Page 27 of A Haunting at Keystone Manor

“I thought those were your haunting ideas,” I say.

“That too. I can multitask, Jake.”

“Ah, I see. I’m sorry you didn’t get to kill him, but honestly, I’m just glad he’s gone.” He rubs my shoulder, the touch comforting me. I need something to take my mind off of Andrei right now. I sit up and grab Alex around the waist. He squeaks as I haul him onto my lap.

“Hello,” he breathes, looking up at me through his eyelashes. He bats them up at me, and I’m a goner. I press my lips to his and he deepens the kiss, shoving his tongue into my mouth.

“Have I told you how much I love it when you do that?” I ask when we part. He smirks up at me.

“Good to know. I’ll shove my tongue in you any time you need it,” he says.

Chapter eighteen

Taking out the Trash

Alex

Jake holds me close all night. As much as I want to do more than kissing and cuddling with him, I don’t want to push him too far too fast. I know it’s hard for him to be so vulnerable with me, and he needs time to process all the complicated things he’s feeling. He can take all the comfort he needs from me, and I will gladly give it. Eventually we’ll need to get up. I have a hotel to run after all. Jake likes to occasionally remind me that Kayla is the manager here, but we both know I’m the one that keeps operations running smoothly. When I’m not terrorizing guests, that is. I shrug.

“What?” Jake asks.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking,” I say.

“Care to share?"

“Not really.” I wiggle out of his arms and stand. “Time to get up, we have work to do today. And I need to find Brandon and make sure he and Seth aren’t dead and decomposing in the attic.”

We head to the lobby and find Kayla at her normal place behind the reception desk. I gasp. “Is she playing solitaire?! See I told you, who really runs this place?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’d talk to my father about giving you a promotion, but I don’t think he’d go for a ghost running this place. And I don’t want you involved in his illegal bullshit. Once this place is ours, you can be the CEO. How does that sound?”

"Sounds fancy," he says with a smile.

Kayla looks up as a tall, leanly muscled guy rounds the corner, having come from her office, a large black bag in each hand. Every inch of skin on his arms is covered in the same prison tattoos that Andrei had.

In a thick Russian accent he tells her, “These are last bags. I will dispose of them now.”

Kayla nods in agreement. “Not too close to the hotel. If something digs those up, I don’t want guests to see it.”

“I will find secluded place, that no one will ever think to look.” With that, he walks out the door.

“Thanks, Sasha,” she says before muttering something that sounded like “fucking psycho” under her breath. Yeah, you’re one to talk.

I look over at Jake, who is a little pale. “Was that… was that Andrei? In those bags?” he asks.

“Don’t think about it. Come on.” I lead him out of the lobby. We’re going to take a day off and decompress. The last few days have been a roller coaster, and we both need a reset. “Let’s go up to the attic, see if Seth and Brandon want to have a double picnic by the lake.”

Just as I thought, we find Brandon and Seth in the attic. Brandon is sitting on the ground with a laptop, and Seth is next to him, leaning over to look at something on the screen. Their voices are raised, and it sounds like they’re arguing about something.

“Nah, bro. That doesn’t work, it would create a plot hole,” Brandon is saying.

“You just have to rework a few things at the beginning, no big deal, dude.” Seth retorts. “You could make it work, and it would be totally rad.”

I interrupt their squabble. “What are you guys talking about?”

Brandon sighs and shuts his computer. “Seth thinks he’s being ever so helpful by trying to rework some of the plot points in my book.” He gives Seth a glare.

“I just think that some of your rules about time travel are inconsistent, that’s all,” Seth says, holding his hands up. “If your time travelling dinosaurs go to the future and wipe out all the humans, then who created the time machine in the first place, you know? It doesn’t make logical sense.”