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“Good. We’ll discuss that,” Remington said before they popped out of the room.
“They’re gone now,” I said, turning to the guys. “Lincoln, do you think your parents would be willing to come here, too?”
“I’m sure they would,” he said. “Dad’s retired now, and you know Mom would love it. I bet she would be willing to help you decide how to greet guests and what treats to offer. Actually, she’d be perfect for this,” he mused.
“Do you think we can pull it off? We’re not exactly the stay-in-one-place kind of people,” Ethan pointed out.
“I’m not saying we have to be. We would just need to be around long enough to get this place up and running. I think the ghosts would keep us pretty occupied. I don’t think I’d feel like I was missing out on anything.”
“We also have an entire association in our corner. They may call us from time to time. We’d still be doing what we loved, and I guarantee the Darklings would love a series on renovating the castle.”
“We’d go stir crazy if we didn’t do any local investigations. You can’t tell me these mountains don’t hold plenty of supernatural secrets.”
“So, we’re in?” I questioned.
“We’re in,” they all agreed.
“Ben and I’ll work up a proposal tonight,” Lincoln said. “We’ll have it ready for her tomorrow. Her plane lands at noon. Until then, we make sure we have a pitch that she can’t refuse.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Brea
The black Town Car drove up the driveway as we all stood on the porch, waiting for it to arrive. Elizabeth texted that she was a few minutes away, trying to give us a heads up, but we were so antsy we couldn’t help but greet her at the door, just like she greeted us the first night we arrived.
Elizabeth climbed out of the backseat of the car and walked up to join us.
This time, she wasn’t wearing heels but flats, and looked a lot more casual and relaxed than she had before.
The vacation had done her wonders.
Her demeanor changed as she looked up at the looming castle behind us.
“I’d like to say it’s nice to be home again, but I’m filled with dread. I just want to leave. Let’s make this quick,” she proposed.
“Follow us, and we can show you what we have,” I said. “If you want to see everything.”
“I’m the curious sort. Let’s do it,” she said, squaring her shoulders, determination crossing over her features.
Ryker led the way to the data room. He’d already prepared the best footage and had the clips already queued up to watch.
She walked in, her eyes widening at how we’d transformed the small room.
“I knew you guys were the real deal, but I didn’t expect all this,” she said.
“Here, you’ll probably want to have a seat,” Ben said. He rolled over a chair, and she took a seat, shifting uncomfortably.
“Can we just rip off this Band-Aid? I’m ready to move on with my life,” she said in a shaky voice. Her leg was shaking as she waited for us to begin.
“We’re going to start with one of the first clips that we caught. It was a figure that we watched flashing in and out of existence. We’ve got some accompanying photos.”
I played the footage of the ghost that we had followed with the bloody footsteps. I hadn’t realized we caught it on film until Ryker had pulled it out of the other evidence.
He had slowed down the video so she could see what we did, flashes of white taking over the screen. They were quick, but it was unmistakably a human figure. You could catch an arm and a torso in one, moving legs in another.
It continued as we asked questions, our voices distorted thanks to the slowed down pace. She looked amused and horrified as she watched it disappear into the wall.
“Here are the photos. They go along with that footage. It was easier to capture the screenshots and enhance them, but when they followed this ghost, there was a trail of footsteps.”
