"I won"t hurt anybody else-just him." Tanya"s voice was low and angry and there was a s.a.d.i.s.tic look in her eyes that made Daisy"s skin crawl.
Michael c.o.c.ked his head, staring at the incorporeal form as though he was talking to somebody on the street about the d.a.m.ned weather. "But you already have-you scared her earlier, didn"t you? You already told me that. You can keep it to where only he can hear you, but you"re losing control. The anger is taking control."
Chills ran down Daisy"s spine as she watched the emotions that flickered on Tanya"s face. She seemed to getting more and more solid with every pa.s.sing moment. That really really bothered Daisy-because she also sensed a wariness about Michael. Not in the way he held himself, or even the way he talked.
She doubted that Tanya sensed it at all.
But he was worried. Very worried.
"Listen to me, Tanya. If that anger takes over completely-if you let go, you"ll lose yourself. And pa.s.sing on, you will never be able to do it. You"ll be trapped here, nothing more than a thing of anger and rage that nothing short of G.o.d"s intervention will stop. I won"t be able to help you."
Okay, now that sounded bad. Images of the movie The Grudge began to roll through Daisy"s mind. Before she realized she was going to say anything, she heard herself speak, "He"s not worth that, Tanya. Anger wasn"t something you had use for in life. Remember how I always held grudges? You never did. Said you were too lazy, but it wasn"t that. You just didn"t have any use for anger. Not then. Don"t let it take over now."
Seconds later, it was like the storm just rolled away. The terror was gone. Daisy was no longer trembling and Sandy finally stopped whimpering in mindless terror. Daisy squeezed Sandy"s shoulder and then looked to Tanya.
Or tried to-Tanya wasn"t so easy to see any more.
"You always had the most annoying habit of being right, Daisy," Tanya said. Her voice sounded distant, like it was coming from down a well. The wind whipping through the cabin stopped-there was a soft sighing sound and then just silence.
"Tanya?"
Michael glanced at her. "She"s gone."
Daisy gaped at him. "That fast?"
That crooked grin appeared for the briefest second. "Sometimes, it just takes the right words. You had them. I didn"t." Then he blinked. As he looked away, she had the briefest glimpse of his eyes. That look was going to stick with her a long, long time.
"I have to take him in, Michael. And we have to hurry. She"s going into shock."
Michael looked away from Jake for a moment. Jake was still huddled on the floor, his arms over his head. Of the four of them, Jake still seemed to be suffering the after-effects of whatever Tanya had been doing. He was bawling like a baby. A disgusted sneer curled Michael"s mouth and then he looked at Daisy. "Prison"s too good for him."
As he moved toward Sandy, Daisy thought that danger had been averted.
Obviously not.
"She"ll sleep now," Michael said less than a minute later as Daisy was slowly, carefully approaching Jake.
Daisy looked back at Sandy. "d.a.m.n it, shock victims aren"t supposed to sleep!"
His eyes met hers very briefly. "She"s not in shock any more."
Daisy tried to block him from Jake, but he merely moved around her with that easy, effortless grace, crouching in front of the fallen man. He watched Jake for the longest time with that piercing, glowing gaze. "Tanya"s gone."
Jake yelped at her name and looked up. Whatever he saw on Michael"s face didn"t set him at ease. He cringed away. Daisy suspected if he could have disappeared into the wall, that"s exactly what he would have done. "Get away from me," he whimpered, sounding more like a child than a grown man.
Michael nodded. "I will. They want you more than I do anyway."
"They...?" Jake whispered timidly, his eyes wheeling around the room.
Daisy glanced around, too. Holy h.e.l.l. Please, not more. She couldn"t handle anything else weird tonight. Maybe never. She might be ruined for ghost flicks for life. But there was nothing else in the room. n.o.body else. Just the four of them.
She looked back to the two men in time to see Michael reaching out. He held nothing in his hand, yet Jake screeched in terror. "No! Don"t f.u.c.king touch me!"
Michael did, though. Something odd happened when he touched his fingers to Jake"s temple. There was a glow-a faint echo of the blue glow she saw in Michael"s eyes. And for the briefest second, Jake"s dark brown eyes glowed blue.
A keening wail escaped the deputy. He buried his face in his arms. "No-make them stop. Don"t...take it away, please please please!"
Michael stood up, turning his back on Jake without a word.
Daisy continued to stare at Jake with wide eyes, watching as he slowly started to rise, batting at thin air. His eyes were desperately searching the air for something, and he kept shouting out, screaming at something that Daisy couldn"t see.
"What did you do?"
Michael"s face was weary. "Giving the rest of them peace. They just want to know why." He stopped in his tracks, staring at her.
Daisy shook her head. "But there isn"t a why. Men can"t always explain why they kill," she said softly, watching as Jake continued to spin around, staring into the air and swinging his arms as though he was trying to fend something, or someone, off. "Are...are they all trapped?"
"No. Just-at unrest. Most of them have moved on, but they can still see him, feel him. Each time he kills, it leaves a mark on them. When he"s gone-"
Daisy shook her head. "Gone? No. No gone. He"s going to prison."
Michael looked at her, a sad smile on his face.
"What?" she demanded. "What do you know?"
"They won"t let him live that long."
Before she could puzzle that one out, Jake took off running. At some point, he"d dropped his gun and Daisy breathed out a sigh of relief as she went after him. Chasing somebody with a gun was something she"d planned on leaving behind her when she left Louisville Metro.
Jake ran east, heading for the lake. She hit the b.u.t.ton on the flashlight and followed after him. Branches slapped at her face, tangled in her hair and she could feel leaves, twigs and mud sliding under her boots as she ran. "Just let me stay on my feet," she prayed silently.
The path curved and she struggled to close the distance between her and Jake before he got around the bend. She lost sight of him, though as the path continued to weave in and out of the trees. Blood pounded in her ears and her heart was racing so fast that she couldn"t hear anything else.
"d.a.m.n it, where in the h.e.l.l are you?" she muttered.
"Am I wasting my breath if I tell you that you don"t need to chase him?"
h.e.l.l. She hadn"t even heard Michael leave the cabin. Slowing to a stop, she stared ahead. "Go back and stay with Sandy. And yes, you"d be wasting your breath. Get Sandy to the car-I a.s.sume you know how to use a radio. Call for back up."
Michael sighed and she felt his hand brush down her hair. "You"ll find him in the lake. I"ll wait until I hear from you to call for back up."
Spinning around, she glared at his retreating back. "d.a.m.n it, I said..."
Distantly, she heard a splash. Sound carried on the water. And the lake was close now. A few hundred feet away. That was a big splash, too. Turning back to the trail, she started to jog, and then run. The trees broke open around her and she made her way to the dock, shining the flashlight around warily. Jake was nowhere to be seen. "Wait until you hear from me to call for back up," she muttered, shaking her head. d.a.m.n his stubborn hide.
An owl hooted and Daisy jumped.
"Oh screw this," she said furiously. She"d go back and call for back up.
But even as she turned, her flashlight flickered off the lake, reflecting light back at her. Michael"s words echoed through her mind. You"ll find him in the lake.
In the lake. Daisy swallowed. Not on the lake. Not by the lake. In the lake. Dragging her tongue over dry lips, she walked over the weathered boards of the dock. The heels of her boots echoed hollowly with every step. A fish jumped somewhere and the splash made her jump yet again. "I swear, I"m sleeping with the lights on every night for a month," she breathed softly as she edged closer, shining the flashlight"s beam out over the surface of the water. Jake wouldn"t try to swim to the other side at night, would he? Easier to get away just by making his way around the lake"s sh.o.r.e. h.e.l.l of a lot safer, too.
She reached the edge of the dock and scowled. "d.a.m.n it." She let the light fall to her side but as it did, it shone on a pale face. Eyes wide. A hideous death mask.
Daisy screamed. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she stared down into the water at Jake"s still face. "Oh, dear G.o.d," she whispered quietly.
It hadn"t even been ten minutes since he had taken off running from the cabin. Maybe four minutes since she had heard the splash.
And now- They won"t let him live that long.
Chapter Seven.
It was late the following night when she finished the official report.
Officially, Jake Morris" death was an accident. He"d tried to run when Daisy attempted to arrest him. Why was she out there? A wonderful standby-an anonymous tip. And since Jake wasn"t around to lawyer up and have her worry too much about him getting out of prison on technicalities, she felt safe using it.
Officially, the report looked very cut and dry. Probably one of the neatest little wrap up jobs on a major case in history. No question of his guilt, not with everything they"d found in the cabin and no need to worry about him getting off on some technicality at the trial. All nice and tidy with no loose ends.
Unofficially-it was the most bizarre night of her life. The most terrifying. One that was going to be the source of nightmares for some time, she had no doubt. It was definitely one that she hoped never to repeat again.
Yet as she finished printing the report out, she couldn"t help feel a little bitter.
Michael was going to leave.
He had stayed here only because there was a ghost who couldn"t move on. And now that Tanya had moved on, he would, too.
A few days. A handful of days, she"d known that man. She didn"t know much of anything about him, other than the fact that he had the saddest blue eyes, a smile that melted her knees-and he was too d.a.m.n spooky to describe. But she desperately wanted him to stay. There were men in this town she"d known off and on all her life and she wouldn"t miss any of them if she up and decided to move back to Louisville. Not that it would happen, but Michael, she was going to miss him. She already did.
How had he come to mean so much in such a short amount of time?
Sighing, she propped her elbows on the desk, rubbing at her eyes with her fingers. Chances are, he was already gone. They"d spoken briefly at the hospital. Michael had told her that Sandy wouldn"t remember a lot of what had happened. Vague memories of Jake grabbing her, and nothing else.
She was rather curious about that, but he"d just given her that small, mysterious smile of his. And that was all the answer she would get. Daisy could fill in the blanks though. If he could make Sandy sleep, do something to keep her from going into shock-wiping a few memories away was probably just another talent.
A part of her cringed at the thought. Memories were personal-should Sandy"s have been touched? But every time Daisy closed her eyes, she remembered what happened at the cabin. Sandy would have enough bad memories just from Jake grabbing her, just thinking about what might have happened. She didn"t need memories of ghosts on top of it.
"You should be at home. You"re exhausted."
Daisy jumped. Looking up at Michael, she slammed her hand down on the table and snapped, "Don"t do that!"
His eyes softened. "I"m sorry." He closed the door behind him and leaned back against it, studying her. "Were you able to sleep any today?"
Daisy shook her head. "No. I"ll sleep tonight. Maybe. Then again, it may be a few days before I can sleep." She paused, looking down at the report in front of her. It was done. All she had to do was sign it. "Almost done here." A knot formed in her throat as she saw the bag over his shoulder. "You"re leaving."
The thick fringe of his lashes drooped, shielding his eyes. "My job here is done," he said quietly, lifting his shoulder restlessly.
He looked back at her, his gaze resting on her mouth for a brief second. Then he met her gaze and forced a smile. "So it"s time to go."
It wasn"t the first time Daisy had thought about it, but now, she looked at him and wondered, really wondered, just how deep the loneliness inside him ran. "You ever get tired of just the job, Michael?" she asked softly.
"It"s all there is for me."
Slowly, Daisy rose from her desk, moving around it. She held his gaze as she drew nearer and hoped the knot in her throat wasn"t going to choke her before she could finish saying goodbye. "Is it that way because you want it to be? Or because you don"t think you can have anything else?"
He had no answer. Daisy forced a smile. "Maybe you don"t know. Think about it." Rising on her toes, she pressed her lips to his mouth gently. "When you know-I"d be interested in hearing the answer. Because if you think it"s the second one, I"d like the chance to prove you wrong."
She started to pull away and his hands came up, cupping the back of her neck and pulling her closer. His tongue traced the outline of her lips and then pushed inside. Desperate goodbye s.e.x was so...desperate, but Daisy couldn"t pull away.
She slid her hands under his shirt, feeling the smooth play of hard muscle under his skin. He felt so warm, strong-so alive. It was weird. Daisy hadn"t realized it until just that moment, but she hadn"t felt this alive for a long, long time. When he left, it was going to leave a hole inside her and that life would drain away, leaving her empty.
But she wasn"t going to ask him to stay. If that was what he wanted, he"d do it. If he was going to leave, Daisy wanted one more memory with him. She rose up against him and he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the floor. "You taste so good," he muttered.
"Mmmm. So do you." She could feel tears burning her eyes but she wasn"t going to cry.
She left then, walking away from him before he could see the tears gleaming in her eyes.
"Don"t do this, Mike."
The long endless stretch of highway unfurled beneath him as Michael headed out of Mitch.e.l.l.
And riding shotgun with him was his brother. Sighing, he glanced at Lucas. "Don"t do what?"
"Don"t just walk away from her."
His gut knotted even thinking about it. He didn"t want to walk away. He wanted to turn the car around and go back to her, wrap his arms around her and hold her until she got some rest. Then he wanted to kiss her awake and make love to her, long and slow.
But it wasn"t going to happen. Right now, he was functioning on sheer instinct. Case solved, job done, drive away, find some quiet place, and rest. That was what he needed-what he tried to do any time he did a job.
"This wasn"t a d.a.m.ned job! You aren"t on the payroll for this."
Michael snorted. "The agency doesn"t just pick and choose where I"m going to go, Lucas. I go, and just end up in places like this. That"s how my life works." Bitterly, he muttered, "This is all there is."
"Just because it always has, does that mean it has to stay that way? You have a choice-a chance at a real life. Reach for it." Lucas shook his head. "Don"t do this, Mikey. She"s your chance."
"I can"t."
"Why?" Lucas demanded. Anger surged through him and his form went from d.a.m.n near invisible to almost solid as he glared at Michael. "After all this time, don"t you deserve it?"
That, Michael didn"t know. "I don"t know." Then he shook his head. Yeah, he did. He knew all right. He didn"t deserve any kind of normal life. Even if he did, he couldn"t have it. "I don"t have a normal life-I wouldn"t know what it was like if it bit me on the a.s.s. But I don"t deserve it, Lucas."