“Don’t look so obvious,” Tray whispered. “Lisa would tell you to make him work for it. Shame she’s still in the hospital. She would miss seeing you all moon-eyed.”
Alana rolled her eyes. “Lisa would lecture me on the perils of having sex with the boss, and I’m not obvious or moon-eyed, thank you.”
“Please,” Tray teased. “You’re blazingly obvious.”
She bit down on her lower lip, embarrassed. Was she really that obvious? “Really?”
“Don’t worry, doll. You’re no more obvious than he is.”
Alana snorted. “I swear I don’t know whether to smack you or thank you.”
“Why, thank me, of course,” Tray replied sweetly.
She couldn’t help but grin. Tray was a good friend and would never steer her wrong, even if he was steering her into Aiden’s bed. But of course, she wasn’t arguing. Tray watched Aiden as well over her shoulder.
“Did you get a look at his hands?” he whispered wickedly in her ear. “He’s a good eight inches at least, or I’m a—”
Alana smacked his chest with the back of her hand as Aiden got within earshot. “Stop that,” she hissed. “You’re early,” she added in a louder voice to Aiden.
Aiden’s lips widened into an adorable, roguish grin. “I’m dying to get in that house again. I think you’re beginning to rub off on me.”
Alana giggled as a warm, tingling current of heat traveled along her flesh and settled in the lower region of her stomach. His gaze locked with hers, holding her frozen like a stone just inches from the heat radiating off his body.
She couldn’t seem to move or breathe this close to him. She waited, watching breathlessly as his gaze dropped to her lips. The pounding of her heart echoed in her ears so loudly, she wondered if he could hear it as well.
What was wrong with her? She’d never in her life had this kind of reaction to a guy, especially one she barely knew. Well, she wasn’t sure she would say barely. She had been talking to him through e-mail and on the phone lately, so she knew he had a fun and playful personality.
Her knees went just a little weak as she imagined what he might look like without that shirt. She licked her lips and didn’t miss the way his eyes darkened as they followed her tongue’s motion along her bottom lip.
Tray’s palm landed between her shoulder blades and pushed. The shove caught her off guard, and she fell straight into Aiden’s chest with a grunt of surprise. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to keep her from falling farther and making more of a fool of herself than she already had.
“Tray,” she chastised. The heat of a blush moved over her cheeks as she raised her face to look at Aiden. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured.
Aiden’s lips twitched as he stared down at her with eyes full of lust. The fact that lust was directed at her made her gasp in shock and anticipation.
“I’m not,” he whispered so softly she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly.
Ohmygod! What the hell do I say? Think…think.
“Alana?” Her producer’s voice calling from a few feet away on the front porch of the house broke the spell. “Where do you want to start? First floor or third?”
With a sigh, Alana put some much-needed distance between herself and Aiden before turning to face her producer, Jim. “We’re starting on the third tonight. Let’s steer clear of the second floor for now.”
Jim nodded and turned to head back into the house.
“Organized chaos,” she grumbled, giving Aiden a half smile.
“You handle it well.”
Her lips twisted with fatigue and frustration. “It’s all show. Lisa usually handles a lot of this stuff. Where we’ll start, how long to spend on each floor. I tell people what equipment to use and who goes with who.” Aiden’s intense gaze almost made her forget what she had been talking about. She took a quick breath and continued. “Some investigators work better with others.”
Aiden nodded in understanding. “Is there anything I can do?”
Alana had to bite her lip to keep from speaking aloud what went through her mind with that question. Hell, yeah, there was stuff he could do. Lots of stuff. Lots of hot, sexy, dominant-guy stuff. God, she had to be losing it.
Think of Lisa. Think of your friend in the hospital, attacked by someone in this house. Think of work and the ghosts Tray was convinced occupied those walls. Think of anything other than Aiden.
“Alana?”
He raised an eyebrow in amusement, and she cleared her throat, embarrassed she’d been caught daydreaming. “Um, sure. I would love to have your help. You can go with Tray and me. This place is so big, we can send more than one team in at a time.”
She reached into the truck and pulled out a small digital camera, which she handed to Aiden. As he took it, his fingers brushed over hers. Whenever he touched her, every inch of her skin warmed instantly, and she no longer noticed the cool temperature of the night breeze.
Pulling her hand away, she glanced up at the starless night sky in an effort to calm her racing heart and screaming libido. She couldn’t ever remember wanting a guy this badly. Getting a handle on her hormones had to be a priority; otherwise she could easily see herself shoving him into a closet somewhere, ripping his clothes off, and climbing him like a tree.
Chapter Four
Aiden walked behind Alana, unable to keep his thoughts on what they were doing. All he could think about was grabbing handfuls of Alana’s ass, which he could see perfectly from his position about four feet behind her. Wow, she looked good in those jeans.
He moved his gaze up along her back, watching the camera lights play off her hair. She’d straightened it, but as the night air became damper, her curls began to slowly creep back in.
“Where do you think we should start?”
Aiden blinked as he realized Tray was talking to him. He moved his gaze from Alana, forcing himself to stay focused. “When I was a kid, I remember Gram talking about the library being pretty active. It’s down the hall and to the left at the back of the house.”
Tray nodded and headed through the entrance and around the back of the main staircase. Alana followed second, then Aiden. Two cameramen followed behind him.
“Let’s turn the camera lights off, guys,” Alana said without turning around.
Instantly the camera lights went out, leaving the hall in total darkness. Tray and Alana turned on flashlights to make their way to the library.
“Do you normally do this in the dark?” Aiden asked. He kept his gaze on his small digital camera, which displayed an infrared image on the small screen, allowing him to see way ahead of him.
“Usually,” Alana replied, still keeping her stare straight ahead. “We’ve done it both ways, but so far everything we’ve ever caught was caught in the dark.”
“Interesting,” Aiden murmured as his mind strayed to other things he could do in the dark with the delectable Alana. God, when had he turned into such a horny-ass teenager? “My brother, Noah, said he saw a woman in the house earlier today when he was looking for the passage entrance on the second floor. But she disappeared on him.”
Both Tray and Alana came to an abrupt halt, causing him to almost run into Alana. He jerked to a stop and looked up to see two people staring at him as though he’d suddenly grown two heads.
“What?” he asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Tray demanded. “Where did he see her?”
“Come on, guys,” Aiden replied with amusement. “He’s positive the girl was real. She looked real, solid, just like us—”
“They can look just like us,” Tray argued.
“Tray,” Alana said as she frowned at something in Tray’s hand. “The EMF gauge is spiking.”
Aiden looked as well and noticed the row of lights blinking frantically, indicating a high electromagnetic field was close by. Tray lifted it to read the numbers flashing on the screen just below the lights.
“Whoa,” Tray breathed, his voice full of
barely contained excitement.
Tray and Alana began to look around the hall. “What’s causing it?” Alana asked softly. “I don’t see anything that would make it spike like that.”
“Power lines in the walls maybe?” Tray asked as he pointed the device toward the wall. As he did, the numbers went down, and the lights dimmed. He pointed it back down the hall, and the numbers went back up.
“Is there a mechanical room or something close by?” Tray asked.
The hairs on the back of Aiden’s neck stood on end, and he reached up to rub them. “This house is too old for a mechanical room.”
“It’s big enough to need one,” Alana replied. “The wiring in this house has to be several decades old. Old wiring would spike like that.”
“But it goes down when you point it at the wall,” Tray reasoned.
Alana waved her hand, indicating they should continue. “Well, let’s see if we can figure out where it’s coming from.”
“The temperature’s dropping,” one of the cameramen said from behind him.
Aiden frowned as a cold breeze blew past them from behind, as though someone had sped past very quickly.
“Did you feel that?” Tray asked as he placed his hand out, palm down, trying to follow the temperature fluctuations.
Alana swung her flashlight toward the far end of the hall. The dim light illuminated a woman, and Aiden’s heart almost stopped.
“What the hell?” he whispered.
“Are you guys getting this?” Tray whispered.
“She’s not coming in on the camera,” one of the cameramen replied.
Aiden quickly lifted the small infrared one and pointed it at the end of the hall. A light, outlined image appeared, but nothing more. His gaze moved back to the woman, who stood silent, watching them with trepidation. Was this the woman his brother had seen? He gazed back at the camera and the floating, smoky image on the screen.
“She’s on this one but as smoke, not a clear image,” Aiden said in awe. He’d never seen anything like this.
“Holy shit,” Tray said with a giggle.
“Did you bring any audio?” Alana asked as she glanced sideways at Tray.
Tray held up a small digital recorder in response.
“Who are you?” Alana asked as she turned back to the woman. “What are you doing here?”
The woman looked around as though frightened, but she didn’t speak. “Did something happen to you?” Alana asked, then added, “Do you need our help?”
The girl’s haunted gaze met Alana’s, and Aiden’s chest tightened. God, she looked so damn familiar, but there was also a darkness in her eyes.
“Something terrible has happened to her,” Aiden murmured, and Alana quickly glanced at him over her shoulder before turning back to the woman.
A loud bang sounded from somewhere on the far side of the house, making everyone jump. Even the young woman appeared startled before disappearing right before their eyes.
“No! Wait!” Alana pleaded.
Tray held up the now dark EMF gage and sighed. “She’s gone.” He swung his flashlight around and pointed the light at Alana’s face. She frowned and tilted her head to the side, moving the light to her cheek instead of her forehead. “So, Miss Skeptical,” Tray began. “You got a logical explanation for that one?”
Alana’s lips twisted. “Give me a second.”
“Oh, come on,” Tray argued.
“I’m not saying that it wasn’t paranormal,” she said in frustration. “But—”
“Oh, give me a break with the buts.”
“Is this normal?” Aiden asked the cameraman standing behind him.
He chuckled. “The ghosts, or those two arguing?”
“Both, I guess.”
“We don’t normally see ghosts quite like that, but those two arguing… That’s normal.”
* * *
Alana paced behind the truck while Tray played with the settings on the computer. He wore headphones as he fast-forwarded and rewound his way through the audio. If there was anything there, Tray would find it. The two cameramen and Aiden waited as well, all three of them anxious and talking in excited whispers in the corner.
“Found it,” Tray announced, and everyone rushed forward at once to listen. Tray used the mouse to begin the recording from the audio device. Alana could hear her own voice ask, “Who are you?”
“He’s here,” a soft voice replied, and Alana got chills up her spine.
“What are you doing here?” Alana asked.
“Must help. Dangerous.” The voice was low and garbled, making it hard to understand. Alana had to rewind it twice to make it out.
“Did something happen to you?” Alana asked, then added, “Do you need our help?”
The loud bang came through the speakers, and Alana sighed, knowing that’s when the girl had disappeared.
“Damn,” Tray exclaimed excitedly. “That’s some of the best damn EVP we’ve ever gotten.”
“What do you suppose she meant by ‘must help, dangerous’?” Aiden asked.
“I don’t know,” Alana said with a shrug, frowning. “But I think I’m more curious as to what she meant by ‘he’s here.’”
“She could be referring to who or what attacked Lisa,” Tray offered.
Her lips twisted. “Possibly, but I’m still not ruling out residual or even something man-made.”
“Look, Velma,” Tray sneered.
“Velma? Who does that make you? Shaggy?”
“Oh, ha-ha.”
“Are you sure the two of you aren’t married or something?” Aiden teased as he watched them. “I mean, I’m certainly no expert, but that definitely looked ghostly to me.”
“Thank you,” Tray sang as he waved his hand. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Alana rolled her eyes and chuckled. “All right, Aiden. What’s your impression of the ghost?”
Aiden shrugged. “My gut tells me something bad happened to her.”
“Okay, we could go with that. Trapped ghost, wounded, tortured girl. Most of the time that’s a residual haunt.” Alana said. “Residual haunts are almost impossible to get rid of but easy to prove with evidence.”
“So what do we do?” Aiden asked.
“We start with the girl,” Alana replied. “Usually by investigating the history behind the house.”
Alana studied Aiden, and he gave her a leery half smile. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“You grew up in this house.”
“Sort of,” he replied. “But I don’t remember ever seeing that girl. Dead or alive.”
“She could be way older than you. Didn’t you say this house was over a hundred years old?” Tray asked.
Aiden nodded once. “So why didn’t we see her as kids?”
Alana twisted her lips and shrugged her shoulders, pretty much dismissing the question. “That’s not unusual. Sometimes things happen in the present that stirs this stuff up.”
“Like the attack on Lisa?” Aiden asked.
She pointed at him. “Exactly.”
“Interesting,” Aiden murmured.
Aiden’s cell phone rang, startling him. He pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen even though he didn’t really need to. He knew it was Noah on the other end.
“Sorry, guys, I need to take this. Don’t go in the house without me. Yeah,” he said as he jumped from the truck, flipping his phone open.
“Things going okay over there?” Noah asked.
Aiden glanced around the yard and the various people milling about and loading things into cars. “Well, depends on what you mean by okay.”
“Aiden,” Noah drawled tiredly.
“No more attacks, but we definitely saw something interesting.”
“Like what?” Aiden could hear the trepidation in his brother’s voice.
“That woman you saw.”
Noah was silent for a second, then: “She’s still there?”
“I think she’s always he
re.”
“Aiden…” Noah began.
“Brother, trust me on this. This woman is no normal woman.” Aiden’s lips twitched. “Do you remember, years ago, Gram telling us about the ghost of a woman who helped them find Laura’s husband’s will?”
“Yeah, I remember, but that woman wasn’t a woman, but a teenager. Gram always thought she was one of the slaves who’d died in the house.”
“That’s right,” Aiden said with a sigh. “This woman can’t be her, then. Her clothes were too modern. We could see her, Noah, just a few feet in front of us, but she didn’t show up on any of the regular cameras. Only the infrared.”
“Have you been drinking?” Noah asked, and Aiden rolled his eyes.
“You know damn good and well I haven’t been drinking. If I had, you’d be drunk too. I’m dead serious about this.”
“I know you are. That’s what concerns me.”
“You need to get out here. See all this for yourself. There’s also something else.”
Noah sighed. “What?”
“She’s trying to warn us about something or someone, but we can’t figure it out.”
“And you think I would be any better at it?”
Aiden grinned. “You are the cop. Besides, I think you should meet Alana.”
Noah snorted. “You know, I can’t seem to stop thinking about her, and I haven’t even met her yet.”
“You can’t because I can’t.”
“I don’t know that I like where this is going. We’ve fallen for the same woman only once, and that didn’t go over very well, Aiden.”
He glanced toward the sky and held his breath. The one time they fell for the same girl was a disaster. She couldn’t handle both of them, so from then on out, if they became serious about a girl—which was almost never—they tried to keep some distance. Unfortunately, keeping some distance felt wrong.
Jeez, he and Noah were so fucking screwed up because of this connection they had. Sometimes being a twin sucked.
His gaze landed on Alana as she carried a small camera to Tray’s car. She handed it to Tray, then, as though she felt him staring at her, turned to meet his gaze before heading back to the two cameramen waiting at the truck.
Darkness Falls Page 4
