“Yeah, it’s definitely tourist season in Cloverdale,” stated Julian.
Tori lowered her voice before speaking, “What exactly are they promoting here? I saw shops, but really this is the middle of nowhere.”
He had no clue. In all honesty, he’d been thinking the same exact thing. This town was quaint, but there wasn’t much to see.
As they approached the small storefront, they right away knew it was the psychic’s shop. The spooky decorations screamed more of Halloween than medium.
Then again, what did they know?
Pulling the door open, they headed inside to face the woman who had given their victim her business card. Once in the small space, they found two people sitting behind a cramped counter.
“Welcome. Would you like your cards read?”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
“Be at peace, Tori Littlemoon. I’ll only tell you what you want to know.”
While Julian tensed beside her, she didn’t. Tori had been a Fed, and she’d seen plenty of ‘psychics’ in her day. It was nothing more than a grift.
She was sure of it.
“You seek the lost.”
“Yeah, we do,” she offered, willing to humor the woman until she got on her nerves. If she shut her down, that might mean no information. Sometimes, you had to play nice.
“You’re here working on something so big that it will catapult you into fame and fortune. You will be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.”
Okay, her patience was short lived. It was official…she was on her nerves.
“Listen, Madam See-All. I don’t want a reading. I especially don’t want one because you’ve seen my name and face on TV. If you think I don’t know that Dorian Hardwick, whose business is two doors down, was gossiping, then you must think I’m an idiot. I won’t be catapulted into wealth because you see it in your crystal ball, so zip it and let’s get down to the real business at hand.”
The woman looked offended.
“What is it that you want?” Elianna Dawkins asked.
“You met with a man by the name of Jeffery Lamont?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t.”
Tori pulled the business card from her pocket. “Is this yours?” she asked.
The woman looked at it. “Yes, but we keep them on the counter by the register, as you can see.”
Tori noticed that.
“Is this your number?” she asked, flipping it over.
There was the flicker of recognition and then nothing.
“No.”
This wasn’t her first day on the job. Tori pulled out her phone and punched in the digits. Immediately, a phone rang, only like Elianna stated, it wasn’t hers. Apparently, she hadn’t lied.
They both looked over as the man beside the psychic fumbled inside his pocket for the phone.
“So, it’s your number,” Julian stated. “Who are you?”
He held out his hand. “I’m Andy Dawkins. I’m Elianna’s brother. She’s the psychic, and I’m the business man.”
They didn’t miss that the woman was distancing herself from her flesh and blood.
It was curious.
It spoke volumes.
“Why did the missing man have your cell number?” Tori asked.
“He came in one day when Elianna was out, and he wanted to talk to her about a business deal. I handle all of that, so I gave him my number.”
He wasn’t being one hundred percent honest. She could tell. “What was it about?” Tori asked.
“He didn’t specify, but I believe it had something to do with the house he had just bought. He mentioned it was going to be a haunted B&B.”
“He’s missing.”
The man shrugged. “That happens a lot with the house. I hear that it’s cursed.”
Elianna cleared her throat. “Since we know you’re not cops, I need to ask you to leave. Our kind is often persecuted by non-believers.”
Tori put the card back in her pocket. “For the record, we’re believers, just not in you two.”
With that, they headed out of the shop, learning a little more about the duo’s involvement.
“We need to learn more about them,” Julian stated.
Tori was well aware. “Christina? She’s good at research and likes doing it.”
Julian pulled out his phone and rattled off a text to their co-worker. There was no doubt that she’d handle it fast, and that’s what they needed.
“We still need to hit up the historian,” Tori stated, making notes in her phone from the interview.
“We can do that after breakfast. I’m buying my wife and unborn child something to eat.”
She glanced over at him. “I’m not really hungry,” Tori stated.
He laughed. “When we head home, my mother is going to weigh you. If you don’t gain weight, it won’t be your ass in the Native sling, it’ll be mine. That being said, you’re eating.”
She snorted.
“So, let’s go eat a cupcake or three.”
Tori was appalled. “I’m not eating cupcakes to gain weight. You can buy me what I really want,” she offered.
“What’s that?”
“I want a peanut butter and bacon milkshake.”
He stared at her. “Are you shitting me?”
She shook her head.
“That’s just as bad as a cupcake, Victoria. In fact, there may be more sugar in that.”
“Do I have to call Clarissa and tell her that you’re denying me what I’m craving?”
He started laughing. “No, I’ll get you whatever you want. Just don’t call my mommy.”
Tori leaned over to kiss him.
“I’m glad we could work this out. I’d hate to break you.”
Julian dropped his sunglasses on his face and focused on the task at hand. He had to find his pregnant wife a weird milkshake.
This might be harder than finding Jeffery Lamont.
Bacon and peanut butter?
What the hell was next?
* * *
Justin Littlemoon paced the office.
He was waiting for his appointment with Beau Christensen. What he needed was a private talk with the man before going forward.
He was nervous as hell.
Justin knew that even bringing the man to their office was risky, but he had to dig deeper, and find the truth.
If he were Julian, he was pretty sure that he’d do the same thing.
In fact, Justin was so sure, he’d lied to his wife. At that moment, she believed that he was hitting the gym.
He didn’t like being dishonest, but this was a conversation that needed to be handled. At one time, Justin had wanted to confront a man who was trying to hurt his wife. Julian wouldn’t let him do it alone.
Twins had a bond, and he planned on following through.
At the knock on the door, Justin let him in.
It still shocked him how much this man looked like Tori’s other brother. While he’d never known him personally, the few photos that Tori cherished had given him a glimpse at the man she idolized.
“Thank you for seeing me,” stated Beau Christensen.
Justin didn’t say anything. Instead, he led him into the room and closed the door.
The man went to sit.
“Don’t bother,” Justin stated.
Beau looked surprised. “What?”
“How much money to make you disappear?” he asked. “I’ll write you a check from our business right now, but you’re never to come back.”
He looked insulted. “I don’t want your money. I want my sister.”
“I have a hard time believing that all of the sudden you wanted to find her. Is it the fame you’ve seen her building? She and Julian have been on the news a lot lately. Is that why your mother and you came back into her life?”
He stood. “Fuck you. I have every right to be here. I’m innocent in all this. I was born after our mother left that bastard. I didn’t even know she existed until
a few days ago. I grew up my entire life thinking I was an only child. How dare you accuse me of anything but the truth?”
Justin stared at him. “Your mother left her. If she is such a prize, why the hell did she leave Tori and Trey behind?”
He was getting mad. “I didn’t ask her. It’s not my business what she was thinking at that moment. All I want is a relationship with my sister. I deserve that.”
“As far as we’re concerned, she left and opted to keep you. She threw Tori and Trey away, and you deserve nothing.”
Justin saw the tell before the man swung out. As Beau’s fist met Justin’s chin, all hell broke loose.
The two men fought, and fought hard. One was defending his sister, and the other was fighting to get her back.
As they landed on the table, it broke beneath their weight, dropping them both to the floor. When they landed with a thud, Justin was on top. Leaning on the man’s windpipe, he stared down into Beau’s eyes. “If you hurt her, or so much as make her weep one single tear, I’ll get my brother, and they’ll never find you again. I don’t give two shits about your motive, but I do care about the woman whose life is about to be turned upside down.”
With that, he got off the man.
Beau jumped up, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “I love my sister!”
Justin cracked his neck. “Funny, I love MY sister too.”
It took the wind out of Beau’s sails. “She doesn’t know about him, does she?”
Justin shook his head. “By letting you into her life, she’s going to have to face it. Tori already had to deal with being abandoned by her mother, and it affects her every day. My brother has been struggling to patch her life back together again for over a year. You coming here is going to break her all over again.”
Beau closed his eyes.
He had to make a decision.
“Then I’ll go. I don’t want to hurt her. If me coming back is selfish and hurts her, I won’t. You got your wish, Mr. Littlemoon. I won’t contact you again. Kiss my sister for me. I’ll tell our mother that we’re leaving town.”
Justin was surprised. “That’s it?”
“I won’t ever contact her again. I saw her, I get to know that she’s okay, and that’s all that matters. Sometimes, you can’t always have the outcome you want. We’re soldiers. We know that. I won’t allow Victoria to be collateral damage in a war my father began over three decades ago. I know what Lawrence Christensen was, inside and out. I’m sorry that my mother wasn’t strong enough to save her kids. I was just trying to make it right. I only wanted to show Victoria that she had someone, who came from our parents, who loves her, despite never knowing her.”
Justin didn’t know what to say. The man was genuinely ready to walk without taking a single red cent.
“So keep your money and keep your warnings. She’s got her family here. My mother has cancer and is dying. This was her way of saying goodbye. It’s mine too.”
With that, he headed out.
Justin had to go with his gut. “Beau, wait.”
The man stopped.
Justin had seen the body language so many times before. The man before him walked, behaved, and lived like a soldier. He was willing to sacrifice his needs for the better of the whole. If anything, that was honorable.
“Can you take a flight?”
He looked over his shoulder. “Why?”
“Tori needs to hear this, and she’s not going to want to hear it from your mother. While it’s going to suck, maybe if she knows that you came back for her, it won’t be as bad.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re her brother by blood, and I’m her brother by marriage. We’re going to go see her. She needs to know.”
“But you just said…”
“It doesn’t matter. She needs to know the truth. If you walk away now, it’ll be there festering deep down. Victoria Rose is tougher than this. She’s going to want to know what really went down. She deserves to know why your mother was a coward and left her behind. Now that she knows you exist, you can’t do what your mother did all those years ago. You have to stick.”
“She’s going to hate me,” he stated.
Justin knew she would. “But in the end, she’ll know that you didn’t have anything to do with it. You didn’t abandon her, Beau. You came back. In the end, that’s going to make all the difference.”
Or so he hoped.
“When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. I need to warn my brother. They’re on a case, but this needs to be done.”
* * *
Holy bloody mess!
It had been a very long afternoon.
Before heading down to the bowels of the house, Claire and Beckett stopped to have something for lunch. As she made him something to eat, he couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy.
Yes, it was only a sandwich, but she cut it in half and placed it in front of him with so much love.
His heart began pounding and had yet to stop. There was something about how peaceful and calm Claire made him feel.
It was like a miracle.
After years of living in the turbulence of his mind, there was finally a way to find calm.
She was it.
As they sat across from each other, eating sandwiches, Beckett never wanted this to end. In fact, he was thinking about something far more permanent between them. Claire had stood up for him, shown that she was worried about his heart, and also that she wanted to care for him.
That’s what he was looking for in a partner, because that was what he wanted to give too.
While he’d picked the wrong woman before, he was beginning to believe that this time, she was it.
He wanted to offer her more than just a work partnership.
Beckett wanted to offer her his heart.
It was time.
As he was preparing to ask her out on a date when they returned back to the office, she suggested they focus on work. It wasn’t going to be easy, since the second part of their job for the day sucked.
He was tired.
Edgy.
And horny from their earlier kiss.
What he wanted to do was head back to her room, get naked, and roll around. What was going to happen was a dusty voyage into the dark, dank wine cellar.
“Any idea what that scrap of paper meant?” Beckett asked, trying to focus on the job at hand, and not the petite brunette on her knees in front of the countless wine bottles.
Already, his mind was wandering.
“I have good news and bad news,” she stated, glancing over her shoulder at him.
“What?”
“I know what the four twenty five is in reference to,” Claire stated.
“What?”
“All these wine bottles are numbered. We only have to dig through about a thousand bottles to find it.”
That was good news. Maybe if they got it and got the hell out of there, he could suggest dinner together. In fact, he was going to go for it.
“Claire?”
“Hmmm?” she asked, pulling bottle after bottle off the shelf.
“Have dinner with me.”
She paused. “You’re hungry already? We just had lunch.” There was the jangle of nerves in her stomach at the possibility that the man behind her was finally on the same page as she was.
“No. I mean as a date. Let me take you out to dinner.”
He waited, praying that she’d say yes.
“First, I should tell you the bad news about our situation,” she offered.
That caught him off guard.
“Uh, okay. What’s the bad news?”
“Someone’s been here before us. All these bottles are out of order. We may not be going on a date until we’re both in our early sixties at this rate. You’re going to have to help me find four twenty five.”
He grinned. “If I do, you’ll have dinner with me?”
“Hell yeah, I will! Now get down here and help me find that bottle.”
Beckett dropped to his knees and began searching. As he leaned down, his hand touched the concrete beneath him.
“Oh shit!” he muttered, slipping into the flashes of visions. “Claire, help,” he whispered hoarsely.
She glanced over and saw Beckett frozen in place. His one bare hand was on the floor, and the other touching a bottle. She immediately went into panic mode.
“Beckett,” she whispered, moving toward him. Placing her hands on his face, she forced him to look into her eyes. “Stay with me, Beck. Don’t slip away,” she pleaded.
He fought hard. The visions flashed by, sending him pictures of a bloody death. The person had suffered unmeasurable pain. It was like his world was torn in half. On one side sat Claire, begging him to stay, and on the other was all the death and murder.
He was slipping.
“Oh God,” he whispered, perched on the edge between falling into the visions and Claire’s calm voice cajoling him to stay.
“I’m here, Beckett,” she promised, bringing her lips to his. “Stay in the present with me.”
He clung to his anchor, breathing in her scent.
The vision wavered enough that he was able to break free from the vicious claws of fear.
Claire kissed him, offering him a way back to the light. Her fingers gently stroked his cheeks, soothing him.
Slowly, he pulled away. “Thank you,” he whispered, his breath labored.
Pulling his hand away from the bottles, she didn’t want him touching them. The second her fingers left his flesh, the waves of pain returned.
“Shit!” he muttered.
She didn’t understand, but went back to soothing his panic. “I’m still here. Stand up for me, big guy,” Claire stated.
He fought hard to do what she asked, and when she moved them away from the bottles, he could finally breathe again.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. Now he was.
“Don’t touch them, Beck. I’ll find the bottle.”
Beckett shook his head, trying to clear away the guttural screams in his mind. “It wasn’t the bottle.”
Claire didn’t understand. “Then what was it?”
Pointing at the floor, he tried to forget what he’d seen. There was a slaughter in that room, only it didn’t involve the bottles of pricey wine.
Unthinkable Games (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 3) Page 14
