Garden of Sorrow (Book 4 of Psychic Visions, a paranormal romantic suspense) (16 page)

"Shh. She's coming." The frantic whisper silenced them all.

Amazed, Kevin noted how the whole group simultaneously donned cheerful smiles before facing their hostess. Sandra appeared to not have heard, although how that was possible, he didn't know. Maybe she just didn't want to hear.

The ladies on the other side surrounded Sandra, bubbling away with compliments over the social gathering. Right, as if they cared. While he didn't have much use for gossips, he knew enough to pay attention. You never knew where the next lead would come from.

He struggled with the bits that he'd learned. He himself had only been in town for seven years. He wouldn't have heard about the child's death if it had happened decades ago. It had to have been incredibly painful. Not to mention Glen's accident happening in there somewhere. A lot of hurt for one family.

Still something bugged him about both issues. He made a mental note to take a closer look.

***

Thank heavens there were beautiful gardens there. Alexis desperately needed out of the packed house, and into the world she understood and loved. Any events with crowds were stifling, but this one more than most. An air of covetousness by many of the guests made her want to gag. It wasn't about the structure of the estate, but more about the living energy of the place. Stefan could explain the feeling much better, but for her, the place had the smell of hidden secrets.

Not her style at all.

When Charles introduced himself to her, she'd felt like a fool. She hadn't even known who the birthday boy was. And from the snippets she'd heard, she had thought Charles to be a child, not a tall, slim, fully grown man a couple of years older than her. With the mad crush of people inside the house, she'd jumped at Charles's offer to show her the grounds.

Yet the further they moved from the house, the more she realized she'd made a mistake. Charles was…too smarmy…too intimate…and way too pushy. Every time she put distance between them, he quickly regained his lost ground.

It was ludicrous. He was so opposite from her taste…and his persistence almost made her cringe.

And if he didn't get his frickin fingers off her she would cause some serious damage. She'd never been one to tolerate being mauled.

Several times, she looked around the garden for someone she knew, but the two of them were slowly drifting away from everyone. Great. If this jerk tried to kiss her, she was liable to belt him one, birthday boy or not.

"Let's head back," she said nicely, but firmly. "I never did get my coffee and a piece of your delicious birthday cake." She swiveled back the way they'd come, only to find he'd slipped around to stand in front of her, and he was much too close.

The hot sun poured down on them. Alexis hated it today, feeling overheated and a tad angry. His next comment made her even more so.

"I never got my birthday kiss." His words oozed, his smile made her skin crawl.

Masculine charm aside, he was as attractive as a wet bullfrog in slime. Not that she had anything against actual frogs.

"Sorry," she snapped. "I don't do birthday kisses."

"Oh, I think you will. Do you like our new home? This estate is basically all mine. There's no other family member that counts." He wafted a leisurely wave across the impressive grounds. "Most women would be delighted to spend an afternoon with me."

That did it.

"But I'm not most women. This…" She wafted her own arm sarcastically around. "This doesn't impress me. I wouldn't spend an afternoon with you ever. If you don't move out of my way, I'm liable to puke all over you.
You. Make. Me. Sick!"

She shoved past him. Arrogant asshole.
Who the hell did he think he was?

She quickly returned to the back garden. With her head down and her thoughts still in a fury, she didn't see who was waiting for her at the end of the path.

Kevin stood, holding two coffees, a whole gambit of emotions running across his face. He'd obviously heard her. Alexis watched him quickly mask his gleeful amusement. He held out her cup of coffee. "Shall we?"

Silently, she accepted the cup and strode forward, happy to have him beside her and even happier to put more distance between her and the degenerate she'd left behind.

As they walked closer to the house, sounds of yelling and shouting rushed toward them.

Kevin sped up, almost running by the time they'd reached the house. Alexis could hear him mutter, "Damn it; now what?"

A sentiment she echoed.

He entered the house, but she waited outside the glass porch doors. From her position, she saw several men crowd around Kevin, all talking over each other in an effort to be heard. Scott seemed to be in the middle of them. Thankfully, the glass kept the words out of her hearing. She really didn't want to know what was going on.

"Yes, you do."

Alexis pivoted to find Stefan standing slightly behind her. She hadn't heard him approach. "How do you do that?" she asked irritably. "You're almost a phantom."

A ghostly smile appeared, exasperating her even more. Sudden thuds, and even louder yelling, turned her attention back toward the house. It sounded like the argument had jumped to a whole new level.

"Why do I want to know what this is all about?" She nodded at the chaos going on inside. It looked like Kevin was actually holding an irate Scott, keeping him separate and apart while several other men held two other men away from him. Of course, a fight was an open invitation to an Irishman.

And Kevin seemed to think he had Scott under control. What a joke. Scott must be calmed down or Kevin would be flying through the air, detective or not.

Alexis grinned at the image in her mind. "They almost look like they're having a good time in there."

"Not all of them." Stefan joined her at the glass doors.

"So what's going on that I need to know about?"

"Threats and blackmail, suspicions and fears." He continued to stare into the room. His voice thinned and lengthened in a weird parody of a tape suddenly being reduced to half speed.

It sounded beyond weird. Alexis looked at him curiously, recognizing the change in energy patterns around him. He was lost in a vision of his own.

He'd told her that sometimes he seemed to have no control over them. The realization had startled her. Knowing it was the same for her made her protective of Stefan in this defenseless state. Alexis shifted closer. Dropping her voice, she asked, "What do you see?"

"Pain, betrayal, loss, grief … murder." His voice trailed off, leaving the last word as an eerie hook.

"Murder?" she demanded. "
Who? When?
Talk to me."

And just like that, Stefan was back to normal. "I would if I could, but I have no idea what that was all about."

Alexis studied him, checking deep in his eyes to see if he really was back. The lopsided grin he gave her as he recognized what she was doing convinced her to believe him, as nothing else could have.

"Alex!" came the yell from the other side of the glass.

The two looked, to find Kevin motioning both of them inside.

"These two need to go to the hospital to get checked over." Kevin pointed out two middle-aged men, both sporting bloody noses. Kevin's voice was clipped and irritated. "And Scott needs to get his head checked out."

"Achh, there's nutin' wrong with me head." Being upset, Scott had slipped back into a heavy burr.

"No, just with what's in it," Alexis snapped, eyeing the blood drying on his temple.

"I'd call this in, but they don't want the police involved. What a surprise," Kevin added dryly, giving the two older men the once over. She sensed that Kevin didn't know either of them well. Both of them had the grace to blush in embarrassment. When Kevin pinned Scott in place, now that had been comical. Scott actually shuffled his feet like a shamefaced child.

As if just noticing the crowd still hanging around, Kevin called out over their heads, "Show's over, folks. Go back to what you were doing and forget about it. They were just fighting over their golf scores."

That elicited a wave of laughter. In a town like this, golfing tournaments were a way of life. If there was one fight the populace would believe in, that was it.

Alexis watched, wondering what his announcement had to do with her.

"I'm going to take them to the emergency room. I won't be back." He pulled Alexis off to one side. "Why don't you come along?"

"To the hospital?" At his nod, she pulled away. "I don't think so. I don't like those places."

"I didn't mean for it to be for fun. I meant to help me with these two, and Scott. He might be more manageable with you along. He's still pretty riled."

"Not bloody likely," she retorted, amazed at his assumption. Scott, in fighting mode, was a scary sight indeed.

Still, a few minutes later, she somehow found herself in the middle of the back seat of Kevin's car between the two older men. Scott sat in the front seat, half turned to face her.

"If he hadn'a 'cused me, then I wouldn'a thrown the punch." Scott's accent had thickened again, making him next to impossible to understand. "But I didna do it."

"Do what?" Alexis looked to the two men beside her for an explanation. With none forthcoming, she pinned Scott again. "Scott?"

"He 'cused me of writing a word on the mum's writing board."

"A word?" she asked cautiously.
All of this over a word.
She caught Kevin looking at her in amusement through the rearview mirror. She rolled her eyes in disgust.

"What kind of word?"

The kindly gentleman on her right, sporting a bleeding cut to his nose and what would eventually become a beauty of a black eye, answered, "We saw him by the board, and mistakenly thought he'd been the one to write 'confess' on it."

"Confess?" Bewildered, she could only look around the vehicle full of men.
Who'd fight over that?

"There have been some weird notes left for the mayor. The main message in all of them has been for John to confess something. When we saw Scott here at the board we thought we'd found the bastard who'd been sending all these notes.

"I told you, I didn'a see the word. I dunno who wrote it, ye daft mon."

"And I accept your word now." One of the older men gingerly reached up a hand and explored the mess of his face.

Alexis couldn't believe it. "What? He pounds your face into the ground, so now you'll listen to him?"

They all looked at her in surprise. "Of course," was their collective answer.

They were all nuts.

The emergency room was quiet for once. A welcomed relief, as that meant there'd be no wait. The two older gentlemen were examined first. Both had minor injuries and after being cleaned up a bit, were released.

Alexis sat beside Scott in the waiting room, thinking on the strange afternoon. So much for practice sessions at the party. With the fight, that had brought everything to a halt before she'd even had a chance to ask Stefan about his plans. She certainly hadn't picked up anything odd. Other than the arrogant SOB birthday boy.

A tall, uniformed woman approached. She stood in front of Scott with her hands on her hips, as if she were about to deliver a lecture.

"Well?" she demanded.

Alexis was surprised at her attitude. Not the usual bedside manner of nurses. The attractive woman openly studied Scott. It was obvious he recognized her. His face changed from a man to that of a boy in the midst of a scolding. Amused at the revelation, Alexis kept watching.

Now Scott was actually blushing – even mumbling incoherently.

It took her a minute to catch on, but when she did, Alexis couldn't stop giggling. Scott sent her a disgusted look, silently telling her to be done with it.

"I'm sorry for laughing. I'm Alexis." She hopped off her waiting room chair and held out her hand to the nurse.

The nurse smiled a classy, enduring smile. Alexis was impressed. Scott had found himself a lady this time.

"I'm Moira," she said with a lilting Celtic accent.

Ahh.
That explained it. She was from his home country.

Moira turned to the grumbling Irishman with a heavy sigh. "Let's go, ya big lug. We needs ta take a look at your head."

"Now, Moira. There isn't anytin' wrong with me head. I just took a wee blow and look…" He tilted his head to show her. "There's almost no blood."

Moira wasn't having any of that. She ignored his pleas and steadfastly tugged him into a small cubicle.

Alexis, watching the two of them wrangle and spar as they moved off, was surprised and overjoyed for her friend. If anybody deserved a good woman, it was Scott. For the last couple of years he'd been stalwart in his role as her friend, protector, and if need be, ass kicker. He'd been heartbroken over the news of Lissa's disease, visiting often during her illness, bringing laughter and light to a family that had too little at the time.

At the funeral, he'd cried – because Alexis couldn't.

Now it looked like he'd found the mate to his heart.

Anticipating their happiness made her feel alone in a way she hadn't felt for a long time. Stupid, really. Scott was a friend, not her own life partner. By rights, she could gain another good friend in Moira. But this development was another change in her life, and she had enough of that to deal with already.

Funny how she'd used the term 'life partner.' That had been Lissa's phrase. 'One day, you'll find your life partner and realize that you will never be alone again.'

Did she believe it?
Patiently, Alexis sat in the long hallway where sounds of the hospital moved quietly around her. Yes, she did believe it. She wanted someone to share her thoughts, to hold her at night, to wake up to in the morning…maybe even, down the road, to have children with.

What would Lissa have thought of Kevin?

***

That night Alexis prepared for bed as usual. Although more moody than normal, she dropped off easily.

Her dreams started out cheerfully enough, then without warning,
his
voice drove through her happy thoughts, bringing with it darkness and a smothering sensation. She twisted on her bed, agonizing in her struggle for breath. The smell of death, rotten with desolation and fear, permeated her mind. Her fight continued, as if she fought for her very life.