AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Unless demons were involved.
“Yeah, it was established around the same time as the castle itself. Obviously, the buildings and renovations are way newer than they were back then, but there are a few locations listed. The ghost tour goes to a library, an old bank, and a few other buildings in town. You can walk one side of the town and the other in like fifteen minutes. I’m talkingtiny,” he mused.
“Are there any towns around it in case we need supplies?” Lincoln asked. I hadn’t even considered that. Thankfully, Lincoln was the one who was always making sure everyone was well taken care of and protected.
At least with them, I always felt safe, and that was something I’d never take for granted. Especially now that they’d helped save me from my stalker.
“Alright, what else do you have for us?” Ryker asked as he took a sip of his coffee. My poor man looked exhausted. His blond hair was messy, like he’d run his hands through it far too many times. There were dark circles under his eyes that looked almost bruised. He never slept well on road trips, and none of us started with a good night’s sleep. We were too hyped up from the new investigation and I had a feeling Ry was too busy ordering new equipment to sleep right away.
Ben had to pause before answering as she dropped off all of our food. We stopped talking altogether as we stuffed our faces. I’d gone for a grilled cheese and fries, downing half of it before Ben jumped back in.
“I did some digging into some gossip sites as well, and it looks like Patrick Bellmore, the late father of Elizabeth, our contact, had some contention. He was not happy about not having a male heir and even more unhappy about the fact that Elizabeth did not want to stay in the house. She’d apparently moved out when she was young and only recently moved back after his death to handle his affairs. According to her, it’s temporary.”
“Wait, wait,” Ethan asked with a snort. “They have rich people gossip sites?”
“Oh, they have gossip sites for everything,” Ryker said without skipping a beat. “Humans love to spill the tea.”
Ethan shook his head but didn’t interrupt again, waving for Ben to continue.
“She’s also unmarried and twenty-nine. The horror,” Ben joked.
“I’m sure in their circle of debutantes and money, that’s unheard of,” I said. “Especially for the only heir of a man as proud of his line as Patrick Bellmore.”
“Wait, have you heard of him?” Lincoln asked.
I shook my head. “No, but from everything I’m hearing, he cares more about his family line and name in business than he does about his daughter. Happy children don’t just move away from their parents at the first possible moment.”
“True,” Ryker agreed.
“She seemed really nice on the phone,” Ben said, “a lot more down-to-earth than I anticipated from the emails. They were pretty formal. She might have had an assistant or somebody drafting them, though.”
“Or voice to text, it always makes things seem choppy and formal,” Ethan added.
“Is she going to be there when we arrive?” Lincoln asked.
“Yes,” Ben said. “She said she was packed and ready to go. She has a private jet on standby. Once she gives us a look around, she’ll be gone.”
“It must be bad if she’s ready to run,” I said. Again, my nerves started to turn, and I suddenly wasn’t very hungry. Lincoln gave me a side eye as I pushed my plate slightly away.
“Sunshine, it’s going to be fine,” he said, reaching across the table and giving my hand a squeeze.
“What did I miss?” Ethan asked, looking between us and raising a bushy eyebrow.
“Baby, is everything okay?” Ryker demanded, a bit more direct than Ethan was as he eyed me.
“Just nerves,” I reassured them, trying to give a smile but failing. Now I had all of their attention, four sets of eyes stared me down, waiting for me to give them a bit more.
“It’s just after everything with Mack and my—” I trailed off and looked around to make sure nobody was listening in. The waitress was on the other side helping a couple, so we had no ears on us. “Abilities amping up. I’m just a bit nervous. It’ll be fine.”
“It will,” Lincoln said. “No one like Mack is ever going to get close enough to you for anything to happen.” There was conviction in his tone.
“What abilities amping up?” Ethan asked quietly. His eyes were full of hurt and I swallowed down the guilt rising.
“It’s just seeing and hearing more. I’ve been trying to ignore it,” I admitted.
“You don’t have to hide from us,” Ryker said. I heard a grunt as someone kicked Ethan under the table.
“I’m sorry, this is on me. I should have shared but I thought it would just go away if I ignored it. Or maybe hoped it would.”
