Gatekeeper (13 page)

She stopped and stared. The implication of seeing him this way filled her head with dismal thoughts. “I…I was so worried. Are you…all right?”

He nodded and gave her an unconvincing smile. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about me. I’ll be around. Keep the button with you at all times.”

“But—”

“Promise me.” He started to fade.

“I promise,” she said. Despite the warmth of the robe, a chill pervaded her body that had nothing to do with the cool November morning.

Benton began to fade once more. Alarm bells went off in her head.

“Benton, don’t go! I’m afraid.”

“Forgive me.” He reached for her hand as he continued to slip away. Jillian felt his touch as only a soft static charge which disappeared along with him. She lingered in the spot for a moment, half expecting him to reappear. When he didn’t, she walked on shaky legs into her bedroom and sank onto the bed. She shivered and then drew the gray Ralph Lauren comforter over her body. Her mind ran rampant.

This dangerous attraction she had to him was rapidly becoming unmanageable. Her reckless abandon and equally reckless admission last night had proved that. He was wrong for her. All wrong. But the thought lurked in the back of her mind that everything had been very, very
right
. She swallowed. No. Nothing was right about it. He was dead. He wholly anticipated moving on—going into the Light. He had told her as much. And she knew there was absolutely no way he could stay with her. Even if there was, having a relationship with a ghost would be impossible.

Jillian choked back a sob. This was why she hated her ability. This was precisely the reason she’d turned her back on it. Losing someone to death was terrible enough. Knowing their spirit was alive on some other plane and not being able to be with them was unbearable. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced away the haunting memory of her mother’s spirit.

Jillian knew she’d already allowed herself to go too far. Sirius jumped on the bed, his green eyes expectant. She rubbed him on the head and resolved to maintain her distance from Benton until this mystery was solved. If she allowed herself to get involved any further, she feared she would lose her heart and that was something she had decided long ago she would never lose again.

* * * * *

Jillian flipped her cell phone closed and dropped it in her purse as she punched the unlock button on the Jag’s remote. Her patients would have to wait another day. Besides, she couldn’t help anyone else when her own problems continued to mount.

She slid into the leather seat and started to put her purse in the passenger seat but something—or rather, the lack of something—caught her attention. She stared. Where was the bio she’d copied? She looked under the seat, on the side, in the back, but it was nowhere to be found. Replaying yesterday’s events in her head, she tried to remember if she’d taken it inside. No. She’d left it in the car.

So, where was it now?

Had someone taken it?

She swallowed. Had the suspect been in her car?

Unnerved and bewildered, she started the car and drove to the hospital.

* * * * *

Her heart twisted when she saw Amy asleep. She looked so small and frail in the big hospital bed. Her blonde lashes rested on pale, pale cheeks that were nearly as white as the cover that was pulled up to her neck. Her long hair had been washed but stretched wildly across the white pillowslip. An oxygen tube had been placed under her nose. A halfempty IV bag was suspended over the corner of her bed.

Anger gnawed at Jillian’s insides. Whoever did this to her sister was going to pay. She was going to see to that.

She closed the door softly behind her and tried to quietly sit in the vinyl recliner next to the bed. She winced as it creaked. Amy opened her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” Jillian brushed Amy’s hair off her forehead. “Did you sleep well?”

She gave a weak chuckle. “I hardly remember you leaving last night.”

Jillian was grateful. She couldn’t bear the thought of Amy lying awake and reliving the horror she’d experienced.

A smile claimed Amy’s lips. “Did you find the surprise I left in your pocket?” She punched the button on the side of the bed to raise it so she could sit.

Jillian flushed. She knew Amy’s psychic intuition would pick up on her emotions. She stood and pretended to examine the medical equipment, the IV, the oxygen tube. “Yes, I found it.” Her tone was short, clipped. Revealing.

She knew Amy was staring, studying her, delving into her with her insight. Her forehead creased. “Do you have the button with you?”

Silently, she drew it out of her pocket and handed it to her sister. Amy squeezed it and closed her eyes. Jillian gnawed her bottom lip. She didn’t know what to expect. Would Benton appear? Or would Amy be inundated with images of what happened the night before? Heat ignited in Jillian’s cheeks. She swallowed uncomfortably. She felt terribly guilty, as if she’d done something against the rules of the Universe.

When Amy opened her eyes, her stare locked with Jillian’s. Jillian held her breath and watched Amy squeeze the button. “His energy is weak.”

“He’s been fighting the soul collectors,” Jillian said hastily. She was relieved that Amy hadn’t ferreted out her dirty little secret.

Amy inhaled. “That worries me.”

“Why?”

“The soul collectors prey on the weak. They could take his soul and—”

Unable to hear any more, Jillian interrupted. “Don’t say it.” She sat on the side of the bed and took Amy’s hands in hers, squeezing them a little too hard.

Amy winced. She glanced at her hands and then back into Jillian’s eyes. “There’s more to this than you’re telling me.”

Jillian debated. Should she tell her? She growled her frustration through her teeth. “It’s so unfair that you can do that.” She’d never been able to keep a secret from her psychic sister. “But you’re right, Amy. We’ve got to find this person. We’ve got to find them now. I hate to do this to you, to put you through this, but is there anything, anything at all you can tell me that would help us catch this person?”

Amy chewed her bottom lip. Her eyes darkened. “I…I don’t know. I thought about it the whole time I was in that…that grave. I don’t know who would do something like that to me. I can’t imagine why…” Tears began to pour.

It broke Jillian’s heart to see her sister this way. She swiped at her own tears with the back of her hand. There was one thing she had to tell Amy. “I got a phone call last night.”

“From the person who…”

Jillian nodded. “From the suspect. And now, I’m afraid I’ve put…I’ve put Benton in danger. You have to think Amy. This person knows about him, about you calling him my Gatekeeper.”

Amy stared.

Jillian continued. “We found you in Benton’s grave.”

Amy’s blue eyes grew wide.

“Amy, what is the connection? What do you know about Benton that someone would kill to keep secret? Our lives depend on it. His soul depends on it.” She took the button from Amy’s palm. “He told me you knew something about this.”

Realization flooded Amy’s pale features. “Yes. It’s why he’s earthbound. He was—”

Her explanation was cut short when Jillian’s cell phone rang.

It was Theo. She flipped it open. “Yes?”

“Talk about synchronicity,” he said. “I’m with the crime team on my way to a murder scene. Apparently somebody robbed a Civil War relic store and killed the clerk.”

Jillian’s stomach tightened into a hard knot. Her heart sank like a stone. There was a connection to Amy’s abduction and this murder.
She knew it
.
She hesitated for a moment and then asked in a trembling voice, “Is…is the victim’s name Matt Gregory?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I think this murder is connected to Amy’s abduction. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She flipped the phone closed, her thoughts racing rampantly over the details. Why would someone kill Matt Gregory? She recalled his black eye. Maybe it was just a coincidence. He’d looked like the kind of person who liked trouble and actively sought it out but she had the indefinable feeling that his murder had everything to do with what he knew about Benton.

She took a deep breath and let it out before turning to Amy once more. “I need you to tell me why Benton is attached to this button.”

Chapter Nine

“Benton was murdered.”

“I know. He was hit on the head with his own sword after he surrendered.”

“No,” Amy said. “This is something not even he knows. He was hit on the head, yes. But that isn’t what killed him.”

Jillian’s brow creased. “I don’t understand.”

“I picked this up psychically. But I feel that Benton was betrayed by someone he knew. Someone stabbed him in the back. At first I thought it was symbolic information but now I believe that it really happened. Someone
literally
stabbed him in the back.”

Realization flooded Jillian. She recalled the scar on his shoulder and then how she discovered the one on his back while he’d made love to her. Her whole body began to tingle. Was he here now, listening, watching? “Amy, you’re right. He
was
stabbed in the back. I found the scar there last night.”

Amy raised an eyebrow and Jillian knew she’d said too much. Her secret was now exposed. “You found a what?
Where
?” Amy’s strong intuition would definitely hit on what happened last night now.

Amy gasped and covered her mouth as if she’d just learned some horrible truth. Her eyes grew impossibly wide. “Jillian, tell me you did not…oh my God. You didn’t have…sex…with him, did you?”

Jillian’s cheeks flamed. She knew she was blushing. She looked away.

Amy continued. “Did he…manifest to you?”

“Manifest?” Jillian asked but she knew full well what the word meant.

“Yes. Manifest. It means to become solid—human?”

Jillian swallowed.

Amy sat up straighter. “Did he manifest to you? Could you feel him? Was he solid?” Her voice was stronger. Urgent.

Jillian was mortified. “Yes to all three,” she confessed through clenched teeth. An image of his body hovering over hers, the sight of his hard, thick cock disappearing into her pussy ignited white-hot heat between her thighs. Her stomach tightened into a guilt-ridden knot.

Amy didn’t seem at all astonished. She went on as if it were a matter of fact that someone could have sex with a ghost. “No wonder his energy is sapped. Listen to me. You mustn’t allow it to happen again. Manifesting to you—in that way—weakens his energy. The soul collectors could easily—”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Jillian’s voice was sharper than she’d intended. In a more civil tone she added, “Now?” Guilt gnawed at her insides. “I was so stupid—but he was so…tender and…hot. I was scared…” Her gaze found Amy’s. “Will he be okay?”

Amy reached across the bed and took Jillian’s hand in hers. “Yes. He will. He’ll be fine.” But somehow, she didn’t sound convincing. Her words didn’t have the same conviction as those she spoke straight from her intuition.

Jillian breathed a sigh.

Amy’s stare turned starry, the way it always did when she got a psychic hit. Some new insight shone on her face. Her forehead furrowed. She looked worried. “Oh no, Jillian. You’re in love with him aren’t you?”

Jillian snatched her hand out of Amy’s. She turned away. “That’s ridiculous. I was…I was vulnerable and scared after what happened yesterday. It just…it just happened.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Jillian saw Amy flash a wistful smile. “You should know by now that nothing in this Universe ever
just happens
.”

Jillian tried in vain to tamp down the memories of Benton’s hard body moving rhythmically over hers. Fervent warmth rushed up her spine and settled uncomfortably in her heart.

“Jill, you do understand that sooner or later he has to go into the Light, don’t you? Sooner being better than later in this case.”

“Yes, I know.” This was fast becoming too awkward. She needed to get to the relic shop. The quicker she got Benton on his way the better. Sitting here wasn’t solving anything. It was only making it worse. It was only reminding her of her mother’s death all those years ago…

Elevenyearold Jillian understood her mother was dead. What she couldn’t understand was her older sister Amy’s joy. They’d just come home from the funeral and gotten ready for bed. How could Amy be smiling when Jillian felt as if someone had reached inside her and ripped out her heart?

Silently, she brushed her teeth and padded to the bed. Amy was already sitting there with her Ouija board in her lap. Her hands moved at lightning speed, the planchette sliding and scraping across the board.

Jillian crawled under the covers and turned her back on her sister. She tried to shut out the sounds but then Amy gasped.

“Jillian!” she called excitedly.

She turned over and looked at Amy. But she hardly expected
to see what her eyes beheld.