Chapter Eighteen #2
“Morning, Sunshine,” she said, moving past him to enter his room.
Yeah, she was the wakeup call.
“Uh, Elizabeth,” he said, closing the door. Fortunately for him, he’d had time to pull on his boxers.
She turned.
They had a problem.
She was running on fumes, coffee, and stress. At some point, all the shit would hit the fan. Her brain was going a mile a minute, she was tired from only getting four hours sleep, and now, she had a runaway agent.
Oh, and this one to handle.
“Oh, did I wake you, pumpkin? You missed all the fun last night,” she admitted. “I texted you an assignment. I hope you worked on it.”
Corbin looked completely confused, and then, it hit him. He’d turned off his phone.
“Oh, shit.”
Elizabeth walked to the table by the window, and picked up the phone that was still on the floor.
When she placed it on the table, she saw it.
A note.
“Alex left you something,” she said, picking it up, and handing it to him.
Corbin flushed red as he went to read over it.
‘I’m sorry. I know. It changes nothing. Goodbye, Corbin. I hope you make it through the storm. I’m sorry you lost the love of your life. Trust me. I know. It sucks. Alex.’
When he looked up, Elizabeth didn’t give him any time to say shit.
“My dude, he resigned. We lost a good agent, and I’m here to bust your balls over it. Before you say anything, I don’t care. Someone needs to say this.”
Corbin didn’t speak.
He was thinking about how what he’d done last night caused Alex, a damn good agent, to quit.
“Corbin…”
Only, she didn’t get to say anything else.
Her phone came alive.
Just not the way she thought it would. It was an app that she absolutely kept deleting off of her phone, but it kept showing up again and again. To make it worse, the voice was very familiar.
Oh, shit.
“ANSWER. YOUR. PHONE. BESTIE. INCOMING.”
Why the bloody hell was Trey Christensen haunting her goddamn phone on the other side of the country?
“Hold that thought,” she said, as the phone rang, and she answered it on the first ring.
Because she wasn’t playing with Trey.
He freaked her out.
“Bestie, you know shit like that makes me twitchy,” she said to her friend whose face appeared on the screen.
Victoria just laughed.
“You? I’ve got a problem too,” she admitted.
The whole time, Corbin stood there, confused.
“Do you have company?” she asked.
Oh, well, yeah, only because Elizabeth wasn’t an idiot. She didn’t play games with Victoria Littlemoon’s gift, mostly because it involved Trey, and she didn’t need to be haunted by the dead man. If she had timed this to that moment, she suspected she knew why.
“Yep.”
Tori was ready then.
She had a million problems in Salem, and now, a dead man was continually waking her ass up all night, and being impatient as fuck.
That was annoying.
A girl needed her beauty sleep when she was trying to stay alive during a psychic apocalypse.
“Corbin?” she asked.
He blinked.
“Uh, yeah?”
Tori went there.
“Long story short. I’m a medium. I channel dead people, and your goddamn husband hunted me down, interrupted my everything shower, and is holding me hostage.”
He looked bewildered.
“So, I have to give you a message, or he’s never leaving me alone. Will is not happy, and that makes me unhappy.”
Corbin froze.
“That’s not funny.”
Elizabeth put the phone down, propping it up so that the woman could see who she was speaking to, and then she took a seat at the table. She was betting dollars to donuts that Tori was going to fix this mess with a little help from the dead man’s husband.
The show was beginning.
“It’s not funny, since he’s really pissed at you, and has been screaming all night long for me to intervene. It’s not funny to be haunted by someone who is adamant that I fix your shit for you.”
Corbin stared at Elizabeth.
“What the fuck is this?”
She shared.
“That’s Victoria Littlemoon, and she’s one of my best friends. She was an agent, and is actually a psychic. She talks to the dead and helps people. I didn’t expect her to call, but apparently, someone you love has a message. I’d listen.”
He couldn’t believe this.
“Will said it’s time to move on.”
He actually laughed.
“Yeah, well, I don’t believe in psychics, and I certainly don’t believe that my husband is haunting anyone.”
Tori sighed.
“One of those?” she asked her friend.
Elizabeth just laughed.
“Girl, you’ve got a tough one here. Gene and Ethan told me he’s stubborn. Good luck. If this doesn’t work, I’ll just kick his ass. That might be easier to beat some sense into him.”
Corbin was so goddamn confused.
So, Tori began.
“Again, your husband said it’s time, Corbin. He said it’s time for you to let him go.”
Corbin said one thing.
“No.”
Tori didn’t give up. Will was right beside her, and clearly with his husband too. The dead weren’t solid, so they could be in multiple places.
“He wants you to…”
Corbin stopped her.
“You can stop. I don’t believe he’s with you. When we die, there’s Heaven or Hell. He’s not floating around.”
Will sighed.
Clearly, this was going to be harder.
So, he told her what he could.
Tori was channeling, so she shared.
“He said you got married on a beach in Puerto Rico. It was spur of the moment, and after your recovery. Will said that your sexual assault was why you didn’t have sex on your wedding night, but instead, you serviced his needs. He wants to know if you need the details.”
Corbin looked horrified.
When he glanced over at Elizabeth, she shrugged.
“I wasn’t there, my dude. Neither was Gene or Ethan. If you didn’t tell them you were blowing a man on your wedding night, or hand-jobbing him into the early morning hours, that only leaves one option.”
She pointed at the phone.
Corbin didn’t like this.
“What color flower did I wear on my tuxedo?” he asked.
Tori laughed.
“You weren’t in a tuxedo, and it was a bird of paradise flower that you picked from the little alcove where you tied the knot. It was some officiant from the gay inclusive resort, Gene, Ethan, and Greyson Croft were the only guests, and you did it as the sun set by the water.”
Corbin went pale.
“You did your own vows, and you used the rings that Will purchased for you. That was the first time you were ready to get married, after trying to work toward it. On your thigh is a burn mark that resembles a skull. Do you want me to share where the matching one is?”
“Stop.”
Tori hated shocking them, but Will wanted to cross, and he couldn’t until Corbin got his shit together.
“The bottom line is this, Corbin. Your mourning is keeping Will trapped here. He wants to cross to have peace. When you die, if you don’t go toward the light, you become an angry spirit. You’re holding him here.”
Corbin began pacing.
“Elizabeth, tell him to stop wearing a path in the carpet.”
He came to a dead stop. He had moved out of the line of sight with the phone, and she shouldn’t know that. He was barefoot, silent, and her phone was not directed at him.
“So my husband…”
Tori went there.
“He’s here with me. He showed me his death state, and I can give you that if you need it as more proof.”
He stopped her.
“Please don’t.”
She got it.
“Corbin, he loves you, but he said your vows are complete. You promised to love him until death do you part, and you went beyond that. He was a bridge to one day get you here, and now, he wants to cross.”
Corbin ran his hands up and down his arms.
“I miss him.”
Tori softened.
She knew how difficult it was to lose someone you love.
She lost everyone in her family, with the exception of Beau.
Trey was gone, her shit mother was gone, and her questionable father, too.
Losing Julian would likely kill her, and she could tell that Corbin was goddamn strong to survive what Will said he’d been through.
“He’s right beside you,” she admitted. “They can be in multiple places.”
Corbin looked around.
“Left,” Tori said, using what Will was saying to help him. “The air will feel colder where he is.”
He held out his hand.
He swore he could feel cold air swirling around it, like someone was touching it.
“He wants you to know that he will always love you, and that he doesn’t blame you for his death.
It wasn’t your fault, and you weren’t meant to protect him.
He didn’t suffer, and he never knew what happened to him.
He didn’t feel it, and that your biggest fear is that he suffered.
He didn’t. The first strike of the knife was to his heart, and he died instantly.
The rest that was done was to his soulless body. ”
Corbin had tears dripping down his cheeks.
“Will said that you were never meant to have forever, Corbin, because he was put in your way to help heal you, and to be that stepping stone to this.”
Corbin wiped his eyes.
“What is ‘this’?” he asked. “Because ‘this’ hurts.”
Tori listened to the dead man.
“You met the one. You met the man who not only will heal you, but is the one you’ll start a life with, and it’s going to be a beautiful life.”
Corbin sobbed a little.
As Elizabeth watched, she wanted to weep for him. One day, she’d slowly lose each of the men she loved, and it would be like a million deaths each time.
She didn’t doubt that.
Tori continued.
“He said you weren’t meant to have a family back then, and now that he’s found his way into your life, it will all open up and be what you need. You missed meeting him because of your mourning, and Will has been trying to make you cross paths for over fifteen years.”
He blinked through the tears.
“I don’t understand.”
Tori did.
“Elizabeth, where is Alex from?” she asked.
She was to the point.
“Originally, a small town outside of Philadelphia. Then, he moved to escape it.”
Tori continued.
“Will needs you to stop holding on to what could have been, and to start living your life. He can’t have peace, and he can’t move on until you set him free. You call to him in your dreams, and you think about him. It is keeping him bound here. He needs you to say goodbye.”