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“How’s he connected with Curtis?”
Mel licked his lips. He wanted her to know everything, to keep her safe, but he didn’t want to hurt her. No more than she already was. “He told him where you’d be last night. After I heard him say his phrase, I followed him to his car. He lit up a cigar and called Curtis to finish you off. He’s afraid you’re going to find him out. He likes you, but not enough to save you.”
“God, I’m an idiot.” She launched herself off the couch and paced. “The caliber. The pin. He could have dropped it while he grabbed the tie clip. It was probably easy enough to get another one, maybe even steal Franz’s. He was hoping to take out an informant by placing the blame on Dominic to get him out of the picture. But why would he want you dead?”
“I never set eyes on him when I was alive.”
“Would he have known Jason?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Okay. We need something more solid to take him down.” Anastacia dropped back down on the couch, her chin falling into her hand. “Something irrefutable to connect him to you. We make that bastard pay for killing you and trying to kill me.”
“He wouldn’t have been trying to kill you if it weren’t for me.” Mel’s eyebrows scrunched together, guilt pouring over him in sheets. He shifted himself from the chair to the couch beside Anastacia. “Look, I know he killed me. Let me haunt the bastard for eternity. You need to drop the case and get out of here.”
“Hell no.” She stomped her foot, reminding Mel briefly of a stubborn child. “I won’t abandon you and be the reason you can’t move on to your next life…or wherever the light leads.”
“I can go on without knowing where the light leads if it means you stay safe.”
“Here’s the protection thing again.” She rolled her eyes, taking out her frustration on the throw pillow in front of her. “I promised I would help you find your killer so you could move on.”
“And we found him. You fulfilled your part. Now it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“You need to!” He stood up, the action making the candle flicker and flutter. “Do you have to be so difficult? This is why I backed off; this is why we can’t have what happened in the warehouse happen again. We can’t be...”
“Can’t be what?” The sharp edge to her voice made him clench his fists in frustration. She punched the pillow in her lap. “Do you think it’s as easy as telling me to run? As telling me we can't be?”
“What do you want from me? First, you want to get rid of me as soon as possible, then you never want me to leave, and then you want me to cross over. What the hell do you want from me?”
She held his eyes for a few moments, before burying her face in the pillow to swallow the scream building in her chest.
“Do you even know what you want, Anastacia?”
“What I know is if you don’t cross, youwillturn. You’ll become lost and the Gatekeepers will take you.” He heard her voice waver through the pillow’s material. Taking a deep breath to center herself, she picked her head up and continued. “I don’t want to lose you, but I refuse to let them take you. So yes, I desperately want you to stay with me forever, but I can’t be in the way when it’s your time to cross over and it’s tearing me apart. You mean more to me than any living soul.”
Her hands went to her mouth, tears thickening her voice. She was not able to hide her feelings from him. Not anymore.
Mel’s chest, no longer encumbered with the knowledge of Knight’s betrayal, now tore at the thought of leaving her in any shape or form. “How do you know for sure? If I have a good reason—”
“I’m not your unfinished business, Mel. You can’t just switch it. Even staying for… for me won’t be enough to keep them from you. I’ve seen it happen.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Your mom?” he guessed.
She licked her lips and stared at her hands, focusing on the past. Her shoulders slumped as her voice cracked through the pain in her throat. “My dad died when I was young and crossed quickly. Mom and I were all each other had. She helped me build my gift so I wouldn’t be so scared. She would always tell me all souls weren’t friends, they were just passing through. And then, before I left for school one morning, I came out of my room to her lying on the kitchen floor. Gone…but not gone. Her soul lingered, ignoring the light meant for her, intending to extend her stay on earth. To stay withme. She thought as a sensitive she could beat the system, the natural flow.”
Mel knelt in front of her, his hand over hers. Not a physical touch, but the cool pressure of his soul was reassuring.
Her eyes focused on him before she blinked and a few tears trailed down her cheeks. She let them fall and continued. “It was a matter of time until the Gatekeepers came for her. That’s the way of the spiritual realm. She said so herself many times over. So, to save herself, she made a deal with an entity in a last-ditch effort to keep the Gatekeepersaway. The entity…thedemonlied to her. It took a part of her soul and a Gatekeeper came for what was left of it. All I could do was watch.”
The candle flame stilled for a moment, Mel’s eyes drawn to the warm color. He’d seen how Gatekeepers took their victims. It wasn’t pretty. They were monsters to do it in front of Anastacia.
“You think that’s what will happen to me?”
“If you stayed and ignored your light? I know it would,” she growled, her passion building in her need to protect him. “I won’t let it happen again. I need to make sure you’re safe beyond their reach. I won't leave you.”
