Chapter Six #2
“When we dug her up, she was put in the crypt. We made sure she was safe in there. We took everything from her grave. There was no jar, there was no sign of anything wacky. I promise,” Graham offered.
Well, there was that.
This was all weird and a little scary. Elizabeth liked things she could explain, and this was one of those woo-woo things she could NOT explain.
Michael held her hand.
“We’ll figure it out.”
She wasn’t done.
“She said Duncan didn’t take her heart. He loved another, and I’m not supposed to believe words. So, I’m not sure what there is to figure out or where to even start that,” she admitted.
Graham knew.
“This might be the final piece of the puzzle. We thought it was all done, but there was one last part.”
She lifted a brow.
“What?”
“The painting,” Michael said. “Elizabeth, you look just like Ceit, and when you arrived, the woo-woo began again. We were down by the lake, and it began bubbling. That’s not going to be a coincidence. It calmed down UNTIL you showed up. You are the catalyst in this, somehow. That’s where we start.”
She stared at him.
“A spring bubbling up?” she asked, trying to debunk it.
Both men shook their heads.
“It’s fed from the water,” he stated. “There’s no spring over here. The waterfall and the lake have the same source, and it’s never bubbled UNLESS there was something IN the water.”
She didn’t get it.
“Why would it bubble then?”
They had a suspicion.
“You were near it. You look like her, and Catherine’s buried in there. She was calm when she found her child in there again, but she’s not at rest. She was killed and put there for betraying Duncan.”
She didn’t like any of this, simply because she didn’t know how to adjust to it.
“Did Ceit betray Duncan?” she asked, trying to go with a logical explanation, but this was anything but logical.
How was she supposed to do this?
Both men shook their heads.
“Not that we know,” Graham stated.
Oh, boy.
She was at a loss. Elizabeth dealt with serial killers. They were corporeal. She could touch them or punch them in the face.
A ghost…
What the hell was she supposed to do with that?
Yeah, she had no clue.
Michael had bad news for her.
“I think we’re going to have to work on the last part of the mystery. You’re here, and you woke it back up. So now, we have to find her heart. We assumed that Ceit’s part of this was solved, but it’s not. Clearly.”
Jesus.
Christ.
“Uh, I don’t want to play mystery games with a dead ghost who is haunting our castle.”
Well, join the club.
At least they were all in this together.
Right?
“If we don’t, Graham and I will not have a moment’s peace while here. Once it starts up, it tends to get worse if you ignore it. We have a wedding coming up here, and the holidays are slated for some festivities when we open up to the public.”
Well, shit.
She didn’t want them suffering or for their business to suffer. This was their home, and they’d opened it up to her when she needed a place to hide.
If her coming here stirred it up, maybe she should leave.
“Will it help if I go?” she asked.
Oh.
Hell.
No.
He stopped her.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “You’re not leaving. This is your home too, and we’re your family. You’re staying. We’ll just have to figure out what Ceit wants. We have the journals, and we have what we know.”
She didn’t know jack shit.
“Didn’t you go through all the journals?”
Yeah, they had.
“The pages were scattered around, and we found them randomly through the remodel,” Graham stated. “The only place not checked is the ballroom. That’s the last place on the remodel list for now.”
She sat there.
Michael honestly believed things happened for a reason. He was a big believe in fate. Look at how both he and Graham ended up working for the Blackhawks. Then, they found each other again.
If that wasn’t fate, what was it?
“Maybe we can work this, as a family, and figure it out,” he said. “It might be fun.”
Both Elizabeth and Graham stared at him like he’d lost his goddamn mind.
It made him laugh.
“Hey now! Don’t give me that look. You showed up, and it set something off for a reason. I don’t drive the fate bus. I’m just a passenger. You came here, Elizabeth, to find you, and do you think the dead woman who looks just like you, coincidentally also lost a part of herself here, is a fluke?”
She hated that he was right.
“YOU KNOW THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCES.”
He laughed.
“I know.”
Well, shit.
Elizabeth couldn’t believe she was going to do this. Had someone told her that she’d go to a haunted castle and play investigator while she was trying to recover from being an investigator, she would have slapped them stupid.
Only, they made a compelling argument, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious.
When Ian and Gryphen had told her about the place, she’d been fully enthralled with hearing about it.
Now, she was being given the opportunity to solve a very old mystery in a castle they all owned. Fate did drive the bus, unfortunately.
“What do you say?” Michael asked. “Want to play investigator with us?”
She laughed.
“You realize how batshit insane this is to investigate a haunting by a dead woman who has been gone for centuries, right?” she asked.
Just as she said it, the lights by her bed turned on.
They all looked up.
“Rats,” Graham said, knowing that wasn’t the cause.
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
“I came here NOT to go insane, and here I am, clearly going insane.”
Neither man spoke.
It was all up to her.
Finally, she made up her mind.
“Okay, let’s find the dead woman’s heart. Where could this possibly take me? The looney bin? I’m already there, so at least it will be a very short trip into bedlam.”
Michael gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“We can have Gabby help. She loves a mystery, and we know she’s still kinda bummed about the miscarriage. You’d be helping her work through it too. It keeps her distracted, and Graham can only ask her for so much decorating advice.”
She sighed.
What wouldn’t she do to help Gabby?
“I owe her a paycheck for helping find Devon Slater, so seeing her would be fun—despite the crazy ghosts.”
The lights turned off.
Elizabeth raised her voice.
“Yeah, I don’t like that shit. Knock it off. No haunting my damn room!”
Graham laughed.
“It grows on you, Lass, and they really have a mind of their own. Now, go get dressed. Gabby has some more clothes in the one guest room closet. We’ll get some food and go shopping for ya.”
Well, she did like seeing the sights.
Getting up, she pointed.
“Which way?” she asked, as the men moved the mattress.
They pointed down the hall, and she headed there.
When she was gone, Michael shook his head.
“I hope this doesn’t get weird. She’s worn out. I’m not sure if this is a good plan or a horrible one.”
Graham kissed his husband.
“It’s a HORRIBLE one, but you were right. We have to get this handled. How difficult can it be to find a dead woman’s heart when she’s already decayed?”
He stared at him.
“Uh, Graham, damn difficult.”
He slapped him on the ass as he slid the mattress out the door.
“Then good for us that we have an actual investigator this time, or we’d be fucked.”
He sighed.
Yeah, but was she in the right state of mind to do this?
That was the big question.
Because her heart was missing too.
* * * The Ravensmire Castle * * *
Nine A.M.
Airstrip
Landing
When the jet touched down, Ethan was thrilled to get to the same place his wife was currently hiding at. Now, he’d be able to see her, and make amends.
Granted, he wasn’t sure how it would go.
Did she want to see him?
Would she send him away?
Would she punch him in the face?
That was yet to be seen, but granted, he deserved each one of those outcomes for not having her back when she needed him the most.
What he also did know was he’d do anything to get her to forgive him. While she said she wasn’t angry, what he’d heard from Raphael said otherwise.
Now, he had to hope and pray she’d forgive him for making a bad choice to go behind her back when she’d clearly had it in control.
He just didn’t want her to die. It was a tightrope walk, and it was perilous as fuck because there was no net on this one.
As the jet landed and they came to a stop to disembark, thankfully, he shook the pilot’s hand.
“Sir, we have to head to England to head back to pick up some delegation heading back to DC. Do you have it from here?” the pilot asked. “We can swing back in a few hours for you if need be, but that’s the only leeway we have.”
He stopped him.
Ethan wasn’t leaving Elizabeth’s side, so he didn’t need a flight home. SHE was his home.
“That’s fine,” he admitted. “You can head out. I’ll be good.”
Clearly, that worked for them, and they asked no questions, but then again, that was for the best.
They said goodbye, and Ethan headed off of the flight. The airstrip was semi-busy, and when he headed toward the hangers, he found someone working inside.
“Hey, I’m looking for the storage area for Jackson James,” he stated.
The man took off his sunglasses.
“And ya are? Because I’ve never seen ya around here,” he admitted.
Ethan went there.
“I’m his brother. Can you point me toward them?” he asked.
The man still looked skeptical.
So, he went there.
“Do you have a phone?” he asked, because by now, Ivan was losing his shit, and he wasn’t turning his back on no matter what.
The man pulled it from his pocket and held it in his hand to show he did.
“Google me. Ethan Blackhawk.”
The man did, and when it popped up on the screen of his phone, he saw the photos. There were him and Callen side-by-side, and plenty of articles on him being his brother.
“Does that help?” he asked. “I came in on that fancy jet.”
Oh, it wasn’t Callen’s but he hoped the man didn’t know that, or care. If he called Callen, the jig was up.
“Aye, sorry, sir. You know how we have to be careful. Mr. James has some valuable things in that storage area, and he pays me to keep it safe.”
He brushed it off. He was well aware of what was in there, and how Callen liked fancy things.