AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Make sure he tells Ben so he can give them a heads up,” Lincoln called out to Ryker.
“Already did!” he shouted back before something crashed in the storage room. “I’m okay!”
We both bit back laughter and shook our heads. I was just happy everyone was throwing themselves into this hunt already.
“When are we leaving?” I asked since he seemed to have more details than I did.
“Ben is just now starting to pack and we need to load up. We’ll leave at dawn. We probably won’t even arrive until pretty late into the night,” Lincoln explained.
He gave me one last kiss before going to get his own things together.
Even as the excitement built, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was going to be another life-changing investigation.
The more I stared at the photos, the more uneasy I became. On the surface, the castle was gorgeous, but there was something under it all that I couldn’t seem to shake.
There was something dark roaming the halls of Bellmore Castle.
ChapterTwo
Brea
“Shotgun!” I yelled as I ran toward the front seat, hurtling over the final boxes of equipment, and sliding in before any of them could reach it. I knew that not one of my men would protest but the excitement of a road trip and investigation won out.
Lincoln caught the door before I could close it, reaching over me so he could buckle me in before going to his own seat next to me.
“You only get to ride shotgun if you pick a solid playlist,” Ethan joked as he slid into the back.
Ryker added the final few boxes to the small trailer attached to the van before getting in as well.
Ben had already set up camp in the very back, answering our emails and finalizing plans for Bellmore.
We purchased an eighteen-passenger van a while back. It had enough room for all of us and a few boxes of equipment. The rest was strapped to the luggage rack on top or piled in the trailer. It made it a lot easier for these huge road trips to just ride in one car instead of taking several.
I missed having my blue, vintage RV on these road trips but I loved having them along far more.
Lincoln had gone out this morning and dropped off Onyx, before putting gas in the van and making sure it was prepped and ready to go for winter, including fresh tires. Traveling through mountain states during winter was not exactly an easy trek.
“You’ll deal with whatever I choose,” I shot back to Ethan before pulling up my favorite morning mix. It was chaotic and made zero sense, but it was a compilation of my favorites.
They were used to my mixed-genre playlists by now.
The hours on the road passed slowly. We were leaving just after the sun came up, and twelve hours later, we still hadn’t arrived.
“I’m starving,” Ryker finally spoke up, “and I need to stretch.” He groaned as he shifted in his seat.
It had been quiet for the past few hours while everyone but Ben and I took power naps. I’d had one earlier so I could make sure the driver was awake.
“I’ve got you,” Ben promised. He’d taken over driving for Lincoln a few hours ago. “Anything coming up, Brea?”
I pulled up my maps app and started scrolling ahead, looking to see if there were any food stops coming up. It didn’t take long to find a big enough city that we’d have options.
“Yep, four exits ahead,” I promised. “What does everyone feel like?”
“Tacos,” Ethan said.
“Burgers,” Ryker protested.
“Anything,” Lincoln mumbled, his voice rough with sleep. Apparently, we woke him at this point.
