Too fast.
While they would never believe that he’d done this, a jury might see the clippings in the paper, how Shelby had been trying to smear the family, and then Beau, in a fit of anger, ended her life to protect his family.
Yeah, it looked bad.
No, bad was a DUI.
This was epic on the scale of rotting in jail until you were led down to the chair for execution.
Well, if that wasn’t the worst part of the whole thing, they all got sucked into the mess. Oh, it wasn’t only Beau being investigated.
Nope.
They all had to undergo investigation.
They were possible accomplices, and since Beau was saying he didn’t do it, that meant any of them could be guilty.
He inadvertently pointed the cops right at the whole team—specifically the family.
Tori.
Julian.
Justin.
Clarissa.
It sucked, and it pissed him off. Julian was a levelheaded man, but having to watch his wife be torn to shreds?
It made him want to kill.
Tori had to sit opposite a detective and get the third degree. They showed her pictures of her dead mother, they tried to make her say Beau did it, and when that wouldn’t work, they tried to get her to confess.
Julian wanted to be sick.
He had wanted to rage.
Julian wanted to hate the world for putting his recovering wife through that kind of hell.
It nearly broke him.
Julian couldn’t be there to protect his wife, and it made him feel like he’d failed.
The whole thing made him die a little inside. While his beautiful wife, who had just given him a child, was mourning the loss of her mother—whether she knew it or not—she was being accused of all kinds of heinous things.
They didn’t know Tori.
They didn’t have a clue.
She wouldn’t hurt someone maliciously, and neither would Beau. The Christensens were soldiers, but they were good people too.
Yes, there were whispers of PTSD, soldiers coming back broken, and even some hint at what kind of cases their business handled, but none of it defined Tori or Beau.
They were good, honest people.
Period.
This whole thing was a travesty of epic proportions for everyone involved.
The only reason Beau had gotten bail was because the investigative team couldn’t put his DNA anywhere in the room, and they couldn’t put his fingerprints on a viable weapon.
It was all contained to Shelby, and it matched his story.
Thank God.
Still…
They were working it as if he were the killer. They had one good suspect, and they weren’t letting that one go.
It stung.
It also made it hell to work. If Tori and Julian thought that there was media scrutiny before, they weren’t ready for what had come.
It was chaos.
There were outrageous calls all hours of the night to their cells and landline, asking if they had a comment.
People, mostly the media and detectives, were stalking them—in hopes of seeing something that would convince the world they were guilty.
The questions were absurd.
The onslaught didn’t give up, and both Tori and Beau were on the cusp of breaking under the weight of it all. This time, when Julian said NO CONTACT, he meant it. While Beau had gone behind their backs, he didn’t deserve this.
No one did.
Hell!
Shelby, in all her shitty glory, didn’t deserve to die the way she had passed. While Julian believed that karma would handle those who deserved it, he didn’t think that anyone should be murdered in cold blood.
Shelby had made shitty choices, but she was a human being who deserved some dignity.
One thing was for sure…if they survived this, it would be a miracle. This was going to take everything they had as a team and a family.
If everyone was on board, then they might just make it out of the fire on this one.
Glancing down at his watch, Julian knew he was stalling from the inevitable.
He didn’t want to go to the meeting.
So, he didn’t.
As Julian walked through his building, he was saying a silent prayer to his father in hopes he’d hear him and send a little luck their way from the happy hunting grounds. When he’d died, Julian had promised him he’d do everything in his power to make him proud by putting their name on a sign, but he could really use a little help from the other side.
Anything.
They were desperate.
Julian was so worked up, he was willing to beg Bethany and Trey to do what they could too. When he was going to ask the dead to pitch in, you knew he was desperate as hell.
Something had to give.
Inside Hart’s office, he stared around at what the team had done in there. While he was part of their family, and a co-worker, Everhart Rose wasn’t working with the woman he loved as his partner.
Lennox didn’t want to be part of the business.
What she really wanted was to be a mom, and Everhart Rose was more than happy to accommodate that wish. It tickled him three shades of pink.
Frankly, Julian didn’t blame her.
He got it. It wasn’t that Lennox had so much money or that she was too good to get her hands dirty. She was simply going to be Ivy’s mother and work on her art.
No one could blame her.
Not everyone was meant to be an investigator. Lennox Rose was proof.
Hell!
There were days when he didn’t want to be an investigator.
Take today for instance…
Besides, Lennox was damn good for Hart and Ivy. She was willing to give everything up for her new family. She’d sold her estate, and they’d bought a giant building in the heart of town. It was old, it had history, and it also had like five apartments in it.
They were going to make it one big one for their family, so Hart could be close to work, and Ivy could be close to Clarissa if she wanted to see ‘Grandma’.
Looking around the man’s office, one thing was for sure.
Julian was proud of his people for putting the place together. After proposing, Lennox hadn’t wanted to wait to tie the knot. They eloped that very night.
Hart wasn’t going to give her a chance to change her mind, especially after she suggested they take Ivy on their honeymoon.
To Disney.
It was a place he never would have been able to afford to take his daughter on his own. They all knew in that moment that Lennox was a damn good person, and she’d found her soulmate in the suspicious ex-cop.
At that moment, they were likely riding some teacups and getting dizzy. That visual made Julian smile. He hoped there would be pictures. He wanted to see rough and tumble Everhart Rose shoved inside a pink teacup and having cookies with a princess.
That helped brighten his mood.
Slightly.
But then it was gone.
Sometimes, Julian really believed that he didn’t deserve his team.
Case in point?
When Hart had heard about what had gone down, he called to check in with the team.
Julian wasn’t shocked.
Hart, being the man he was, was willing to come home and help.
Julian wouldn’t let him.
You only got one honeymoon, if you were lucky, and it mattered.
Still, the team, in his absence, had worked on his office. They had put up balloons, inappropriate banners, and decorated the place like only they could.
It touched him, and it would likely make Hart smile.
Then, the happy was gone once more. Honestly, Julian prayed he wouldn’t lose his business. So many people would be out of work.
They were growing, and that mattered.
If they couldn’t solve this murder, he was going to lose the office, and his and Tori’s home. All of it would be gone.
He’d be heading back to
Red River to live on the rez and not have any income.
The pressure was on.
Julian could feel the tension from the second he woke to the second he slept, and it was eating away at the lining of his stomach.
If he didn’t get an ulcer from this, he never would.
Closing the door, he moved down the hall. At Kane and Christina’s office, he looked around. Kane was back today, and he must not have arrived yet.
Julian sighed as he leaned against the doorframe. It was hard not to worry.
“DON’T. STRESS. IT,” the radio chirped.
“I’m trying to, Trey, but there is so much on my shoulders right now. I feel overwhelmed.”
The radio went silent.
Then the dial began spinning, until Trey found the words he needed for that moment.
“COME. IN. AND. CLOSE. THE. DOOR. WE. NEED. TO. HAVE. A. MAN. TO. MAN.”
Julian did as he asked, and he really hoped the dead soldier wasn’t going to yank his chain.
Julian was three days past that.
His temper was on slow simmer—even for the dead.
“Don’t mess with me, Trey,” he warned.
The dial went silent, and Julian wasn’t shocked. As of late, Trey and Bethany had been relatively quiet. For a while, both Tori and Julian actually believed that they had bailed on the ship, leaving the captains to go down alone.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“YOU. CAN’T. FREAK. OUT,” he offered, flipping through all the channels to talk to Julian. “PROMISE. ME. THAT. YOU. WILL. STAY. CALM.”
The simmering pot of his temper was about to boil over. Here was the proof.
“Well, now I absolutely will be freaking out, and you know it, Trey!”
“PROMISE. ME. YOU. WON’T. TELL. SPROUT. WHAT. I. AM. ABOUT. TO. TELL. YOU.”
“Oh, hell!” he muttered.
Julian knew it had to be bad if Trey didn’t want to tell his sister something. They were close—even more so—now that he was dead and haunting her office.
He wanted him to withhold?
To lie?
Yeah, this was going to be bad.
“What is it? You know I can’t make that promise, Trey. She’s my wife and we don’t lie or have secrets from each other. That’s not how we roll.”
“SHELBY IS HERE.”
Julian stared at the radio letting that little tidbit sink in. When it did, he closed his eyes and sighed.
Damn the dead.
Well, this was the last freaking thing he wanted to hear. In fact, now he was ready to start those ulcer meds. The last thing they all needed was the dead woman, who they all pretty much loathed, haunting the building.
Julian needed to get a pressure washer and vat of holy water to clean-up the place.
Fast.
“Shit.”
Yeah, he could say that fifty more times, and it wouldn’t even come close to covering it.
Finally, Julian regained his ever-fraying control.
“What do you mean she’s here? Like she’s in this room right now? Or is she in the building?”
“THE. LATTER. JULIAN. BETHANY. AND. I. SAW. HER.”
“Why hasn’t she made herself appear yet?” Julian asked, keeping his voice down in case his wife was lurking around the place. She didn’t need this on her shoulders now too.
Okay, maybe this one was a little more for his sanity and less about his wife. Did he really want Tori dealing with her vicious, dead, murdered mother?
Hell!
NO!
The first thing Victoria Rose would do?
She’d channel her to try and figure out who the hell had killed the woman.
No.
Just freaking NO!
“SHE. IS. NOT. STRONG. ENOUGH. IT. WON’T. BE. LONG. UNTIL. SHE. FIGURES. IT. OUT. THAT. SHE. CAN. DRAIN. PEOPLE. AND. OBJECTS.”
Well, that couldn’t be good. This news was getting worse and worse by the damn moment.
Shit!
Shit!
Shit!
“We can’t let that happen. We can’t let her screw with Tori, Trey. She’s been through enough. Shelby was a bitch on wheels while alive. Dead? Yeah, she’s going to be a million times worse, and we both know it.”
There was laughter as the dial spun.
Clearly, Trey was thinking the same thing.
Still…
“It’s not happening, Trey. I don’t put my foot down much when it comes to the dead, but this is a definite no. I’ll crucifix this place up so much that even a priest will be weirded out.”
“FOR. THE. RECORD. WE. AREN’T. AFRAID. OF. CRUCIFIXES. NOT. ALL. GHOSTS. ARE. DEMONS,” he offered.
Great.
Well, there went plan A.
“Trey…”
He cut him off.
“WE. CAN’T. STOP. IT. ONCE. SHE’S THROUGH. THE. VEIL. SHE. WILL. REACH. OUT. FOR. HER.”
Yep.
His life was going downhill, and fast.
Julian didn’t know what he’d done to have this shitastic luck, as of late. He swore he was a good person.
Really.
He didn’t cheat on his wife.
He tried to be a good boss.
He even paid his taxes—and on time.
What the hell was going on? If they survived this, he was going to smudge the place with a dump truck full of sage to cleanse the stench of misfortune. He might even start burning it every day in the office—just to be safe.
“What has she been saying?” Julian asked, almost afraid to hear the answer to the question.
“NOTHING. SHE. WON’T. TALK. TO. ME. SHE. ONLY. WANTS. VICTORIA.”
Julian needed to think about this, and he needed to measure every potential outcome. His wife was at her breaking point, and he didn’t think she could take much more of this.
Her dead mother talking to her?
Yeah, that seemed like a very bad idea to him.
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
The pencil on the desk flew across the room and hit the wall.
“Tell Bethany I didn’t forget her!”
“BETHANY. IS. NOT. HERE.”
Julian stared at the pencil sticking out of the wall. “Well, if she’s not tossing pencils around, who is?”
The radio went silent.
“Trey?”
He rolled his eyes.
He really hated when they messed with him.
“Thanks for the information, but I have to get to a meeting,” he said, heading out of the office.
As he headed down the hall, his sister was waiting for him in hers and Beckett’s doorway.
“Hey, Claire.”
“We need to talk.”
He knew by the tone of her voice, it was going to be important, so he followed her into the empty room. “What’s up?”
“Lena is acting weird.”
Julian began laughing.
Okay, he really needed that. It was the first hearty laugh he’d had in over a week. Leave it to family to help lighten the mood.
Julian kissed his sister on the cheek.
“What’s so damn funny?” she asked. “I wasn’t kidding. I was being dead serious.”
“That statement is a given, Claire. Lena is always acting weird. Remember when she shaved half her head, and got a third eye tattooed on her scalp? She told Justin it was to keep an eye on him. You can’t really say she’s weird when she’s always a tad bit off the mark. Had you told me she was acting like a normal person, that would alarm me more.”
She focused on her brother and the worry lines around his mouth and crisscrossing his brow.
Claire couldn’t remember the last time he’d been without them. The stress was taking a toll on him. He looked like he’d aged a good ten years over the last week. She felt horrible for him and Tori. They should be enjoying their new baby, being a family, and in their apartment celebrating little Veronica’s life.
Not this shit mess.
Instead, they were holding the team together
the best they could. Nyx was a mess, Tori was worried about her brother to the point she wasn’t eating or sleeping, as she tried to care for a baby, and Clarissa was even playing mother hen.
“Jules, trust me on this. She’s acting bizarre. I called her name four times, and she didn’t answer me. Then when she turned around, I swore her eyes were glowing.”
He stared at her.
“I wasn’t seeing things,” Claire stated.
“Okay, I’ll talk to her post meeting.”
Honestly, it was the best he could muster. There was already enough on his plate, and this was something he was going to have to let work out by itself. For all he knew, Lena had broken up with her band, or her girlfriend, or…?
Yeah, some things had to be let go. This was, unfortunately, going to be one of them.
He was only one man.
“I’ll walk with you,” Claire offered. Hopefully, she could get Julian to talk. Maybe that would lighten the load on his over-burdened shoulders.
Julian was glad for the company. He was also worried about breaking the news to her.
“Spill it. You’re licking your lips. When you do that, you’re nervous.”
He stopped in the hall before they arrived in the conference room. Julian was torn as to say anything to his sister or carry the burden alone.
Family…
Yeah, they’d have his back. So, Julian shared the burden with his baby sister.
“I’m afraid that ‘Littlemoon Investigations’ is teetering on a ledge, and I don’t know if it can be saved.”
“Financially? What are you talking about?”
Julian struggled to put the words together. This was his first baby, and he was losing it.
“I had to use most of the capital we had in the bank to hire Beau a lawyer.”
“So we are flat broke?”
“Pretty much, and on top of no liquid assets, I have the whole building riding on his bail. Tori and I had to put up everything we own. The cars, the building, the cash. We are, on paper, flat ass broke.”
“Oh, Jules.”
No wonder he looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. If she were in his position…?
Shit!
“I know.”
“You should have told us. We’re partners. You should have at least come to the family, and we would have helped out. Tori’s brother is our brother too. This isn’t only on you guys. I have some money saved up. Beckett and I could have given something.”
And that’s why he didn’t.
Kiss of Souls Page 2
