Unthinkable Games (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 3) Read online

  She watched him pace.

  “I don’t want anyone to know! I shouldn’t have told you. Now you’ll run too!”

  She heard the pain. Moving into the storm that whipped through Beckett, Claire threw her arms around his waist and held on.

  “Shhhh. It’s okay, Beckett. I won’t tell them. We can keep it between us,” Claire offered.

  It seemed to mollify him.

  She could understand. If his ex used this as a weapon against him, the man was carrying some pretty deep scars. Claire wouldn’t let that be a way to force him.

  This had to be on his time.

  “I need your word,” he said, staring down into her eyes.

  “I promise that I won’t tell a soul. Your secret is safe with me,” Claire vowed.

  He wanted to believe that.

  Beckett, for the first time in a long time, longed to believe that his secret was safe with someone else.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “You’re welcome,” she offered, staring at his lips. Was it wrong that she wanted to sink back into them, only to get lost? Claire wanted nothing more than to taste the man before her. He was becoming an addiction.

  Going into his arms, she went up onto her toes to seal her vow with a kiss. The second her lips touched his, life bloomed in both of them.

  Nothing felt this wonderful in all his life.

  Beckett was confused.

  Even when he’d kissed his ex, there was never this heady rush of heat and need. This was something so new to him, and he couldn’t get enough. As her tongue slid slowly across his, Beckett’s body reacted, going hard and taut.

  God, he wanted her.

  Just as the kiss started, she slowly broke away. “I promise,” she stated, resting her head on his shoulder as she held onto him.

  Those two words meant everything to him.

  “Thank you.”

  He was about to say more, but there was a noise from behind them. When they both looked, there stood the two other Littlemoons.

  “Uh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Julian stated, appalled that he had just caught his sister and employee in some moment that wasn’t meant to be seen.

  Tori was trying not to laugh. From the look of irritation on Claire’s face, she could see that Julian was indeed interrupting something private.

  She snickered behind her hand.

  “No, we’re good,” stated Claire, coming to their rescue.

  Beckett waited for the betrayal. There wasn’t going to be an easy way out of this, and he knew it. Soon would come the pain, like a dagger to his heart.

  “I nearly fell off the ladder. My hero here caught me. Thank God, because I doubt there’s a hospital for miles,” Claire said, covering for the man against her.

  Julian glanced over at the shoes and the rickety ladder. “You should be more careful,” he stated, not buying that for a second. As kids, Claire could out climb any Littlemoon in the trees around their old cabin. He didn’t believe a word she was saying.

  “Well, I found something,” she offered, pointing up at the location. “There’s a fake set of books. I was just about to pop it open to see what was inside when I needed to be rescued.”

  Julian stared down at the letter opener on the ground. “I’ll go up,” he offered.

  Beckett released Claire and his pent up breath. Somehow, he’d avoided that one.

  Thank God.

  Actually, he had nothing to do with it. Claire had saved his ass. He couldn’t believe his luck.

  Julian had to admit that he was curious as hell. Grabbing the letter opener, he headed up the ladder. “Here, Claire?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  He wedged it in, and within seconds, twisted the blade to pop the lock. Staring in, he was disappointed.

  “Well, I have good news and bad,” stated Julian.

  “What?” Beckett asked, trying not to notice how Claire was now leaning back against him. The gentle touch of her body to his was enough to offer so much calm.

  She was like medication, but with none of the side effects. Then he focused on his lower body. Yeah, that wasn’t exactly true. There was one huge side effect.

  “At some point, there had to have been something in here,” Julian offered. “From the pattern marks in the dust, it looked to be a book.”

  “Who hides a book behind a fake veneer of books?” asked Tori. “Why not just place it with all the other books?”

  He didn’t know.

  “And the bad news, Jules?”

  He started climbing down. “That’s just it. There WAS something in there. It’s empty.”

  “So, did our killer take it, or one of the victims.”

  Beckett was confused. Did something happen since they’d divided up? “Wait, what do you mean did the killer or victims take it? Where did that come from? I thought we were looking for a missing person.”

  Tori and Julian looked over at them.

  “We have good news and bad news about that too,” Tori began.

  “Yeah, the good is we have an interesting case ahead of us. The bad news is, our missing people are dead.”

  Beckett was afraid to ask, but he did.

  “How do you know they’re deceased?”

  Julian glanced over at his wife. “Let’s head into the kitchen and get some coffee. It’s going to be a long night, and an even longer discussion.”

  Beckett was pretty sure he didn’t want to even know. From the flashes from the letter opener, to the tone of Julian’s voice, something bad was brewing there.

  And they were in the middle of it.

  ~ Chapter Six ~

  This was turning out to be one hell of a day for him. Justin Littlemoon liked the fact that his brother trusted him to run the office in his absence, but what he wasn’t fond of was the side mission.

  Being a Marine, he saw many a horrible thing. In fact, he’d caused a few along the way. Now, he was put in charge of digging into Tori’s past.

  It sucked.

  While he wanted to do what his brother asked, he just couldn’t help but feel bad about it. Tori was part of his heart, because she was a wounded soul just like him. She left a part of her soul back in the same sandbox he did, and now he was preparing to drop a bomb on her.

  What he had learned was disturbing.

  “What’s up?” Vivian asked, sitting on his desk. “You don’t look so good.”

  Yeah, that was a freaking understatement.

  “That was Beau Christensen on the phone. I needed to speak with him.”

  “Why?”

  “I had to get clarification on a few things. I believe that what I found out is going to cause a whole shitload of mess, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  Vivian loved her husband, and one of the things she liked most was his heart. “What did you find?” she asked, concern filling her voice.

  “Do you know the entire story behind Tori’s mom leaving?” he asked.

  “Yeah, she told me one day when we were shopping for baby things. It’s heartbreaking. I don’t know how any mother could do that to her child. I know mine left, but because she couldn’t hang onto life any longer. But to actually choose to leave…”

  He shook his head.

  “What do you know, Justin?”

  He couldn’t even say the words out loud. They were that heinous to him. Instead, Justin slid the official paperwork across the desk, knowing his wife was once a cop. She should recognize it in…

  Three.

  Two.

  One…

  “Holy shit! Are you certain?”

  He nodded. “That’s why I had to call her brother. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wrong. This isn’t something you get a second chance at.”

  Vivian was sick to her stomach. “How old was she when her mother left?”

  “Four.”

  “And how old was Trey?”

  “No more than six.”

  “Then there is no way they’d remember any of
this,” she stated.

  Justin rubbed his fingers over his eyes in frustration. “No, they wouldn’t. Maybe Trey might, but he’s been gone for a while now. Tori, she was just a small child.”

  “If this is right…”

  “Yeah, I know. This is going to take everything that Tori thought she knew and stir it into a shit mess. This is going to hurt her.”

  There was no way the woman was going to be the same after she found out the truth. Her whole life was going to crash around her.

  “And you triple checked it?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to keep digging into some of the allegations, but until I can find concrete proof, I’m not saying anything to her.”

  “Oh God, this is horrible. Her pregnancy,” she began.

  Justin was well aware. Before his wife came in, he did a simple google search on stress and miscarriage. The last thing he wanted was to shove Tori off the edge and cause her to lose the baby she was growing.

  It would kill her and Julian too.

  “Jesus, Viv! What am I supposed to do?”

  She took his hand in hers. “You have to do what you’re supposed to do, and then we all band together to make sure that we get her thought this. That’s the only solution. It’s not like it’s going to go away. We both know that her brother and mother are going to keep coming here until she knows the truth.”

  “Please tell me that it’s best if she hears it from me and not them.”

  Vivian leaned down to kiss him. “She loves and trusts you. It’s so much better coming from you. We don’t have a choice. Lying to Tori would be a greater sin.”

  He was aware. Beau had said pretty much the same thing on the phone. All the man wanted was a chance to have his sister in his life. Justin doubted that he’d be willing to relent. That meant one thing…

  This scared the hell out of Justin because he knew that Tori, while tough on the outside, was fragile.

  They both were.

  War was hell.

  And sometimes, so was life.

  * * *

  He was watching them.

  Why not?

  At first, there was fear over what was going to happen. After all, he’d seen them on the news. This was a really intelligent team who always found the truth.

  That was worrisome, but then it sunk in.

  Where all the others failed at finding the gold, they wouldn’t. All he had to do was keep them fully invested in the game, and before long, Julian Littlemoon would get the prize.

  Then, all he would have to do is steal it away.

  How hard could it be?

  In theory, it should be like stealing candy from a baby. Once they were close, he’d take them out.

  Then he’d be rich.

  Not only that, but his father’s and grandfather’s lifelong dreams would be complete.

  They would have found it at last.

  It was worth the aggravation and having to wait it out. Patience would be the winner in this, and if anything, his family had proved to have tons of it.

  They didn’t want more than what was rightfully theirs.

  Now, the Littlemoons would make that happen.

  All he had to do was keep them there.

  Hopefully, he knew exactly how to do it.

  * * *

  Kitchen

  The Killing House

  Saturday Late Afternoon

  It felt weird to know that he was keeping something so big from his boss. Why it bothered him, Beckett didn’t know. After all, it was his secret to share.

  Right?

  Maybe it had something to do with forcing Claire to keep quiet. He knew that she was now stuck between the two men, and that was a shitty predicament.

  Yet, he couldn’t back down.

  Maybe this was a test.

  Beckett was well aware that Claire warmed his blood and called to his libido, but he didn’t trust her yet. Sure, she’d taken the heat for him, and that was great, but there was always that little niggling fear that she would betray him just like his ex, Melinda, had done. She’d crushed him, and Beckett was fully expecting Claire to do the same.

  Deep down, there was a war brewing, and he was helpless to do anything but watch it play out. Maybe a part of him was hoping she’d betray him.

  Hating her was going to be so much easier than admitting the truth.

  He was falling for her. There was so much about her that called to him. There was the way she smiled, her positive attitude, and the way she offered him peace.

  The woman just called to him, and somewhere inside, he knew she was the one who could heal him--if she didn’t break him first.

  Beckett Rand was slipping down that slippery slope called love. He knew it, because he’d only done it once before, and that nearly killed him. He could spot the signs.

  Sweaty palms.

  Rapid heartbeat.

  The need to be pressed to her body.

  Now, he had a choice to make, and he hoped that when he did, it would be the right one.

  Glancing over at his boss, the man was pouring coffee for the three of them, and a cup of tea for his wife.

  Yeah, he felt guilty as hell.

  “We should get this meeting underway,” stated Tori.

  Julian agreed. “You should take this one, Tor, since this is your story to tell.”

  She got ready to share what only she and Julian knew. “Beckett, do you recall the victim in Kentucky--the one who was buried behind the wall?”

  He nodded, sipping his coffee. How the hell could he forget? He’d held her skull in his hands. “Yeah, Bethany Duvall. The media had a field day with her being discovered. You two solved a hundred year old murder.”

  “Well, it wasn’t really only us who solved it,” Tori began, knowing it was time to come clean to their team.

  “It wasn’t? Did you have divine intervention?” he asked, laughing.

  “We sort of had help,” Julian offered, sitting beside his wife as he took her hand in his.

  “Who?”

  “Bethany Duvall.”

  Claire and Beckett stared at her.

  “What?” he finally asked. “I’m really confused. You had help from a dead woman in solving her murder?”

  “Yes.”

  He got that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, warning him to quit while he was ahead. Of course, he was going to ignore it. “How?”

  She got ready to share something so personal with their team. “When I came back from the war, I wasn’t the same. I’d lost someone I cared about there, and when he died in my arms, something broke inside me.”

  Julian wanted to cringe, but he fought to let it go. Tori was his now, and that’s all that really mattered. He understood how hard this was for his wife. So many soldiers came back that way.

  It was more common than not.

  “I have PTSD, and maybe that makes my mind a little more susceptible to darker things.”

  “What are you saying, Tori?” asked Claire, concerned for her sister-in-law.

  “I’m not the same as I once was.”

  Claire had nothing but sympathy for Tori. Taking her other free hand in hers, she offered her brother’s wife some strength.

  It was appreciated.

  “I seem to have picked up a gift that I didn’t know I had. I can talk to the dead, specifically Bethany.”

  Claire and Beckett glanced around, looking for the ghost in question.

  “She’s not here,” she stated. “Or at least I don’t think she is. I usually hear a piano when she plans on popping in or out of my head.”

  They stared at her.

  The looks said it all, and Tori couldn’t blame them. Even to her, it sounded loopy, and she was living it.

  “Okay,” stated Beckett. He had to believe because when he touched Bethany’s skull, he knew how she died. He’d seen the brutal way she was bludgeoned to death.

  “So, you’re like a medium,” Claire offered, trying to wrap her head around it.

  “Y
es, I guess, except I don’t hear anyone else but her.” Yeah, so far. Bethany had mentioned the other ghosts knew she could hear them, so that meant it was only a matter of time.

  Great.

  Julian leaned over and left a kiss on her cheek. “Bethany also told us we were pregnant, and that we’re having a girl. We didn’t believe it at first, but she was right,” Julian added, “on both counts.”

  “So, she floats around and watches us?” he asked, looking around again. Somehow, Beckett couldn’t help but think that her gift was far more creepy than his.

  Or at least he was trying to convince himself of that.

  “Yes, she does. Anyway, long story short, she came to me when we arrived. All of the past six owners are dead. They’re here, and we have to set them free.”

  “How do we do that?” asked Claire.

  “Simple,” stated Julian. “We find them.”

  They looked surprised that their boss was going to go there once again. After the case in Kentucky, he’d been adamant that he wasn’t going to bend the rules anymore.

  The man went past bending. He was close to breaking them.

  Julian saw the looks on their faces, so he began sharing everything they knew. It was time to get down to work. He told them about the innkeeper, the Lamonts, and the hidden items in the house which would lead them to the ultimate thing that likely got Jeffery and the others killed.

  Beckett didn’t like that at all. Objects meant that he might need to touch them. Thankfully, his secret was safe. He glanced over at Claire.

  For now…

  “I’m concerned, Julian. If greed took them out, if we go digging around in this mess, won’t that make us the same target?” Beckett asked. “If you think about it, it’s pretty much the same thing, isn’t it? We were hired to find Jeffery Lamont, not some ancient treasure.”

  He had a point.

  Julian continued, “If you want to head out, Beckett, you can. You didn’t sign up for this, and we understand that. In fact, if you and Claire want to head to the airport right now, that’s good with us.”

  She wasn’t leaving her brother behind.

  Hell no!