That sounded ominous. Trina gave him speculative eyes. “I appreciate you being up front with me, but why are you telling me all this?”
Casper shrugged. “Because I like you. Really like you. I didn’t want you to think I was someone who would two-time you. I know you won’t be around long, but I still want to spend time with you.”
Trina found it difficult to breathe. “Yeah. I get that. I feel the same way. As long as we’re both aware that this is only for the short term. Because I really like you, too, and I don’t want either one of us to get hurt.”
He reached across the table and took her hand. “I’m all for not getting hurt.”
She turned her hand over to grip him back. Trina appreciated his candor. At the same time, she knew that no one ever forgot their first love.
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Chapter Nineteen
He was still amused that Trina slammed the door in his face in order to put on a face of her own. It meant that she was into him, big time. Her words also settled down some of the inner storm in his mind. Trina was still fixed on leaving soon. Maybe he wasn’t going about this all wrong.
“Given that we’re agreed on not hurting each other, I want to take you to a haunted dinner, if you’re still up for it.”
Trina smiled. “I am. Let me get some of my accounts settled, withdraw some cash. I insist on paying. I owe you enough as it is.”
“You don’t owe me anything. I enjoy your company.” He still held her hand. “Can we make it tonight?”
She nodded. “I think so.” Trina tugged the phone from the tough packaging. “Once I get this charged up and start making calls, I should be fine.”
Casper frowned. He wanted to sit with her, talking. “Maybe I should leave you to it.”
Trina tilted her head. “Might take a while to charge. You want another cup of coffee?”
“I’ll get it.” Casper stood, and took both their mugs to the kitchen counter.
While he poured, Trina plugged her phone into her laptop. He set the cups down and sat across from her again. “So, why the paranormal? You could probably do anything you wanted.”
“It kinda fell in my lap,” she said. “The show and everything.”
“You musta had some interest before that.”
Trina’s eyes went far away. “Most of my family died when I was in middle school. It was just me and my mom after that. For a long time, years, I went back and forth, wondering if death was the end, or if something continued on, you know?”
“Must’ve been tough on you.”
Her head angled back and forth. “It was, and it wasn’t. I was Daddy’s girl, always showing off for him, doing cartwheels and flips, always after his attention. And then I had no one to show off for. I became pretty withdrawn, I guess. I don’t remember much from my high school years. Except for a few odd experiences.
“My dad had a bad knee. Football injury. He walked with a limp. One night, I was doing my homework while my mom was working. I distinctly heard him walk down the steps, that thump-thump, thump-thump. Even though he’d been gone for years, I jumped up and called for him, it was that real.”
Casper felt the hairs on his neck stand up. “Huh.”
“I heard it more than once, and each time, I thought he was home,” Trina went on. “Neither my mother nor I were into sports, but every time we turned on the TV, it was set to a sports channel. Not the same one, just whatever had a game on. My father and brother were sports junkies. Whenever I turned on my iPod, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie or “Umbrella” by Rhianna would play. I never downloaded those songs. They were ones my sister liked, they weren’t even on my playlist.”
“Might just be coincidence,” Casper said. “Some things, you would pay more attention to because of your memories. Maybe there was a game on a channel you watched the night before, but when you saw a game, you thought of your family.”
Trina drank coffee, nodding. “That’s just it. It’s so subjective. I wanted something more concrete. Was my family still hanging around? Could it even be possible? It had to know.”
“And then you got on a TV show and had a chance to show off again.”
Trina grimaced. “You got me there. Center of attention.”
They turned as shave-and-a-haircut sounded on the door. “That’ll be Ben. Come on in!” she called.
Casper eyed the tall blond as he timidly peeked past the door. Ben took in the two of them. “Am I early?”
“C’mon in,” Trina said.
Ben hauled a large case into the in-law unit. “Where should I set up?”
“Living room, I guess.”
Casper watched him remove several laptops and a pile of small devices he didn’t recognize, followed by a few small cameras. “You were right about that clearing.”
Trina’s brows rose. “I was?”
“It’s a vegetation dead zone, like the one in Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania.” Ben talked as he set up. “Almost a perfect circle with nothing growing. Fluctuations in the EMF are so crazy, I’m surprised everyone around here isn’t experiencing paranormal phenomena.”
Casper folded his arms. “I’ve run a lot of wire in my day. EMFs are everywhere.”
Ben nodded. “Right. It’s been well documented that people exposed to really high levels experience sensations that match up with the paranormal. Out in the middle of the woods, I got spikes and sags in the naturally occurring magnetic field that defy science.”
“Could be an underground power line,” Casper said.
“That’s true,” Trina said. “We’ll have to investigate the power grid before drawing any conclusions.”
“On it,” Ben played with his toys.
Trina pursed her lips. “I haven’t come across any reports of activity in the woods, other than a creepy feeling. But we should definitely check it out tonight.”
“After dinner,” Casper said, taking her hand again.
She smiled at him. “Right. Haunted dinner this evening, paranormal investigation tonight. In the meanwhile, I have calls to make.”
“I’ll drive you around when you’re done.” Casper felt light, knowing he would have Trina to himself most of the day. “Let me check in on my knucklehead brothers to make sure they’re on track.”
Trina dialed a number on her phone. “Sounds good. Bank, car, et cetera,” she said, not looking up.
Casper stood and rinsed his cup in the sink. Trina started talking on her cell phone, Ben was caught up in something on his laptop. He still wasn’t sure if Ben was competition. For the time being, it seemed the big man was nerding out. That was all good with Casper.
As he walked out the front door of the in-law, he saw the French doors on his back porch closing. Calling on his wolf senses, he caught the scent of Scarlet’s perfume on the breeze. She must have been listening in.
Casper hurried up the stairs and into the house. Scarlet sat in the office, working on the computer. Innocently, she gazed up at him. She stretched luxuriously, all long legs and lean curves. “So, the tile for the apartment build is on order. Should be here tomorrow. Oh, and I reworked the bid on the Carstairs bathroom remo. Knocked it down about ten percent with some bulk orders than can piggy-back on the apartment build.”
A lot of work for someone spying, Casper didn’t say. “Cheyenne check in from the site?”
“Not yet.” She angled her head at him. Then stood up. Her hands fell on his shoulders. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that summer.”
Casper, stirred by her proximity, didn’t speak.
“I’m partly to blame. Maybe mostly. I’ve never apologized for it. If I had any idea how bad it would get—”
“Fuggedaboutit,” Casper managed. “It’s in the past.”
“It’s just that we were so good together. That’s what I’m the most sorry about. We used to be such a good team.”
Her perfect face, curvaceous frame only inches from him, Casper realized how beautiful a woman that pretty girl fr
om his past had become. His past, that was the key thing to keep in mind.
“Apology accepted, Scar. I gotta go check on the boys.”
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Chapter Twenty
“There really is nothing out here.” Trina leaned back in the passenger seat.
Casper drove toward civilization. “No, but Ripple is growing. We’re doing a lot of building. I’ve heard talk about incorporating the town. It’s probably just talk. We barely have any kind of government going on. But the apartments are nearly done, and we have a commercial area in the works.”
His face drooped a little. Trina found it a little weird. “You sound so sad. Shouldn’t all that make a contractor happy?”
He pulled onto 26, making a left. “I like the woods. I like it wild. Not so many people to bother you. Even if it is remote, it’s a great place to raise pups—I mean, a family. A safe place. I’m not so crazy about a bunch of strangers moving in.”
Pups? What kind of weird slang was that? She let it go. “You and the rest of the town.” Trina thought about her initial interviews with the people of Ripple.
Snow-capped Mount Hood appeared before them as the road curved. “It’s not that I’m anti-social. I just like my privacy.”
“And yet you take me in, and you have an employee sitting in your spare bedroom,” Trina teased.
Casper smirked. “Can’t always get what you want.”
“I have to wonder,” an idea occurred to Trina. “Maybe all the new construction is stirring up the activity in the woods.”
“Construction? How?”
“I’m no scientist,” she said. “A lot of times, people experience paranormal activity when they remodel their house. There’s a theory that it shakes up the ghosts because the environment is changing. I don’t know if it’s possible that a bunch of big projects could stir things up over a greater distance, though. Usually this stuff is isolated to a single house.”
Casper’s features sharpened in thought. “Remodeling, huh? That’s interesting.”
Before she could ask what he was thinking, her phone buzzed. “Sorry, I have to take this,” she said.
“That’s fine.”
Trina had programmed all her contacts into her phone from the list on her laptop. “Brittney, what did you find out?”
“It’s true, Trina. Brian withdrew all the funds and closed the account.”
Trina’s heart pounded. “How?”
“I talked to the bank manager. He said there were three signatures. Brian’s, yours and mine.”
Holy shit! “He forged our names?”
“I talked to a buddy of his. He said Brian was planning a trip out of the country.”
“That asshole!” The pilot budget, the merchandise money, it was gone.
Brittney sounded a little breathless. “What are we going to do?”
The phone beeped in Trina’s ear. She checked the incoming call. It was from her agent. “Sue’s calling me. She’ll know what to do. I’ll call you back.”
She caught a concerned expression from Casper, but focused on the call. “Sue, thank God, did you get my message?”
“I did, sweetie. Unfortunately, I have bad news.”
Oh, no, not more bad news. “What?”
“The network found out that the funding for your pilot was stolen. They’ve dropped you.”
“It wasn’t my fault!”
“You know how antsy they are,” Sue said. “Anything going wrong with the budget will get the plug pulled.”
“I’ve been greenlighted. We’ve been through development. I have an order for a pilot, contracts, the whole shebang. There has to be some legal angle,” she argued.
“There is, and the bottom line is, you’re lucky they didn’t decide to sue Penn Station Films.”
Trina thought it over. Her name was on the cash withdrawal, even if it was forged. “What if I can get the money back? Call the police on Brian.”
“If you did, they’d only ask for it back. Minus your costs so far. I’ve been on the phone with them since six a.m. I can probably get them to agree to legal action against Brian, if we can prove he actually stole the money.”
“Well, I didn’t sign anything. I’ve been on the road.”
“Save your receipts, sweetie. This thing will be going to court one way or another. That network can’t afford to lose nearly a million dollars. I’ll do what I can to make sure they won’t hold you accountable. Right now, that’s the best I can offer.”
Trina hung up. She felt numb, her hands shaking. Too much so to fumble through the phone to dial Brittney.
“You look like you’re gonna puke,” Casper’s face was drawn with worry.
She took a few deep breaths. “Sorry.”
“What is it?”
“My former partner ran off with the money for my pilot. My agent is trying to make sure I don’t get sued for a million dollars.”
“Holy fuck!” Casper swerved to keep the truck within the lines. “What are you gonna do?”
Trina watched the landscape turn from scattered farms to residences. “Something will turn up.”
A few miles passed. Casper’s voice went up half an octave in incredulity. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to do? Freak out? Cry? Pound the dashboard and scream how unfair life is?” Trina pouted. “I’ve got an agent and an attorney, the network has an entire legal department. Let them do their thing.”
Casper’s hands left the wheel, waving in the air. “Freaking out might be stage one, yeah. But I’d go after the motherfucker. I would find him, kick his ass up to his shoulders, and get my money back.”
“I’m in a truck in north central Oregon. Brian’s fleeing the country. How am I going to go after him?” She felt attracted to the idea of Casper kicking ass on her behalf, but what kind of sense did it make?
His mouth made a moue. “I’m not sure if you’re ultra-rational, or a fatalist.”
“Maybe both?”
“Do you always just wait and see what happens?”
It was like someone struck a flare in her brain What the fuck did Casper know about any of this? “Well, something always does.” She bit off each word.
“Look where that’s gotten you.”
He would never get it. She only had to wait for the good. Trina sniffed. “You don’t have to be mean.”
“I’m not being mean. Look, you know this bozo. You worked with him. He has a network, friends, whatever. Your lawyer doesn’t know him. You do. Hell, you’ve probably already guessed where he’s going.”
She took a deep breath. “Well, he’s been good friends with the hosts of some shows in Mexico. The paranormal’s very popular there. He has talked about co-hosting.”
Businesses popped up, a gas station, a convenience store. Casper slowed to the speed limit. “So you’re just gonna wait and let your lawyer or the cops or whoever figure out that he’s likely in Mexico?”
Trina whipped out her phone. “Okay, okay, I’m calling my fucking lawyer.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Casper signaled and pulled into the bank parking lot.
Trina heard the message machine. She checked the time on her phone. Lunch on the East Coast. “Shit. I’ll have to call them later. Be right back.”
Withdrawing money without her ID turned out to be easier than she thought. A few minutes later, Casper drove her to the auto repair shop. She brightened up to see her SUV in the ready lot, new tires and window in place.
“Guess this means I won’t be driving you around anymore.” Casper leaned closer to her.
“You’re goddamn right.” The nearness of his handsome face, the gleam in his eye, sent a swirl through her, cutting through her anger like a storm on a summer’s day. Unable to stop herself, she flung her arms around his neck. The kiss scalded her. Embers moved through her. Casper’s mouth moved over hers, firmly, fiercely.
They broke at the sound of a car horn.
The emotion
al storm subsided, leaving only lukewarm irritation. It didn’t help that Casper was right, even if he didn’t get how the world worked. Trina took a deep breath, eyes wide. She kept her words terse. “Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you for dinner.”
“You know where to find me.”
She stumbled out of the car. “Thanks for driving me.”
“Any time.”
A mechanic stepped out of the office. “Your car’s all ready, Miss. Hey, aren’t you the Donut Girl?”
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Chapter Twenty-One
Casper found himself whistling as he looked through his closet for something to wear for dinner. He probably shouldn’t feel as happy as he did. Trina had wheels again. It would be that much more difficult to keep track of her. Yet his feet felt light as he found a dress shirt that wasn’t wrinkled. He was happy for another reason.
Remodeling can stir up ghosts, Trina had said. It gave Casper a little hope. Right now, Marino Brothers wasn’t remodeling anything, they were putting the finishes on Felicity’s twelve apartments. They would’ve been done by now, if the place hadn’t been torched. Even so, the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind. It was more than he had come up with so far.
He found a pair of newish jeans, black, with a sharp crease. Not exactly styling, but better than his usual outfit. Casper owned two ties and decided against both of them. He wasn’t looking for a loan, but going out on a date. For a moment, he eyed his only blazer. Too hot out, he decided.
“What’s all the whistling about?”
He spun to see Scarlet leaning in the doorway. She frowned at the clothes in his hands. “You only whistle when you’re happy.”
“Office is downstairs, Scar.”
She angled her head, as if to get a different perspective on him. “I had a long, long talk with Laramie. This Trina girl is putting the pack in danger. He asked me if I knew when Trina was leaving town. Any updates?”
“I’m working on it.”
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