Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (42 page)

Pulling out, he watched the surprised look on her face. When he rolled her over, and then pulled her to her knees, she wiggled her ass to get his attention.

Yeah, he needed this.

“I want to hear you beg me for more,” he muttered, sliding back into her body. She was even warmer and wetter.

Jesus!

He wasn’t going to last long.

As she pushed back, impaling herself on his erection, he felt his balls tighten.

Next time she came, he was going with her.

Screw holding out.

He wanted to pour into her body in wave after wave of heat. He wanted to leave a part of him in her forever.

Roman wanted his fiancée to be his no matter what the new day would bring. They were happy, one, and locked together in that moment in time.

He was safe.

He was home.

Mattie moaned. “Roman,” she whispered, as he placed his body over hers. She felt his fingers teasing and stroking her, and she never wanted a minute away from him.

“More.”

He shook but gave her what they both craved.

Driving in and out of her body, her breathy vocalizations made it hard to hold on. She was begging.

Christ!

She was begging for more.

Roman drove into her, and he knew he was close. As he roughly rubbed the most sensitive part of her body, she came on his hand.

He could feel the tightening, and instead of fighting it, he drove deeper into the warmth.

Then he came.

It was heaven.

As Roman struggled not to crush her, they fell into a tangle of limbs. 

When she opened her eyes, Mattie inspected her ring.

“Change your mind?” he asked, still buried in her body.

“No, but you were right.”

“About?”

“Every girl needs a ring.”

Roman began laughing. “See?”

Yes, she finally did. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was him.

It was happiness.

When his phone began ringing, he hated that he had to leave the comfort of her body. She was warm, tasty, and his. Those three things made life good.

When he found his jeans, he tugged out his phone. “Hello?”

He listened.

“We’ll meet you there.”

When he hung up, Mattie was watching him. “Who was that?”

“Tori. She’s thirty minutes from the school. She’s leaving Gene Gentry’s house and wants us to meet on campus.”

Mattie grinned.

“What?”

“I live ten minutes away.”

“Okay, and?”

She pointed at his erection. “You’re still up.”

He grinned. “You seem to have that effect on me.”

“Then I should have to solve your problem.” Reaching out, she grabbed him by the dick and pulled him back onto the bed. “Let’s try fast again—only harder. I think I’ll love that, and I need to try everything at least once.”

“Mattie, you’re out of control.”

When she stroked him, he moaned.

“No, I’m just in love.”

And for that, he was grateful.

       
         
* * *
  L   i   t   t   l  e  m  o  o  n  * * *

Thirty Minutes

Later

When Roman and Mattie arrived, Tori was already waiting for them. Julian was nowhere around, and he found that odd. If anything, over the last few weeks, he’d learned one thing.

Julian hovered over his wife.

For him not to be there meant one thing.

There was trouble in paradise.

“Where’s the boss?” he asked, as they hopped out of Mattie’s car. He could hear the shouts and calls from the reporters at the gate.

“Inside, I guess. We split up to work on our own.”

He heard it in her voice. “Are you okay, Tori? Do you need to talk about it?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Then she saw it.

How could she miss it?

Tori whistled. “Holy rock. Is that shaped like a heart?” she asked, taking Mattie’s hand in hers. “Yes, yes it is.”

He laughed. “We’re getting married.”

“I see that. I’m happy for you both,” Tori said, tears filling her eyes.

When she hugged Roman, he looked worried.

“Tori, are you okay?”

“Hormones,” she muttered, hugging Mattie next. Only it wasn’t. She was upset about Julian, and she remembered that moment when he’d proposed. Nothing was going to stop them.

Only, she’d been wrong.

Roman laughed. “Let’s get inside. I hate the reporters.”

That made her grin. “Gee. That’s ironic. I’ve never thought that before in my life.”

He was amused.

“Yeah, I never thought I’d say that, but Richard Wellbury is a total asshole. He’s inappropriate, follows me around, and digs into my personal life.”

Now she was laughing. “Sucks, huh?”

“Lesson learned. I was a horrible person,” Roman teased. “I’m glad I changed professions.”

Tori lead them toward the door. As she did, she heard a honk. It was the detective, and he was heading through the gate and right toward them.

They waited.

“Hey, Hart.”

He looked like hell.

“You okay?” Tori asked.

“Yeah, but I had a rough afternoon.”

Roman laughed. “You should have been on the other side of the table.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, Roman. I hope you’re okay,” he said, offering the man his hand.

“I am. Thanks for the messages on the note pad. They helped me focus.”

“Good. You did a great job, you answered everything, and are in the clear. My boss got the point.” He didn’t mention that his job was likely tanked, because that wasn’t their issue.

It was his.

“Where’s Julian?” he asked.

“Inside. We split up to cover more ground,” she said, covering for them.

“You just lied.”

She gave him a look.

Tori was well aware.

“It’s a relationship issue. We had a fight. We’re not speaking right now, and I figured by lying, I could avoid getting upset.”

He relaxed once she told the truth. “Hey, I get it. I was married once. It was hellish and one ride that I never want to get on again.”

He knew it wasn’t all that bad.

It had one single solitary highlight, and he still had that in his life.

“Yeah, well, I’ll apologize in advance for the looks he’s going to be shooting me. It’s not going to be pretty.”

No one spoke.

What could they say?

“Let’s go.”

They flanked her as they headed in. Once at the office door, they found the office trashed.

Julian was in the middle of it, sitting Indian style on the carpet with files around him and surrounded by salt.

It told the tale.

“What happened here?” Roman asked.

“Ghosts. I hate those damn things. They are nothing more than a pain in my ass.”

He wouldn’t look at Tori, and she was sick over it. She knew what she did. Only, she did it to protect him, not hurt Julian. This was pretty much what she thought would happen when the truth came out.

“Did you find anything?” asked Detective Rose.

“I actually did. There’s a connection between five of the six women who went to school here.”

He glanced up at the man, still ignoring his wife.

“What is it?” Roman asked.

“We know from the letter you found that Rylee had a fling with Tara Burns, right?”

They all nodded.

“Well, I also found a connection between Rylee, Tara, and Felicity.”

He pulled a picture up on his phone. “This was on the online yearbook. It’s labeled with Felicity’s name under it. She’s turned away from the camera.”

“That’s the picture in my sister’s room.”

“Read the caption,” he stated, handing him the phone. Now that they were there, it was safe to get out of the salt circle.

“Peer tutoring?” Roman asked. “Yeah, my sister was a tutor. She did math and science.”

“Well, she knew Marlene, Ola, and Rivka. They were young, but your sister was tutoring them too.”

He did the math in his head. “They had to be in what? Eighth grade?”

“Something like that,” Julian stated. “So, I kept digging, hoping to find something. Once we figured out that the last three girls weren’t targeted but stumbled onto the killer here, it made it about the original girls. Something about Devora, Felicity, or Rylee kicked this off.”

Tori agreed. “I don’t think this is random.”

“It’s not. I kept researching. After Devora and Rylee died, they had more tutoring.”

“By?” Mattie asked.

“Tara Burns. Her name keeps popping up.”

They thought about it.

That was definitely odd.

“So? She tutored,” Roman stated.

“Ahhhh, but then I found something that helped me see that it was more than that. I found a letter of discipline in Ola’s file. It seemed that Tara filed a complaint against her. She was bullying her.”

Tori thought about it.

“Can I see the letter?”

“It’s not here. All I was able to find was a notation by Betty Remington that Tara complained, and then she left peer tutoring.”

Roman was still confused.

“Our killer is a woman?”

“It can’t be,” stated Tori. “Felicity Sepp told me she heard a man. They get confused, but they aren’t often wrong. Those memories of their death matter to them. It makes them into the beings in the afterlife.”

“Yeah, well, I’m fed up with ghosts and the bullshit that goes with them,” Julian stated. “I want off this freak show. I’m done.”

Tori closed her mouth.

She wasn’t sure if he meant her gift, or their marriage.

It was a tossup at that point, and she knew it.

“We did this your way, and it didn’t work. I’m going to go back to trusting my tracking skills and do some basic detecting.”

They all glanced over at Tori.

While Julian wasn’t looking at her, they knew who it was directed at.

“Okay, Julian. You do it your way, and I’ll do it mine. I trust the dead. I have to because humans almost always turn on you.”

Her voice said it all, as did that comment.

It was uncomfortable in the room.

Instead of answering, Julian pulled out his phone and made a call. When his brother answered, he barked into the phone. “I need everything you can find on Tara Burns. Locate her for me. If she’s in Haven, I want her number and address.”

He hung up.

“It still doesn’t add up,” Detective Rose stated. “We found herbs on the girls, and we found a pentacle on Elbert Barber.”

Julian pointed one thing out. “We can’t tie Devora to anyone. Why? Something is off, and we need to figure it out. The only tie she has to this is she was sleeping with Roman and his father.”

“We keep following this trail. We need time to do this right.”

Detective Rose knew he didn’t have time. “I thought Tori was going to contact them.”

Julian got angry. “No séance. I’m putting my damn foot down on this one.”

Tori interjected. “We have no choice. We’re doing it.”

Everyone saw the blowup coming. The room buzzed with the energy. The confrontation was coming. They could all see it.

“No.”

“I interviewed Gene and his wife. They were a lovely couple. You would have liked them, Julian. They are the top of my suspect list.”

That had Detective Rose’s attention. “Why?”

“They lied.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around,” Julian muttered. His temper was lit, and he was horrible in situations like this. Once he crossed that line, he was too stupid to know when to back off. Now he was watching himself make potshots at Tori.

Jesus!

What was wrong with him?

Oh yeah, she had lied and that was his big no-no.

“There’s a lot of death going around too. You track. I deal with the dead. It’s our thing. I’m doing that séance to put this to bed. I want to go home.”

He barely managed to bite his tongue.