October Ghosts (A Southern Romance Monthly) (2 page)

And it scared her.
 

But in truth as she took in several deep breaths to calm her nerves, she had to admit—she wasn't sure if she was scared for herself, or for him.
 

CHAPTER TWO

She was beautiful. She was poised. And she was a psychic.
 

Matt shook Kevin's hand just outside the doors of
Mesa Cove
and watched as the young man locked up and the lights went out inside.
 

Well Matt…you screwed the pooch on that one.
 

How could he have been so stupid? He looked up at the moon overhead. It was nearly full. Full on Halloween. The local news had been notified about the show's taping tomorrow night with proper press releases, there was a big social media push ready to launch. Local psychic to aid Matthew Hunt of
Ghost Hunt
in investigating the ghosts in Barrett House, a large, spooky antebellum house that survived the Civil War. The buzz he'd received on the idea had fueled his bravado. He knew this would be a hit—and it would take him and his small production company another notch up, maybe even bring bigger shows to him and they could get out of the ghost hunting business and back to doing what he loved most.
 

Making haunted houses.
 

But after his less than successful visit to
Mesa Cove
and completely alienated the star psychic
. Idiot.
 

He closed his eyes and just…sighed.
 

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Matt pulled it out. Ah…his assistant. "Hey Margo."
 

"Well? Are we on? I'm sure you charmed her into saying yes?"
 

Matt hung his head.
 

"Matt?"
 

"Would you hate me if I said I totally messed it up?"

Margo's silence spoke volumes. She was not only his assistant, but his partner in
Ghost Hunt Productions
. Getting the psychic angle on the investigation had been her idea. "What the hell did you do?"
 

He started walking away from
Mesa Cove
toward his car. It was the only one in the parking lot. Night was fully up and the street lamp buzzed above him. The temperature had dropped as well. "Who knew she was gonna be hot?"
 

"You didn't check out the website like I told you?"
 

"No time. I thought she was gonna be some older lady—you know like my Aunt Ezie—wearing a house dress and slippers."
 

"Matt, Chloe is our age."
 

"No shit." He reached his car and dug into his pants for his keys. When he didn't find them in one pocket, he switched the phone to his other hand and dug in the second pocket. Back pockets. "Uh oh."
 

"What?"

"I think I lost my keys."
 

Margo made a rude noise. "Did you leave them somewhere?"

"I don't remember." He turned and looked at the darkened esoteric shop just as a pair of headlights shined from the back. A small car pulled in front of the shop and sat still. Maybe that was Kevin. "Hey, I think Kevin's still here. I'll go see if I left them inside."
 

"Matt—you've got to get Chloe on board with this. She's what we're gonna need to sell this. We've already sent out the releases."
 

He stopped before he got too far away from his car. "You what? You already sent them out?"

"I didn't think
 
you'd screw this up. And the response has been phenomenal. You get her on board. Double the fee."
 

"Margo—" his jaw dropped which made it heard to breathe and speak. "We already offered them five grand."
 

"Uh huh. And if Chloe's on board we'll make five hundred times that amount from advertisers. Now find your keys, sweet talk the crap out of her, and get her signed on." She disconnected.
 

Matt pursed his lips and stared at his phone. Margo scared him just a little more than he wanted to admit. She wasn't bigger than him—in fact they were about the same height and build. But she worked out. And she'd been an amateur boxer for a number of years. She and her former partner. Not that either of them would lay a hand on him.
 

The three of them had been friends since college, until a falling out between Margo and Carmin had pushed Carmin away. Matt had never asked and Margo had never volunteered any information. But then, at the time, Matt had had bigger problems in front of him, like surviving a crazy ex-girlfriend bent on killing him.

The sound of a car door brought him out of his phone pondering and he looked over to see Chloe approaching him. She wasn't dressed in the long, flowing dress he'd seen her wear inside the shop, which is why he almost didn't recognize her. She wore tight jeans, ankle high boots, a leather pea-coat and her long hair was up in a ponytail.
 

She took his breath away as he saw her face under the lights.
 

"Your car not working?" There wasn't any of the earlier crisp tone in her voice.
 

He glanced back at it. "Uh, I can't find my keys."
 

Chloe immediately looked around the ground. "Did you drop them?"

"Honestly," he shrugged. "I can't remember. I was getting my ass reamed by my partner," he held out his phone. "That's when I noticed they weren't in my pocket."
 

"I see." She approached him. "Did you leave them in the shop?"

"I don't remember actually pulling them out while I was in there."
 

"You were talking to Kevin first…" she looked back at the darkened building. "The alarm's not set yet. Come back in and let's take a look."
 

"You can't just take my hand and tell me where they are?" He knew the moment the sentence was out of his mouth it was a very stupid thing to say. Not just because it sounded stupid to him, but because her smile…dropped.
 

"Perhaps, Mr. Hunt, you should call a lock smith and have them make a new set of keys for your car. Good night." She turned and started back to her car.
 

Dammit!
Matt took off after her. "Wait! I'm sorry! Really…please don't leave."
 

She didn't turn back to him before she reached her car. When she did, the look on her face, visible under the lights of the parking lot lamps, was cold. "Mr. Hunt, what I do for a living is not made up, it is not a hoax, and it does not swindle people out of their money. So any more references to me being a grifter will not be tolerated. Do I make myself clear?"
 

Heat rose from his neck and colored his cheeks. He hadn't mentioned the word grifter again but apparently she was still bothered by it. He nodded. "Yes Miss Stohl. I won't use it again."
 

"And no more references to what I do just to perform simple parlor tricks?"
 

Matt opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he said, "Okay. I'm not sure what that means."
 

"Me taking your hand to find your keys."
 

"Oh…I'm sorry. I thought that was the definition of a psychic?" Oh snap…did that sound asinine? He held up his hands. "Really! I'm not trying to be an ass, I just wanted to know if you could find my keys that way."
 

The look she gave his hands alarmed him. Chloe glared at them as if he'd been picking up dog pooh with them and hadn't washed them. He looked at them himself, back and front, just to make sure he didn't have something smeared on them.
 

Nope. Clean.
 

"I'd really rather not."
 

He thought she was going to get in her car and leave him. Matt was very thankful when she shut it off and grabbed her keys. Once she shut the door and locked it with the key fob, he followed her to the front of
Mesa Cove
again and she unlocked the door.
 

"Where's Kevin?" he asked, just for a conversation starter.
 

Chloe moved expertly through the dim store—a single night light in a crystal skull gave off a soft illumination, and probably deterred superstitious burglars. "He takes the train. There's a path to the station just behind this shop." She disappeared into the back again and then the lights came on with an echoing clank. She stepped back inside. "He's a lot tougher than he looks."
 

Matt didn't comment as he looked around and tried to remember where he was when he came in and talked to Kevin. He retraced his steps, looked down at the shelf displaying potions and—

"Ah!" he reached down and picked them up. Their familiar jingle was a comfort. "I did set them down. And I am very grateful that you let me come back in and check."
 

Chloe kept a good distance from him with her hands crossed over her chest. "That's good. So you can get home now. Please, have a pleasant night." She disappeared through that back door again.

Matt sighed. He'd done damage with Chloe, and though he wanted her to do the show, he didn't want to force her to be near him. It was obvious from her body language she didn't like him. The distance, the not wanting to touch him, and the fact she wouldn't meet his eyes.
 

Yes Matt—once again you've charmed yourself right out of what could have been a wonderful—maybe.
 

He really did find her attractive. The fact she didn't like him made him all the more intrigued, but given his past with fatal attractions and being forced together with someone he didn't even like—he wasn't going to push things any further. Kevin had said he'd help him get in touch with a few of the other witches and psychics in town. There were a lot of them, given this was the Bible Belt.
 

He turned and headed back toward the front door just as Chloe screamed from the back room.
 

CHAPTER THREE

Chloe's heart pounded against her chest as she backed away from the effigy hanging in the middle of her office. A three-foot plastic witch hung from its neck over her desk. This wasn't happening…this had never happened to her. She had to get out of there—call the police—call Kevin—

She turned around to head back through the door, and ran headlong into Matt Hunter.
 

To her surprise he wrapped his arms around her and held her to his side. She looked up at his face but he was looking up at the hanging witch. He had a strong profile, with a strong jaw, perfectly curved nose, and nice lips. Those lips pulled back from perfect teeth she hadn't noticed before in look of disgust. "What the hell is that?"
 

At a glance, it was one of Chloe's worst nightmares. One of the fears she'd always secretly harbored before and after she opened up her shop and put herself out in public for ridicule. But after three years in business, nothing like this had
ever
happened before.
 

Until now.
 

"It's…" she cleared her throat. "It's an effigy. See it's one of those Halloween witches you can buy at a department store."
 

"Yeah I can see that," he looked down at her. His eyes were brown, framed by very long, very dark lashes. His dark brows furrowed. "But why the hell would someone want to put something like this in your office?" He looked back at it, showing her that beautiful profile again. "How did they get in?"
 

Matt was asking the questions she should be asking and not idly admiring his physique. Chloe pulled away from him and he let go. His attention was still fixed on the hanging witch. It wasn't that it was just hanging from the tiled ceiling—the fact it was hanging by its neck rattled Chloe more than anything else.
 

Pinned to its front was a sign made of poster board. Scrawled across it in marker was the message, "God Hates Witchs."
 

Who ever wrote it, couldn't spell.

"Who ever this crazy ass is, he can't spell witches right." Mark stood in front of it and looked up. "They wired it around the metal brace for the tile—and it looks like they did it in a hurry. See how the tile's still crooked?" He pointed and looked back at her.
 

Chloe nodded quickly, unsure of what else to do or say. She was almost frozen on the spot. And she was starting to shake.
 

Matt frowned as came to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey…look at me."
 

She did. This close, she really was amazed at how good looking he was. It was a classic artist's beauty.
 

"Do you have a good working relationship with the local cops?"
 

Chloe nodded. "Yeah. When I wanted to open the shop, I went to them to see if they thought it'd be a problem. You know, given this is the south and I was going to announce myself as a psychic—"
 

"That makes sense." He searched her eyes. "And they were good with it?"
 

"They were supportive. So when I opened
Mesa Cove
and nothing really happened, we were both pretty happy. A few of the officers come in now and then and buy things."
 

He smiled. It was a beautiful smile. Chloe closed her eyes.
What am I doing? Am I focusing on him because otherwise I'd run out the door screaming?
 

She needed an anchor. Something earthy and tangible for her to hold onto. She also noticed all warnings of danger were gone when she touched him. Was this the danger? This warning? Was he somehow responsible for it? The idea seemed impossible since he was never near her office.
 

Matt let go of her and pulled his phone from his pocket. "I'm going to call the police so they can see this, okay? Why don't you go back into the front and calm down?"

Chloe nodded as she moved like a zombie through the door and sat on the stool in front of her register. After a few seconds of pulling herself together, she took several white candles out from under the counter and lit them, filling her thoughts with safety, peace, and calm. Then she grabbed a candle from the shelf, a vanilla scented one, and lit it. She was setting it on the front table in front of the door when she caught a movement outside the store's glass windows.