Black Opal (11 page)

“Hey, Madeleine. I’m so glad I saw you. I’ve been lost for twenty minutes.”

The young woman turned. Registering the black holes where Shayne’s eyes had been, I gasped and backed away, hands out, warding her off. The ghost had led me on a wild goose chase. No telling what she wanted with me in these hidden corridors. I spun and raced back the way I came. Three left turns later and I was lost again, more so than before. I turned down a hallway only to find Shayne waiting for me.

This time she raised those black holes to meet my eyes. I felt the sensation of falling, my stomach doing acrobatics, and couldn’t pull my eyes away. Harsh whispers filled my ears, and I clapped my hands over them. I fled and took a right turn at the end of the hallway. Hearing voices, I sped up my pace.

“These last few days have made me wonder what I was thinking.” I recognized the voice as Lisette’s. “I want to try again.”

My fear took the short leap to fury. I stalked toward her voice, moving fast even though I felt pretty sure I didn’t want to see this.

###

“It’s too late now,” Dean said. “You need to figure out a way to be happy with your life. And leave me alone to work out mine.” My heart sang at Dean’s rebuff. I stopped in my tracks and held my breath, silently cheering him on.

“It is most certainly not too late.” Lisette’s voice raised. “I’ve known you all my life. I’ve loved you all my life. We just got a little messed up.”

“If you know me as well as you claim to, you should know I don’t move backward. I always go forward. Making the same mistake twice—”

His speech abruptly cut off with a lip smack. I charged forward, ready for battle. For someone so comfortable calling others trash, Lisette sure acted the part. I got there in time to see Dean shove Lisette away from him. She backpedaled and bumped into a wall. Her features tightened with malice. If humans could shoot laser beams from their eyes, Dean would have been toast.

“You son of a bitch.” She shoved off the wall and launched herself at him, all teeth and claws. His head rocked back from a particularly hard slap, and he grabbed her arms and tried to hold back her blows, but did so gently. Fuck that. This bitch didn’t need gentle. I waded into the fray.

I gripped Lisette’s arm and yanked her away from Dean. “He’s too much of a gentleman to fight you, but I’m not. You want to play slappy-slappy, try it with me.”

“Peri, don’t. She’s not worth it.” He grabbed for me. I stepped out of his reach. My temper danced frantically, spurring me on, begging for action. I’d been waiting for this moment since last night in the dining room.

“Come on, Lisette. You afraid to fight someone who’ll hit back?” I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll let you go first.”

“You don’t scare me.” She bared straight, cosmetically whitened teeth at me. “You’re just a trailer trash whore Dean feels sorry for.”

“Pot, meet kettle.” I had to laugh at her.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Your marriage to this man ended because you cheated on him. I may have done a lot of shit, but I never cheated on anybody.” I glanced at Dean, who jerked as though slapped.
Uh-oh. Going too far, Peri.

“You told her our business?” Lisette hissed at Dean. She curled her hand into a fist and advanced on him.

“Lisette, I’m warning you.” I doubled up my own fist, which had a lot more battle scars than hers. “Hit him, and I’m going to hit you back.”

The sound of Lisette’s open palm on Dean’s face dominated the small space. I launched myself at her, my arm coming up on instinct and catching her across the throat. I drove her into the wall hard enough her teeth clicked together.

“Don’t touch me, you nasty little thing.” She managed to get an arm free and clawed my face. The new cuts burned.

That was it. I wound up and busted her in the nose. Her eyes widened in shock as she put her hands over her nose. She moaned in pain. Blood oozed through her fingers and dripped down her pristine outfit. I backed away from her since she didn’t seem inclined to continue our little monkey dance. I bumped into Dean, who pulled me farther back.

“Are you okay?” He examined the claw marks on my face and grimaced. “That’s going to be nasty.”

Lisette emitted a bubbly gasp. “I think she broke my nose.”

“It’s not broken.” Dean didn’t sound sympathetic at all.

“Put some ice on it.” The tone of my voice probably pissed her off more, but I couldn’t help myself. She acted one way in front of Julienne and another way to people she considered beneath her. Had things ever not gone her way? Or was this the first time anybody stood up to her?

“You’re not going to tell me what to do, you…I don’t even know what to call you.” Her stuffy nose voice tripped my giggle box. She flushed an even deeper red, tears shining in her eyes. She turned from me and spoke to Dean. “Really. She’s attractive enough, but can’t you find a little classier woman to see to your needs? I mean, someone who sees ghosts? Dean, what are you thinking? You hate that sort of thing.”

I took a step toward her, and she flinched. Her body trembled, but I didn’t think it was fear. This was rage. She slipped one hand into the pocket of her elegant slacks and withdrew an expensive smart phone.

“I’m calling the sheriff, pressing charges.”

That made me even angrier.

“It doesn’t matter if you press charges or anything else. If I kick your ass, it’ll happen before your shitty cavalry arrives.” I stomped toward her. Hands closed around my middle and yanked me away from Lisette.

“Stop it, Peri.” Dean’s breaths came in gasps as I struggled against him. “Just cut it out. Get out of here. Go somewhere and cool off.” He gripped my arm and whispered in my ear. “I’ll keep her from having you arrested.”

The green-eyed monster in my mind wondered how he’d do that. I didn’t want him pandering to his awful ex-wife. Was that worth staying out of jail?

“Come on,” Dean said. Deep in his blue eyes, glee sparkled, and I grinned. He wouldn’t pander to her. I didn’t know what he would use to make her see things his way, but I’d let him handle it.

I shot Lisette the stink eye and stomped out of the room…and right into the dining room. Madeleine and Julienne sat with their mouths open, obviously having heard the commotion. The new scratches on my face throbbed. I wondered if they looked as bad as they felt.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and fled the room.

11

Despite the dark clouds hinting there’d be more rain, the front lawn was alive with workers hauling away more debris from the storm. They all turned to look at me when I stepped out onto the wide front porch. Though they had no way of knowing the drama that just occurred inside, their stares felt accusing. I jogged down the steps and cut around the side of the house, headed toward the area where I found Shayne’s remains. Had it only been yesterday? It seemed like an eternity.

My cell phone rang. The caller ID showed a goofy picture I took of Dean. I rolled my eyes and answered.

“Wait for me,” he said.

I turned to see him on the porch holding a paper towel wrapped around something or other. My stomach growled, and I desperately hoped it was food of some sort. I jogged back to him and held out my hand. He pretended offense but handed it over anyway. I wolfed down the first sausage and biscuit without tasting it and nibbled on the second while we walked.

“That went quick. She calling the sheriff?”

“Hell, no. She assaulted both you and me before anybody laid a hand on her.” Dean inhaled his own biscuit and licked his fingers. “For another thing, her little show last night at the dinner table pissed me off. I know how she finds out stuff like that. It’s not illegal, but the way she uses the information could get her in trouble.”

“How
did
she find out that stuff about me?” I’d wondered, but then got more interested in getting laid and forgot to ask Dean.

“She keeps a private investigator on retainer. One call to Gaslight City would have done the trick.” Dean frowned. “You told me yourself the townsfolk love their gossip.”

I reeled at the idea of Lisette paying a private investigator to check up on me just so she could use what she learned for hatefulness. From the sound of it, she had a rich husband, a luxurious life. Why waste time on me? “Why is she like this?”

“Low self-esteem. Her mother was, and still is, an abusive drunk. Lisette’s father left and her mother turned the full force of her abuse on her.”

“I almost feel sorry for her.”

“Don’t,” Dean said. “I made excuses for her the entire time we were together. I thought there was something redeemable underneath the bitch act. There isn’t.”

A few seconds later, Lisette marched out to her car, her hand over her face. She saw us watching her and shot us the finger. We returned the favor. Formalities complete, she got into her car and sped away. A bolt of lightning lit the sky, punctuating her exit.

I thought back on my relationship with my childhood best friend Chase. I tolerated him long after most people would have cut him off for being unstable and a pain in the ass. Perhaps living with him for fifteen years would have turned me off for life.
You’ll never know, Peri, because you got him killed.
Desperate to get away from the thought, I asked Dean the first thing that popped into my head.

“Is your mother going to be upset I bloodied Lisette’s nose? She loves her like a daughter.” I liked Julienne and hated the idea of her disliking me.

“And she knows her like a daughter. Lisette’s temper is legendary at our house.”

“So I beat the shit out of her, and nothing’s going to happen?” I had a hard time believing that. Julienne controlled her house with an iron fist, and I figured she wouldn’t take kindly to me causing a brouhaha here.

“Not exactly.” Dean stuffed the paper towel in his pocket and avoided my eyes. “I told Lisette to say she lunged at you, tripped, and busted her nose.”

I didn’t picture Lisette just going along with it.

“What’d you do? Threaten to tell your mother y’all’s marriage ended because of her stepping out on you?”

“Empty threat. She knows I’d never do that.” Dean watched his feet as we walked along. “I spent fifteen years splitting up and getting back together with that woman. I know enough about her to fill one of those tell-all novels. The private detective shit is just scratching the surface.”

We walked along in silence. I couldn’t understand why Dean wouldn’t tell his family about his ex-wife’s screwing around. He obviously didn’t like her being here. That would be the perfect way to get rid of her. Was this a male pride thing? I gave Dean a sidelong glance. Perhaps it was.

He prided himself on doing everything well. He performed his duties as a sheriff’s deputy back in Texas with kindness and bravery. When he ran for fitness, he ran fast and looked good doing it. He was an excellent lover. My body tingled at the thought.

The way I figured it, Lisette’s cheating on him implied he wasn’t a good husband, maybe not a good lover. It embarrassed him. He didn’t want anybody to know he’d failed. At least not that way.

Seeing one of Dean’s vulnerabilities made me feel protective of him. I’d really kick Lisette’s ass if she gave me the opportunity. If I felt this strongly about Dean, why did admitting it to myself scare me so much?

The core issue slammed into me, almost knocking me backward.
It’s the face he makes when anything to do with me seeing ghosts comes up.
Over the past six months, he’d looked at me that way several times—a mixture of terror and revulsion. Last night, I saw it again.

My mother rejected me because I saw the spirit world. Would Dean eventually do the same? He might love me, but he didn’t love everything about me. Did that make our relationship a sham, something that could never work, no matter how we wiggled and danced? I swallowed hard as I remembered last night.

I didn’t want to live without him in my life. That was the bottom line.

Dean stopped walking, and I took a few extra steps before I realized it and came back to him. He had his head cocked to one side, frowning. I heard the high-pitched whinnying of the horses in the barn.

“I swear I let those horses out to pasture this morning,” he said. “If they’re back in there, it means Trey’s back. Just stay here.” He walked off.

I ignored his words and followed him into the huge structure. He didn’t even bother to glare at me. He knew by now I wasn’t the obedient type.

###

Judging by the distress in the horses’ whinnies, I expected a ruckus inside the barn, horses bucking, their eyes rolling and teeth bared, the whole nine. Instead, the barn fell quiet the second we stepped inside. Dean drew a handgun out of his belt and put his finger to his lips for me to be quiet. Sometimes his carrying a weapon at all times disturbed me. This time, I felt grateful.

The smell of shit dominated the close, stale air. A gust of wind picked up outside, and the big building groaned, raising chill bumps on my arms. Thunder boomed outside, rattling everything inside. One of the horses snorted and fidgeted within his stall. I reached in to scratch his long face. Something was off in here. I could feel it.

Dean crept down the long line of stalls, his footsteps crunching in the hay covering the floor. I tensed, waiting for Trey to reveal himself. Perhaps the Namadie Parish Sheriff’s Office found him and took him in for questioning. In the depths of the barn, something clinked together. My nerves twisted into a painful ball. The sound reminded me of stereotypical ghosts rattling chains.

Adrenaline flooded my veins, spurring my heart into double time. My fingertips tingled, begging me to take some sort of action. A horse snorted, and I almost screamed. Now Dean was at the back of the barn, nearly invisible in the shadows.

Wind hit the barn again, and a rhythmic creak accompanied the metallic sound. I glanced up at the high ceiling, expecting to see a pulley for hay. I saw nothing like that.

Dean stopped at the last stall, his mouth hanging open, his handgun pointed at the floor. After a second, he re-holstered the gun but continued to stare. I couldn’t stand it and went to see what he saw. It couldn’t be dangerous. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have put away his pistol.