Forbidden Secrets Page 26

  When the man came rushing out, it was clear to Julian that Calvin Foster had some financial issues. Since he ran a business, too, he knew that a receptionist was pricy. Lena was well paid in their office. Having her was a sign of prosperity.

  Calvin wasn’t prospering at all.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  Julian held out his hand. “We need to speak to you,” he stated. “I’m Julian Littlemoon, and this is my wife, Victoria.”

  If the man recognized their names, he didn’t let on. It was possible he didn’t recognize them.

  “Do you need help with a business venture?”

  There was irony in that statement. From the looks of things, Julian could give the man a lesson or three. He shouldn’t be handing out financial advice. It was apparent that the Eastons were the business savvy ones.

  “No, actually, we’re private investigators.”

  “Oh, really? I don’t know what I can help you with,” he offered. “I’m not looking to hire anyone—thus the sign on the door about ‘no soliciting’.”

  He went to walk away.

  “Actually, we have a case, and your name came up,” Julian stated.

  That must have intrigued him.

  He stopped.

  “Really? I can’t imagine why.”

  Tori went for it. “The Easton family.”

  The man’s face went red. “What did that whore Lennox tell you I did? All I wanted was my share of OUR businesses. Her father, uncle, and I built that brand, and they screwed me in the end. I didn’t do anything to them or her!”

  Tori walked past him into his office, forcing the man to follow her. “That’s not what we hear.”

  He fumed.

  “You see, we were hired to investigate their deaths. It seems that a few of the circumstances were suspicious.”

  He sat in his seat and pulled at his tie. Clearly, he was a bomb waiting to blow.

  Tori hoped he didn’t have a stroke.

  “Who are they saying I killed?” he asked.

  Tori knew she needed to switch it up. “Actually, no one. We were told you might be able to give us some information since you knew Orwell and Howell very well. Are you saying that there’s a possibility that you’re the killer?” she asked.

  He seemed to calm down.

  “No, but I’m so accustomed to being screwed over by that family that I expect it. I’ll apologize for jumping down your throats,” he offered.

  “It’s okay,” Tori stated. “We really just need your help, Calvin.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “Okay, what can I do for you? I’m not sure I’ll be much help, but I’ll try. At one time, I was part of the family.”

  Tori knew she needed to keep this light. If she even hinted that he was involved with killing them, there was no doubt he’d clam up.

  That was a bad thing.

  “Do you know anyone who would want to hurt any of them?” she asked.

  He laughed. “Yeah, I do. The list is pretty long. Let’s just say the entire city, minus me.”

  Yeah, that was a long list.

  “Were there any businesses that might be angry that Orwell acquired them and then took them apart?”

  He thought about it.

  “Orwell was good at what he did. He liked collecting things. If he bought a business, everyone pretty much knew he was going to dismantle it and rebrand it before selling it off. That was my job. He couldn’t do his thing without me.”

  She let him rant.

  “How was the family?”

  “Really, they were a normal family.”

  Tori didn’t buy it. Her gut was screaming.

  “What about Lennox Easton? Do you know anyone who would want to hurt her?”

  “She is a sweet piece of ass and always has been. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her. People just look at her and fall for her.”

  Tori was a woman, she could see that look in Calvin’s eyes, and it wasn’t fondness. It was lust. There was no doubt that he was on that list.

  “Can I have some water?” she asked, pointing toward the cooler. “Pregnancy is a bitch.”

  Immediately, Calvin was up and bringing her a cup. “Sure thing, Mrs. Littlemoon.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said before taking a seat.

  “So the family didn’t have death threats or anything like that?” she asked.

  “No.”

  Tori sipped her water.

  “Do you know an Evangeline?” she asked.

  His face revealed the truth, even when he lied through his teeth.

  “I’ve never heard of anyone by that name.”

  Yeah.

  Bullshit.

  Bethany was in her head. She could hear the woman going off. Hart had a lie detector, but then so did she.

  Calvin Foster was lying his ass off and that made her curious. In fact, he was no longer bright red, but now a pasty shade of white. Something had scared him.

  “Are you sure you don’t know an Evangeline?”

  “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “We’ve been told she’s dead and buried somewhere on the estate. That means someone there knows her, and it also means someone put her there.”

  He didn’t even say a word.

  Calvin didn’t have to. His face said it all.

  “You should go. I have a meeting coming up, and it’s important,” he stated, getting up to walk them to the door.

  She studied him.

  Yeah, she’d been right. Wait until she told Julian that her spirit was giving her confirmation in her head.

  “Okay, Mr. Foster. If you think of anything, here’s Julian’s card,” she said, as she waited for him to hand her one.

  He took it and rushed them out.

  In the hall, they heard the door lock behind them.

  “Well, that’s odd behavior for someone who has a big meeting,” Julian offered.

  As they got into the elevator, she told him what she noticed. “When I brought up Lennox, he reacted.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Yeah, when he got me my water, he had a hard on.”

  Julian stared at her. “Wait. Are you telling me you were staring at another’s man’s dick? I thought you were just really thirsty!”

  She laughed. “It was an experiment.”

  “Yeah, I don’t like this one at all.”

  “When I brought up Evangeline, he went from horny to flaccid in one minute. He wasn’t happy when he stood up to escort us out.”

  “Victoria Rose, stop checking out other men’s penises!” he said, just as the door opened and a little old woman stood there with her mouth open.

  Tori started laughing as she rubbed her baby bump to really make him look like a dork in front of the woman.

  Julian went red.

  As the woman shuffled by them and they got out, she was still laughing.

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Oh, it’s totally funny.”

  “I don’t like you right now.”

  Tori knew he was exaggerating. “Well, you should love me,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “What happens when a man sees a gorgeous woman?” she asked.

  “He gets horny.”

  “Evangeline has been in my head. I know what she looks like, or what she recalls herself looking like, and she was gorgeous.”

  “Uh, okay, but where are you taking this?”

  “How long does it take you to get rock hard when you think about a sexy woman?”

  “I only think about my sexy wife.”

  “Remember that time in the hotel where you pretended to cheat on me?”

  Julian was rock hard.

  He swallowed.

  “Yes?”

  “What were you thinking about?”

  “How hot the sex was and how you screamed my name,” he admitted.

  “Well, the reason I asked is because for a man, especially one his age to get that hard that fas
t, he had to be recalling something. Don’t you agree?”

  He stared at her.

  “You’re an evil genius.”

  She laughed. “I was a Fed, so yes, I am. My point is, fantasy will get you hard, but I’m willing to bet there was some hands on going on to have him react that much.”

  “So, sex gone wrong?”

  “We’ve been told that Calvin did everything with Orwell and Howell. What if Evangeline was one of their conquests, and she didn’t survive?”

  He glanced over at her as they got into the SUV. “I really hope you’re wrong.”

  “I don’t think I am.”

  “How do you know?” he asked.

  “The voices inside my head and my gut. They never lead me astray.”

  “Yeah, about that…?”

  She waited for it.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t call them the ‘voices in your head’. People are going to think you’re insane.”

  Well, wasn’t she?

  “You love the insanity, Julian.”

  He dropped his glasses onto his face. “Yeah, don’t be too sure of that.”

  He knew that he wasn’t.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Delta Falls

  Shelby was ready.

  She was dressed to the nines, her clothes fit her mood, and she was going to head to Littlemoon Investigations and handle the situation.

  She wasn’t leaving without her son. Since her daughter was a bad influence, she was taking Beau and leaving. She may be dying, but she wouldn’t watch him hook up with some ‘psychic’ who worked in the shop next to the business. She may be trash to her daughter, but she’d raised her son better than that.

  HER SON.

  Not Lawrence’s.

  Enough was enough.

  The boy had no common sense, and he needed someone to step in and handle the situation.

  What the hell was he thinking?

  She told him to marry into a good family. It would ensure that he had a safe future where he didn’t have to work as hard as she had to all her life. She wanted that for him.

  Shelby wanted the best for her son.

  He was all she had left in the world.

  Besides, it was her duty, as a mother, to make sure he was taken care of, and she would do just that. This wasn’t about anything else but her child.

  Then again, that wasn’t entirely true. Maybe she was still pissed that Victoria had managed to turn Beau against her.

  Maybe she wanted the woman to bleed.

  So, before she headed there, she was going to make a call. She’d drop the information to the local tabloid that the Littlemoons wanted her to come by and settle their issues.

  That would pique interest.

  Then once there, she’d have fifteen more minutes of fame. Maybe, if she was lucky, the tabloid would pay her again. As long as she stayed in their news, there was money to be made.

  What choice did she have?

  Her son abandoned her.

  She was broke.

  Alone.

  Dying.

  It was desperate times in her world.

  Checking her perfect makeup and fixing her red-coifed hair, she got ready.

  This was a long time coming.

  There was a showdown, and Shelby Christensen was going to come out on top. There was no way the Littlemoons were about to spoil the remaining days of her life.

  It wasn’t happening.

  Not now.

  Not ever.

  And certainly over her dead body!

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Easton Estate

  Beau was quiet, and that worried her. He still wasn’t saying much, and she knew the previous night was to blame. He was still angry over the whole ‘Evangeline’ thing and she couldn’t blame him.

  Nyx got it.

  Honestly, she would have been pissed too, but she didn’t have that luxury. There were other things weighing heavily on her mind.

  Like her gift—or the lack of one.

  “Are you never going to talk to me again?” she asked, finally breaking the silence. “Are you going to be angry for the rest of our lives?” she asked.

  “Maybe.”

  Well, at least he replied.

  That was a start.

  It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but an answer was better than nothing.

  Even if it hurt.

  “I see.”

  “I don’t think you do, Nyx. That’s part of the underlying issue.”

  “I guess we’re over then,” Nyx said, the pain filling her heart that it was a possibility.

  He stared over at her. “What?”

  “You hate me because of what I did, and I get it. If you’re this angry over this, I’ll accept it. We obviously can’t be together as a couple.”

  He didn’t hate her.

  He was freaked out.

  Now her words were making it a million times worse. Beau feared little in life. Losing Nyx…it was at the top of a very short list.

  She continued, “I won’t rationalize what I did to you because I know you don’t want to hear it, Beau, but I had no choice.”

  “We all have a choice, Nyx.”

  He couldn’t be more wrong.

  “I wish that was the truth,” she offered. “I get that you hate what I let into my body, but…”

  He cut her off. “You let yourself be possessed. With Trey, it was different. He wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “He would have, Beau. They’re the dead. While we want to think they are sentient, they really aren’t. Trey feels what he feels because of his past.”

  “I don’t buy that.”

  She didn’t want to fight.

  Honestly, she was too worn down by the last few weeks. The rollercoaster had taken the wind out of her sails. She was missing a huge part of her life when her gift was taken.

  He simply couldn’t see it.

  How was she supposed to be Nyx Nightingale when she couldn’t talk to the dead?

  HOW?

  The entire thing made her angry.

  “I’m sorry I did what I did, but I’d do it all over again. I did it for you. I did it for Tori.”

  “She wouldn’t have died. The risk you took could have taken you from me, Nyx. How do you not get that?”

  “You don’t know that she would have survived, Beau. Then what? Would you have been okay with her death?”

  He stared at her.

  That wasn’t the point.

  “What if you died, Nyx? What if you didn’t come back from that little freak show?”

  The words hurt.

  The fact that he saw her as a freak scared her. She always wanted to believe that Beau saw her for her. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.

  “Before I lost my gift, I was able to handle it. I knew I’d be fine.”

  He didn’t want to hear it.

  A lot had changed in the past few weeks. He’d only wanted to protect her. Beau wanted to wrap himself around her like bubble wrap and keep her safe.

  She was his heart.

  She was his to protect.

  “If I lost you, I’d be lost. Don’t you get it, Nyx? I’m pissed because I couldn’t help you. I didn’t know where to even start, and that freaked me out.”

  She got it now.

  He felt helpless.

  Her big strong soldier was feeling weak.

  “You did help me.”

  “You tossed me across the room like I was a doll. You didn’t need my help.”

  “I was thinking about you,” she admitted. “While she was using my body, I was aware and thinking about you. I was picturing us getting married, us having kids one day, and us…I guess it doesn’t matter. You don’t love me.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  She stared at him. “If you did, then you wouldn’t be pissed at me for being who I am. When you were trying to pass the private investigator’s test, you said to me, ‘if I can’t do this, I can always go into the re
serves or find a job’,” she repeated. “I didn’t doubt you. I didn’t question you.”

  “Why would you? This isn’t the same thing. You could have been hurt.”

  “It is the same thing, Beau. You could be hurt too if you went back to the military. Look at Trey. He didn’t think he was going to get killed by an IED, but he did. Soldiers die, Beau. They have only two jobs in life. Fight for their country and die for it. You have a fifty-fifty shot of dying as a soldier. I had to swallow that and put my faith in you, didn’t I?”

  He listened.

  “All I’m asking is for you to believe in me. I knew I could handle Evangeline,” she offered. “I was secure in knowing that while I was out of it, you and the rest of the family would have my back. It’s called faith. I have it but you don’t.”

  He didn’t know what to say.

  Did she see it this way?

  Really?

  “Now you’re angry at me, and it’s not fair. I’ve had a really bad month. I burned out and I can’t channel. Do you know how damn hard that is to swallow as a medium? We get accustomed to it. It becomes part of us. It’s who I am. Now it’s gone, and I feel empty.”

  “Is that why you let her in? To feel whole?”

  She went with the truth. “Yes. Since I’ve lost my gift, I really don’t feel like myself. I’m dying inside. That was part of me. I hated when they screamed, but I had a purpose. Now I feel lost.”

  Beau hated that she was hurting.

  He hated even more that she hadn’t shared any of this with him before.

  “I just want to keep you safe, Nyx. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Then why are you hurting me?”

  He stared at her.

  Was he?

  Beau really thought he was protecting the woman he loved. He didn’t want to see her hurt. It took him thirty years to find her, and he would fight for them.

  He’d always fight for Nyx—and to the death. Few things in his life mattered. She was the center of his world.

  “If you genuinely wanted to be with me, be my partner, and have my back, you wouldn’t be fighting with me. You’d be telling me you support me. I needed to do it. I don’t regret it.”

  She stared down at her finger.

  Beau had bought her a pretty ring to signify they were getting married.

  She loved it.