Ghost Walk (31 page)

He
didn’t seem to care about the legal ramifications.  He was too busy ripping
Robert apart with his bare hands.

Robert
gave a squawk of pain and panic, trying to escape Jamie’s fury.  Who could
blame him?  It was like watching a dog fight between a Chihuahua and a rabid
timber wolf.

“You
think you can hit my goddamn
wife?!
”  Jamie bellowed, sending Robert
flying backwards with another crushing blow.  The smaller man landed on his
back, blood pouring from his crushed nose.  “You think you can come into her
house?  Threaten her?  Try to rape her?  Call her
yours?  You think I’ll
just fucking let that happen?
”

Robert
scrambled backward like a crab, his penny loafers slipping on the cement
floor.  “It wasn’t my fault!  She started it!  She tried to ruin my life!”

Jamie
followed him down the aisle like the specter of death.  “You’re not going to
have
a life, by the time I’m done with you.”  It was a grim promise.  “Nobody
touches Grace. 
Nobody
.”  He hauled Robert up to hit him again.

Repeatedly.

Grace
realized this was careening towards a murder charge.  Jamie had been riding
high on emotions for several hours now and he hated Robert with a festering
passion even on his good days.  Assault and battery was bad enough, but she
didn’t want her fiancé locked up in jail for the rest of his brand new life.  Especially
not over a waste of waste of skin like Robert.

“Wait!” 
She protested, cambering to her feet.  “You can’t kill him.”

“Watch
me.”  Jamie kicked Robert hard enough to break multiple ribs and then planted
his booted heel on the smaller man’s neck.  “Next time you strike a woman,
you’d better double-check if she belongs to a pirate, asshole.  We tend to be a
possessive bunch.”  He gave a meaningful pause.  “Oh wait… There won’t
be
a next time for you, will there?”

Robert
managed a gurgled response, his face turning purple.

Grace’s
eyebrows compressed in alarm.  This wasn’t what she wanted.  It was sweet and all,
but they had seen enough violence and death today.  “Jamie, please.  You don’t
have to do this.  We’ll call the police…”

“Who
did so fucking much the last time!”  He interrupted at a roar.  “They let him
out and he came after you
again!
  Do you have any idea what it felt like,
standing there and doing
nothing
, while he hurt you?”  His voice was
anguished.  “I couldn’t help you, Grace!”

“You
did
help me.  You saved me, but
this
won’t do me any good, at
all.  They’ll just throw you in prison and then I’ll be alone.”  She gazed up
at him.  “Don’t do that to us.  I need you.”

His
gaze cut over to hers, burning with the intense blue of spacious skies, and
shining seas, and every other shimmering American dream.  This man was every
dream Grace had ever had.

“I
need you.”  She repeated quietly.  “You’re my Partner, Jamie.  Stay with me.”

The
pressure on Robert’s throat eased slightly, as Jamie reluctantly allowed him to
gasp in some air.  He frowned a bit, but did as she asked.  “I do not agree
with this decision.”  He intoned, breathing hard.

“I
know.”  She held out a hand to him.  “For me.  Just let him go
for me
.”

He
muttered a Gaelic curse and released Robert.  He took his foot off his neck and
gave him a disgusted nudge with his boot.  “Be grateful my woman is a Sunday
school teacher.”  He muttered with an annoyed scowl.

The
other man lay on the floor, sucking in lungfuls of oxygen and sending Jamie a
look of total loathing.

Jamie
didn’t so much a glance at him.  “For
you
, Grace.”  He agreed, still not
pleased with letting Robert go.  “I would do whatever you ask.  You know that. 
Even when it is a
horrible
idea.”

“Thank
you.”  She gave him a misty smile.  “I love you too much to lose you.”

“I
love you too much to be lost.”  He said softly, moving towards her.  “There is
nothing that I will ever take me from your side…”

Robert
let out a sudden bellow, apparently getting his second wind at the sound of
their romantic declarations.  He leapt to his feet, the broken saber that Grace
had lost earlier clutched in his hand.  “She was mine first!”  He shouted
manically and lunged at Jamie, trying to spear him with the blade.

Grace
didn’t think.  Jamie was about to be stabbed and she just reacted.  Her palm
went up…

And
the River Doomsday Spell blasted at full force

Power
flowed through Grace.  More than she’d ever felt, even during Serenity’s
séances.  The overhead light flickered and then exploded in showers of glass. 
Papers blew in small cyclones of air.  Shelves toppled.  Mice skittered away,
searching for cover.  It was like every cell inside of her had been plugged
into an electrical outlet and turned up to full blast.

Jamie
gaped at the ceiling as sparks rained down.  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I knew
you had magic in you.”  He murmured reverently.

Robert
let out a terrified scream as the Doomsday spell engulfed him.

…Then
he simply vanished.

All
evidence of Robert was gone in a matter of seconds.  The box of his office
supplies, his knocked out teeth, the blood from his broken nose…  It was like
he’d never been there, at all.

Grace
stood there, her body still vibrating even as the magic faded.

Holy
crap!  A spell had actually worked!

At
least, she
assumed
it worked.  Since she had no idea what it was
supposed
to do, it was hard to say if it had actually done it
correctly
, but
Jamie was safe and that was all that mattered.  She looked up at him, her mind
reeling.  “Are you okay?”

“I’m
fine, which is more than I can say for that wanker Robert.”  Jamie gazed at her
in awe.  “Where did you send him, love?”

“I
have no idea.”  The Doomsday spell didn’t exactly come with operating
instructions.  It was strictly a “break glass in case of emergency” kinda
deal.  Grace let out a long breath.  “Given my only powers seem to be of the
time travel variety, I’m guessing someplace long ago and possibly far, far
away.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “Just so he’s far, far away from
us
, I
don’t even care.”

“Well,
I’d still liked to have killed him, but that was just as satisfying.”  Jamie
beamed.  “I
told
you ya had magic in your blood, lass.  More than anyone
I’ve ever met or heard of.  Why with your talent, there is no telling the
spells you could harness if you tried…”

She
cut him off.  “I’m
not
harnessing any spells, Jamie.  I told you, I
don’t like them.  They never work properly.”

Jamie
arched an amused brow.  “Explain that to Robert.  Oh wait, you can’t…  You disintegrated
him.”  He chuckled in delight.

“I
didn’t disintegrate him!”  At least, she didn’t
think
she did.  Grace
looked around, trying to spot some sign of her ex, but he was well and truly
gone.  This one was definitely going to be hard to explain to the museum board.

“In
any case, we’ll discuss all the fun adventures we can have with your powers
later.”  Jamie assured her in a humoring tone.  “We’ve all the time on the
world.”

“We’re
not using my powers for any more ‘fun adventures,’ Jamie.  That was my last
spell.  I mean it.”

Jamie
disregarded that.  “What’s important now is you and I are finally together.”  He
started towards her again, crunching through the antique documents scattered
all over the floor.  “That’s what I was telling you before.  There is nothing
that could keep me from your side, Grace.  I belong to you, just as surely as…” 
He stopped short.

“Something
wrong?”  She’d been liking that speech.

“What
the bloody hell?”  His boot had come down on a piece of yellowed parchment.  It
was one of the countless documents that Grace had scattered around the basement
in her search for the shawl and her tornado of power had stirred it up again.  “Holy
shit!”  He bent down to grab it, an amazed expression on his face.  “Grace, you
actually found it!”

“I
found what?”  Grace hurried over to see what he was holding.  It was a faded
drawing of a coastline, with some trees and a big red X painted on the beach.  Her
eyebrows soared.  There was only one thing in the world it could be.  “Oh my
God!  Is that…?”

“It’s
mine. 
Ours
.”  He beamed at her, looking every bit the pirate he’d always
be, no matter what century they were standing in.  “You just found my missing treasure
map!”

I
realized that JMR is the only one of my beaus who never assures me that we’ll
one day marry, or tells me that he loves me passionately, or swears that I’m
the only girl for him.  Isn’t that refreshing?  It’s no wonder he’s my
favorite.

Both
of us know we’re waiting for other people.

Final
Entry from the Journal of Miss Lucinda Wentworth

“Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph.”  Jamie leaned on the shovel and blew out a tired breath.  “I
donea remember it being this much work to bury the damn thing.”

“Well,
you were nearly two and a half centuries younger.  Also you’d been drinking a
lot of rum.”  Grace arched a brow at him.  “I just hope you weren’t
completely
drunk when you drew the map.”

He
made a face at her.  “I’m never so drunk that I can’t draw a map properly.  In
fact, we’re lucky
I
made it and not some amateur like Ned Hunnicutt.  We’d
probably be recreating the Panama Canal looking for the treasure chest.”

“Just
keep digging.”

“You’re
a bit of a taskmaster, love.”  He picked up the shovel and resumed work.  “It
can be quite a trying trait.  …Outside of the bedroom, anyway.”

“You
know what else is trying?  You not having a social security number or birth
certificate to take downtown and get a wedding license.”  She retorted.  “If we
want my greedy techno-nerd of a nephew to make them from you, we’re going to
have to pay him with something other than magic beans.  Trust me.  Magic beans
are not worth
nearly
what you’d think they’d be worth.”

“That
Justice lad will use magic to make me the needed documents and then we can
wed?”  Jamie stipulated, wanting to be sure of the fine print.

He’d
been living in the twenty-first century for two weeks now and Grace was still
not his wife.  All the rules of the modern world seemed designed to vex him. 
Serenity had promised to host a lavish reception for them and he was ready to
get on with it.  Grace’s aunt had taken quite a shine to him, if Jamie did say
so himself.  She said that it was a crime against nature that someone who
looked like him had been invisible for so long, which he thought was a grand
compliment.

“Justice
isn’t going to use magic to make your phony documents.  He’s going to use
Photoshop, but basically yeah.  That’s the plan.  We’re going to pay him
several thousand dollars and he’s going to make Jamie Riordan a bona fide
citizen of America.”

“I’m
already
a bona fide citizen.  I was here when the country was founded.”

“Trust
me, it would better if we didn’t have to explain that part to Homeland
Security.  Let’s go with Justice’s fake IDs and save ourselves from a trip to
Area 51.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “Although, I
do
think he could’ve
offered us more of a discount, considering I singlehandedly changed the
family’s fortunes with that financial tip to Loyal.  You realize that this is
the first time
ever
we haven’t been broke?”

Jamie
couldn’t argue with that.  Loyal had eventually figured out that a cotton gin
had nothing to do with liquor and invested heavily in the machine.  The Riveras
weren’t nearly so reviled now that they were the richest family in Riveraburg.

Personally,
he wasn’t at all sorry that Harrisonburg had been renamed after Grace’s
great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.  Maybe Loyal had used magic
and money to achieve his ends, but at least Gregory Maxwell wasn’t governor
anymore and Ned Hunnicutt had been booted back to England.  The next time Jamie
saw Loyal, he planned to thank the man.

In
truth, all his zany in-laws were growing on him.  Jamie had never had a family
before and he appreciated the novelty.  Besides, he saw how much the Rivera
clan loved Grace and how much she loved them in return.  He could tolerate
foul-tasting potions and misfiring spells forever to make her happy.

…Although,
he had to wonder how long they’d hold onto their new-found respectability, as
they were already nagging Grace about troll powder, again.

Grace
crouched down next to the hole that Jamie had dug.  “How deep did you bury this
treasure, anyway?”

“I’ve
no idea.  As you delight in reminding me, I’d drank quite a bit of rum that
evening.”

“Maybe
someone else came along and found it.”  She theorized.  “It’s been a long
time.”

“Aye,
but the spot is isolated.  T’was why I picked it in the first place.”

Luckily,
the stretch of water and shoreline had become seabird sanctuary seventy years
back, so it had never been filled up with hideous condos and boxy vacation
homes.  No one came to this spot except gulls and pelicans.  …And maybe an
ex-ghost, his lovely fiancée, and their professional-grade metal detector, of
course.

His
gold was still under the ground, waiting for them.  Jamie could feel it.

He
glanced up at Grace, who looked adorable in her camisole top and breezy white
skirt.  A straw hat covered her head and she smelled of ocean and sunscreen. 
He fully planned to have his way with her on the sand before they left.  “If my
treasure was stolen, I’ll just have to hire some bonny detective lass to track
it down for me, again.  Any idea where I could find one?”

She
grinned, optimism shining from her eyes.  “I might have a couple of
suggestions.”

Like
magic, crime-solving was in the girl’s blood.  She’d never be happy with any
other job.  Working for the police department might be too much for her, now
that she’d discovered her gifts, but there was no reason for her give up her
passion, altogether.  Jamie had come up with the idea of Grace becoming a
freelance investigator.  That way she could pick the cases she wanted to pursue
and focus on saving one person at a time, instead of the whole world.

Besides,
he quite liked the idea of being married to a private detective.  It brought to
mind those Film Noir movies he’d watched in the 1940s.  God, when motion
pictures had been invented, he’d spent
decades
inside theaters, watching
them flicker by.  He’d thought films were the closest he’d ever get to
connecting to someone.

He’d
been wrong.

Jamie
smiled at his Partner.  His bride.  The reason his heart beat and his soul was
full of love.  She was why he had a second chance at life and he intended to
live every second of it beside her.  He wouldn’t have changed one magical hair
on her fay little head for all the treasure maps in creation.

Except
for the fact that the woman was stubbornly fixated on ignoring her own talents.

“Perhaps
our first case should be discovering what happened to poor Robert.”  He
suggested, because it just never got old that the bastard was gone and that
Grace’s incredible magic had been the thing to send him away.  

No
one had seen a wanker-y trace of the wanker since the basement, but the police
had a warrant out against him for striking Grace.  Like the law-abiding girl
she was, she’d dutifully reported that he’d attacked her in the museum and she had
the bruises to prove it …though her version had Robert escaping out a window
and not poofing off to who-knew-where.  The police had been quite conciliatory towards
a member of Riveraburg’s first family and promised to track him down soon. 
They had men watching his house, just in case he showed up.

Jamie
had a feeling they’d have better luck searching the outer rings of Saturn.

Grace
might not care for spells, but the lass had a true knack for casting them.  The
magic inside of her glowed brighter each day.  Given a bit of time, he was sure
he could convince her to fully embrace her power.  It was a part of her, after
all.  Already he could tell she was more interested in the idea that she was
ready to admit.

“Wherever
Robert is, I hope he stays there.”  Grace said staunchly.  “And what is this
about
our
first case?  I don’t need a chaperone, Jamie.”

“I
know that, love!”  He splayed a hand across his bare chest as if he was offended
she’d say such a thing.  “Why I’d never suggest otherwise.  I was merely
thinking I could be your glamorous, occasionally sarcastic, sidekick.  Someone
to bounce your brilliant ideas off of.”

…And
help to keep her out of trouble.  The woman needed him, after all.

“Wearing
the crazy clothes you do, you’d frighten away everyone who came to the door.”

Jamie
looked down at his vividly patterned shorts and shrugged.  He’d adapted to
modern-style clothing quickly enough, but he still liked a bit of color in his
wardrobe.  “I’m a fashionable fellow, regardless of the century.”

“You’re
a raving lunatic, regardless of the century.  In fact, I don’t trust you not to
rob all our customers, just for the thrill of it.”

Well,
he
was
a pirate…

Jamie
grinned.  “Come now, lass.”  He cajoled.  “Riordan and Riordan Investigations
has such a lovely ring to it.”

“Riordan
and
Rivera
Investigations.”  She corrected.

Jamie
pretended to ponder that for a beat and shook his head.  “Doesn’t trip nearly
so easy off the tongue.”  He didn’t care what modern customs allowed, he wanted
her to have his last name.  The woman was his and everyone should know it.

“If
you don’t like the company’s name, you could always get your
own
job. 
But I’d better warn you, pirates in this century just bootleg DVDs.”

Jamie
snorted.  They’d see about that.  “Riordan and Rivera-
Riordan
.”  He
offered, focusing on one battle at a time.  “Triple R Investigations.”

“What
are we?  A dude ranch?  There’s no way…”

The
shovel clanged against metal, cutting her off.  Jamie and Grace’s eyes met for
a beat and then he was hurrying to clear away the sand covering the treasure
chest.

She
leaned over the side of the hole, trying to get a better look.  “Do you see
it?  Is it there?”

“I
see it!  It’s here!”  Jamie beamed at her.  “I told you it would be!”  He
leaned up to give her a smacking kiss.

“You
know we’re going to have to give some of this to the government.”  Grace
warned, one hand on her hat so the force of his kiss didn’t knock it right off
her head.

“Bullshit! 
I stole most of it before Virginia was even a state.”

“And
you buried it on public land.  They’re going to want a cut of everything we
find.”

That
was preposterous.  “It wasn’t public when I buried it.  I think it belonged to
the Indians.”

“It’s
‘
Native Americans
,’ now.  And none of that is going to matter to the nice
IRS auditors.”

“No
one else even knows it exists, Grace.”

“That’s
not the point.  Honest people report financial windfalls.”

Jamie
snorted at that idea.  “Fuck it.  We’re pirates and pirates donea share our
treasure.  Everyone knows that.”

“I’m
not a pirate, Jamie.”

“Of
course you are!  Pirating is in your blood, lass, same as magic and
investigating.  No sense in pretending to be normal, at this late date.”  He
winked at her.  “Besides, I fought against taxation in the War.  I’d be a
hypocrite to start paying them now.”  He pried the lid open with the shovel,
laughing with glee at the sight of his gold.

“That
is absolutely
not
why the Revolution…”

She
trailed off as her eyes took in the mountain of golden coins, emerald
necklaces, ruby broches, silver chalices, diamond pendants, and sapphire rings
shining up at her from the box.

Freed
from their wooden tomb, the treasure glistened in the summer sun with a magic
all its own.  It was a large enough haul to see them set up for the rest of
their lives.  Large enough that even Jamie was impressed and he was the one
who’d stolen it all.

Jamie
smiled as Grace’s lips parted in astonishment at the fortune he’d just
uncovered.  “
There’s
you engagement ring, love.”

“Oh
my
God
.”

“I
thought you’d like it.”  This treasure had belonged to Grace long before she
was even born.  He’d always meant for it to provide security for his wife and
family.  Every cent had been gathered for this very moment.

“It’s
really ours?”  She got out, still gazing down at the pile of gold and jewels.

“Aye. 
No more need for peaceful green cornfields to feel safe.”  He climbed out of
the hole to cradle her face between his palms.  “It’s azure blue waters, now.  You
and me and a pile of money, doing whatever we wish.  Now and forever.”

She
tore her eyes away from the treasure to meet his gaze.  “
You
make me
feel safe, Jamie.  I don’t need peaceful green cornfields
or
azure blue
waters for that.  And I don’t need a treasure chest full of gems as an
engagement ring.  I’d marry you if we had to spend the rest of our lives giving
Ghost Walks every night.”

Jamie
adopted a considering expression.  “Those dreadful tours you hosted
would
be a great deal livelier with me lending a hand.  I could help you get the
stories straight.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “Or at least I’d help you
concoct better lies.”