AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The woman chuckled. “You haven’t really thought about it, have you?” She looked from Cody to Oliver and back again. “She’s drawn to men, that much is true. But she’s very selective about the men she takes. She’ll only enchant the men who are deeply in love with their partners. She wants nothing less than a man who would move Heaven and Earth for his partner, who worships the ground his partner walks on. That depth of love is like a beacon to her, drawing the Vixen in so she can cast her spell and lead him away from his one true love.”
She looked between them again. “And here the two of you are, pacing around the ruins of this motel like rats in a maze as you try to find the men you came with. The men she took from you because…” She leaned forward in the chair as far as the bindings would allow and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “They are more in love with you than you are with them.”
A stunned silence settled over them. Oliver heard his blood pounding in his ears, felt a tingle across the top of his skull. It seemed as if he floated above the scene a moment, out of his own body and looking down on the three of them forming a strange triangle.
“Bullshit,” Cody said, his voice quiet and without much force behind it. But it was enough to bring Oliver back into himself once again.
He blinked back tears and tried to stop the flood of negative thoughts, but there was too much and it all broke through his barriers. Dave loved him more. Of course he did, because Oliver wasn’t capable of loving anyone as deeply as he should. He always held back, afraid to give too much of himself away because what if he showed someone everything he had to give and it wasn’t enough? What if he wasn’t enough?
“You’re messing with us,” Cody said, but from his expression and the tone of his voice, Oliver knew he didn’t believe it as much as he was pretending. “You’re just out here to mess shit up and fuck with people, aren’t you?”
“No, that’s not true.”
“You don’t know shit about this ghost,” Cody interrupted her, his voice rising as he paced. “You just put on this fucked-up mask and wig to look like an old woman and run around this motel scaring people. Do you have some freaky shop close by where you sell ghost repellent and shit and are just trying to scare up business?”
“No!” the woman shouted. “That’s not why I do this.”
“Then tell us the truth and stop fucking with our heads!” Cody shouted.
“The Vixen ruined my parents’ relationship and their lives!” she shouted back. “Are you happy now? My father was Kenny Walker and my mother was Betty Quinlan. They were only together a few times before she tried to lure my father away, and he…”
“What?” Cody shouted and stomped up close to her. “He what?”
“He killed her! Okay? He killed that bitch, and he couldn’t live with the guilt and killed himself before I was born. I’ve been trying to scare people away from here all my life so that fucking ghost doesn’t get anyone else. But people are idiots, like the four of you, and come around looking for excitement and the chance to post photos online. Are you happy now, you fucking bastard?”
Oliver blinked as his brain tried to put all the pieces together.
This woman was the love child of Kenny Walker and Betty Quinlan, the couple Rebecca Hawkins had wanted to break up back in the sixties. Kenny had gone for a walk with Rebecca to end things once and for all. But after saying his piece, when he’d gone to walk away, maybe she’d tried to keep him from leaving and they’d struggled. Kenny must have ended up accidentally killing her and freaked out and left her body out in the woods. Now, without a proper burial, her ghost haunted the hotel, looking for couples to break up.
And consumed by guilt, Kenny had killed himself before Betty Quinlan had delivered their daughter, this woman in front of them who dressed as an old woman from the woods to frighten off any thrill seekers. Which meant she might know where Rebecca took her victims. She could lead them to Dave and Demetrius.
Oliver cleared his throat. “What’s your name?”
She glared. “Katherine.”
“I’m sorry about your father,” Oliver said.
“Not like I ever got to know him.” She turned her hard look on Cody. “Can you untie me now, please?”
“Not until you tell us where Demmy and Dave are,” Cody said.
Katherine gave him a challenging look. “And why would I know that?”
“You know,” Cody said. “And you’re going to tell us.”
“Or what?”
“Or we’ll turn you over to the police.”
She gave a harsh laugh. “For what crime? Wearing a mask and running around an abandoned motel?”
“For being a possible accessory to murder if those bodies are ever found,” Cody said, then in a more ominous tone, “And for stealing the cash I had brought with us and left in this room.”
“That’s a lie! I didn’t take anything from you assholes. I just messed up the room,” Katherine said. She slumped in the chair and gave him a cold look. “You didn’t bring any cash at all, did you? Wow, you’re an even bigger asshole than I thought. No wonder she took your husband rather than you.”
Oliver saw Cody’s expression close down and figured he needed to fill that void left by Demetrius and step in to smooth things over. Good God, how did Demetrius manage to be around Cody for so many years and not lose his mind? Or be killed in the crossfire when someone tried to take Cody out?
“Okay, that’s enough,” Oliver snapped. “From both of you.” He looked between them then leveled his gaze on Katherine. “Look, you can insult the two of us all you want, but we need to find Dave and Demetrius. Whether or not you believe it, they mean a lot to us both. What do you know about where Rebec… Sorry, where the ghost takes her victims?”
