Truth Is Found (10 page)

“They’re here?”

Tori simply nodded. From her peripheral, she could see shadows spinning around her on both sides. They were there, and she didn't doubt that they understood him. The energy in the room was reacting to her husband’s anger.

“Please calm down,” she reiterated, keeping her own self-calm.

Julian didn't think he could. If there was one thing he hated, it was surprises.

Well, this was the mother of them all.

“We did this twice now, Tori. When it was Bethany, we set her free, and she never left. What if we start gaining a following? What’s to keep these ghosts from latching on and following us to our home? God knows it could happen. You’re like the pied piper of dead. When’s it going to stop? How many more tagalongs can we fit in our life?”

She stared at him. “Julian, I…”

He cut her off. “Bethany and this whole thing is a pain in my ass!”

The air changed, and while he couldn’t feel it, she could. Tori was just about to warn him when…

Julian gasped.

“OUCH!” He jumped and spun around. “She just pinched me on the ass! I was just assaulted by your spook!”

It was hard not to laugh. Tori knew he was angry, but really, this was pretty damn amusing.

Julian searched for her in the room. “Where are you?”

The curtains whipped around, despite there not being any breeze.

He focused on them. “Hands off! My ass is not for your entertainment!”

Tori snickered. “Well, you did just insult her, so she wanted you to know she hears everything you say.”

Julian moved angrily toward his wife.

Beau didn’t hesitate. He didn't know the man well enough, but he knew he needed to protect his sister if Julian was over the edge.

Gently, she placed her hand on her brother’s arm. “He would never hurt me,” she reassured before Julian could lose it.

She closed the gap between them, taking his hand in hers. “We owe them this much. Someone took their lives, Jules. What if it was our child? What if one of us was trapped in that world, and no one would help set us free?”

He looked horrified. “Bite your tongue, Victoria!”

Tori went into his arms and hugged him. “We got our little one because of this. I owe a debt, and I always pay them off. It’s the soldier’s code, Jules. Even if I have to save everyone who comes to us, I will. My word means something, and so does yours.”

Julian loathed that she had a very valid point.

He dropped his forehead to hers and sighed. “For how long, honey? When will this end?”

She kissed him. “We keep going forward until it’s over. I can’t give you a date, Jules. All I know is that we have a job to do. We find things that are lost, right?”

He knew where this was heading. “I wasn’t being literal or referring to dead people when I put it on the sign, honey. I think you know that.”

Tori grinned. “We have to find them. They’re getting angry, and that’s why they’re lashing out. Imagine if you were trapped, lost, and scared. Then you found that one person who could hear you. What would you do to be heard?”

Julian understood what she was saying. If it were him in that position, he’d do just about anything.

“My spirit guide promised to keep me safe. I believe Bethany. She’s never lied to us, and she’s always had my back, even when you weren’t by my side.”

His wife had a point, but he was still skeptical. “Spirit guide, huh?”

“You’re Native. I hear your family discuss how they are guided by the dead all the time. Clarissa still puts out a plate for your father at holidays.”

She had another point.

“Yes, she does.”

“How is this different? You talk to your dead, and I talk to mine. We have to adjust and not let this freak us out.”

Beau watched silently, taking it all in. This had to be the oddest conversation he ever heard, and if it hadn’t been between his sister and Julian, he would have questioned their sanity.

Julian knew she was right.

“How do I know you’re telling me everything?” he asked. “You tend to not tell me things that freak me out. If I agree to this, I want to be kept in the loop.”

Yeah, she did, and this was exactly why.

“If you need to know the truth, ask her.”

He lifted a brow and stared into those stormy eyes that he loved so much. “How am I supposed to do that, Victoria Rose? Whip out my handy dandy Ouija board?”

She thought about it. While she could hear Bethany when the woman wanted to warn her, Julian was right. He couldn’t. There was no way for him to communicate.

“Bethany, are you here?” she asked. “If you are, knock once.”

Julian nearly laughed, but then they heard it.

Bethany was replying.

Even Beau was caught off guard. “This is creepy. What the hell?”

Unfortunately, Julian happened to agree with the man.

“Once for yes, twice for no, okay?” she asked, waiting for the next knock.

When it happened, Julian gave her the look.

It made her want to laugh too. He was so close to the edge, and she always found that amusing.

“You used to be so sane.”

Tori grinned. Julian was obviously calming down. The fact that he was willing to joke around was proof.

As for her sanity...that was saying a lot, especially since they met while she was controlled by nightmares and PTSD.

“Will she get hurt? Can you keep her safe?” Julian asked, cutting to the chase. He didn't have time or the inclination to fool around with their dead tagalong.

They waited, and there were two knocks, and then one more.

“Do you promise?”

There was one knock.

“Do you watch us having sex?”

There was one knock.

Tori started laughing.

“Christ! I knew it!” he said, trying not to laugh. If he didn't, he’d just get angry. That’s how insane all of this was. He never thought he’d be having a conversation with the dead.

Well, not while he was alive anyway.

Beau looked freaked out.

Then again, who could blame him?

He was a soldier, and now he was fighting a battle against things they couldn’t see. This had to be one hell of a shock for him. While he knew what his sister could do, he’d never seen it firsthand. This was the first time he’d seen her playing medium.

From the look on his face, they knew he wasn’t enjoying it.

At all…

“You can head back to the office if you want,” Tori offered. “I know how weird this has to be for you. Hell! It’s weird for me too,” Tori added. “It’s more than anyone should have to handle. I’ll understand.”

Beau didn't hesitate.

He moved toward the door.

“Drive safe,” Julian said, nothing but animosity in his voice.

“I’m not leaving my sister,” Beau stated. “While this is totally insane, I won’t risk her or walk away. I’m going to go back to the prep room, tell them I smoked half a pack of cigarettes to calm my nerves, and then get back to work. This is just another day in the job. If Littlemoon Investigations is all about the things that go bump in the night, I’m going to accept it like a good soldier. I trust my sister.”

Julian relaxed.

He always expected the man to bolt. He hated that he felt that way, but it was the truth. Look at Tori’s mom. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, and Julian assumed Beau would eventually do the same thing.

The odds were that it was genetic.

“Don’t look so surprised, Julian. I’m not her. I finally found my sister. I won’t leave her side until I’m one of the ghosts talking to her.”

Julian didn't want any anger between them. This was Tori’s brother, and she’d accepted Justin without judging him. He wanted to do the same.

“Beau,” he began.

He didn't give him time to apologize. “I gotta go. I have a mess to help clean up, and I want to wash these cuts. Who the hell knows what I’ll get? Maybe there’s some ghost rabies, and I’ll start frothing at the mouth and talking in tongues.”

Tori laughed when he winked at her. “I love you, Beau.”

“Sis, I love you too. I got your back. Hooah!”

She repeated it to him. It was something soldiers did to prove they were in for the long haul. It looked like she had quite the team keeping her safe.

It was nice.

Together, they watched him leave.

“Well, this day is going downhill fast. I may need that drink before too long,” Tori said, sitting on the bed.

Julian was right beside her, holding her hand. “Okay, tell me what you know, and we’re going to go from there. I may not have been a soldier, but I’ve got your back too, Tori.”

She was well aware. Julian was her best friend in the whole world.

“All I know is they had to be violent deaths. The way they were screaming, they wanted my attention.” She got quiet. “They suffered, Jules. However they went, it wasn’t a good way to die. That’s what I do know.”

Her husband wasn’t happy to hear that. It made him nervous to think the same thing could happen to her. Instead of commenting, he did what he did best.

Julian began making notes on his phone. “What else?”

“They looked about twelve. I didn't see them for long, but when I could get a good look, they were still young.”

Julian made more notes. “How were they dressed?”

She thought about it. “I don’t know. Everything went by so fast, and it was like looking through a cloudy sheet of glass.”

He knew who would know.

“Bethany, did they die a long time ago?” he asked, still weirded out by this system they set up, but he was going to use it to ensure his wife was safe.

They listened, and there were two knocks.

“In the last twenty years?” he asked next.

There was one knock.

Julian tried not to make a big deal about the indentation on the bed beside him. It was moving closer.

Oh, it was freaking him the hell out, but he’d try and let it go. How had his life gotten so weird?

Now he remembered. He opened his own damn business, and this was the outcome.

“Julian?” Tori said, noticing he wasn’t talking.

“Sorry, I was processing it all.”

“Bethany,” she said, knowing what had him reacting. She could hear her laughter. “Don’t torment him, or I will get that priest and holy water.”

Immediately, the indentation moved away from him.

It was good to see that her threats had some weight. Tori didn't know if they’d work, but Bethany seemed to think so. That was good enough for her.

“Thank you,” he said, going back to what he was doing before Bethany moved in. “Okay, so we know they didn't die that long ago. Hopefully, this gives us a jumping off point. We’ll start with that and run with it. We might get lucky.”

Tori listened to him.

There was buzzing in her ears, and it likely meant that Bethany was amused that he was trying to communicate with her. It gave Tori hope that they could pull this off. Julian was trying, and she had to give him credit for that.

“What’s next?”

He knew what he wanted, but it would take a phone call. “I think we should get some help with this one.”

She was good with that. “Research?”

“Yep.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed his office. When Lena answered, he asked to be put through to Christina and Kane. If there were two people, who excelled at digging up dirt, it was them. Christina used every trick to skirt the law and find the information.

He loved that about her.

“Yo, boss man, what’s up?” Kane asked, coming on the line.

“Are you on speaker?”

“Yes, and it’s just me and the little woman. Justin is in his office, Beckett and Claire are following a fornicator, and we were just doing all the paper work to keep the place up and running.”

Julian was happy that his team was following the instructions they’d set in place. That was one less worry on his shoulders.

“Good. Put it away because I need you both for something really important.”

There was a shuffling of papers.

“What is it?”

“We have three dead females,” he said, telling them the entire story. Of their team, Christina was the definite skeptic in the bunch. Granted, she was coming around after what she saw in Kentucky, but she was still a scientist at heart. That couldn’t be shaken easily.

“Okay, and?” she asked, making notes.

“They are unknown and need to be found. Get me their names.”

There was clicking going on, and finally she was back on the line. “I’m going to run every missing person in that area over the last decade.”

“Go back twenty years, just in case,” he stated. While they knew what Bethany said, they weren’t going into details. It would take too much time, and then Christina would want to be privy to the parlor tricks.