PRAISE FOR ROBIN D. OWENS
Winner of the RITA® Award for Best Paranormal Romance by the Romance Writers of America
“[Robin D. Owens] provides a wonderful, gripping mix of passion, exotic futuristic settings, and edgy suspense.”
—Jayne Castle, New York Times bestselling author of The Hot Zone
“Will have readers on the edge of their seats . . . Another terrific tale from the brilliant mind of Robin D. Owens. Don’t miss it.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“[This] emotionally rich tale blends paranormal abilities, family dynamics, and politics; adds a serious dash of violence; and dusts it all with humor and whimsy.”
—Library Journal
“Maintaining the world-building for science fiction and character-driven plot for romance is near impossible. Owens does it brilliantly.”
—The Romance Readers Connection
“Dazzling . . . Robin D. Owens paints a world filled with characters who sweep readers into an unforgettable adventure with every delicious word, every breath, every beat of their hearts. Brava!”
—Deb Stover, award-winning author of Always
“A taut mixture of suspense and action . . . that leaves you stunned.”
—Smexy Books
“A delight . . . Hits all my joy buttons.”
—Fresh Fiction
“[Owens’s] creativity shines.”
—Darque Reviews
“I keep telling myself that [Robin D. Owens] just can’t get much better, but with every book she amazes and surprises me!”
—The Best Reviews
Titles by Robin D. Owens
HEARTMATE
HEART THIEF
HEART DUEL
HEART CHOICE
HEART QUEST
HEART DANCE
HEART FATE
HEART CHANGE
HEART JOURNEY
HEART SEARCH
HEART SECRET
HEART FORTUNE
HEART FIRE
GHOST SEER
GHOST LAYER
GHOST KILLER
Anthologies
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
(with Sherrilyn Kenyon and Rebecca York)
HEARTS AND SWORDS
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
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GHOST KILLER
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2015 by Robin D. Owens.
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63733-3
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / February 2015
Cover art by Tony Mauro.
Cover design by George Long.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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To all my readers who followed me to Denver and the Old West, thank you!
And to new readers, welcome and may you enjoy all the worlds you visit in books!
CONTENTS
Praise for Robin D. Owens
Titles by Robin D. Owens
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Counting Crows Rhyme
Epigraph
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
COUNTING CROWS RHYME
One for sorrow,
Two for luck;
Three for a wedding,
Four for death;
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Not to be told;
Eight for heaven,
Nine for [hell];
And ten for the devil’s own sell [self].
The autumn winds blow bleak and chill,
The sighing, quivering aspen waves
Above the summit of the hill.
Above the unrecorded graves,
Where halt, abandoned burros feed,
And coyotes call—and this is Creede.
—CY WARMAN, “A QUIET DAY IN CREEDE,” FRONTIER STORIES, 1898
ONE
DANGER COMES, ENZO howled, running through the bedroom door. Not the doorway, the door. Even a ghost Labrador should not have all the hair on his body standing out.
Clare Cermak’s heartbeat kicked fast and she shuddered in the bed of her lover. She pulled the sheet high, even though the room was—had been—warm and sunny this morning.
Enzo leapt for the bed and landed on her, in her, sending the coldness of his being into her legs. His dark doggy eyes showed fear. Before she could say anything, those “eyes” began to morph into bottomless black mist with jagged white streaks . . . signifying that the Other spirit who took over her happy companion would be speaking to her. Enzo was her spirit guide; she hadn’t quite figured out what the Other was, but when he/it came, she felt like an expendable pawn in an unknown chess game.
You are not, quite, expendable, the Other “said.” The words reverberated in her head, but more, seemed to knock heavy molecules of air together in soundless explosions through the room.
Zach, facedown beside her, began to stir and she wasn’t sure whether she wanted him to hear what the Other said or not. This was the first time she’d been to his apartment, the first night she’d spent. She cherished the togetherness that the Other could splinter.
Judgmental eyes fixed upon her. Not, quite, expendable, the Other repeated. Your work has been . . . adequate . . . for your first two projects, since you accepted your gift.
Clare had heard her psychic ability to help ghosts pass on to the hereafter called a gift, but she considered it a curse.
We have paid you well for your gift, the Other, still standing face-to-face with her, said.
Yes, she’d inherited millions, and for each major ghost she’d aided, had received income. But she’d also lost her previous life as an accountant, which she’d loved.
You are ungrateful. The Other’s skin of his muzzle pulled back and showed the teeth bigger than what she saw, supernatural teeth.
Beside her, Zach groaned and rolled over, pushed away his dark hair from his forehead and opened blue green eyes. The Other stepped to put a paw square on his chest and Zach grunted.
It is well you are together, Clare Cermak and Zach Slade, the Other said dispassionately. One of you might survive, should you walk into this danger.
A rapping came on the door between Zach’s former-housekeeper’s apartment and the rest of the mansion. The Other and Enzo vanished and Zach sat up, put his warm, muscular, and solid, arm around Clare. He looked down at her. “I heard the Other. You will survive.”
Clare realized she trembled. Mostly with cold, she assured herself.
“What did the bastard say?”
She shook her head in denial of the fear spearing through her, swallowed so she found more spit in her dry mouth to speak. “Danger comes.”
Zach grunted, rolled off the bed and pulled on some sweat pants, yelled to the person still pounding on the door, “Just a damn— Just a minute!”
“Probably Mrs. Flinton,” Clare said, speaking of his landlady, the very wealthy owner of the mansion. She’d offered the apartment to Zach the first day he’d been in Denver and interviewed with Rickman Security and Investigations.
Clare dragged on her bra, turned yesterday’s panties inside out for now and put them on, slipped into her sundress. She had no clothes here.
Zach had already snagged his cane and left the bedroom. He’d gone to the door in the little hallway just outside and perpendicular to the bedroom. Clare heard him open the door slightly. “Mrs. Flinton?”
“I’m so sorry to disturb you. So, sorry,” her voice quavered. Usually the woman exuded vim and vigor.
“Sorry to disturb me? That’s a first,” Zach teased. “Come on in. I think you need to talk to Clare, right?” he said in a casual tone that amazed Clare. She still had trouble breathing steadily. But he’d been a deputy sheriff and was used to adrenaline dumps. That didn’t happen often when you were a certified public accountant at a nice, safe job for a prestigious, maybe stodgy, firm.
“Yes. There’s trouble.” A drawn-in breath. “An evil ghost.”
The last three words stopped Clare in her tracks, to take a breath. She’d only been a ghost seer for seventeen days and didn’t have the experience to handle an evil ghost.
But Mrs. Flinton continued to talk in a whisper. “I have tea and pastries in the breakfast room, if you wish to join me.”
Clare didn’t want to pretend this discussion would be pleasant over tea and pastries. She stomped her fear into the carpet as she joined Zach and Mrs. Flinton in the hallway.
He slanted a look at Clare, stepped back, then opened the door wide for his landlady. For the first time since Clare had met her, Mrs. Flinton actually looked and acted elderly, face sagging with worry, mouth quivering.
“The tea—” Mrs. Flinton protested.
“I have food. I’m a P.I. and I discuss cases in my apartment. We can talk in the living room.” He turned and stalked the few steps to where the short hall opened into the main living space.
He sounded more accepting of his change of career from a deputy sheriff in Montana to a P.I. in Denver, due to a gunshot wound, than he had when Clare had first met him.
His living room was a manly room for speaking of danger, as opposed to the parlor, which was decorated in cheerful yellow chintz with filmy white curtains.
The woman pushed a roller walker into the room, leaning on it. She crossed to one of the big brown leather chairs, leaving the sofa and the other chair on this side of the room for Zach and Clare.
Clare felt too nervy to sit. “I’ll put coffee on, why don’t I?” She crossed to the small pullman kitchen that was separated from the living room by a half wall that was a counter with stools in the main space.
Mrs. Flinton, who’d unaccustomedly slumped, perked up, her pink-lipsticked mouth smiling. “Coffee!”
Clare angled back to her. “Are you supposed to have coffee?”
“I would love some.” Mrs. Flinton tried a wobbly smile.
Since the older woman evaded the question, she probably wasn’t supposed to have coffee. But Clare needed it and thought Zach did, too. She sent Mrs. Flinton a stern look over the counter. “You’ll be having herbal tea.”
Mrs. Flinton pouted, then sighed. “I suppose you’re right. Though what I really need is a martini.”
Zach chuckled as he lounged on the couch. “Not going to have that, either.”
“Bloody Mary?” Mrs. Flinton raised penciled-on brows.
“Nope. No alcohol here.”
Sniffing, Mrs. Flinton said, “You are wrong. We stocked your liquor cabinet, and I know my housekeeper has given you wine from my cellar with your meals.” Another sniff. “Wine my doctor says I can’t have.”
The return of her upbeat personality and the dripping of the coffee as it filled the pot soothed Clare enough for her to slide into the living room with a pleasant expression and sit next to Zach.
Mrs. Flinton’s face crumpled when she saw Clare and tears began to roll down her cheeks. There was nothing for it; Clare rose and moved over to perch on the arm of the woman’s chair, patted her on the shoulder. “Maybe you’d better tell us what’s wrong, Mrs. Flinton.”
“Please call me Barbara, especially since I’ll be imposing on you so much.” She whisked out a lace-edged hanky and dabbed her eyes and her cheeks.
Zach said, “Just tell us, Barbara.”
Straightening to ramrod stiff, not looking at Clare, Barbara said, “Yes, I suppose I must. It’s about another ghost seer.”
Clare drew in a small breath. Maybe she’d have help in dealing with this evil ghost. Any help would be great. “Another ghost seer?”
Mrs. Flinton continued, “Yes, I have a little bit of several psychic gifts, but Caden has just one, like you, and we’re thinking it must be ghost seeing.” Her fingers crushed the handkerchief until the delicate linen disappeared into her fist.
Clare’s gaze met Zach’s. He nodded, as if confirming he was in this with her. As he always had been. She was lucky.
“Caden?” she asked, her voice a little higher than usual. “And who is ‘we’?”
“We are me, his great grandmother, and my daughter, Caden’s grandmother, who believe in psychic gifts, but not his parents.”
“Parents,” said Zach neutrally.
“Caden is seven.” A quivery sigh followed by a rush of words. “It seems his gift is coming too fast and too soon.”
Clare recalled when her own gift descended—freezing in the hottest summer of Denver, the weird going-insane feeling, and, yes, people who didn’t think she saw ghosts, including herself. Terrible stress. “Oh my God,” Clare breathed. Despite any danger, she could not refuse to help.
“Yes, dear.” Mrs. Flinton cleared her throat. She sniffed wetly, raised big, blue eyes to Cla
re. “Even though in our family we don’t have the effects that seem to apply to yours—the lethal coldness and threat of insanity, it’s not good. There’s a powerful and bad ghost out there, and he’s young.”
Clare flinched. The tea kettle shrieked. Avoiding Zach’s gaze, she went behind the counter to the stove on the far wall and turned off the burner. She fussed with the loose leaf tea of twigs and blossoms in a little basket. Grabbed a half minute to lean discreetly against the fridge.
“Pour your coffees first, dear,” Mrs. Flinton instructed. “Otherwise the water will be too hot for the herbs and ruin their efficacy.”
Waiting until her hands were steady, Clare poured mugs of coffee for Zach and herself. Just the smell of rich, dark caffeine strengthened her. He always took black, and she added a little sugar from the bowl on the counter, and real cream from the fridge to hers. With her chin high, she took a mug to him.
He looked at her straight, all acceptance of life-threatening trouble, and as if judging whether she could also face that up front. She firmed her lips and dipped her head. As much as she’d bobbed and ducked in the past, trying to evade her gift, now was not the time to drag her feet.
The bottom line was that an endangered child wouldn’t let her ignore her power to move ghosts on. Hopefully she had enough mojo-whatever to kick an evil one out of this world.
Giving them all time to think about what should be said next, what plans had to be made, Clare put her own mug on a magazine on the coffee table, went back for Mrs. Flinton’s tea, then handed the delicate china cup to her.
“Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Flinton said, and cradled the cup in both hands as if cherishing the warmth.
Clare sat next to Zach and even leaned against him a little. He was much nicer than the fridge, and knew about trouble and danger. Leaning against him, accepting his expertise, didn’t automatically mean she was dependent on him.
Putting down his mug, he took the lead, as she’d expected.
“Trouble,” Zach prompted.
Mrs. Flinton’s hand holding the teacup shook and she put it down. “Yes. I know Caden’s in trouble and my granddaughter and her husband don’t believe that. They are good, solid—”
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