Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
CONNOR
My poor Kieran is falling apart, and I can’t wait to pick up the pieces. Not that I want to cause him pain or anything. I swear, if I could make his life all sunshine and rainbows, I’d do it.
Well, maybe not. Sunshine and rainbows? Ugh. But I’d get rid of the things that stress him the most. I’m already doing that—I called Gabe, right? I’m giving him my best friend.
We get to the hallway outside the Garden Suite, and while Kieran deals with the lock, I grab Gabe’s arm and pull him two steps back.
“They have six ghosts here, plus Uncle Norval,” I murmur. “They’ve been keeping watch over the gateway. They’re… individual.”
He raises both brows. “Individual?”
I shrug. “They get along well with Uncle Norval.”
“Got it.” He huffs a little laugh and glances over his shoulder as the lock disengages. “Later we’ll talk about Kieran.”
There’s no time to reply before he turns and follows Josh and Kieran into the room. I’m not sure what I’d say, anyway. Instead I grin at Ewan and gesture for him to precede me.
Inside, Gabe’s already ignoring the ghosts as he studies the gateway. He glances over at me as I walk in. “You’ve done some work on this already?”
I nod. “Just a bit. There’s not much within my scope, but I was hopeful.”
“There’s not much you could have done, anyway. The demon that did this was determined.”
Kieran wrings his hands and swallows and says nothing.
Gabe steps into the closet, ducking to squeeze behind the gateway and examine it from the other side.
When he comes back out, he turns a thoughtful gaze on the ghosts, who are practically vibrating under Josh’s steely glare.
Except Uncle Norval, who’s staring with fascination at whatever’s on TV.
“You’re the ghosts who’ve put this block here? ” Gabe asks.
The ghosts burst into an excited babble of words.
“Stop,” Kieran says. “Elect a representative.”
They huddle together, whispering, and Gabe gives me a wide-eyed look. I knew he’d get a kick out of this. Just wait until Maisie hits on him.
Finally, Hattie steps forward. I’m surprised—I was expecting it to be Joe.
“Good evening, dear. I’m Hattie, and I’ll be speaking for the ghosts of Mannix Estate tonight.”
Gabe blinks. “Uh, hi. I’m Gabe—Gabriel…” He trails off, seemingly nonplussed.
Hattie gives him a reassuring smile and a pat on the arm. “It’s lovely to meet you, dear. Now, you asked about the vortex—I beg your pardon, the gateway. You’ll have to forgive us the occasional slip; we’ve been thinking of it as the vortex for fifty years now. Old habits are tough to—”
“Hattie,” Joe growls. She ignores him.
“—break, you know. But yes, we’re the ones who put the block in place, and we’ve been maintaining it this whole time. It was a bit tricky when we still had guests staying in this room, but since Kieran changed that it’s become much easier. We just watch television and keep an eye out.”
“Great,” Gabe says. “You’ve, uh, done a great job. All of you,” he adds, flicking his gaze over the rest of them. “I need to do some more investigating, but I think the way you created the block helped to disguise the gateway. So… well done.”
Hattie beams, and Johnny holds up a hand. “Ghost five!”
What?
“What?” Josh asks.
“Ghost five?” This time it sounds like a question, and Johnny lowers his hand. “You know. High five for things only ghosts can do?”
“Sounds logical,” I say. “Ghost five. It’s a thing.” I pull a face. “Not a thing I can do, though.”
“True that,” Johnny agrees, and Gabe makes a noise that might be a choked-off laugh.
“Okay,” he says. “I’m going to put a temporary guard on the gateway until there’s time for something permanent. If you ghosts would remove your block, please?”
As one, the ghosts look to Kieran. It’s sweet. I look at him too, and he nods.
“Of course,” Hattie says, and I don’t even need to look at the gateway to know it’s gone.
The room’s energy changes, a rush of power flowing through from the otherworld.
Josh sucks in a deep breath, and I know exactly how he feels.
If I was the kind of person who didn’t care about the damage demons could do, I’d totally be tempted to rip open gateways everywhere I want, just for the high of this energy.
Not to mention the things I could do with it.
Sometimes being a good person has its downside.
I’ve watched Gabe do this a million times, so this time I watch the others in the room. More specifically, I watch the ghosts and Josh. Kieran and Ewan aren’t going to notice any difference.
Sure enough, as I feel Gabe’s power begin to spin out, Josh’s eyes get wide. The ghosts get up off the sectional and move closer.
“Ooooh,” Johnny says.
“My word,” Freddie whispers. “That’s extraordinary.”
“We could never have done that,” Hattie says, shaking her head. “Never.”
Josh doesn’t speak, just reaches out and grabs Ewan’s hand and watches. I recognize that look on his face. With very little effort on my part, the Collective could have a new recruit.
“He’s doing something, right?” Kieran asks quietly, and Josh nods.
“Yep,” I confirm. “It’s going to take a while longer… about half an hour?” I ask Gabe.
“Bit less, maybe,” he grunts, focused on what he’s doing. “I’d love a coffee after.”
Kieran springs into action. “Of course. And something to eat? Have you had dinner?”
“Sandwich on plane,” my best friend says, straining slightly with effort. “Snack would be nice.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Kieran assures him. “Josh, are you good to stay? To make sure Gabe doesn’t need anything,” he tacks on, and I smirk.
“It’s okay, Kieran. I already know you don’t trust us and prefer we’re not unsupervised.”
His eyes bug out, and he turns a desperate look on Gabe. “That’s not true. We—I’m so grateful you’re here and I absolutely trust—”
“Chill. Ignore Connor.” Gabe manages a smile for Kieran, who still seems unsure but smiles weakly back.
“C’mon, Red,” I say, slinging an arm around his shoulders. He instantly shrugs it off, like I knew he would. “I’ll come with you.”
He must like the idea of dividing and conquering, because he doesn’t argue, just leads me from the room. He says nothing, though, and I wait until we’re halfway down the stairs before I decide to break the silence.
“Gabe likes you all.”
He spins to look at me so fast, he nearly overbalances. I grab his arm to prevent a disaster. “Whoa, careful.”
“I’m fine. Thanks.” When I don’t move fast enough, he says, “You can let go.”
“But I like touching you,” I tease, running my hand slowly down his arm. He yanks it away.
“Connor, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m very thankful that you came to help us. I’m beyond grateful for what you did for Skye, and bringing Gabe here. Really, I am. But I could live without the rest of it.” He runs a hand through his hair.
I can’t resist. “The rest of it?”
“You! The taunting and the snarky comments and having you constantly follow me around with your eyes. What is that?”
Smirking, I waggle my brows. “Are you fishing for compliments?”
He makes a sound in his throat that indicates imminent explosion, then turns his back on me and stomps the rest of the way down the stairs. He’s so sexy when he’s angry.
I catch up to him as he’s passing one of the receiving rooms. Voices inside tell me this is where movie night is happening, and even though he gives me a fulminating glare, he says nothing. Probably doesn’t want to risk someone overhearing.
Sure enough, the second we pass through the door labeled Employees Only, he turns on me and hisses, “Do you have a compulsion to drive me insane? Is that what this is? Are you one of those screwed-up people who can’t exist without annoying everyone around them?”
I sigh and frown and lean a little closer to him. Caught off-guard, he leans in too.
“If you give me the chance, I could drive you insane with lust.”
He jerks back, glares at me so hotly, I’m surprised laser beams don’t shoot from those pretty green eyes, then whirls around and marches toward the kitchen.
I follow, kinda wishing I’d kept my mouth shut.
The more I piss him off, the less likely he is to actually let me drive him insane with lust. If Gabe agrees to stay, I’ve probably only got a few more days here, a week at most. It’s not like there’s time for a leisurely seduction, so the only way sex is going to happen is if Kieran likes me.
Which… yeah. We all know that’s not the case.
Sometimes I’m too stupid to live.
The kitchen staff are just finishing after-dinner cleanup when we enter. Jorge, who spent twenty minutes this morning asking me if the owners are planning to franchise—how the fuck do you franchise a haunted estate?—takes one look at us and sighs.
“Skye and Daniel already came to collect the movie snacks, so this can’t be good.”
“It’s fine,” Kieran assures him. “Do we have any leftovers from dinner? Connor’s associate arrived, and he only had a sandwich to eat a couple hours ago.”
“Go,” Jorge tells the kitchenhand, who doesn’t hesitate. “It’ll take a few minutes,” he says to us. “I gotta put it all together and heat it up.”
“He’ll eat it cold,” I offer. The food here is the bomb; Gabe won’t care if it’s cold. We’ve eaten much worse on assignment than cold leftovers from a fucking five-star dinner.
They both turn to look at me as if I just said we should feed crack to newborn babies.
“But if you want to heat it up, go for it. Hot food. Yay.”
“Could we also have a pot of coffee and—”
“I’ll do a grazing plate,” Jorge says. “For whatever your secret meeting is about.”
Kieran freezes. He’s not good with lies and deceit. Fortunately, I am.
“Dude, no secrets in this meeting. Now that Gabe’s here, I get to tell Kieran and the rest of the senior staff all the things I noticed them doing wrong. And then we talk about the plan we’re going to put together this week to change them.”
He looks doubtful. “Shouldn’t Arissa be here for that?”