Steele (2 page)

Within ten minutes, he was letting them in the gate. Steele knew his family well enough to know that they’d work very hard at covering this up. So while he’d been waiting on the locals to show up, he also called several news stations to let them know as well. Then he’d called the FBI.

The police were everywhere. His father wasn’t around and they had sent someone to the hospital to find him. His cell and his office phone were not being answered. One of the officers, a man who had been to their house several times, kept glaring at Steele, but he really didn’t care. It was done now and he would do it all over again if he had to. Steele was just leaving his sister another message when the FBI showed up. Then after that, things got really scary.

His mother was having a hysterical fit, screaming at the top of her lungs. And not at their father, oh no. At him, for calling the Feds. Apparently it was none of their business what happened on their property. The Feds, a man by the name of Ray Hancock in particular, was very interested in what happened on their property.

“Did you look in the grave before you called any of us in?” He told him he hadn’t. “And what led you out there? I’m going to tell you what I’ve heard before I let you answer that. Your mother said that you’ve been treated for mental illness, and that you more than likely killed her and will blame your father.”

Even at seventeen, Steele knew that he was being given too much information. Instead of telling him anything, all he did was stare at the wall just behind the Federal agent. The man laughed a little and Steele finally looked at him.

“I didn’t kill her.” He nodded his head and said he hadn’t thought so. “I think you might find one more body out there. Another woman. Maybe two, but I don’t think there are any other children.”

Ray nodded but said nothing more as he wrote in his notebook. When he clicked his pen closed, he looked at Steele and leaned back in his chair. Steele braced himself for being told he was being arrested or worse yet, taken to the clinic again. The one where he’d spent a great deal of time after telling his parents what he could do.

“I know about you.” Steele started to stand. If this was going to be it, he had to at least try to get away. But Ray asked him to please stay. “I’m not going to hurt you. Or do whatever it is that is running through your head right now. But I heard that you talk to the dead. Help them. Was she someone that came to you for help?”

He didn’t answer him but apparently Ray didn’t require him to. As he sat there, he named two more people that Steele had helped. Steele never acknowledged him but knew both names. Fear made him squirm. Ray just nodded as if he knew the answer all along. That in and of itself made him think that things were about to get seriously bad.

“I have a deal for you when you’re old enough. A job.” Steele took the business card when Ray held it out to him before he could think he shouldn’t. “Call me when you hit eighteen and we’ll talk. But you have to know, this is not going to go well, for either of your parents. You know that, don’t you? I’m thinking your mother knew about this, and I’m willing to think you knew she did as well.”

“I’m sure she did. I never thought…it wasn’t anything I might have been able to ask them about.” Ray nodded and told him he’d get back to him in a few days. As he moved away, he turned back and looked at him when Steele said his name. “Will you find more, you think?”

“We’ve already found three more women and a child. The dogs are still looking as we speak.” With that, he walked away.

Steele made his way to his room. His sister was sitting on his bed. He was so relieved to see her that he nearly wept from it.

“Where have you been? I’ve been worried to death about you. Why didn’t you let me know you’d been back?” She smiled at him and he sat down on the rocker that had been occupied this morning by his client. “I’m really sorry about today. But did you see what’s going on downstairs? I think Mother and Father are going to jail for a very long time.”

“I did. But I have to tell you something.” He started to tell her what Ray had said, but she continued. “I don’t want you to feel bad. It was all my fault. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.”

“What do you mean?” He started to stand up, but something held him back. “Aster? What’s going on? What was your fault?”

“I love you. Very much.” He nodded, suddenly afraid. “I don’t want you to think this was your fault. It wasn’t. I wasn’t even thinking of it when it happened.” Steele started to stand again, but he sat very still. His heart was pumping so hard he was sure anyone walking down the hall could have heard it.

“Aster? Please tell me what’s going on. I’m worried and scared.” But he knew. As surely as he was sitting there, he knew. But he couldn’t say it, couldn’t admit, not even to himself, what he knew. “Aster, this isn’t funny. What’s going on?”

“I was watching the little baby in the stroller. And you know how much I love babies. But she and her mother were crossing the street and the baby had dropped her dolly. I didn’t think before I acted.” He told her she never did and she smiled at him again. “No, I rarely did. I just stepped off the sidewalk and it was over as soon as I did.”

Dead. Dead. Dead. His sister was dead. Steele felt the tears fall. His heart that had been pounding so hard before suddenly stopped. Dead. Dead. Dead. His wonderful sister, so full of life, was dead.

“No. Please no.” She moved to stand in front of him and he could see it then. Everything that had happened to her. All of it. “Aster. I’m so sorry. I should have let you go with me. I shouldn’t have told you to go away. Please forgive me. Please?”

Her body was bloodied; some of the wounds still seeped blood. Her face, so lovely when she’d left him, now bore the marks of being dragged over concrete. The entire left side of Aster’s face was smashed, her mouth nearly ripped open to her ear. Her left arm was broken and hung limply at her side. Her shorts and shirt were torn as well, and showed more abrasions to her delicate skin. He looked down her legs, so long and muscled before, but now she was missing her left leg from the knee down; her other leg was broken and twisted in a manner that hurt him to see.

“Don’t blame yourself, Steele. It was my fault. I only came back to tell you that it was all me and to beg you not to take on the blame. You will, I know you will, no matter what I say to you, but I had to come back and try. You’ll think that I was hurt and was too distracted to see what was going on. But that’s not what happened. I was happy. I wasn’t paying attention.” The tears streamed down his face. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I don’t hurt. I swear it. It’s over and I don’t hurt.”

“I need you. I need you in my life. You’re all I have. You’re all I will ever have.” She moved to the bed and when she sat down, he could see that she’d made no dent in his covers, no shift in his book still lying there, because as much as he wanted her there, she was gone from the body that had held her for her entire life. There was nothing of her here. Nothing. Because she wasn’t really here. “Aster. What am I supposed to do now?”

“What you’ve been doing all along. Help people like us.” He shook his head. “You have to, Steele. You have to…I can see them now. All of them. There are so many needing you. And there are others like you. A great many of them. You have to help them too. You’re so much stronger than anyone out there trying to help the dead.”

“No. Without you…you can’t leave me.” She smiled sadly at him, and he felt as if his entire being wanted to find a way to join her. His mind seemed to simply shut down. “I don’t want you to go. Please, don’t leave me.”

“Steele.” She sat there for a long time, simply staring at him. He took in everything about her…all her wounds and her pain as they faded from her so that she looked so much like the girl from this morning. His little sister. Steele wanted to join her; go out into the garage, pull down the gun he knew was there, and simply join her. But he knew that he couldn’t. Not like that.

“Don’t leave me. Father killed someone. Mother is mad because I called the police. And when he’s gone, I’ll be here with her all by myself.” Still she sat there and he continued trying to convince her. “The guy, Ray Hancock, he said that she might have known about the death. They found four more bodies. If she goes to prison with him, then I’ll be all alone.”

It was selfish. He knew it, and he was pretty sure she knew it too. But when she stood up, he could see her resolve, see that she’d come to a decision and he wasn’t going to like it. So he stood as well, stood as close to her as he could without touching her.

“You know that I can’t stay here. You know that as well as any one of the people you help.” He nodded and sobbed. His sister, his wonderfully amazing sister, was going to leave him. “I want to give you something. I need to tell you something as well. It’s…I could see them too. The people. I could see them too but never helped. I couldn’t help them like you did. I was too afraid of what Mother and Father would do to me. But the others, the dead, they’ve asked me to give you a gift and to tell you why you can see them. All right?”

“Yes. No. Please, I don’t want anything from them. I want you to…I know you can’t. I know that, but I will miss you so much.” She nodded and put out her hand. “I love you, Aster. I will love you for the rest of my life.”

“I will you as well, brother dear.” Her fingers moved over his chest and then into his heart. As soon as she touched him there, he felt so much move from her to him. It was almost too much, and when he put out his hand to pull her away, he touched her and looked into her face.

Everything became clear. All his life he had wondered what had happened, and now he knew. He also knew that his sister was right. She had been able to see the dead, had been able to talk to them as well. But unlike him, she’d been able to ignore it, something he wished now he’d worked harder at. When she started to fade, her body the shape of perfection again, he touched her again and closed his eyes. Steele saw in her eyes things he’d never seen there before.

“You’ll be so happy someday.” He shook his head at her whispered words. “You will. And when you are, I’ll rest easy. I’ll even come to see you again if I can. But you have to promise to help them. All right?”

“I wish you would stay with me.” He watched her fade more. “I love you, Aster, and always will.”

“I love you as well. I need for you to close your eyes now. Dream of all that will come to pass. Dream of the things that you will be able to do now, so much more than before.” He nodded, his body becoming heavier with her words. “You will dream of them now, Steele, all of the hurt ones, you’ll dream of them.”

Then she was gone. Steele dropped to the floor and leaned forward. Blood pooled beneath him, and it was all he could do not to fall face first into it. When someone knocked at his door, it took him three tries before he could get his mouth to work around the words to have them come in. As soon as the door opened, he was lifted up and laid on his bed. Steele looked up into the eyes of Ray and knew he was like him. As he lay there on his bed, sobbing for all that he’d lost in so short of a time, Ray sat beside him quietly and watched over him. When he felt as if he could function again, even if it was without a heart, he turned to look at the big man who had been more compassionate to him in the last hour than either of his parents had been to him his entire life.

“You contacted your father? Left him a message on what you did?” Steele started to nod, but the movement made his belly sick. “He got the message. I’m sorry to tell you this, son, but he’s dead. Killed himself not long after the call, we’re thinking. It’s just as well. I’m thinking he wouldn’t have lasted long in prison.” Steele nodded. His father, a great man to all that knew him outside the family, was dead. And all Steele could think about was good riddance.

“My mother know?” Ray nodded, then shook his head. “I don’t understand. Does she know or not?”

“She does. About the bodies as well as your father being dead. And there’s more. I’m sorry, but—”

“Aster is dead too.” He didn’t look surprised but only nodded. “She told me not to worry about her. That it was her fault. She stepped in front of a car or something and she was killed. There was a baby that she was with when it happened. She told me she was happy at the time.”

It was the first time he’d admitted to anyone but family what he could do. Ray didn’t tell him he was nuts, didn’t tell him he was lying. What would be the point in that? The man probably knew more about clients than he did.

“A semi. And she didn’t suffer any.” He nodded. She’d told him that as well. “I’m sorry, son. I’m sorrier than I can ever tell you.”

Steele nodded and rolled to his side away from the man. His entire life was ruined. Everything, all the people in his life, were going to leave him because of this curse. When someone stepped in front of him, another ghost, he closed his eyes. He was never going to help them again. Not ever.

Steele Bennett was going to go on with his life as if none of them existed. As of right now, he was out of the ghost helping business. He knew as surely as he was laying there that the chances of this really happening were slim to none. He’d made a promise and for his sister, he would have to keep it.

Chapter 1

Twelve years later.

Kari Briggs watched the two men as they stood talking. She wasn’t going to say anything to anyone this time. She didn’t care what they did or who they did it to. She was sick of people. Turning her back to them, she wiped down the already spotless bar and continued her way down it until she was nearest the door.

“Beer.” She nodded once to the man and left her rag on the table as she made her way to the tap. She filled a mug and moved to take it to him when the men at the other end of the bar started shouting. Here it came. She looked at the man in front of her as she held his beer, just short of handing it to him.

“Run.” He looked at her for all of a second before he turned and left the bar. She had no idea why that pissed her off. As soon as the door closed behind him, she turned back to the other end of the bar while her cat shifted over her skin to let her know that she was there if needed. Lifting the small part of the bar that allowed her to go into the bar proper, she stood near the men.

“Take it out of here, boys.” The bigger of the two men turned to cock a brow at her. She hated when men did that. It made her feel like they were saying, “are you kidding me?” But she nodded at him and pointed to the door. “Take whatever you’re doing out of my bar. I don’t need to mop up any blood tonight. I’ve got enough shit to do without that too.”

“We’re not going to hurt anybody. We just wanted to talk to some guy. We have no intentions of drawing blood.” She knew as well as they did that was a lie. The door behind her opened again, but she didn’t turn. “We just wanted to have a nice conversation. Then we’ll leave here. You just go on back to your job there and we’ll do ours.”

“I wasn’t talking about you drawing blood. I was telling you that I was going to do it. You keep fucking around and I’m going to hurt you bad. And I’m not going to tell you again to take that and yourselves out of here.” The guy closest to her nodded but didn’t move. Her cat, never really stable anyway, danced along her skin. The man must have seen something because he took a step back. But dumbass number two drew his gun. When she stepped back, it was to come up against a hard something, and it wasn’t a wall. Then hands as big as her head were wrapped around her upper arms.

“The lady asked you to take it outside.” She glanced around and up. Way up. The guy had to be at least six foot, ten inches. Kari felt his heat and her cat seemed to purr and stretch. “I’m suggesting that you do as she asked and no one has to get hurt.”

“You and the little woman there going to make us? Or do you have a back-up plan that has a bunch of others helping you out?” She heard a shift in the seats, chairs being scraped back, and the creak of the floor as something…or someone…heavy stood up. The two men in front of her took several steps back, and she wanted to laugh. “Okay. No harm, no foul. We’re leaving. But if this is the way she treats her customers, we won’t be coming back.”

“Good.” When she finally found her tongue, she felt stupid for opening her mouth. But she had to take control again. If these bastards came back again, she wasn’t going to have whatever backup she had now. “If you do come back, you’d better have all your ducks in a row because I won’t be so polite then.”

The two men ignored her, but not the man still holding her. When she tried to turn to watch the two leave, he held her tighter. Her cat purred along her skin again, and Kari felt slightly panicky. Pulling away from him, she took a few steps before turning around. There were enough men standing in her bar right now that she could have had a nice game of football. They were certainly big enough for it. And they didn’t look as if they needed any pads. Then, as if there was a signal that only they could hear, they moved back from her and the man that had spoken.

Kari watched as they all sat down at different tables before she looked at the man again. “I didn’t need your help. I had it well under control.”

“I’m sure you did.” He was laughing at her. She could hear it in his voice. “I was just wanting to make sure that they understood that you had it under control as well.”

Moving as far from him as she could, she stepped behind the bar again. Her cat didn’t care for the move, and she had to take several deep breaths to calm her. Kari wasn’t really happy right now either, and her stupid other self wasn’t helping. The man sat at the bar but made no move to speak to her. As she stood there watching him, she could see a hint of a smile on his face.

“Better now?” She nodded. For some reason she thought he knew what she was. “Good. I’m sorry to have stepped on your toes. But I could tell that you were going to get hurt and I just didn’t want that to happen. Not tonight.”

The door opened again, but she didn’t look. The man in front of her had her full attention. He was…something. Kari wasn’t sure what, but he wasn’t wholly human. When he ordered a beer, she poured him one and sat it in front of him as she picked up her rag again. This time instead of wiping down the spotless bar, she took it to the back room and held it to her mouth as she screamed into it.

Her body burned. Kari’s cat wanted out. And she was pretty sure that over the next few days, if not tonight, those two men she’d tossed out—or he’d tossed out—were going to come for her. Would nothing ever fucking go right for her? Her entire life had been a series of one fuck up after another, and she was fucking sick of it.

Looking at the desk in the far corner, she could see the bills piled there. Overdue was printed on nearly all of them. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the fucking paycheck she’d gotten this morning couldn’t be cashed either. The guy she worked for was going to be surprised if she just locked up and left shit the way it was when or if he ever decided to return. In the next month she was going to be out of a job, a place to live, and any kind of security she had, according to the letter from the bank she’d signed for earlier today. She was so fucked right now that she just wanted to crawl into a corner and cry. After splashing cold water on her face, she went back out. The man at the bar had been joined by two of the other men, but she ignored them all. Instead, she started going over the inventory that she was going to have to bring up tomorrow.

The driver who had come by today to give her what she’d ordered had told her that was it. Until the bill was paid, she was going to be shit out of luck as far as liquor was concerned. She had news for him; she’d been that for a while now. Lucky for her—or not, depending on how you looked at it—she lived above this place and didn’t have to worry about her rent being cut off too…at least for the time being. Thirty days was all she had left to stay there.

She poured three more beers, all of them on tap, and one bottle as the patrons came and went. She noticed the lone man who only stared off into space, but she didn’t care enough to see what he was drinking. By the time the men stood up to leave, she was armed with her list and now only had to wait until closing time. The guy who had saved her—because the more she thought about it, the more she realized he had—stood at the bar until she went to him.

“Will they return?” She told him she had no idea. “I would say they’ll be back. And pissy too. Want one of us to stay and make sure you get to your car okay? It won’t be a bit of problem for them to do so.”

Shaking her head, she told him she’d be fine. “I live upstairs anyway. And once I get the bar back together, I’ll be fine.”

He laid a folded up bill on the bar and nodded to her before speaking again. “What cat are you? I know you are, but I can’t get a handle on which one. It’s not like I see a great many of your kind in my type of business.”

“Panther.” He nodded and smiled at her. “And what are you? You’re not human. And not a shifter. What are you?”

“Necromancer. We all are.” As soon as he said it, she took a big step back. His kind scared the shit out of her. But his laughter made her raise her chin and he only laughed harder. “You should see your face right now. You’ve no idea whether to be terrified or pissed. Which is it, little cat? Fear or anger?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she did. “I think I’d like for you to leave. I appreciate what you did for me, but I’m…I just…all right, I’m terrified of you.”

He nodded and smiled. “I’d never hurt you. None of us would. But you should know that you have a guy here that is trying his best to get your attention. I think he might know you.”

Kari felt her cat snarl at her, and when she was this pissed, she had a hard time controlling her. When the man leapt over the bar at her, she felt her cat pulling her hard and trying to take her. But as soon as the man touched her again, Kari felt her calm.

“That’s it. Breathe through it.” She nodded but had to use all her energy to keep from shifting. “Keep breathing and you’ll be fine. Christ, do you have any control over her?”

“No, I fucking don’t. And as soon as I find the bastard that did this to me, I’m going to tear him up.” Kari jerked from the man and moved out of his reach. “I’m fine now. So if you’d be so kind as to get on the other side, I’d appreciate it.”

She watched him go to the bar split and lift the counter. As he stepped through the opening, two of the other men with him moved to sit at the bar. She felt closed in, her cat snarling at her. When one of the men asked for another beer, she nodded but made no move to pour it. She’d rather they just left. But when big guy sat down, she knew that they were in no hurry. She poured the beer and sat it in front of the other man. As he nodded, she looked at the big guy.

“My name is Kari, Kari Briggs.” She rarely let people touch her and only put out her hand to shake his when he did. As soon as he touched her, she knew she’d made a mistake. It was one thing for him to touch her arms when he’d been helping her, but this was direct contact, which always made her feel like she had taken on a part of the person. Hand to hand was much stronger than anything else. But instead of commenting on the connection, he introduced her to the men with him.

“My name is Ray Hancock. This is Drew Mullins, Hugh McGuire, and Nick Stark. The two over there are Landon Logan and Mitch Riley. And the loner over there is Steele Bennett. He’s the quiet, brooding type.” At his wink she looked at the man in the far corner. He didn’t look like a type at all, but one that made his own rules. And he was fucking huge too. “Well, Kari Briggs, would you like to know about your ghost? I think he’s trying to tell you something.”

“I don’t want to know unless it’s the owner of this bar. And he’d better have a fucking good reason for being dead.” She slapped her hand over her mouth as soon as the words cleared her lips. The man only nodded and took a long drink of his beer before staring at her. “It’s Mr. Craft, isn’t it? Eric Craft?”

“He’s saying it’s him and that he has to talk to you. He’s also telling you how sorry he is that he’s left you with this mess.” Kari felt her knees wobble, and she slid to the floor. No one came to help her, for which she was profoundly happy. But she could still see Ray sitting there with the other men. “When you catch your breath, I’ll let you know what he wants.”

“I’m going to be homeless, without any money, and he’s wanting to tell me how sorry he is?” Kari buried her head on her knees and cried. It had been a hell of a day, and now this. As she sat there sobbing into her knees, she heard the men talking softly but didn’t pay attention to what was being said. When she stood up, they all looked at her with pity in their eyes. “I’m not going to fall apart. I’ve had me a good cry. Thank you for that, but I’m all right now.”

She wasn’t and she was reasonably sure they all knew it. As Ray took another drink of his beer, she walked around the bar and locked the door. She was officially done working for nothing. And for a dead man. Taking a stool with her, she put it near the men and before sitting down, poured herself a glass. Yes, a glass of bourbon. She was going out with a bang.

“What happened to him?” Ray stared at her for several seconds before he threw back his head and laughed. She had no idea what she’d expected, but this wasn’t it. “Are you always this weird?”

The guy to his left, Drew, laughed and said he was worse. The other men agreed. She didn’t care what they were, but she wanted answers, and if this was the only way she was going to get them, then fine by her.

“He was…he had a heart attack while having some fun.” She asked him if he was fucking someone and he said yes. “I take it you like your information straight from the hip, is that right?”

“Yeah, I guess I do. So there’s nothing here to bail me out of this mess. And more importantly, how the hell am I going to get paid? Or the people that he owes money too? He took it all when he left me three months ago.” Ray looked behind the bar, but she didn’t. If he was talking to Eric, she didn’t want to know. “I’ve no money because my last check bounced, twice, and the bank won’t take it again. I have no car that will even get me much more than a few miles, and I’m homeless as of right now. Without a job, even if I had the money, I’m never going to find a place to live without a job reference. I’m so fucked right now.”

“He said to tell you he’s sorry. But you can have the money in the cash drawer if that helps.” Kari had no idea why, but she’d bet her bottom dollar Eric had not said anything even close to that. The man was a prick most of the time and an asshole the rest of the time. But instead of arguing about it, she went back behind the bar and opened the drawer. There was just over five hundred dollars in it, and she took it all. Even the change she stuffed into a bank bag. Then she went to the business side of the bar to finish her drink, but she wanted to be alone to do so. Going to the door again, she held it open for them.