by B. J Daniels
Chapter Eight
The next morning Marshall drove to the Chisholm Cattle Company main ranch house. He was worried about his folks since hearing the news. He still couldn’t believe that Aggie Wells had escaped. He was also feeling a little guilty about the amount of time he’d been taking off to work on his house—and most recently, to spend with Alexa.
Last night after Alexa had left, he’d gotten back on the computer and called up a list of psychics. It hadn’t taken long to find Tallulah Cross. Alexa had played down just how famous her mother had been and how often her predictions had been right.
What had really bowled him over though was the photograph he’d found of Alexa’s mother. The two could have been twins. He’d felt a chill in the warm room. The woman was the same one he swore he’d seen standing behind Alexa the first time he’d seen her.
Scrolling down, he’d found Tallulah Cross’s obituary and seen that Alexa and Landon were mentioned. What would it have been like to have a clairvoyant for a mother? He and his brothers wouldn’t have been able to get away with anything.
Instead, Marshall had spent his life without a mother. Emma was as close to a real mother as he’d had. He’d either been too young or his father’s other wives had lasted such a short time, he couldn’t remember them.
Hoyt had been both mother and father though, doing the best he could, which was damned good. When the boys had gotten older, he’d always seemed to be one step ahead of them. It wasn’t until Marshall was grown that he realized the reason his father always had known what mischief he and his brothers had gotten into. His father had gotten into the same mischief when he was young.
“Hey, stranger,” his brother Logan said as he came into the kitchen. He could smell blueberry muffins and made a beeline for them and a mug of coffee. Everyone was seated about the big kitchen table. His brothers were elbowing each other, snickering. “How’re the new neighbors?”
He shot Tanner a look, wishing he hadn’t confided in him. His brother held up his hands and looked confused as if he didn’t have any idea what Marshall was upset about.
“How’s the house coming along?” his father asked.
“Slowly,” he said, feeling guilty that he hadn’t worked on it much since meeting Alexa Cross. “I could use a few more days, if that won’t put too much pressure on the rest of you.”
There were moans and groans but his father said not to worry, take what time he needed.
“With his mind on other things, he’s pretty worthless anyway,” Tanner joked.
Marshall felt Emma’s gaze on him. If anyone was clairvoyant, it was Emma McDougal Chisholm. Earlier, she’d seemed distracted with her own problems—Aggie Wells being on the loose again. He could tell that his father was anxious as well about Emma’s safety.
As the rest of the family cleared out, Hoyt saying he would be in the barn but not to leave without saying goodbye, Emma said, “So who is she?”
Marshall started to play dumb, but knew he’d be wasting his time. “Her name’s Alexa Cross. She’s staying over at Wellington Manor.”
Emma lifted a brow.
“Sierra Wellington married her brother, Landon. They’re remodeling the old place, thinking of making it in to a bed-and-breakfast.”
“Tell me about this Alexa.”
He smiled, unable not to. “She’s amazing. She’s gorgeous, smart…” He shook his head, realizing he could go on forever about her.
“So what’s the problem?” Emma asked.
“There isn’t—”
“Something’s wrong. Tell me. That is why you’re here this morning, isn’t it?”
It amazed him how she could see through all of them, maybe especially Hoyt. “I was also worried about you.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Emma said. “Now pour us another cup of coffee and tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s kind of complicated. Alexa’s brother thinks the house is haunted. I’m not one to hold much stock in all that, but…”
“You’ve seen something?”
He nodded. “The first time I saw Alexa there was a woman standing behind her. Turns out it was her mother—who’s been dead for a year.”
Emma shivered in spite of her next words. “It must have been a trick of the light.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said, but it turns out her mother was a clairvoyant. I looked her up on the internet. She was a famous psychic.”
“And her daughter?” Emma asked.
Yes, that was the question, wasn’t it? “I can’t be sure but I think she might be as well, though she doesn’t like the idea and doesn’t want to be clairvoyant. Something is going on with her and that house and her brother and maybe even her mother. I know that sounds crazy.”
Emma shook her head.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s you Chisholms. You all prefer women in trouble.”
ALEXA WOKE TO DAYLIGHT, a horrible nightmare following her up from the darkness. She sat up, shocked to find herself still fully dressed and on the floor. Next to her was the broken plate and glass that had held the cookies and milk. She must have knocked them off the tray as she fell.
She leaned against the bed, her head swimming, as she tried to remember what had happened. Had someone hit her again? The last thing she remembered was eating the cookies and milk that Landon had left her.
The thought froze in her mind. Landon’s note. He hadn’t mentioned the cookies and milk. Or had he?
Alexa got to her feet, found the note on the tray and reread it. Her head ached and she felt sick to her stomach. Landon hadn’t mentioned the cookies and milk. He would have—had he been the one to leave them. But who else could have known about the ritual?
Sierra. Of course Landon would have told her.
Alexa had to sit down on the edge of the bed for a moment, her head spinning. Her brother’s wife had drugged her? She was going to be sick! She made a mad dash for the bathroom, barely making it before she threw up.
Feeling a little better, she turned on the shower, stripped off her clothes and stepped under the hot spray. She still felt awful, but this was more heartsick. Her brother had no idea whom he’d married, what he’d married.
Why would Sierra drug her?
Had her intention been to scare Alexa off? Or had she hoped for a drug overdose that killed her?
She had just come out of the shower when she heard the tap on her door. Last night she’d had the good sense to lock the door but anyone with a skeleton key could open any room in this house.
“Alexa?” Gigi called. “I just wanted to come up and check on you. Landon was worried, but Sierra said to let you sleep.”
Oh, she did, did she?
Alexa glanced at the clock. It was almost two in the afternoon! She’d slept all night and most of the day?
“I’m fine. I was just being lazy and I had a book I wanted to finish,” she improvised. “I’m getting ready to take a shower.”
Gigi sounded relieved. “No problem. I’ll let your brother know. When he called and I told him we hadn’t seen you, he asked me to come check. He and Sierra are on their way back from town, but he’ll be glad that you’re relaxing. We were just about to eat a late lunch.”
“Tell everyone to go ahead and eat without me. I’m not really hungry. I’ll come down later and get something.”
“All right.”
Alexa waited until she heard Gigi’s footfalls recede down the hall before she checked to make sure the hallway was empty. It was. She closed the door and locked it again.
The last thing she wanted was food. Her stomach was still roiling, especially after hearing that Sierra hadn’t wanted Gigi to wake her. At least Landon had been concerned enough to send someone up, she thought, as she looked at the clock and realized Marshall would be picking her up soon.
She had felt guilty last night about researching Sierra’s family. Now she was more determined than ever to find out everything she could about the Wellingtons.
A
s she started to get dressed, she noticed the book beside her bed had been moved. She quickly picked it up as she remembered the partially burned papers she’d put under it. They were gone.
EMMA HAD BEEN WALKING around on eggshells since almost getting caught yesterday on the phone with Aggie.
“I wondered where you’d gone,” Hoyt had said when she’d opened the bathroom door and found him standing there. “The boys are leaving. I knew you’d want to say goodbye. Do you feel all right?”
She’d known she’d looked suspicious. “My stomach is a little upset.”
He’d pulled her into his arms, making her feel guilty again. But her stomach had been upset, so she hadn’t really lied.
She’d almost confessed everything, but she knew her husband. He would never let her meet Aggie, especially alone, if he knew what she was up to.
Now with her stepsons gone, she could sense Hoyt’s impatience to get back to ranch work and his real life. She felt the same way.
“I think I’ll make some cookies,” she said. Baking was the only thing keeping her sane.
“What kind of cookies?” Hoyt asked, coming up behind her as she creamed the butter and sugar for the cookies in her large mixer.
“Your favorite, snickerdoodles.”
He planted a kiss on her neck. She was grateful for the amazing intimacy they shared. But as she glanced at the clock, she knew she couldn’t let him talk her into going upstairs for even a quickie. She needed to meet Aggie and the sooner the better.
“Any chance of leaving that for a little while?” he asked as he put his arms around her and snuggled closer.
Oh, she was tempted. But feared she might not be able to get away later. “I can’t really leave these ingredients right now. Don’t you need to check on that mare of yours again? I should have the first batch done by the time you get back.”
She could tell he had other things on his mind than his horses and he didn’t want to leave her alone, even though he’d only be out in the barn nearby. “What did the vet say when he came out and had a look at her?” she asked.
“He thought she had an infection in that one leg. He gave her something for it. Maybe I’d better go see how she’s doing. I won’t be long.”
“Take your time. I’ll yell if I need you.”
He studied her for a long moment. “Maybe when I get back…”
She smiled as she leaned in to kiss him, then quickly turned around. “Let me finish my cookies.”
“I don’t know what I would do without you, Emma. It would kill me,” he said behind her.
Guilt gnawed at her. She didn’t dare turn around. “You won’t ever have to find out.”
“I hope not,” he said.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him take his Stetson off the peg on the wall where he’d tossed it earlier. As he set it on his thick, graying blond hair, he said, “See you shortly.”
The moment she heard the front door close behind him, Emma ripped off her apron and stepped to the doorway to make sure he hadn’t forgotten something and was headed back.
Emma watched him striding toward the barn, thinking how blessed she was to have such a wonderful man. Guilt ate her up as she left the cookie dough and hurried out the back door, running down the trail to disappear into the woods.
ALEXA HAD JUST FINISHED getting dressed when she heard footfalls. At first she thought it was someone coming down the hall.
Then she realized they were coming from overhead. Someone was on the third floor. The footsteps had stopped. Now whoever it was seemed to be moving things around as if searching for something.
If everyone was down having breakfast, then who was upstairs?
Grabbing her room key, she decided to find out.
The broom closet was locked—just as it had been the other time. Alexa used her skeleton key from her room to open it and quickly stepped inside, closing and locking the door behind her.
She stood for a moment, listening. Hearing nothing beyond the panel door, she carefully slid it open, stepped through and closed it behind her. She had to feel her way to the stairs since she had no flashlight. Once she started up them, though, she could see faint light bleeding in through a space under the door at the top of the stairs. She had her key ready, but found the door to be unlocked.
Cautiously, she opened it. As the door swung open, she saw that at least this part of the third floor was as Sierra had described it.
The floor seemed full of old furniture and boxes. She could hear someone moving around at the other end of the room—directly over Alexa’s room. The person appeared to still be looking for something.
Stepping behind one of the larger boxes, she eased herself through the furniture, boxes and old trunks until she was so close that she could hear the person breathing hard on the other side of a line of tall bureaus.
She tried to move one of the tallboys to peek through to see who it was. The leg of the bureau scraped on the hardwood floor, making a squeaking sound.
The person on the other side froze. Alexa did the same for a moment, then realizing she’d been caught, stood and tried to push her way through.
But by the time she slipped between the tallboy and an old buffet, whoever had been rummaging around was gone, his or her footfalls quickly receding.
Alexa glanced around, curious what the person had been looking for. With a start, she saw two dark eyes staring at her from one of the boxes. As she stepped closer, she saw with a chill that someone had poked the eyes out of a doll with a sharp object that had left cut marks around the eye holes.
Unable to look away, as if at a car wreck, she reached for the doll. The moment her fingers touched it, she felt a tingle run up her arm and quickly jerked back from what flashed in her mind.
She’d seen a little girl in a pretty pink-and-white dress, a matching bow in her hair. There was blood on the girl’s dress….
As she felt a small tug on the hem of her skirt, Alexa had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from screaming. She jerked away, the fabric pulling tightly before swinging back against her legs.
She stood staring in the dim light at the empty space next to her. There was no little girl. It was all just— A ball rolled across the floor.
Alexa stumbled back against an old bureau. She had to grip the edge to keep from falling as the ball rolled past her. Her elbow caught on one of the boxes. It tumbled to the floor with a crash.
Old black-and-white photographs spilled out of it and across the floor.
Trying to get a grip on her panic, Alexa reached down to pick up the spilled photographs. One caught her eye. She lifted it from the floor and felt her heart stop.
The photo was an old one, the paper cracked and faded, but the image was a young woman, the resemblance to Sierra more than startling.
The woman was dressed in an old-fashioned dress, high-button boots, a fur stole around her slim shoulders. Her blond hair was piled high on her head, exposing a long, graceful neck and accenting her high cheekbones and stunning beauty. Around the woman’s neck was an unusual necklace, the pendant hanging from a thick chain appearing to have something written on it.
Alexa squinted at the photo, trying to read the words.
“My great-great-grandmother,” Sierra said, appearing out of nowhere.
Startled, Alexa dropped the photograph. It fell to the floor with a whisper of sound. “I’m sorry. I was—”
“I know what you were doing,” Sierra said as she moved to pick up the spilled box of photos from the floor. There was coldness in her voice, anger. She glanced at the scrape in the floor where Alexa had moved the bureau aside, then at her sister-in-law. Her blue eyes could have been chipped from ice for all the warmth in them.
“You’re digging into my family’s history, trying to frighten my husband,” she said, a warning in her tone.
“He was frightened before I got here.”
Sierra cocked her head, as if listening to a voice Alexa couldn’t hear. “You don’t like me, d
o you?”
Alexa was taken aback by the bluntness of her question. “I’m concerned about your relationship with my brother.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I want him to be happy.”
“What makes you think he isn’t happy?” Sierra idly picked up the photo of her great-great-grandmother and studied it as if looking at her own photo, searching it for a flaw in her beauty and finding none. “I’m his wife. He loves me.”
Sierra placed the photograph carefully in the box on top of the others, then looked at Alexa almost as if she’d forgotten she was still in the room. “I think it might be time for you to leave. You really shouldn’t be gone too long from your job. I’m sure if you tell Landon—”
“I’m not leaving until I find out what is going on in this house,” Alexa said with surprising firmness.
It seemed to surprise Sierra as well. She let out a laugh. “So you aren’t as meek as you pretend.”
“When it comes to my brother—”
“Yes. Well, for his sake, I want you to leave. You don’t want anything to happen to him, do you?”
Alexa was suddenly shaking inside. “That sounds like a threat.”
Sierra laughed. “Why would I threaten Landon? I love him.”
“Do you?”
Her sister-in-law’s gaze narrowed. “I won’t have you coming between me and my husband, that’s all I’m saying. Don’t make him choose between his love for you and his love for me, because you will lose.”
With that, she turned and left.
Alexa stood, trembling with rage and fear, as she watched the young woman go.
Chapter Nine
Everyone was gathered around the kitchen table when Alexa came downstairs. She saw that Landon had his arm around his wife. Sierra looked upset and Alexa guessed that she’d tattled on her to Landon.
