Mitch (17 page)

“They’re going to jail.” Mitch looked at the
older ghost. “And let me tell you, they won’t last all that long there either.
We got us some people they have hurt going there to talk to them a little. You
might say they’re going to be judged by a different kind of jury. And they’ve
been found guilty already.”

They were making their way out of the
courthouse some twenty minutes later when the first of several of the other men
approached Mitch about what he’d done, and to tell him thanks. Mitch had never
been so grateful for the support of his friends and family than he was in that
moment.

~~~

The doors to Old Things opened two days
later. The huge warehouse was filled from top to bottom with not just antiques,
which took up most of the five stories, but also newer items such as drapes and
fixtures. There was a line outside the building when Vinnie left to go home to
rest. Nine people were working today, on this special day, and she wondered if
there would be enough help. Addie and Kari were just getting out of their cars
when Vinnie locked the back door.

“We’ve come to help out. And it looks like
you can use us, too.” Vinnie watched them move to the front of the store, and
she called them back. Handing them her keys, she told them where to find the
person in charge.

“She’s not very confident in herself, so I
would expect to have her ask lots of questions. There are others that can work
the job, but she’s the one that said she can do this. I think she can as well,
but....” Vinnie shrugged. “You really don’t mind helping out? Oh, and Max is in
there too. He’s a ghost that will be helping you with prices, as well as whatever
questions the people might have on a certain piece.”

“We’re excited.” Vinnie looked at Kari’s
belly, envying her having a child by the man that she loved. Soon, she told
herself. Soon she and Mitch would have children as well. Addie looked at her
and smiled. “You’ll be here soon enough.”

“I hope so.” Kari nodded. “We’re just
talking. I don’t know...we’re trying to figure out a lot of things right now.”

“So are we.” Vinnie looked up at the sun. “You’d
better get going. I know how to get in touch with Mitch if we have any problems,
and he said he could contact you too. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

Moving her body, running down now with the
sun so high in the sky, she made her way to her lair. As she moved into the
room, she felt the weight of the sun taking her nearly to the floor. She knew
she was going to have to rest more than she had lately, and blamed it on the
stress of the new store. As soon as her head hit her pillow, she was out.

Waking, she nearly screamed when she felt
someone in the room with her. She tried to peer into the darkness. It
frightened her on so many levels to know someone had gotten into her rooms with
her when she’d been sleeping. When a light flared, she sat very still on the
side of the bed and looked at the man in front of her.

“Hello. In the event you don’t know it, I’m
not here. Or there. Whatever you want to call it. I’m at my home, and you are there.”
Nodding, she stood up, glad now that she’d been too tired to undress before
sleeping. “I need your help.”

“I’m not the police.” He laughed, and she
moved to turn on the lights. With the light on, it seemed less creepy to have
him in her room. “You need help, perhaps you should go to them.”

“But it’s my daughter. She’s not dead, but I can’t
seem to locate her at all. It’s like she has fallen off the face of the earth.”
She asked him what he meant. “Dillon, my daughter, is human, but...she has some
abilities that make her a commodity to others. She can find things that are
thought to be lost.”

“You mean she uses psychometrics.” The man
smiled and nodded. “You could have just said that. Told me what she can do.”

“Most would call her a fake, a token or
object reader. I know what she can do. I’ve seen it. And not just with things
either, but with people as well. She’s found...there was a missing child, and Dillon
was able to find her.” She asked him where she was. “Ah, there lies the ten
million dollar question. I don’t know. I can usually...well, contact her
through a link that we share. Most of the time, there is just the two of us working
this thing. I can find things as well, you see, but not like she can. She is
brilliant at it. But as of a few weeks ago, I have not been able to reach out
to her at all. It’s like I’m hitting a wall.”

“And you know that she’s not been killed.” He
nodded. “And how do you know this? I mean, for sure. Could there just be nothing
there because she’s gone to you? I don’t mean to be cruel, but I’m trying to
understand this.”

“I appreciate your questions. I’ve asked
myself the same ones over and over. If she’s gone, then why has she not
contacted me? Or one of you? It’s...we have both said that should either of us
die, then we were to contact Steele Bennett or one of his men. As far as I
know, she has not.” That was a good way to know but not foolproof. “And there
is this.”

He held up an envelope, and she walked to it
to see if she could make it out. But it was too dark where he was, and she just
saw it had a name on it. Dillon Malone. He moved it when she asked him to, and
then she could see it did indeed say that name.

“Is this her or you?” He laughed. “Yeah,
that’s not a traditional girl’s name, so I thought I’d check. Who are you by
the way? And why have you come to me?”

“Her name is Dillon, as is mine, but I go by
my last name. I have since I was a youngster. She’s my onlyest.” Vinnie nodded
and sat back in her chair as he continued. “I got this letter yesterday. And it
said I was to contact you if I was going to get any real results. The rest of
the people in the business will help, but this note said I was to have you help
me. I don’t know why, unless you do.”

“I don’t know anything about any of this.”
She watched the man as he paced on his end. He seemed to be talking to someone,
and she reached for Mitch to let him know what was going on.
He said his daughter
is alive. How do I find out if she’s alive or not without running into her
?

I’ll ask Billy or Connie to look. Aster can
too. She is having fun at the shop, by the way. I guess her and the man that is
helping you out are getting along really well too. Oh, and you should know that
you’ve sold some really big pieces today. I don’t know which ones, but...we’re
kinda busy here
.
She asked him where he was.
Right now we’re in an old court house. I mean
really old. There are some clients here that have been here since the turn of
the century. Hang on, love, Aster is here now. Let me ask her
.

“I’m going to send you a copy of this letter
I have.” She looked at Malone and he showed her the letter, but she couldn’t
read it any better than she could the envelope. “Do you have a fax machine
there?”

After giving him the number, she moved out of
her rooms into the hall. Hugo was there as well as Gilda, like they were every
night when she rose. She was being updated on things from Gilda as they entered
the office. She pulled the letter off just as Gilda left her with the phone
messages she had. As she read over the file, she felt her world sort of tilt. She
wasn’t just supposed to find this girl, but she was to keep her safe as well.

“Do you know what it means?” She told Malone
that she didn’t. “Neither do I. Why does whoever wrote that think you can
protect her any more than I can?”

“I don’t know. But you said she’s human. And
that you are as well.” He nodded. “Don’t lie to me, Malone. I’m not in the mood
to be fucked with here.”

Aster said she’s not dead. Being held, but
not dead
.
Mitch paused before continuing.
What’s going on
?

I don’t know just yet
. He told her to get
back to him if she needed him.
Always. I will always need you. But her
father is lying to me. I’m not sure why, but he is
.

“She’s not human. I am, but she’s not.” He
sat down and looked to her like he was floating on air. “She’s not my daughter
either. Not of my blood anyway. She is, however, something special. And as for
me lying to you, it’s all I’ve done to keep her safe since I found her on my
front porch. She can find people and things, as can I, but she’s so much
stronger than me. I just want her home and safe.”

“And this letter, it’s real?” He told her it
was. “All right. She’s not dead. A friend of mine looked around and she’s not
dead. But you lie to me again and I will drain you. You do understand that,
don’t you?”

“I do, and I won’t. I just need her to come
home to me.”

Vinnie glanced at the letter she had in front
of her after Malone left her. It said that he was to contact Victoria Riley. Not
Vinnie Graham, but Riley. And he was to tell her everything that was listed on
this letter.

No police. No Feds, and absolutely no weapons
at all were to ever be on her person when she came to talk to them. Whoever
they were, they expected her to be easy.

“Fuck that shit.” She grinned at Hugo when he
tisked at her. “Hugo, my dear friend, we might just get ourselves in trouble
over this one.”

“That will be a change how, my lady?” She
laughed at his seriousness and decided it was time to go see how the store was
doing. Closing time was in an hour, and Vinnie needed to think too. Going out
into the night, she told Mitch what she knew and what the letter had said.

Don’t go there, wherever they want you to
meet them, without someone with you
. She told him she’d take her Hugo.
I like
that idea. He’s nothing but a big old cat, and no one will notice that he’s a
shifter too
.

Before long, she knew she’d have to find
someone to watch over Mitch as well. Hugo was her helper, and even though Mitch
was her mate, she couldn’t watch over him all the time. Putting that on her
list of things to do, she entered the store. Vinnie had a lot of things to do there
before the sun came up in the morning.

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