Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  “So what was the message? I’ll give it to him and you can go right back to where you came from.”

  “I saw him and Lucy in there.” He jerked his thumb toward the store. “I gave it to him already.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Are they still in there? What did you guys discuss?” She obviously knew that he and Jack were … well, had been close, so she suspected there was more conversation than just delivering a message.

  “You’re going to have to talk to Jack and Lucy about all that.”

  “So there is something to discuss with them?”

  He shook his head. “Do you only speak in questions?”

  She rolled her eyes, “Only when I want to know something and the person I’m talking to keeps dodging it.”

  “Well, as nice as it is to stand here and look at you, you need to ask them if you want to know anything.” He stepped around her so that he could continue on to his SUV, but she grabbed his arm as he tried to pass. “Ouch, shit!” He jerked as the electric sizzle cursed through both of them. She yanked her hand back as if she had forgotten about the burn between Keepers and Reapers.

  “Do we need to be worried right now?” she asked. “There have been Reapers in town, watching us.”

  “You should always be concerned where the Empress is involved.”

  He should not be talking to her out in public like this. He needed to move on for exactly the reason she stated. There were Reapers watching and they might report back that they had seen him having a friendly conversation with an Estmond Keeper.

  “What’s her plan, Aiden?”

  She remembered him … or Jack talked about him. “I don’t know her plan. After what happened in Napa, I’ve been degraded to being nothing but a messenger boy. My rank is gone.”

  She closed her eyes as if to gather her focus. “Because of what you did to save Jack, and everyone else?”

  He nodded. That was either the most heroic thing he’d ever done, or the dumbest. Either way, life as he knew it was on its way down, not up. “I have to go.”

  “Then why do you stay with her?” The Keeper’s voice had softened. “You know she is evil, the things you do are evil. Jack has proven that you can live outside of the Reaper society.”

  “I’m not talking about this with you. I don’t even know you and I don’t want to. I have to go.” He spat out the retort in a cold icy voice.

  “Then go.” She gestured toward the parking lot.

  He stalked away and felt her watching him all the way to his car. Dammit, maybe this whole spy thing wasn’t a good idea. The last thing he wanted to do was make nice with a bunch of Keepers, especially hot, redheaded ones.

  CHAPTER

  13

  HANNAH

  Hannah turned into the gravel driveway leading up to her family home. The yellow farmhouse was on the same property as the cemetery, separated only by an expanse of lawn and a white picket fence.

  Tall pine trees and thick oaks lined the edge of the property and were scattered throughout the graveyard itself. The wooded area gave the house, as well as the cemetery a lot of privacy.

  When she pulled up to the house, the first thing she saw was that the parking area in front of the house was jam packed with cars. Even her brother Greg’s shitty little Escort was out there. Of course the family would have called him. He was the oldest of the seven siblings and just as much a part of everything going on as any of them were. The only car she didn’t see was her sister Liv’s car.

  She found a place to park and headed into the house.

  The place was noisy, as it always was when more than a couple of them were home. “Hannah, where the hell have you been?” Steph demanded when she entered the living room. “We’ve all been worried.”

  Hannah opened her mouth to reply but was cut off before she could get a word out.

  “I know where she’s been.” Dan burst through the swinging kitchen door with a bag of chips in his hand. “She let David fucking Foster stay the night at her house.”

  What the hell?

  “Dan! You stalked my house?”

  He smirked. “I didn’t sit out there all night or anything, I just swung by after I left the bar and saw his car there and then I stopped by this morning … but, when I went to the door with every intention of knocking and being civil, I heard the most horrific noises I’ve ever heard in my life coming from inside.” He shuddered and closed his eyes as if trying to wipe the memory away. “I got out of there as fast as I could after that.”

  Hannah felt the blood rush to her face and knew she was blushing something fierce. All heads in the house, including Jack and Lucy who had been at the bar, swung toward her. “What I do with my private life is none of your business.”

  “Uh, yeah it is,” Dan told her calmly.

  Lucy stepped forward. “He’s right, Hannah, we are all in this together. Everyone did the same thing for me a couple of weeks ago and they are still doing it now. So you’re going to have to deal with it. The biggest problem here is that David is a cop.”

  Hannah straightened her shoulders and tried to calm herself down before she spoke. “I can handle David.”

  Dan snorted, “Apparently.”

  “Shut up.”

  He moved toward her. “I’m not going to shut up, your my sister and that douche bag hurt you back then and now he’s back to do it again. I’m not going to sit by and let history repeat itself.”

  The rest of the family, including Ethan and Jack, had their heads swinging back and forth, watching the argument unfold.

  “We talked. We’ve come to terms with each other,” Hannah explained.

  “Yeah, until he finds out what happened with that Reaper.” Dan’s face softened. “He left you once for his work. I don’t see him letting something like this slide for you.”

  Dammit. He was right.

  Tears burned at the corners of her eyes. “Listen.” Her voice was unnatural and controlled, “I know that, all right. I know that I’m probably going to go to prison so fucking sue me for wanting one night, just one fucking night with the man I’ve loved almost my entire life. It was my choice and I was the instigator in all of it, not him.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dan apologized.

  She didn’t respond, knowing that if she spoke that dam of tears would burst open. Greg pushed through the crowd gathered in the living room and took Hannah in his arms. “We are going to fix this, Hannah.” He squeezed her tightly against his chest. “All of us, all right.”

  She didn’t know what they were going to do. There was nothing that they could do. She was going to get arrested and go to prison … and that was that. It was all part of the job.

  Get it together Hannah, enjoy the time you have.

  She sniffed and examined the faces of everyone around her. These people loved her, she was a protector of souls, but they were protectors of each other. “I’m all right.” She pushed against Greg so that he would release her from his brotherly hug. “I just need you guys to leave me alone about David right now, the situation is crazy enough as it is.”

  Greg furrowed his eyebrows. “I didn’t even know he was back.”

  Hannah let out a sigh. With the way everyone was reacting, it was probably best to leave out the part about David being the detective investigating the murder. If she told them, they would probably put her on lock down like they did to Lucy. “Yeah, he’s working for the county police department.”

  “Okay.” Lucy stepped backward and let Jack wrap his arms around her, protectively. “We know that Hannah is all right for now, so let’s leave her alone and finish getting lunch ready. Liv should be here any minute with the bread.

  As if on cue, Liv’s green minivan turned into the driveway. “Perfect timing.” Steph clapped her hands together once. “Let’s go finish up the pasta.”

  Hannah watched Steph and a few of the others head to the kitchen to work on lunch. Would this be the last lunch she would ever have with her family? She knew the answer to that was
yes, it could very well be the last meal she had on the outside.

  Oh God, she so did not want to go to jail. She wasn’t cut out for the big house.

  Liv pushed open the door, balancing a brown bag from her bakery and a coffee in one hand so that she could use the other hand for the door. Hannah rushed over to close it for her. “Hey Liv.” Then she took a closer look at her sister and realized she appeared to be flustered or something. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Here, take this bread into the kitchen.” Liv shoved the bag into her hands.

  In the kitchen, the family was busy, each of them working on something to help with the meal. Ethan was setting the table and Greg was finishing up some kind of pasta dish that smelled amazing. Lucy gathered glasses and a pitcher of water for the table while James and Steph argued over the ingredients for the salad they were throwing together. The rest of them were scurrying around cleaning or delivering stuff to the dining room.

  “Liv, you’re here.” Greg moved away from the stove long enough to give Liv a side hug. “Great, now we can have a family meeting during lunch.”

  Hannah grimaced, knowing the meeting would revolve around her impending trip to prison. Hopefully they left David out of it this time.

  “Lucy!” Liv called to her sister as she unloaded the bread from the bag Hannah had set on the counter. “Where were you? I saw Aiden outside the store and he said you spoke to him. When I looked inside, you guys were already gone.”

  The room, which had been full of the comforting low chatter that the Estmond house was known for, came to a complete stand still.

  Hannah had just hijacked an olive from the salad bowl and choked on it. “Aiden? You mean, Reaper Aiden?”

  Lucy rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yes.”

  As if Jack sensed her discomfort, he crossed the kitchen and positioned himself behind her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. “Aiden showed up while we were in town, he was sent to deliver a message to me. My father is finally kicking the bucket.”

  Lucy elbowed him in the gut. “Jack!”

  “Okay, fine, my father is finally reaching the end of his sickness and isn’t expected to make it. My mother wanted to let me know and was hoping I would go home. Don’t worry, I’m not.” He added the last bit when everyone in the room continued to stare at him with questions hanging thick in the air.

  “Let’s move this to the dining room.” Greg hefted the bowl of pasta, which was big enough to feed a small army. “I’m starving.”

  Hannah joined the family in practically running into the next room to sit down so that they could hear more about Aiden the Reaper and his visit. Once they were all seated and served, Lucy glanced over at Jack with a worried expression. “We need to tell them the rest of it. We can’t keep it a secret.”

  Liv, who was slathering butter on her bread, spoke without looking up. “Yeah, he told me that if I wanted to know what you guys talked about that I needed to ask you, which indicates secrets.” She tore her eyes away from her bread and met Jack’s gaze. “I don’t know, the dude seems like this hard-ass killer on the outside, but I sensed something different about him today.”

  Jack nodded. “I got that from him too. He is a hard-ass, and he can kill without remorse if needed, but he is also deeply loyal. His loyalty to the Empress was outsourced by his loyalty to me at the compound in Napa. My mother stripped his rank and doesn’t trust him anymore.”

  Hannah tasted the pasta, wanting to stay out of the conversation to keep the focus off of her. She wished they were discussing normal stuff like work and school. It seemed like Reapers and danger was the topic of every single conversation. But, this one needed to be addressed. Aiden being in town was a big deal because he was, after all, one of the Empresses top Reapers.

  Dan, for once wasn’t nursing his flask. He had already eaten a portion of his pasta, guzzled some water to wash it down and asked, “So what’s the deal with him then? The Empress obviously trusted him enough to send him to get you.”

  Jack shook his head. “No, she knew he was the only one who even had a chance of getting me to leave here and if I was to go back there, she wouldn’t let me leave. She’s just using him.”

  “So, what exactly is it that you can’t keep secret from us?” Greg wanted to get straight to the point.

  Lucy spoke this time. “Aiden wants out and we are going to help him.”

  Dan lost his cool. “Are you fuckin crazy? He’s still a Reaper and he’s still working for the Empress. I don’t give a shit what kind of bromance they have going on.” He waved his hand in Jack’s direction.

  “Not so fast.” Jack stopped the rant before Dan could keep going. “He’s going to keep working with the Empress and give us a heads up when anything comes up that we need to know.”

  “An informant on the inside,” James muttered thoughtfully.

  Jack nodded. “Exactly. But it’s not forever. He needs time to get his affairs in order over there. If he is going to leave the Reapers, he is going to have to basically wipe himself from existence first. We promised to help him afterward, if he will help us.”

  Oh man, this wasn’t good. Jack might trust Aiden, but she sure as hell didn’t and she could tell from the expressions on the rest of the faces around the table that they didn’t either. “Jack,” she asked softly, “are you sure this is a good idea? This could be a trap.”

  “I know Aiden well, better than almost anyone and he is a good liar, but not good enough to fool me. I would know if he was trying to get one over on us.”

  “And,” Lucy added, “he wouldn’t hesitate just to snag me again. If he wanted any of us dead or kidnapped, it would have happened already. This time, he just walked right up to us in the store. I don’t think he’s a danger right now.”

  James snorted. “Yeah, right now.”

  Greg finished with his pasta and leaned back in his chair. “All right, here’s the deal. We are already in danger all the time, so what’s it going to hurt. If this works out, it could give us the upper hand. If we had known about that Reaper before Hannah had to take care of it, then she wouldn’t be in this situation.”

  Ah, there it was. She knew murdering that Reaper wasn’t going to go untouched.

  “I don’t like it,” James said flatly, to no one in particular.

  Dan scowled and pulled out his flask, “me either.”

  Hannah pushed her plate away without finishing. “I’m with Greg. I don’t like it either, but if this is legit, it could really help us out. I’m already in trouble, but if we can avoid you guys having to go through this, then absolutely, let’s do it.”

  There were several mumbles of agreement and a few protests, but in the end majority ruled and it was decided that Aiden would be their man on the inside.

  When the conversation lulled, Hannah got up and took her plate to the kitchen, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. Greg followed her in and did the same with his plate. “I’m going out to talk to dad,” she told him, drying her hands off with a dishtowel.

  He tilted his head, examining her face thoughtfully. “You want company or do you want to be alone.”

  “Alone.”

  “Keep your eyes open out there. We all need to be a little more careful. We’ve gone lax since we got Lucy back.”

  She nodded and pushed open the back door. “I know, I’ll be careful.” She set a quick pace across the lawn and into the cemetery. It was harder to see the souls during the day because of the sunlight, but she knew they were there.

  “Dad?” Her voice was low, he could hear her no matter how loud or soft she called. “Dad, where are you?”

  She didn’t have to wait long before a glimmering blue mist floated between the trees and paused in front of her. The swirling mist of the soul began to solidify, forming slowly into a human form and eventually her father stood before her.

  “Hannah, how’s my girl?” Greg Sr., dressed in his Hawaiian shirt and Khaki shorts, appeared exactly how he did the day they buried
him. He had refused to cross over, so his soul stayed behind.

  “I’ve been better.”

  “What’s going on, honey?”

  Hannah strolled along, with her dad following beside her, until she found one of the benches along the trail. She sat down and looked up at her dad’s soul. “David is back.”

  A weary expression washed over her father’s transparent face. He, like most people in this town, had thought that Hannah and David would eventually get married and settle down in Summer Hollow. He was just as shocked as everyone else when David left town. “He’s back, huh?”

  “Yeah. He said he is working with the county police department. He was in town yesterday for a case.”

  “Oh honey, I’m sorry you are going through this.”

  “It’s all right. David spent yesterday trying to get me to talk to him. I finally had to pull him out of the bar before Dan got into a fight with him.”

  Her father lifted a ghostly eyebrow. “So you guys talked about things?”

  Yeah, a lot more than talking took place, but she wasn’t about to tell her father that. “Yes, but I didn’t expect David to tell me that he has never stopped loving me, that he wanted a second chance.”

  Her father chuckled. “Oh Hannah, I don’t know how any man could fall out of love with you. I’m not surprised at all.”

  “Dad,” she shook her head, “you’re only saying that because you’re my dad and you have to.”

  He flashed her an incredulous look. “Not at all. You know me enough to understand that I don’t say things I don’t mean. You are a very special girl, honey. A woman who any man should fall over his own feet to be with.”

  “But …” Hannah paused to gather her thoughts. “I don’t think I can go back to him. I am a Keeper … and I don’t think the family business is something I can hide from him for very long.” She sighed in frustration. “He and I still have a long way to go. All those years ...”

  Her dad shimmered a little bit, causing his body to appear even more transparent. “Do you still love him?”

  Hannah nodded, knowing she could be honest.

  “Well then, I don’t see the problem. Love is love. Some people spend their entire lives searching for it, so why would you throw it away when it’s right in front of you.”