Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (45 page)

“Shit! Can we prove it?”

It was going to be hard, if not impossible.

“Detective Rose will have his hands full. He’s taking in the bodies and bringing the man in for questioning. How he’s going to explain it, who knows? I’ll text him what you found out.”

“Well, he married Holly Paul right before Clifford Remington died. It appears that he’s been working behind the scenes to get his father-in-law the land for a long time.”

“I hate assholes with ulterior motives.”

Truth be told, he hated himself.

He’d allowed Tori to go to their house. They could have hurt her had she made them uncomfortable. They might have killed Roman’s mother, and his stubbornness could have cost Tori her life.

“Kiss Tori for me when she’s up. Remember, chill out and stop being a dick about this.”

“Yeah, yeah. Tie Gene Gentry to Tara Burns. He might have been setting this up from the start.”

“Give me an hour. I’ll call you back.”

“Justin?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. I love you.”

He laughed. “I love you too. That’s my payback from drinking your beer the last time.”

“We’re even.”

“Watch your back, Jules.”

He would and Tori’s too. Someone had to, and he was going to be that man.

When he hung up, he noticed she was awake. Tori was watching him.

“Tori.”

“I can’t fight, Julian. I’m too tired. I feel like I went a few rounds with Tyson and lost.”

He stroked her cheek. “I don’t want to fight. You were right. I was wrong. I was irrational, stupid, and shouldn’t have said anything to you.”

Tori stared at him.

“Are you possessed? Am I dead?” she looked around. “Is this heaven?”

He laughed, and it was for the first time all night. “No, but I have been schooled. I forget that when I fell in love with you that you were a soldier. You may have been in the FBI, but you were fighting wars for people then too. You’re not going to be able to change, Tori. It’s who you are.”

She watched him.

This was a miracle.

“I love you, and I need you to forgive me. I should have stood by your side, and I promise to do that from here on out. You’re not selfish, Tori. You gave so many people gifts tonight. I was being selfish not wanting to share you. That was wrong.”

“Julian.”

“I love you. I don’t want you to think I only love Veronica. She’s her mother’s child. I love you both. We’re going to do whatever it takes from here on out. We’re going to save the world if that’s what you feel like you need to do.”

“Thank you, Julian.”

“Victoria Rose, anything for you.”

She heard the need in his voice.

“Make love to me, Julian. I’m so cold. Make me warm again.”

He would give her anything she asked.

His mouth moved over hers, tasting, devouring, and loving her with all he had.

As she clung to his body, needing the warmth there, Julian offered up his heart and soul to the woman he loved.

                
 
  Til death do us part.

It kept flittering through his mind.

As her hand found his hair, she arched into his wandering lips.

“I love when you touch me,” she admitted. “It chases away all the horrible things that live in me, Julian. I need someone to chase them away.”

He knew he would always do it. “I’ll take that job,” he offered, pulling Tori up, so he could remove his t-shirt from her body. As soon as she was free, Tori moved her hands up his torso and ribcage to free him too.

Her mouth left kisses across her name tattooed on his chest. His heart thundered in need.

“Victoria.”

When she pulled him from his jeans, her mouth was already on him. He was supposed to make love to her, but instead, she was heating him up.

The chill was gone.

Julian was flushing from the need.

“Oh, Tori,” he muttered, his head dropping back as her mouth undid all the knots in his body. With teeth and tongue, she set his bindings free. When he glanced down, his gold-flecked eyes met her smoky ones.

There was love there.

Despite it all, they had that.

It was more than enough to hold them together.

“I won’t ever let you walk away,” he stated. “Never again, Tori. I’ll follow. I promise I will follow.”

He popped free from her mouth. “I won’t risk my life if I think I can’t do it.”

He believed her.

Pushing her back, his body followed hers to the mattress. As they rolled around, limbs wound together and there was peace.

There was love.

As Tori’s mouth left hot, wet kisses across his flesh, Julian struggled to get out of his pants. As soon as he was free, he found her waiting.

It was like coming home.

Sliding into her body, they both moaned.

It was amazing.

As he began moving, his body braced above hers, their child was trapped between them.

“I love you,” she admitted, her voice hitching as he found the rhythm that brought them both peace.

“God, Tori, I’ll love you forever.”

And he would.

As he moved, she shivered in pleasure.

When she gently tugged his mouth down to hers, they were sealed together.

Julian knew he wasn’t going to last long.

The tenderness overwhelmed him.

As he slid in, hitting her in that perfect spot, Tori came around him. Her body shuddered in ecstasy, and tore his from the edge.

They fell, arms wrapped around each other.

As they floated to the surface, still holding each other, Tori sighed.

Then she bit him on the shoulder.

Hard.

“Shit! What the hell was that for? You left a mark.”

“That’s for calling me selfish. If it ever comes out of your mouth again, what will really hurt will be how long you have to wait to have sex again.”

He began laughing.

“There’s my vicious soldier, teaching me a lesson.”

“Jules?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m hungry.”

He grinned. Leaning down, he pulled some cookies from his pocket. “Here you go.”

“I had some awesome cookies today. Holly Gentry made them.”

Apparently, she didn’t know what had happened when she was channeling.

“Yeah, about her.”

“What?”

He told her everything.

“Oh my God!”

Tori sat up.

“Where are you going?”

“To work! We have to find a killer, and fast.”

That was his girl.

Starving, she still didn’t care. Tori had a mission.

That meant he did too.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Friday Morning

Twelve Thirty A.M.

They were still working on the files. Honestly, until Detective Rose called, giving them some news, Roman couldn’t sleep. He was still wound up about what they’d learned about his mother. So, instead of tossing and turning, they were sitting on the couch, flipping through files.

Their focus?

Tara Burns and Gene Gentry.

They needed to tie them together and figure out what had gone wrong all those years ago. Something had set it off, and they needed to figure it out.

And fast.

“I need some water,” stated Mattie. “Do you want one? I can get us some.”

He went to get up. “I’ll go, sunshine.”

She stopped him. “I’ll get it, Roman. Then maybe we should cuddle up and get some sleep when I get back. I’ll grab a blanket from your room. It’s been a long day.”

He sighed.

She was right.

“Okay, Mattie. I wouldn’t mind cuddling with my sexy wife to be.”

“You’ve said that a million times.”

“Yeah, it’s hot. It makes me think of the sex we had, and what’s yet to come.”

He pulled her down and into his lap.

The kiss was fiery.

When she pulled away, she was breathing heavily. “Now I need a cold shower.”

He grinned. “I’m glad I have that effect on you.”

Mattie fixed his glasses and tossed hers onto the table. Her eyes were burning, and she needed a break.

“Wait up for me.”

He took her hand and placed it over the bulge in his jeans. “Already there.”

She snorted before escaping his clutches. “You’re so lucky that perverted on you is sexy.”

He leaned back on the couch and watched her walk away. At the door, she wiggled her ass.

Roman threw a pillow at her.

“Wait until you get back.”

Dodging the pillow, Mattie headed toward the kitchen to grab some water. Once there, she grabbed two, and checked her reflection in the stainless steel refrigerator.

That’s when she felt a chill.

“Crap!”

Someone had left the window open. Mattie closed it, and then headed down the hall to Roman’s room. As she headed in to get the blanket, she heard a crack behind her.

Turning, something hit her hard.

It was a fist.

Mattie saw stars as hands circled her throat. She tried to fight, but the air was cut off.

As she focused on the face, her heart raced.

‘No!’
was all she could think.

Roman was in danger.

As she blacked out, Mattie knew so was she.

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

As Tori and Julian headed toward the family room, his phone rang. When he saw it was his brother, he knew Justin had to have found something.

In the room, Roman was sitting on the couch reading a file. He glanced up when they entered.

“What did you find?” Julian asked, signaling for Roman to wait.

“I found Tara Burns. She’s not listed under her maiden name.

“She’s married?”

“Yes, yes she is.”

Julian put him on speaker. “Who is Tara married to?” he asked.

“A man with the last name Weber.”

“Chase?” Tori asked.

Roman shook his head. “It can’t be. I saw his wife and Tara Burns looks nothing like her.

“No, it’s not Chase,” stated Justin. “It’s someone named Harrison Weber.”

Roman looked surprised.

In fact, they all did.

“What? You have to be wrong. Harrison is my friend. We grew up together. Besides, he told us that we didn’t know his wife.”

“What was her name?” Tori asked.

He went pale. “He never said. He changed the subject when we began talking about her.”

Shit!

“Well, marriage licenses don’t lie,” Justin said. “Check your phone, Tori.”

She pulled it out and opened her email. In it, she scanned the document. “He married her right after she graduated,” Tori stated.

“Yeah, the first three girls were dead by then, but right after their wedding, the next three died.”

He wanted to be sick as Tori showed him the document. How could this be true? How could his friend be a killer? They grew up together.

They were close.

He scanned the document.

They weren’t lying.

“Where’s Mattie?” Julian asked, looking around the room. There was no trace of her anywhere.

“She went for water and a blanket.”

“Go get her. We need to regroup.”

After he had left the room, Tori continued her conversation with Justin. “I need the address. Send it over.”

“On it. Be safe.”

Oh, they would.

This was going right to Detective Rose. He could do the final leg of this race. They figured out as much as they could, and he’d have to use his resources to close the cage on Harrison, Tara, Holly and Gene Gentry.

Who would have thought that at the beginning, this school held the secrets of two different crimes?

Roman raced back in.

“She’s gone. There’s blood on my floor, and I can’t find her anywhere.”

He wanted to be sick.

“Something’s happened to her.”

“Stay calm. Let’s search. She couldn’t have been taken far. She just left you, right?”

He nodded as he raced for the door.

He couldn’t help but be sick.

Something bad was happening. When it came to the people he loved, it always ended badly.

Now Mattie was in danger too.

His fate sucked.

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

When she woke up, her hands and feet were bound, and she knew she was in trouble.

They were in the citadel, and Harrison Weber was running around like a maniac splashing gasoline on the walls. As a puddle ebbed its way toward her, Mattie struggled to slide away. One single drop on her, when he dropped that match, and she was dead.

She had to buy herself some time.

“Why are you doing this, Harrison? Roman was your best friend. This is going to hurt him.”

“She told me to do it. She wanted them to pay. I only wanted her to love me. I didn’t have a choice. I was some pipsqueak who no one saw.”

She didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“Who made you do this?”

“Tara. She made me love her, and now I have to keep her happy or she’ll leave. Everyone leaves.”

He was insane.

His eyes were wild.

Mattie knew he wasn’t playing with a full deck. Someone had some crazy going on.

“Don’t go,” he muttered to his side. “Please, Tara. I did what you wanted. Don’t go. You can’t leave me.”

She saw her breath leave her mouth in a puff of mist.

Jesus.

He was talking to a ghost. Whoever Tara was, she was there in the room. Everything began getting colder around them.

Her heart began thumping in her chest.

“I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to hurt more people, Tara,” he pleaded.

“Then don’t do it,” Mattie stated.

She could feel something heavy pressing down on her. Then there were invisible hands around her throat.

There was definitely someone there.

Mattie began struggling to breathe.

“Tara! Stop!”

The pressure lessened.

Then he pulled out the match.

“Why did you kill Felicity?” she asked. “Why did you kill Devora and Rylee?”

He shook his head as if he was trying to stop a voice that only he was hearing.

“Felicity stole Tara’s friend. She stole what wasn’t hers. She wanted her to pay, and if I wanted her, then I had to do what she asked. I had to do it. I needed three.”

“She told you which three?”

“Yes, and the next three.”

Mattie needed to stall and get as much information as possible from the man.

“Why did she want the second set dead?”

He covered his ears and began weeping.

“STOP!”

Mattie looked around. She wasn’t sure who he was talking to as he shrilly screamed.

Her?

Or the unseen entity?

“Why?” Mattie pushed, praying it didn’t make him snap.

Tara was out of school, but she saw them in town. They mocked her. They called her names. She hated them. I had to protect my wife. It was my job, and I did it.”

Mattie began putting the pieces together. He obviously was schizophrenic. He had a split personality.

“So you killed them?”

He nodded.

“Why did you kill Christie, Anissa, and Yida?” she asked, trying to get more from him. As she spoke to him, she was working on the tape behind her back.

If she could get free…

“She told me to do it to keep her in my life. Til death do us part! I had no choice.”

He lit the match.

Mattie felt the end coming.

So, this was it.

“She said you have to die. She said it’s time. I’m sorry, but you have to die. The Remingtons had it all. They had family, friends, and love, and they didn’t appreciate it. Roman has to suffer.”

Mattie could see the mist around him.

He was being haunted.

Shit!

She was screwed.

“Goodbye, Devora. I killed you once, now this time you have to stay gone!”

Mattie watched the match fall, and she prayed it would go out.

It didn’t.

The flames exploded around the perimeter of the room. Mattie used her shoulder to cover her mouth the best she could as Harrison Weber raced from the room, leaving her there.

Alone.

To burn alive.

She was dead.

For the second time that day, someone believed she was Devora. Now it didn’t matter.

She and her sister had something in common.

They were both going to wander as spirits.

Tormented, angry ones.

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

He couldn’t find her anywhere.

He was still waiting for Tori’s spirits to help them, but they couldn’t find her.

As he raced outside, ready to check the next building, he saw the red flames.

“The citadel!” he shouted, right before he and Julian raced toward it. There was no way the fire was a coincidence.

Tori pulled out her phone and called the detective and then nine-one-one.

This was bad, and she knew it.

Mattie was going to be in there, and from the smell in the air, and once being the fire expert for the FBI, she knew one thing.

There was gasoline.

And people trapped inside almost never survived.

When he got to the building, the electrical circuits were fried. The box had been damaged, and someone had been there. Using a large stone, he heaved it through the glass door, trying to get inside. Already, black acrid smoke was pouring out.

Roman had to find her or die trying. He wasn’t going on without her. He’d already lost everyone, and Mattie wasn’t going to leave him behind.

As he and Julian got inside, and to the top of the dome where his father took his life, they saw the flames.

They were tall.

Then he saw her in the middle.

Mattie’s eyes were closed, and she wasn’t moving.