Talking bones, p.18
Talking Bones, page 18
“It feels like a death,” he murmured.
It is, she admitted. It absolutely is. It’s mourning what you didn’t know. It’s the death of how you see people, how you thought you knew them, finding out how they actually are or were. Not everybody has to go through this, but, in your case, I think it would be a good idea.
“And why is that?” he asked, his voice harsh to his own ears.
Because you have the ability to do so much more that you don’t even realize yet, and all these deceptive people will hold you back more than you think. Not to mention, if somebody did try to kill you, which I’m thinking might have been in anger, I think somebody else is out there who’s against you as well.
“I’m sitting here, wondering if my friend crashed the vehicle we were in on purpose, hoping that I would die with him. Plus, now I’m wondering if my brother brought you in, hoping you would kill me in the process—or at least keep me in a permanent coma—so that he would have power of attorney over my company and my estate.”
After a moment of silence on the other end, she said, I wouldn’t be surprised if either or even both of those things are true, but it’ll be up to you to make peace with it.
“How the hell do you make peace with something like that?” he asked in shock. “My best friend and my brother betrayed me.”
I can’t help you with that, she replied sadly. You’re dealing with an element of the world that I try very hard to stay away from.
“I would like to. I really would.”
Then you have to find a way to get there, she noted gently. Whatever manner it is, I suggest you do it as soon as possible because that type of thinking, that type of energy in your system right now, it’ll just poison you.
Chapter 11
Skylar woke up in the middle of the night to hear the ghosts down in the shop humming like crazy. She bolted to her feet in her pajamas, then raced downstairs, unlocked the connecting door, and stepped inside the shop. She called out, “Who’s there?”
An odd sound came from the back of the store. Then she heard the back door slam open and closed again. She raced there to lock it. Then realized that the siren of the alarm system was not ringing. Either the intruder had turned it off somehow—which didn’t seem likely—or she’d been so exhausted that she’d forgotten to set it. She scrubbed her face, as she wandered through the store, checking to make sure that everything was secure. Why would somebody have been in here?
It was a super crazy season, busy with tourists, but she always secured all the proceeds at the end of each day either in the bank or in her safe. As she walked around, she noted the cash register was untouched. So why break in here? She soon noticed that the rack with the tarot cards had been dumped on the floor.
She frowned because anything to do with tarot cards was enough to make her heart jump, particularly now that she knew Jonesy was dead. And how it happened that Jonesy was dead was a whole different story. She didn’t know where that would end up, but it was not one that she was particularly happy to hear. She also didn’t know where the tarot card set he’d been seeking even was.
She wandered slowly about and picked up the scattered tarot cards, noting an unfamiliar pack just under the edge of the counter. She pulled it out and immediately felt a tingling of awareness. This wasn’t just any pack; this was an old pack. As she stared at it, she got a horrible feeling. Not wanting to be stuck inside the shop, in case the intruder returned, she quickly reset the alarm and snuck back up to her apartment, locking the door as soon as she stepped inside.
“Elena, is anybody here?” she called out softly.
Elena appeared immediately and shook her head. “Is everybody okay downstairs?”
It was funny how one ghost was worried about the other ghosts, when nothing really could help them or hurt them, without their own consent.
Skylar nodded. “They raised the alarm to let me know there was an intruder.” Then she held up the tarot cards. “Do you know what these are?”
Immediately Elena stepped back. “I do. Those are dangerous to play with.”
“What I want to know is, where did this set come from?”
“Those are old, and they’re dangerous.” Elena faded slightly.
Again Skylar nodded. “I know. I just wish I knew how they got here.”
She walked into her bedroom, where her safe was located. She opened it up and checked the tarot cards to see if a note or anything came with them, but there wasn’t. She slowly placed them inside, then closed the safe. On impulse, she pulled them back out, opened them up, laid the cards out, and carefully took photos of each and every one. Some weird energy was going on around them.
As she picked up each, she quickly cleaned off the energy, put it mentally into a vat with a clean, pure love energy, and put it back into the box. Then she did the entire box and covered it with as much clean and loving energy as possible and put it back in her safe. She stood and turned toward Elena.
Almost shaking, Elena whispered, “That was a good thing you did.”
“I don’t know how they got into my shop.” Skylar frowned. “And why would somebody have put them there if they are valuable?”
“I don’t know,” Elena whispered, her hands on her heart. “I really don’t know. Something wrong is going on.”
“Oh, yeah, I get that. I really do. I just don’t know what it is.”
“It has to do with Gage,” she murmured, but her pronunciation of Gage’s name was odd, making Skylar smile.
“You’re right, a lot is going on in his world too.”
“And a ghost clings to him,” Elena noted.
At that, Skylar looked at her friend sharply. “You don’t normally see other ghosts.”
“Most of the time I don’t see any,” she admitted, “but an energy is attached to Gage.”
“Good energy or bad?”
Elena shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know it’s there, and it’s not letting go anytime soon.” Then she disappeared.
It was three o’clock in the morning, and the thought of going back to sleep was delightful but very unlikely. Skylar crawled into bed, then grabbed her laptop and instead started researching the tarot cards. They’d been known to be in the New Orleans area for centuries. The particular set was an archaic pattern, originally designed by an Old English artist called Tab Renshaw. She found their images and confirmed they matched her set. But what she didn’t know was who had them last. She had a few contacts in her world who might have that information, so she quickly sent off a couple emails, questioning whether anybody knew who the tarot cards were currently owned by. Finally, with that complete, she did a meditation and drifted off, but it was an uneasy sleep.
When she woke up again, it was not even five, but she had a choking feeling in her throat. She bolted once again from her room and raced down the block and across to the hotel where Gage was. She burst into his room to find him once again under the blackness she had seen before.
She roared, “Stop that,” as the blackness tried to overtake Gage’s healthy energy. She reached out a physical hand and, with a swipe of energy, brushed back the dark energy off Gage again. It bounced to the floor, stood, and then almost with a mental roar raced toward her. As soon as it came right up close, she turned on the mirror that she’d learned to create and had the dark spirit slam into itself. The energy dissipated slowly around her.
She raced over to Gage and put a hand on his neck, feeling a faint pulse, nothing more. She gave him a shake. “Wake up, Gage. Wake up!”
But there was no help for it, he wasn’t waking up. She called out, not knowing if anybody heard her, “Maddy, Gage is out. Something’s wrong. Stefan, I don’t know what’s going on, but I just pulled a black energy off him.”
Immediately two voices jumped into her head. We’re here, they said. Let us take a look.
Skylar stood guard, watching as a beautiful pinkish-blue energy joined a golden energy and swarmed over Gage. Then, just as suddenly, they were gone.
Gage opened his eyes, his hand reaching to his throat, as he coughed and tried to catch his breath. He looked at her in shock.
She smiled and sat down on the bed beside him. “We’ve got to talk.”
He looked over at her. “What happened?”
“Same thing as last time,” she noted. “Only this time you were in a coma, and I couldn’t get you to wake up. I had to approach Dr. Maddy and Stefan for help.”
He continued to stare at her and slowly sagged backward. “God, I was so cold. It was like dying.”
“Well, if that’s death, it’s not a normal death,” she stated, “but an in-between state.”
“Who the hell is doing this to me?” he cried out.
“Well, I can think of a couple people, but believe me, my world isn’t exactly normal now either.”
He frowned at her and said, “Explain.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “I can try, but I’m not sure it’s all that explainable.” And she quickly gave him a rundown of her night.
He sat up, pulled her into his arms, and just held her close. She sagged against him. “What the hell is going on?” he murmured.
“We have a saying about when things stir on the ethers. And it’s not a good thing.”
“Apparently not,” Gage agreed. “I have a lot to learn.”
“You do, but you’re also getting there,” she told him. “You’re obviously one of those people who has to learn on the job.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m okay with that, as long as I do actually learn.”
“And you will,” she claimed. “It’s hard, but it’s not impossible.”
He shifted them back so they both were up against the headboard.
When she noted how cold they both were now, they tucked under the covers, and he just held her again.
“It was such a strange evening,” he began.
“Tell me,” she whispered, and he told her about his brother making changes behind his back in the contracts that had some very delicate time issues.
“Interesting. Obviously he wanted the deal to fail.”
“That’s what my lawyer said,” he murmured. “And yet, never at any point in time, would I have suspected that.”
“No, and even now you’re still making excuses for him,” she noted.
He looked down at her and then sagged against her gently. “I don’t want to, but the alternative means that I’ve been wrong about him all these years.”
“So both your brother and your friend have shares in your company?”
“Yes, and my friend was upset that I was selling the company too. But he had a lot of problems of his own.”
“Like?”
“He was a recovering addict,” Gage admitted. “I had put him through rehab twice already, and it looked like he would have to return again. He was very unstable and really struggling with so many things in his life. But that was a struggle that I wanted to get away from myself. If I feel guilty, it’s because of that. As long as I held on to the company, he got regular income. By selling the company, he’d have a lump sum.”
“And that’s not enough apparently,” she guessed. “Still, it was Linden’s problem, not yours, and, as a friend, you could only be there as much as you could. Otherwise, at some point in time, you can’t be there anymore, or you’re just enabling the behavior.”
He nodded. “And that time was coming. I had told Linden that I needed him to get his shit together and to figure out something on his own and that I wouldn’t keep bailing him out.”
“I’m sorry for asking this, but I don’t suppose that was part of the conversation you were having in the car before the accident, was it?”
He nodded. “Part of it, yes, and I do now think he was trying to kill himself and possibly wanted to take me with him.” Gage sighed heavily. “And that just makes it worse.”
“Maybe, but, at the same time, it’s also not necessarily bad to have that knowledge. If he did kill himself, he will have to deal with his healing on the other side, but he didn’t succeed in taking your life, and that’s a good thing.”
“Maybe,” he murmured. “Sometimes it feels like I wasn’t supposed to survive either.”
“Well, if you hadn’t survived, what would have happened to your company?”
“It would depend on what order we died in, but it’s likely that my shares and his would have gone to my brother.”
She stiffened.
He nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ve already been thinking about that. Maddy told Terrence that there were three ways it could go with me, if she came in to help. She would succeed, and I would live. She wouldn’t succeed, and I would die. Lastly, I’d be in the limbo of a coma, where my organic body was alive, but my soul was gone.”
“And in each case?”
“Two out of the three, my brother would have gotten the company.”
“So, this company of yours, like how big of a deal is it?”
When he shared the selling price of well over one hundred million, she sat up in bed and stared at him, her jaw dropping.
He nodded. “It’s big enough money to tempt greedy, selfish people.”
“Jesus, yes,” she agreed. “I know people who have killed over a sandwich.”
He nodded.
“And your friend Linden’s share of that?”
“He—or his estate—would get his initial investment plus five million, if the deal went through and I sold the company.”
She shook her head. “Still, that alone seems like an incredible amount of money.”
“It would be, except that Linden’s the kind of guy who easily spends his money, given his drug habit, so it isn’t necessarily a lot for him.”
“And your brother?”
“Same thing. He would get back the money he initially put into the business, plus five million.”
Skylar frowned. “So, if both you and Linden were gone, and the company hasn’t sold yet, who is in charge?”
“Technically the board takes over, appoints another CEO.”
“Right, and, if the company were under your brother’s control, he could stop the sale and do so much more.”
“Maybe, I don’t know that Terrence is interested in running the business without me. Now I know for sure that my brother doesn’t seem to think the outright sale is a good deal for him. It’s not what he wants, and he keeps telling me how I’ve been making the company a ton of money over the last ten years and could continue to do so for decades more.” Gage shook his head. “But I’m tired of it, and I’m done with that life. I want something different, especially now.”
“And you’re getting it,” she said, with a laugh. “You’re definitely getting that.”
He looked down at her, smiled, and whispered, “And now I’ve found something else I want.”
She looked up at him, and their gazes locked. She froze.
He continued. “That is, if that particular somebody would like to have more to do with me.”
When her smile came, it was slow and brilliant.
He sucked in his breath as he studied the look in her eyes.
She replied, “If you’re serious?”
“I’m definitely serious,” he admitted, “but it could be a little ugly getting to that point.”
She nodded. “Cleansing the air and clearing out the energy can often have that kind of effect,” she agreed. “You do have a history to clear.”
“I know, and I’ll get there. Honest I will.”
She smiled, then nodded.
“In the meantime”—he slipped two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up toward him—“are you doing anything for the next few hours?”
“Well, the shop opens at eight,” she reminded him.
“Perfect.” He pulled her tighter and closer to him. “That means we still have two hours.”
And he slowly lowered his head.
Chapter 12
As Skylar’s mind and heart played with the sensibility of taking him up on the offer, her body surged up tighter and closer around him, taking the decision away from both parts of her. She let herself slide into those instincts, her body warming to his touch, her heart filling with the need and the joy of being touched by somebody who cared. She didn’t want this to be just a physical moment. She wanted their hearts behind it as well.
Everything she did in her world had heart, but sometimes, when it came to sexual encounters, that part was missing. And that was fine, as long as that’s what everybody wanted, but when something else was involved or if one person had a different expectation, it made it much more difficult.
Still, as her body heated and her hands frantically explored the huge male body in front of her, she felt her objections sliding away. It didn’t matter that they barely knew each other or that they shouldn’t get involved because of all the mess surrounding them. It didn’t matter that there were all these other reasons to not get involved because right now, all she wanted was to wrap her arms around him and to welcome him into her heart and soul. It was all she could do to hold back her cries of joy, as he carefully stripped the clothes off her body, laying her back down on the sheet in front of him, his gaze hot, his fingers feverish and yet so gentle, as they explored her from head to toe.
She rode the wave of shared wonder and lust in the early morning sun, their temperatures rising and falling, as the loving continued for the full two hours.
When he finally withdrew, her body sated and relaxed, a warm hum flowing through her, he whispered, “Are you sure you have to open your store?”
She trilled with laughter. “I absolutely do.”
“Maybe it’s time to hire staff.”
“Not an option,” she murmured, as she kissed him gently and then sat up. She stretched, her body warm and supple, feeling alive for the first time in a very long while. She was also still very tired from the night’s attempt at healing Gage again. She yawned, and he looked at her in concern. She smiled. “I’m fine.”
“Well, you’re more than fine, if you ask me,” he murmured. “You’re downright gorgeous.”
