Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
“All right, so, Duke, Xander. Xander, Duke.”
Iago didn’t have time for any jealousy shit, because he was very busy.
He could tell immediately that Xander didn’t like Duke, though.
He sort of got it.
The man was absolutely beautiful in that weird ‘I’m going to be a pirate when I grow up, and I’m Indiana Jones’ sort of way.
Not at all the picture he thought of when he thought of a geologist.
Duke nodded, his coppery-brown curls bouncing. “Pleased to meet you. Cool, so there are blueprints? How come I didn’t know about this?”
“The ghost dropped the blueprints off.”
Duke stared at Iago. “Pardon me?”
Mason nodded. “Fell right out of the ceiling.”
One red eyebrow climbed up. “Does anybody have this on camera?”
Iago beamed. “Believe it or not, yes.”
Duke blinked again. “Seriously?”
“We hadn’t taken the cameras down for the night. We were still running film and looking at things, so you just see the blueprints fall. It’s not like there was ectoplasm or anything.”
Law grinned at Iago. “Look at you using words like ectoplasm.”
Mason rubbed his nose. “You know that ectoplasm makes the best lube…”
Xander stared at Mason. “What are you doing wrong that you require lube with your omegas?”
“Oh, very nice!” Law applauded. “I didn’t think you were ever going to catch up.”
“Shut up, still hate you.” Xander looked at Gent and Colton, who were both kind of staring at him with very stern faces. “Sorry, guys.”
Iago shrugged. “Don’t worry, they’re not your bosses. They won’t hold me responsible for what you do. Now, blueprints— when can we touch them?”
He clapped as he said it, he was so excited. He knew in his deepest soul that this was going to be the answer.
Xander had asked the ghosts what he needed to do to get them to help out, and the ghosts had answered.
Iago knew this was right. He was going to get a place of his own with Xander where he could yell when he was having orgasms.
“We have the cameras set up now, and we also have some precautions in place, like having covered up the mine shaft in the kitchen and setting up some plexiglass at the living room door for you and Xander, Iago. I don’t want any chance of you two getting injured if the dining room goes wild.”
Iago wanted to argue, but he knew better. Xander, naturally, popped right off. “Why me? I get that Iago is pregnant, but—”
“You’re a civilian. The doc here will be with you too.”
Duke raised his eyebrows. “I will?”
“When we first get them up off the floor? Yes. After that, if there’s not a shitstorm, we’ll put them on the dining room table and let everyone in.” Colton’s tone brooked no arguments.
“Okay.” Iago took Xander’s hand and pulled him to the parlor. Duke followed them, and Mason set up camp in the kitchen door while Colton and Gent moved in on the blueprints. Law had a hand camera to add to the stationary ones.
They were all set to go, and everyone was eager to see what those blueprints told them.
“It’s my house.” Xander grumbled. “I should be able to be over there seeing what’s going on.”
“Oh, hush.” Iago pinched Xander’s arm gently. “Leave it to the guys who get paid to get pounded with china and glass and books. I want you in one piece.”
“I want me in one piece too,” Xander agreed, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
Duke made a slightly disgusted-sounding noise. “So that’s the way it is huh?”
Oof. That made Xander glare at the guy. “Yeah, that is absolutely the way it is.”
“Good to know.” Duke shrugged. “You can’t win ‘em all.”
Iago swallowed hard when he realized what they were talking about. It was very flattering but, at the same time, it didn’t matter. He only had eyes for Xander.
“Or, you know, any.” Xander did wink at Duke, though, as if having established all of that made it okay now.
He rolled his eyes. “Alphas.”
“Right?” Sebastian sidled up next to him, making him jump.
“What are you doing here, and where are your children?”
“I was there when you called Colton. So was Xavi. He agreed to watch the kids so I could come watch this.”
“Stay behind the plexi,” Colton called.
“I will! I promise.” Sebastian was right there, though, peering through the plastic.
“Okay, and we’re rolling,” Colton snapped.
“Rolling,” Law echoed, bringing the camera into play.
“Okay, so we’re back here in the haunted house in Hot Springs Junction, Colorado.
It’s a mining house, but a Craftsman style building that was put in later than the shotgun house I live in now.
We have a set of blueprints that have reappeared, literally falling from the ceiling.
We haven’t retrieved them yet, because we wanted you all to see what happens. ”
Iago split his attention between the computer screen and the blueprint. He wasn’t sure anything was going to happen — it was most likely nothing, especially since the guys had spent so much time getting everything ready.
“You know nothing is going to happen, right?” Sebastian muttered, “It never does!”
“It’s okay because we got it on film to begin with. I’m crazy curious to know what is on those blueprints. It’s going to help us figure this out.”
“I know it.” Sebastian reached out and squeezed his hand.
“I hope so. I think so, too.”
Xander stood behind him, totally tense, and kind of breathing on the back of his neck. That was okay. As long as it wasn’t Dr. Geologist back there breathing on his neck, he was fine.
Gent moved in across from Colton, and together they reached out with gloved hands in order to each carefully grab two corners of the blueprint and lift it up off the floor.
Iago held his breath, and Mason let out a sharp bark of surprise. Law whirled around to point the cameras at the kitchen and Mason stumbled into the dining room.
“The cover just blew off the mine shaft.”
“Holy crap.” Law popped the words out, and Iago was frankly surprised that he hadn’t actually cursed. Gent would have yelled at him for that because then he would have had to edit the soundtrack. They kept shooting continuously no matter what.
Xander put a hand on Iago’s arm and pulled him back against that broad chest as if ready to protect him from whatever might happen.
It was sweet, but he needed to be a little freer to move around so he could see all the action and take notes. So, he elbowed Xander in the chest a little bit, listening to the soft huff of Xander’s frustrated breath.
Gent and Colton laid the blueprints on the table then went to the kitchen door to peer through the opening.
“The cover has blown off the mine shaft opening. We had screwed it back on so that when we started looking at the blueprints, we could control whatever might be going on with the danger area. It’s as if our friend who gave us back the blueprints wants us to know that this is the main event. ”
Colton’s voiceover always impressed him because he could stay calm even when the weirdest shit was happening.
Iago was staring at the mine shaft cover, which was standing on one edge right in the center of the kitchen.
“This is pretty big.” Iago said.
“Shit, this is serious.” Sebastian sounded as shocked as he felt.
Duke shook his head, pale as a sheet. “What is this, special effects?”
Iago shook his head. “No, how on earth would we fake it?”
“I don’t believe it. I am a damn scientist, not…”
One of the books flew out toward Duke, and Xander caught it, quick as a bunny. All those years of cooking gave him good reflexes.
“What the hell!”
Crap. Gent would have to bleep that out.
“No more cursing,” Iago murmured. “Every bleep takes time and money.”
“What?” Duke turned to stare at him, his eyes wide, his expression outraged.
“Okay, everyone out of the kitchen,” Gent snapped. “Mason, you’re back on door duty. Everyone else, we need your eyes. Law, zero in on the blueprints. Iago, Xander, do they look the same?”
Colton’s low chuckle settled Iago right down. “As you can see, we all got a little wigged out there. But now we’ll examine the blueprints.”
“They do. They have the stamp of the township, they look the same, and they seem undamaged.” Iago leaned closer to the screen. “Yes, they are the originals. Look, there’s the place where I circled the address — in pencil, thank you — to check against the house’s current address.”
Xander chuckled and whispered, “You’re going to get in trouble.”
“Hush.”
“Good. Good deal. And nothing has been altered?”
Xander’s breath caught. “Look at the mine shaft, b—Guys.”
“Nice catch on the “baby”,” Sebastian murmured softly.
“Thanks.”
“Holy—” Colton was the one who almost cursed now. “Look at that. There’s a whole second drop in the mine shaft according to this. A second tunnel, twice as deep.”
“What?” Duke shoved past them and the plexi, storming over to look at the blueprints. “That’s not what it looks like down there at all.”
Law hummed. “Oh, do we have a hidden mineshaft? That’s awesome!”
“How…did they backfill it? How did they do that and there’s no evidence?” Duke’s eyes narrowed. “I need to get down there. Now.”
“Hold up.” Colton caught him by the arm, and Law zeroed in on their faces, pushing the human drama angle.
“We can’t just go off in all directions.
Whatever entity we’re dealing with is strong enough to blow a metal and wood plate off a wall.
We need to make sure we have safety lines for everyone, and some protective gear for all. ”
“I’m on it.” Gent whirled and marched off, tugging out his phone.
“Okay, so in the meantime, we need to really look again at the records of who owned this home. We’re missing something. Something in the chain of custody is hinky, and we need to know what.”
He glanced at Law.
“Cut.”
Iago sat hard, staring at the screen. He needed to do things, he knew he did, but he was a touch frozen.
That had been intense as hell.
“You okay, baby?” Xander asked putting an arm around him again.
This time he leaned in and let Xander hold him. “Yeah, I think so. That was just crazy wild, huh?”
“I could have done without it.” Xander chuckled. “But at least I’m not freaking out as bad as Dr. Duke over there.”