. “Okay, then. This is what we know. Someone killed to steal the painting. They brought it here and killed again, but this time it’s less about a theft and more about connecting the victim to the subject of the painting—who looks like you.”
“Good summation. Now what?”
“I spent the day waiting for Chloe to show up. While waiting, I did some digging into the town’s history. Did you know that Mike Buckman and Bill Knowles are cousins?”
“Really?” Bill had never mentioned that. Nor had Mike, but then, she and Mike rarely conversed. He leered; she avoided.
“Yeah. Did you also know their mothers died in a fire some twenty years ago?”
“That’s horrible.”
“And I think one of them is the killer.”
“What?”
“I told you before, I see the past. Snippets of it. But I’m much better now at directing my focus than I used to be. I saw the art dealer who owned the painting die. I also saw the painting disappear from his gallery. In both instances, there was a greasy energy, a darkness to the person committing the crimes. I felt it here too. In my room.”
“What? When?”
He told her about the earrings he’d found earlier that morning. “The energy in the room was the same. Our guy is here in town. He knows I’m here, and he doesn’t like me with you.”
“I don’t like this, Noah. Maybe you should leave town.”
Her concern surprised him. When was the last time anyone had worried about him? His mother never had. Deirdre didn’t even merit a thought. Kitty, maybe, or Chloe. But they hadn’t connected to him like Lara did. “If I’m leaving, you’re coming with me.”
<
br /> She didn’t look happy about it. “But my job is here.”
“Are you that attached to it that it might mean your life?”
Lara sighed. “No. In fact, even before you got here, I’ve been questioning whether or not I’ve done the right thing by coming here.”
“Why did you?”
“Because I needed to prove myself. I’m not that freak the neighborhood kids teased me about being. I had to work for twelve years to put that behind me and move on. To show my folks I’m not a nutcase, that I can and will amount to something, I moved far away to live on my own.”
“Why do you need to prove anything to anyone?” But he knew. Hadn’t he done the same until he’d found the PWP? “You’re smart, Lara. I just met you, and I know that.”
She stroked his jaw. “Thanks, but you have to admit, we know each other better than makes sense. I feel like I’ve always known you. And that freaks me out.”
He tensed. “Yeah?”
“For years, I’ve struggled to not hear the voices. I put them out of my life. Then I moved here because I was guided. I have no other explanation for it. I’m not from here. I went to college in Charleston, for God’s sake. Across the country. But something drew me here, and I’m afraid it’s Cecilia.” She took a deep breath, then explained, “In some way, I’m Cecilia, Noah. And I think you’re Finnegan Fury, her one true love.”
Chapter Eight
Noah balked, but Lara doggedly continued. “Just hear me out. I feel like her; I look like her. That dream I had before, when we were in my office? It wasn’t just a scene for me. Not like I was watching her and you.”
“Finn,” he corrected.
“I was her with Finn.” She paused. “With you.”
He sat up, clad in jeans and nothing else. So virile, so handsome, and she loved him because he was the ghost of the man she used to love? Lara believed it to be true. It made a heck of a lot more sense than that she’d fallen for a man she knew little about. How she could trust him so implicitly, let him do things to her she’d never even tried, let alone done?
“So you’re telling me you don’t want me; it’s Cecilia wanting Finn, that it?”
He sounded less than pleased, and she half wished she hadn’t opened her mouth. She liked the smiling, happy Noah much better. Yet, like this, she could see the predator that called out to Cecilia. And to you too, her conscious tried to get her to admit.
“No, not exactly.” She frowned. “I’m trying to be honest with you, Noah. I’ve dealt with disbelief my whole life. I would have thought you, of all people, would understand this.” Angry, she also felt on the verge of tears and didn’t know why.
All of a sudden, Noah sat by her side and took her into his lap. He hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, baby, okay? Lara, I grew up a lot like you did. Except my father took off when I was two, and my mother hated me. She never believed me, had me committed more times than I can count, and finally just sent me to live with relatives, who at least tried to raise me right. My uncle had similar abilities, so I found a haven of sorts. But by then I was eighteen, and the damage had been done.
“So don’t think I don’t believe you, because I do. But only to an extent.” He tightened his arms when she would have spoken. He’d apparently said all he planned to say about his past. “There’s an obvious connection with Cecilia. But remember, I heard her too. Not just once, but a few times. Lara, I hear and see the past. No way I should have been able to hear Cecilia speaking directly to me. I know enough about history to know when I’m reliving it. I don’t know about you and Cecilia, but I can sure as hell tell you I’m not Finnegan Fury.”
She pulled back to look up at him, relieved to see the hint of a smile on his face.
“Not that I wouldn’t mind the comparison,” he continued. “From what I’ve gathered and seen from this town, he was a man to have by your side in a fight. I highly doubt he killed his lover, his only friend.”
“I don’t think so either.”
“Honey, I’m not possessed or a reincarnation. And before you get all offended, I’m not saying that because I don’t believe in the hereafter. Trust me. I’ve seen things that would make your hair stand on end. The impossible is not as impossible as you might think.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She blinked and felt a tear trail down her face. He wiped it away with his thumb and stroked her lips. “No one has ever listened to me, really listened. I know you don’t agree with me, but thanks for at least hearing me out.” Finn or not, Noah meant something to her. Not to Cecilia, to Lara. “You have a point about hearing Cecilia. But she and I are tied in some way. Wouldn’t that make sense if we’re the same person? I mean, I was drawn to this place.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But the past has an energy. All living things do. Maybe her energy called out to a powerful psychic, and you answered. Maybe her blood does run in your veins, and that’s why you, of all people, heard her so clearly.”
“I just know that right now, this is where I belong.” And I wish you belonged here too. Maybe that was why she wanted him to be Finn. That way, when his case ended, he wouldn’t leave her.
“Well, it’s where I belong right now too.” He stood and crossed to find his shirt on the floor. “We’re going to go back to the inn and pretend everything is nice and normal. But you go nowhere without me. I’m your new best friend. We’re lovers, friends, whatever you want to tell people we are so they’ll buy me staying by your side until this is over. Because we have a killer to catch.”
“You’re sure it’s Bill or Mike?”
“Almost positive.”
“But you’ve met them. You couldn’t track their energy or something?”
He shook his head and put on his shoes. “I felt the bad energy in scenes of the past, but I never looked at either of their energy signatures in the present. Even if I had, it wouldn’t necessarily have given me the same read. I’ve dealt with this before. If the killer isn’t in the same furious state of mind as he was when he killed, his energy will look different to me.”
“So even if you try to look at Bill’s or Mike’s past history, you won’t know which one of them is the killer?” Disappointment warred with joy. If he identified the murderer, they’d all be safe, but then he’d leave. If he didn’t spot him, they’d be in danger, but Noah had promised to stick to her like glue. Which meant he’d be sticking around.
“Exactly. I need to find our guy when he has death on the brain, which is not a good scenario for anyone.” Noah straightened and groaned. “I hope to God Jack was right to send Chloe to help us. I can’t be with you and her twenty-four seven. If she sticks her nose in this thing, she’ll attract our killer’s attention.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I have a feeling he gets off on being in charge of things. And Chloe has this habit of stepping into trouble and stirring up a shit storm like you wouldn’t believe. If anyone can get our guy mad, it’s her.”
They returned to the inn to find everything quiet. Thankfully, no one had seen Lara wearing his coat to cover her torn shirt and wrinkled jeans. After moving the rest of his things into Lara’s room, he settled into bed with her. Noah held her for a good hour before he fell asleep. He didn’t remember his dreams, but he felt uneasy the next morning.
He woke with her at six, showered and dressed and met her at the door. “You’re fast.”
She smiled. “You get used to early mornings around here. Well, my shadow, I think we’ll introduce you as the new help. I could use a strong man around here.”
He slapped her ass. “Damn skippy.”
Quietly laughing together, they moved into the kitchen. Noah helped Lara prepare breakfast for over a dozen guests, to include him, God bless her. As she fixed coffee, muffins, eggs, and more, he heard someone moving out front.
“That would be Frank readying the buffet.” The swinging door burst open, and Frank breezed through. “Morning, Frank.”
Frank’s hair looked mussed. He had dark circle
s under his eyes and wore a wrinkled shirt and jeans with tennis shoes. Not his usual dress, from what Noah had seen of him. He bit out a terse good morning to Lara, grabbed a mug, and poured himself some coffee from one of the carafes, and scowled at Noah until he and his coffee left through the same swinging door.
Lara stared. “Wonder what crawled up his butt and died?”
“That would be me,” Chloe said as she pushed past the door.
Noah groaned. “Lara Graham, meet Chloe King, my manager at the PowerUp! gym.”
“Wow. You really take your responsibility as his employer seriously. Following him all the way out to Brownville.” Lara grinned.
“What can you do? Good help is hard to find.”
