“Then use that traumatic hurtful feeling. Flip it around to be a fearful feeling of the unknown, of something never realized before two weeks ago. That’s Derek. Exactly how I felt every time you told me about one of your ghost visits. You scared me when you talked like that. I couldn’t see what you saw, and if I didn’t see it…well, was it even there?”
“Wow, that makes me sound like a crazy person.” The burning sensation behind my eyes had returned, and my vision blurred with moisture. “It’s the reason I don’t share what I see with anyone. But, I chose to change that with Derek. I wanted honesty with him. He means something deeper to me than any man ever has.” The admission stole my breath. I closed my eyes for a beat to pull myself together, and then added, “And now that’s all changed.”
“Not necessarily.” Derek stood outside the bathroom door.
I gasped, startled, and then wondered how much he’d heard. My face blazed with heat.
Jenna grinned at me in the mirror and did a wiggle-dance. “Derek’s been here for pretty much our whole conversation.”
“And you knew?” I huffed. And then realized I’d spoken out loud.
Jenna shimmered out of sight.
“You’re still talking to Jenna, aren’t you?” Derek ambled across the room to me. Tressa had been right, he looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep, if any.
“Not now, she just disappeared. So, how much of my conversation did you hear?”
His arms slid around my waist and drew me into his body. “So, I mean something deeper to you than any other guy in your life?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kendra
Derek’s face leaned only inches from mine. Temptation to touch his lips with mine assailed every thought and nerve in my head and body. No, I didn’t have many men in my life to compare with Derek, but as sappy as it sounded in my head, my heart sang a resonating beat whenever I saw or even thought of him.
But, what is true love if not built on truth? All of my mystery romance stories ended happily with a caring relationship, built on trust, respect, and love. Do I want anything less or am I forever lost in fiction? I tensed, suddenly claustrophobic.
Derek’s question, ‘so I mean something deeper than any other guy in your life,’ thickened the air. His brows furrowed, and he finally backed away. “You’re really upset.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you when you can’t be honest with me about what went down last night. Is Jackson here? Tressa told me we’re having a meeting when he arrives.” I stepped around him to the bedroom and pulled some clean clothes from my suitcase. I yanked my shirt over my head, tossing it on the floor, and then shimmied out of my jeans.
Derek groaned. “Dammit, Kendra, how can I not respond to you stripping in front of me?”
“By getting out of the bedroom. I didn’t invite you to follow me.” I made a quick decision to wear the same bra and slipped on my favorite wildlife T-shirt.
Derek remained on the edge of my peripheral vision, which made me want to press his buttons.
An urge to retaliate stole my friggin’ brain. I kicked off my underwear and bent over in front of him and slid on the fresh pair. What am I thinking?
He sucked in air and then gasped it out. “What are you doing?” He rushed to me, his body slammed against my backside, a certain part of him accentuated. His hands grazed across my stomach, creating an avalanche of goosebumps.
My hands fisted, automatically. Why was I so angry…and so wanton? My body screamed for more while my head played the devil’s advocate.
Derek’s cell phone went off. We both froze in place.
I stepped away to finish dressing as he walked out of the bedroom, answering his phone.
* * *
Derek
Ray barked at me about holding up the meeting with Jackson and then added, “Come on, man. He’s been waiting here for twenty minutes.”
My job as the lead on the task force fell short. I’d dropped everything else when it came to Kendra and leaving her half-naked in the bedroom consumed me now. “We had a couple things to straighten out. We’re on our way.”
“Don’t forget to zip your fly.” He clicked off before I could reply.
If it were anyone else, that’d be insubordination, but we’d gone to college together and then spent a few years as Navy Seals in the same unit as Luke. We had each other’s backs. Ray kept his head in the game, something I grappled to handle lately.
“Ready?” Kendra walked up behind me. She had a way of jerking me into the moment, literally.
“Yes, Jackson’s waiting for us.” I reached to grasp her arm and she shot out the screen door ahead of me. The door nearly swiped off my face as it slammed against the jamb. She ran to the back porch of my place and entered before I got the screen door of the cottage to cooperate.
One of the things I adored about Kendra, her spunk. She would never be one to bow down to anyone or forget when someone owed her a straight answer…like I did.
With no sleep and a head full of doubt on how to make things right between Kendra and me, it will be a long day.
Everyone either sat or stood around the kitchen counter. Ray spooned some scrambled eggs out of the pan and onto a plate for Kendra. Luke, Tressa, Jackson, and Ray all had half-eaten plates of food and full cups of coffee.
Tressa had the pot in her hand and poured one for Kendra and another for me.
“Well, there you are.” Jackson eyed me, brows drawn. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Not really. A lot to absorb at the ceremony/ritual and I’m still not sure about what I saw but Kendra filled me in on the missing details. She’s the one who witnessed the whole event.” I glanced at her, our gazes connected and her eyes narrowed at me.
“Kendra, I’d actually like to hear your version, if you’re all right with telling it to all of us.” Jackson smiled, and then added, “I had a dream about Jenna last night. Happy to say she seemed in good spirits, from what I can remember.”
Everyone chuckled.
Kendra told the same version as she’d shared with me last night. Their reactions matched mine initially, and then the more she talked the more her experience resonated with mine, validating all the images flooding my memory of the ritual. She kept glancing at me as if she was taking note of my expressions.
When she finished, Jackson said, “Thank you, Kendra. I’m grateful to hear the malevolent entity can no longer harm you or Jenna.” His gaze wandered around the counter, stopping a moment on each person. “I believe my daughter is still here, still working cases. We’ve talked about this in North Carolina, and I’m bringing it up again to solidify this team going forward. We are an organization that believes in preternatural occurrences and beings...and one more time I will request, if you are not on board with this way of thinking, please consider moving to another task force.”
We all looked at each other, and I said, “We’re all on board, Director Powers.”
He nodded, and then said, “I use first names, let’s stick with that between us. If we’re out in public on official business, that’s a little different, but here among our own team, let’s keep it friendly.” He sat back in his chair and glanced at Kendra. “I’ve got news regarding the girls taken to the Children’s Rehabilitation Facility. A few third-shift nurses reported all of the girls that had arrived in a catatonic-state and the newer girls that arrived with quite the opposite bawdy-type behavior came awake in the wee hours of the morning, wanting to go home to family and none of them remembered any physical or mental abuse. They’ve been running a number of tests on all of them this morning, and the doctors are stymied by their miraculous recovery. They’ve never experienced something of this sort without years of therapy.”
Kendra’s eyes widened and she looked to her left for a few moments, then her attention came back to the group around the counter. “Jenna says it’s because they all got their souls back, and any of the girls that had another soul residing inside them, those
have left the building, so to speak, and were replaced with the girl’s original soul.” She looked to her left again, and then said, “Apparently, not only did Jenna visit with her mom and dad last night, she also had a visit with Grandma Ellie, who explained where the guardian angels had gone with the soul orbs when they headed off toward D.C.” Tears rolled down Kendra’s cheeks as a big smile spread across her lips.
I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms, but instead, I remained in my chair.
Jackson said, “Thank you for sharing, Jenna and Kendra. Sounds like arrangements are being made for each child’s release to a family member who will be flown into D.C. within the next few days. Well done to all of you with your vigilant efforts. Vinny is still in the wind, but he’ll surface sooner or later, and we’ll be ready.
“I also have some other news. We’ve been given permission to work with the WPD Internal Affairs and the North Carolina FBI Field Office Agents to investigate Gimbel’s actions for the past ten years. We will have our first meeting on Monday afternoon in the conference room. Thanks in part to Tressa for this one.” Jackson nodded toward her.
We all glanced at Tressa and she gave us a thumbs-up sign.
“We are also taking the murder cases of Tory James and her sister, Kelly James, which is not something we normally get involved with, but because of the preternatural aspects that may be involved, and I say that loosely because I’m not sure there actually are any, we have been given special permission to investigate. We can cover this on Monday morning.”
Jackson drank the last of his coffee and then slid off the barstool. “I believe we’ve covered everything. Now, all of you take the weekend to recoup and enjoy. I’ll see you back on Monday.” He gave us a two-finger wave and headed out. “Oh, thanks for breakfast. Suzanne will be sorry she missed it.”
I followed Jackson out the door and down the porch steps. “Is there anything I should follow-up before Monday?”
“Yes.” He turned around and stopped in front of me at the driveway. His glare confused me. “There’s something going on between you and Kendra.”
I had no idea what he meant unless I upset him by fraternizing with our consultant. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“If she leaves because of it, you better believe it.” He huffed. “I can see the tension between you two. Fix it.”
“So…it’s okay if we’re in a relationship?” My breathing became shallow and fast. “Because I don’t think I can stop that from happening at this point.”
“Good grief, Derek. That woman is in love with you. You two remind me of when Suzanne and I first realized that there was something more between us than being mere colleagues.” He grinned, and every taut muscle in my body relaxed. “You got the rest of the weekend to make it right. Get to it.”
He strode off leaving me with my mouth open. Sort of like a Dad giving his son the A-Okay to fall in love.
* * *
Kendra
“Your grandma Ellie shared some other stuff with me also.” Jenna stepped closer to the counter. Luke, Tressa, and Ray were talking about plans for the weekend. Derek was still outside with Jackson.
I raised a brow at her and nodded. Even though everyone knew Jenna was here, I hadn’t really talked out loud to her in front of the guys…other than Derek. And he more or less had made me feel comfortable about doing it, and still did. He confused me.
“Not sure we should share this with the others yet,” Jenna said. “Grandma Ellie heard some things about Bertellia. She’s gaining a reputation for being a malevolent bad-ass, connected to the Dark forces in a few different ways. Bertellia is shaking things up on the earth plane, dream plane, light plane, and apparently the dark plane too. We should work on figuring those out before she decides to come and steal me away for leverage.” Jenna studied my expression…of surprise, and then she added, “Yeah, I agree with you. She’s got something up her sleeve on the earth plane and you, my dear, are probably a good way to implement her plan of action here.”
I sat back and thought about it. Jenna might be right. “Not sure I want to play minion for Bertellia.”
Tressa’s head jerked around. “Are you talking to Jenna right now?” She jumped off the barstool and walked over, leaving Luke and Ray in their own conversation. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Jenna heard that Bertellia is stirring up trouble in the earth plane. She thinks Bertellia wants to use me as her minion.”
Tressa’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “Is there a way for her to do that? Could she possess you?”
Derek stepped into the room and all conversation stopped. The urgent look on his face got everyone’s attention.
“What is it? Did something happen to Jackson?” I slid off the seat and hurried past him, only he grabbed me and hauled me back into the room.
“Okay, FBI-VCU-SI Task Force, you’re all relieved of duty for the weekend. Go have fun. Monday sounds like we’ll be back into the thick of things on a few different fronts.” He leaned down to me, our gazes connected, and my insides puddled like hot melted honey. “You are not relieved of duty…we need to talk.”
I nodded, but helped the others clean up the kitchen and then walked them to the door with Derek to say good-bye.
He turned to me, his jaw tight and again his gaze met mine, leaving me breathless. “I saw everything just like you saw last night. I’d never witnessed anything like it before, nor have I ever heard of anyone else seeing anything even close to what happened.” He guided me back into his house to the great room and waved a hand for me to take a seat on the cushy couch.
“Do you believe it actually happened?” I asked, knowing his response would make or break our relationship.
His eyes slammed closed for a beat, and when he opened them, their striking blue intensity shot a raging storm of lightning through my whole body, from the top of my head to my toes. “My brain struggles to accept, but I do. I know it all happened, and I will always believe you, Kendra.”
My eyes blurred with moisture and my heartbeat raced. Clara Jones, my literary agent wouldn’t like what I was about to request. But at this moment, I understood a calling, and it needed to be answered, not just about my life purpose, but my heart longed for a personal melody.
His song.
“Are you still upset?” His concern sent me over to where he stood. A tear slipped from my lashes. His arms wrapped me in his strength, and I melted against him. He leaned his head down and I tilted mine up, our lips gently discovering, gathering, exploring, and hungering for more…much more…
The End
Dear Reader. Reviews mean everything to an author. They determine the placement of the book, and thus how many potential readers will see the book. I will be so grateful if you will take a minute of your time and return to the site where you purchased this book to leave a review, even just a two line review. It doesn’t matter how long just that the book is reviewed and rated.
Thank you so much, Susan
S. Peters-Davis writes multi-genre stories but loves penning a good page-turning suspense-thriller, especially when it’s a ghost story and a romance. When she’s not writing, editing, or reading, she’s hiking, RV’ing, fishing, playing with grandchildren, or enjoying time with her favorite muse (her husband) in Southwest Michigan.
She also writes YA paranormal, supernatural novels as DK Davis.
BWL Author Page: http://bookswelove.net/authors/peters-davis-s-suspense-paranormal/
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