Spirited Away

“No arguments here.” Something about the tone of his voice triggered her curiosity. “You’ve been locked in one before?”

“Few times.”

Well, that sounded awful. She shifted on her feet, uncertain what to do next. She was dying to ask him why he’d been locked in a closet a few times, but that probably wasn’t polite. Turning, she realized the door was hanging at an angle, torn from one of its hinges. Dang. Noah, one – closet, zero.

She risked a step closer and another, until she was back inside the small space. The air didn’t feel as heavy in her lungs as it had a few minutes before. She spun around, taking in the contents, mostly clothes and boxes, and noticed a small hole in the wall near the floor. Kneeling, she reached out and poked her finger in it. Coarse fabric scraped her fingertips.

“Noah, I think I found something.”

“What?”

A shadow fell over her as he moved into the doorway. Dry plaster crumbled in her hand, expanding the opening. “Do you mind if I see what’s behind here?”

He reached into his jeans and retrieved a pocketknife. Passing it over, he said, “Be careful. There could be wires in there.”

Carefully, she jabbed the hard metal into the surface until the rotted area collapsed into dust. Not wires, but some kind of box covered in rough cloth. Sticking her hand into the enlarged hole, she retrieved a small black box caked in white powder.

“What is that?” he asked, lowering to his haunches beside her.

She lifted the lid and gasped. A gorgeous diamond ring sparkled in the stream of sunlight pouring into the closet. Arching an eyebrow, Spider lifted the piece of jewelry for him to see.

“I’d bet my entire Marvel collection someone tossed us in here because they wanted us to find this.”

* * *

This was insane.

When Emma had pried the wall away with the knife, the loud scrape of metal against dry wood had sickened him. He’d attributed the gut-wrenching feeling to his hatred of small spaces and the traumatic feeling of getting trapped inside one again. But as the smooth, cold metal of the ring touched his skin, dizziness sent the walls spinning around him.

Memories of his father’s voice mocking him through the closet door sent a rush of anger and fear coursing through his mind.

No!

Pushing to his feet, he escaped the cursed closet. Maybe he couldn’t stop the panic, but he could shove it aside, or, better yet, hide it. He turned to see that she’d followed him, and his spine straightened. “None of this proves the house is haunted.” Even to his ears, the statement sounded weak.

“Noah, don’t pretend something weird didn’t just happen.” She pressed closer and snatched the ring from his grasp. “We were pushed into that closet. I think your ghost wanted us to find this for some reason.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” She paced to the window, held the ring up to the light and examined it closer. “But I know people who can help. My friend, Alexandra – she’s psychic. She’ll know what to do. She deals with this stuff all the time.”

His first inclination was to argue, but the mention of King stopped him cold. This could be the opportunity he’d been looking for to get closer to the supposed psychic detective.

Emma looked at him, moved closer. “You wouldn’t hesitate if you didn’t want help.” Her fingers clasped his upper arm, and some of the tension eating away at him seeped slowly through his pores. It was strange, the calming effect this young woman had on him. “Let me call her. She’ll probably come right away. We can rid ourselves of this pesky ghost by evening. What do you say?”

Did that mean King was back in town already? Or did Emma not know her co-worker had left? Either way, it was worth finding out.

“All right.” He leaned closer. “But I’m only doing this because of the experiences you’ve been having.”

One of her brows lifted. “Yeah, right.” A beautiful smile erupted all over her face. “This is going to be awesome. I’ve always wanted to see her do this up close. My phone! Where’s my phone?” She spun around and hurried down the stairs.

Sighing and wiping a hand over his tired eyes, Noah glanced around the room. Something damn strange had happened in here. This could be an ideal opportunity to see King work her magic, figure out how she conned people. He could be packed up and ready to move on in a few days if whatever was happening here escalated.

The distant sound of Emma’s voice captured his attention and sent an unexpected pang of guilt piercing through his chest. It was a shitty thing to do, using her like this. He liked her, didn’t want to hurt her.

His father’s genes kicked in and reminded him that it was also an opportunity to spend more time with her, get to know her better and find out if she was willing to act upon their mutual attraction. Oh, yeah. He could tell she was interested. She hadn’t been able to hide her appreciation earlier.

Don’t even think about it, West. There’s no telling how innocent she might be. Not to mention, the police chief’s daughter.That was a whole mess of complication he didn’t need.

He was the son of a convict: an abusive asshole, womanizer and alcoholic. Those things had a tendency to rub off, one way or another. Even if he was the type of man who believed in fairy tales, this young woman deserved better than him.

She’d also claimed to have a boyfriend, and Noah wasn’t the type to poach a woman, no matter how attractive he found her.

Strange thing was, he was still tempted. How long had it been since he’d been with someone? Six months, at least. He’d been tiring of the whole dating scene, if that’s what you wanted to call it. His longest relationship had only ever lasted a week. It had never bothered him until recently. Loath as he was to admit it, coming home to this empty house every day was damn lonely. The feeling had been amplified the more he’d observed Zachary Collins and his fiancée interacting. The friendship between them had been as obvious as their sexual chemistry. Such a weird thing to witness. All he usually saw were couples fighting. What would it be like to enjoy a woman’s company so much you wanted to spend time with her out of bed as much as in?

With heavy limbs, he slipped on some socks and shoes before heading downstairs to see what Emma’s plan was. He caught the tail end of her conversation. Didn’t sound promising.

“So you don’t know when you’ll be back?” Emma dropped into the chair, frowning as she listened to the response. “Well, any ideas on what we can do in the meantime? I’m serious, Alexandra. I was terrified last night.” She twirled a finger around her ginger locks and then sighed. “Okay. Thanks. I really appreciate it. And I’m sorry about your brother’s marriage. I hope you can help him get things worked out.”

Noah wandered over to the glass of whiskey he’d abandoned last night – another failed sleep aid – and downed the contents in a gulp. He’d found a half-empty bottle of the stuff in the cabinet and taken advantage, something he rarely allowed himself to do. She ended her call and sighed loudly.

“Sorry. She won’t be able to help right now. She’s out of town with a family emergency and doesn’t know when she’ll be back.”

He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “Shame.”

“Yeah. Her brother’s in the military and his wife just filed for divorce. Since her brother’s overseas, Alexandra went to try to find out what’s going on. She’s always trying to help people like that.”

Interesting. “Except you.”

She shot him a look of disapproval. “She’s going to call a friend, some guy she knows who’s psychic like her. Anyway, she’s going to see if he’ll stop by and help us figure this thing out. She actually seemed worried when I explained some of the things that had happened.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?”

Excitement danced in her eyes. Wow. She really believed in this stuff. “I was thinking about it.” She reached for her bag and pulled a laptop out. “I think the ghost is trying to tell us something. I think she wants help. If we can find out who used to live here and why they hid this ring in the closet, maybe we’ll find some answers.”