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Max gave me a long look, and then he said with hesitation, “Yeah, he does.” As his lips pressed closed, his eyes slowly widened in full awareness before he grabbed my hand. “Come on. I’ll drive.”
Chapter Three
White Castle had been a lovely little historic town, but Baton Rouge…yeah, I saw the appeal why people lived there. Not only was it pretty, with huge plantations and historical buildings, but the overall feel to Baton Rouge had something special about it, almost magical.
Of course, that meant many ghosts, since Baton Rouge held so much history, which meant I wanted nothing to do with it. Nor did I want anything to do with the house I currently examined.
The rundown home was settled into a thick forest without a neighbor in sight. Wonderful. The headlights of the cars we drove to get here were giving us the only glow in this very dark night. Terrific.
Why did houses I didn’t want to go in always have to look so damn scary?
I wasn’t sure why I kept finding myself in these terrifying situations when I wasn’t built for them. I had never been brave, but somehow ended up forced to be. I would rather avoid the two-story home with cracked windows, no outside exterior except withered wood planks, and an old wood veranda looking about ready to topple to the ground.
“You’ll be all right, Tess,” Kipp whispered, drawing my attention to him. He stared at me with his tender look. “The guys won’t let anything happen to you.”
While I believed him that Max and the others would do anything they could to keep me safe, it didn’t seem to help much. “I know.”
Kipp’s frown indicated he liked this about as much as I did. Once again, I shoved it all away and found a brave face. If the Lux—the answer to save Kipp—was in that damn house, I was going in there—home to a psychopath or not—and that was that.
Focusing away from the house, I turned to Dane, who stood in next to Amelia and Gretchen on the cracked cement walkway. “Did you know Wayde owns this home?”
Dane nodded. “Yes, I knew. But he told me he sold it after Alexander died. After he took over the Grand Master role, he wanted to stay at the Animus to be closer to the members.”
I snorted and pointed out the obvious. “Clearly, he lied to you, since he still owns it.” I didn’t doubt for a moment that Wayde would put the Lux in a place where the book of spells would be safe. What better place than to keep the book at a house no one knew he owned?
Only problem?
The house looked ready to crumble to the ground. Knowing my luck, it would fall on my head and that would be my demise, not the crazy-assed adventures.
I watched Max stride out of the house with a gun in his hand. He trotted down the porch steps creaking under his hard steps and the veranda didn’t crash to the ground. Of course, it probably waited until I entered to do that.
When Max finally reached me, he said, “The house is clear.”
Zach came trailing after him—also holding a gun—and on the way, he added, “There isn’t much to the house.”
Kipp brushed against my arm. “Which means?”
An icy shiver slid through me from his touch and I rubbed my left arm. Max and Zach looked to the spot next to me clearly identifying Kipp’s location. Both were cops and didn’t miss much. “Do you mean there’s no furniture?”
Zach inclined his head in agreement. “There’s some on the main floor and a few things in the basement, but upstairs is completely empty.” He finally settled in front of me. “It’s clear, even when it was lived in, it wasn’t taken care of. It’s old and musky.”
“Great,” I grumbled, just another thing I loved—stinky things. “Let me guess, there’s no power either?”
“You got it,” Max confirmed. “Which I think is almost a good thing. Turn on a light in there, and I suspect it’d burn to the ground.”
I rubbed my temple to fight off my manageable headache I suspected would become unmanageable any second now. Why would Wayde live here? He didn’t seem the type not to take care of him or his things. He’d been clean-cut and clean-shaven, not scruffy or dirty.
After a deep rub of my eyes that didn’t help at all, I lowered my hands and scanned the area. The yard wasn’t overly huge and the forest around the house was easily spotted with my flashlight. But that didn’t comfort me much—crazed murderers could hide behind trees or maybe there was a secret passageway in the house.
Before I could state those concerns aloud, Amelia interjected, “I’m not sure why this is necessary. How will this help solve my father’s death? Yes, I agree that finding out Wayde’s identity is important. But we should be doing our best to communicate with my father.” She pointed toward the house. “He will not be in there.”
I paused, having no answer for her, but blessedly, Zach jumped in to the rescue. “Any evidence against Wayde is good evidence. The more we gather, the more we have against him, and the sooner we can push him into a tight spot. Once we have enough evidence, there will be an interrogation and hopefully, he’ll fess up to your father’s murder.”
Okay, I liked that theory, so I added, “Besides, I’m not finished. While their doing their interrogation stuff and the danger of Wayde hurting any of us is gone, I can concentrate on gathering more evidence from your father. We need to wait it out and see what else comes up. We may find more evidence here at the house, right?”
Amelia eyed me for a second as if she didn’t believe me. Then she finally gave a slow nod. “You’re right. We don’t know what’s in the house.”
“So…” Glancing to the all-but-firewood resembling a home and using my flashlight to light up the window by the front door, I nibbled my lip. “Time to go in there, huh?”
