Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (8 page)

His heart ached for both of them. With that, he sat, unable to keep the emotion from his eyes. She knew he’d research her. Mattie knew he’d seek the truth.

Roman was in pain.

And as usual, it was over what he’d lost all those years ago.

Only this time, he wasn’t mourning the dead.

He was mourning the living.

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

As Tori packed her bag, Julian watched her. She was moving around efficiently, trying to find everything they might possibly need.

Since they weren’t going in undercover, they wouldn’t need to worry about formal wear, or anything too unusual.

This was going to be easy.

How could they go wrong?

“What are you thinking, Victoria? You have that look on your face.”

“Why did you take this case?”

He stared at her. “Uh, to help Roman.”

“Not because Matilda Boyd pulled the twin-sympathy card?”

Julian stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

Tori sighed.

Maybe she was getting hormonal, but she didn’t like manipulation.

To her, Matilda had tried.

Right?

“Normally, you freak out when you hear dead. You know going in that there are likely going to be ghosts. You hate ghosts, so I can’t figure out why you’re being so easy going about all of this.”

He stared at his wife.

“You’re pissed, aren’t you?”

“No.”

She lied, and he knew it.

“You’re mad because you think if this wasn’t about one of our people, or a twin, that I’d be going the opposite way.”

“Maybe.”

“Well, you’re very wrong. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is now who we are. I spent way too much energy trying to avoid this kind of case. I’ve decided to go with it.”

She waited. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Tori relaxed. “Are you sure you’re fine with it?”

He laughed. “I’m so okay with it that I’m going to ask for a special favor.”

That worried her. “Uh, okay.”

“Trey, are you lurking, you sick, peeping-bedroom Tom?”

The radio clicked on.
“I. Am. Always. Here.”

“Can you ditch your psychic and hop a ride with us for the next few days?”

Tori was staring at him as if he was insane.

Who the hell was this man?

Certainly, it wasn’t her ghost-hating husband. She had to be asleep.

“Yes. I. Can.”

“Good.”

Tori touched his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked. “Did you hit your head?”

He didn’t reply.

Instead, he continued on, “Bethany, are you creeping around too?”

He was pinched on the ass.

“I’ll take that as a yes and don’t do it again.”

Tori heard the laughter in her head.

“We’re taking a little trip, and you both have a job to do. If you’re going to call my wife home, then you’re going to earn your keep.”

There was one knock signally that she was onboard.

“Tori is going to encounter shit on this case. I don’t doubt it for a second. Your jobs are to act as a buffer between her and what is potentially coming. I want her protected at all costs. Am I clear?”

She stared openmouthed. “Did you just get me two undead babysitters?”

He grinned. “Yes, yes, I did.”

The curtains wavered and there was one solid knock.

It looked like Bethany was onboard with the plan.

“Trey? Are you up for protecting your sister and leaving Nyx behind for a couple days?”

The radio channels flipped.

“Can. I. Drive?”

“Holy shit! Let’s not get crazy. I didn’t even know that was an option, and it scares the shit out of me! You can never drive! We don’t need that showing up in the tabloids.”

“I. Can. Follow. Tori. As. Long. As. You. Want.”

He was good with that. “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” he said. “I don’t like the spooks, but if we’re playing house with them, they can be present and accounted for in our lives.”

He felt Bethany’s hand in his back pocket.

“Uh, your spook is feeling me up. She’s playing grab-ass, and you’re the only one she listens to.”

“Bethany!”

It stopped.

“Feel better?” she asked.

He laughed maniacally. Nothing about this, other than staying home and skipping it, was going to make him feel good. The whole thing was insane, and he knew it.

His gut was screaming, and that was a bad sign.

They were heading right into a mess of global proportions, and he was helpless to stop it.

“Yeah, I feel great. You, me, and our ghosties make four. We’ll be quite the crazy team. Fortunately, the school is empty, and no one will look at us like we’re nutty.”

She grinned. “We have a plane to catch.”

He looked around the room. “Trey, don’t crash that plane by screwing with the gadgets in the cockpit! Bethany, no molesting anyone! Do you both hear me?”

It was worse than traveling with kids.

There was laughter from the undead all around him.

Of course, they heard him.

It just didn’t mean they planned on listening.

At all.

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

Haven

Remington Academy

Front Gate

Well, he was back in hell.

When they got off the plane, neither spoke. Roman had wanted to rent a car, but Matilda’s was at the airport. So, in the spirit of trying to figure out the mess he’d made, he let her drive.

He had to laugh when they approached the car, and she unlocked the doors. It was a vintage Mustang, and the car of his dreams. It was a sick blue color that made his heart skip in his chest. If he were picking a car, and a color, this would have been it.

When he told her how awesome it was, she just nodded.

Yeah, this was bad.

She wasn’t talking to him. In the man-woman arena, that was never a good sign.

NEVER
.

Now that they were at the school, he wanted to beg her to say something. Roman wanted her to tell him why she never said a word to him.

Had he known the truth…?

What?

What would he have actually done?

He’d dated Devora for a whole year before she died. He’d lost his virginity with her, and she the same. Now at nearly twenty-nine, he got it.

That didn’t matter then, but it really mattered now. A part of him was aching that he’d been with the wrong woman. Never, in his life, did he believe he’d say that. In ten years, it was still an ache in his chest, but this woman…she had been the one he fell for, and he felt duped.

He felt…cheated.

His mistake had cost him so much.

“I’ll show you around,” he offered.

“That’s okay. I remember it like it was yesterday. Just tell me where you want me to stay, and I’ll head there. If you want me to head to my place, I get it. I only live in town. I have a cottage there.”

He glanced over at her as she drove up the drive. “You’re welcome to stay here, Mattie. I don’t hate you.”

Yeah, he hated himself.

“If it matters, Roman, I don’t hate you either. I never did, even before she died.”

Speaking of which…

“Yeah, we need to talk about it.”

“What’s there to say? Fate intervened. You picked the other twin. We have nothing to say about it. You gave your heart to my sister, and I was forced to watch.”

Well, when you put it that way.

Apparently, that spark on that first day wasn’t only felt by him. Matilda had felt it too.

“Mattie.”

“Just tell me where you want me to stay,” she reiterated. Matilda wasn’t in the mood to rehash this. It was the story of her entire life.

Devora was the fun one.

Devora was the one everyone flocked to in droves.

She was the athlete.

Mattie was the math-lete. She was the mousey one who played the piano and that no one saw.

“Mattie, honey.”

“Please stop. Today has been a very rough one for me. I never woke up thinking I would see you again, and I never woke up believing that the Littlemoons would help me find my sister’s killer.”

He got it.

Maybe they both needed a little space.

“Okay, Mattie. I won’t bother you with this tonight.” Later was going to be a different story, and he knew it.

As they got out of the vehicle, he stared up at the door. It was as if his feet were rooted to the spot. He couldn’t move. Once he entered that building, everything was going to change.

He could feel it.

Honestly, he didn’t think it would be for the best, either.

“Roman?”

He didn’t move.

Mattie moved toward his side. When he still didn’t look away from the door, she didn’t know what to do.

“Are you okay?”

He nodded.

“Sure.”

He lied.

This was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He was returning to the place that destroyed his life.

“We can do this,” she said, gently taking his hand in hers.

When he looked down, her smaller, more delicate fingers wrapped around his, offering him a sense of peace.

He didn’t deserve it, and he knew it.

“Let’s go.”

He let her lead the way. Once at the top of the stairs, he entered the key code.

The beep sounded the door’s opening.

“We have this,” she offered, worried about him. He looked scared shitless.

Roman headed in, flicking on the lights in the building. The place still stole his breath, just not in a good way.

Upstairs was the family suite, but this was the hallway that lead to the offices, library, and the conservatory.

He forgot how massive the place had truly been. He’d stopped thinking about how it was filled with aged, old wood and very grand.

It was…home.

It was Hell.

As they moved toward the steps, their feet echoed. At the bottom, they stopped, but the footsteps didn’t.

They kept walking, and it sounded like it wasn’t far behind them.

Mattie gasped. “Jesus, please tell me that was an echo,” she whispered, bringing her mouth close to his ear.

He wanted to, but he was pretty sure that it was more than that. After what he learned, working for the Littlemoons, he wouldn’t be shocked if that place was fraught with spooks.

How could he be?

He was accustomed to the dead.

Wait until Mattie saw Tori Littlemoon in action. If this freaked her out, she was in for one hell of a surprise.

That was the epitome of scary.

“Can we go up?” she asked, rubbing the goose bumps on her arms. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

Yeah, so did he.

Nyx had told him once that if that happened, the odds were you were being checked out by the dead. Apparently, the living were very curious to the dead, and once they realized you knew they were there, they’d try to communicate.

It was probably best not to tell her that.

Mattie would flip her shit. It was clear from the look on her face.

“When are the Littlemoons getting here?” she asked, as they climbed the stairs.

“They have a late flight tonight, and will be here tomorrow early—like four in the morning.”

“So we’re staying here alone?”

“Afraid I’ll end up being the killer and jump you?” he asked, leading her down the dark hall.

“I’m not afraid of you, Roman. I think I could kick your ass,” she teased. “I’m more freaked out by what’s going on here now that it’s dark.”