Landon: Justice Series ― Erotica Paranormal Romance (5 page)

“You laugh so prettily. And as much as I’d like to take you upstairs to our room and break it in with you, we’ve been called out.” He didn’t want to go either. Which surprised him. He liked going out on these missions to help others most of the time.

“I heard. You’re not taking Steele this time, however.” Landon shook his head. “Will you guys be back soon? Or does this sort of thing take a while?”

“I’m not sure on this one. We’ve been called to a library that has some issues. The city thinks it’s just a bunch of kids screwing around, but we’ve sent out some of our friends and they’ve reported to us that it’s a haunting. We have to see what they want.” She nodded at him. “You still don’t believe me when I tell you there are ghosts, do you?”

“I’m not sure. I mean...I met a vampire and a panther today. I’m thinking I need to broaden my views on things.” Landon lifted her chin up and kissed her gently. “You do that so well. Makes me want more and to cry at the same time.”

“Don’t cry.” He lifted her chin back up when she lowered her head. “Don’t cry. And please tell me what’s wrong. Since we’ve left the hospital, you’ve been really down and quiet.”

“I’m being haunted.” He knew that. It had taken him a couple of hours to find out who the man was and why he was there with Dillon, but not why he was still hanging around after she’d located him. “He wants me to find his head. At least that’s what Vinnie and I have figured out.”

“My grandda said as much too. He is mad that no one cares that he’s not whole.” Dillon only nodded. “When I get back, we’ll have to talk. I want to find out as much as we can about the man or men that want you to help them. I have a feeling that they’re more dangerous than you think. Especially your father. He’s not a nice man.”

“He wanted me to find a man for him a while back. However, I found out why and I told him no and left the house. And then...there was something very wrong about the reasons he gave me for finding him. So I did a little research and found that the man is under witness protection. Or at least I think that’s who they want me to find. The addresses they gave me for him were close to the ones of the man who had simply disappeared. So I asked a friend of mine, and he confirmed it for me. Even told me he was really low on the list of things people would want his information about. So I never really let it bother me. But he can be pretty insistent when he wants something.” She moved away from him but didn’t go far. When she looked out over the back yard, he tried to remember the last time it had been mowed, and was relieved to see that someone was on the ball for him. “How long do you think we’ll be able to make this work?”

“I’d like to say for a long time, but I don’t know. Will you leave before I get back? I don’t want you to, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She turned and looked at him. “I don’t want you to think that the only reason I want you here is for the sex. That’s really fucking fantastic, but it’s more than that. I really enjoy talking to you too. And being with you. You calm me in ways I never realized I needed before.”

“As you do me. And I don’t want to leave here. I know that we’ve only been together for less than a day, but there is something really appealing about you. Not just your wonderful cock, but all of you.” He laughed when she did. “I don’t know how to cook and I’m not much of a housekeeper. This house is really big, and I have a feeling that it would take me several days to keep up with it. So what do you want me to do while you’re gone?”

“Whatever you want. But I do have a favor. Addie knows this woman who is a great cook, but I’ve not had time to talk to her. I know that you have no idea how to interview for a positon any more than I do, but it would help us a great deal if neither of us had to die by eating what the other one cooked.” Landon said that she could hire her too if she could boil water for tea. “I just don’t want to have to clean up after myself, nor do I want to cook. I like...Izzy, Steele’s cook, said she’d come over and help you with the interviews if you want her to.”

“I do.” He watched her, and when the doorbell sounded in the front of the house, he left her to go and get it. Landon knew it was one of the others come to get him, but saw his grandda when he got to the hall.

“I’ll watch her for you. Can come and get you should something not be right if you want.” Landon told him that he’d appreciate that very much. “You go on now, and kiss her goodbye after letting them others in, and I’ll keep her safe for you. For us both.”

After kissing Dillon goodbye several times and being teased by Hugh a good deal, they left. Landon hadn’t wanted to leave his house and Dillon, but knew that with Steele and Kari both being unable to come with them, it was going to be hard enough. As soon as they arrived at the airport and got settled, Drew started to tell them what they were up against.

“Beth was out there until this morning. She had a big showing around the area where this is going down, and as much as she hated to call us in on this, she said that she wasn’t going to wait for us. She’s on her way back to see her new grandbaby.” Everyone agreed that was the best way for her to do it. “Anyway, the library has seen its fair share of hauntings before. Not recently, but in the past. Books being put in the wrong places after they were cataloged, shelves being knocked over with no one around. But recently they opened up one of the wings that had been closed off for a couple of decades to expand the children’s area, and they are getting more and more troublesome. The guy in charge of the library, his name is Barry James, he said that it’s just kids that are getting in somehow and making a racket. Carlton and Donny have been out a couple of times, and they’re convinced it’s not kids but people like them. But pissed off ghosts. Carlton said he hadn’t been able to find out why they’re there either. They’re not cooperating much, he told me.”

As they landed and disembarked, Landon wanted to call home. He knew that he was being silly, but he wanted to hear her voice. Calling her cell phone, he wasn’t surprised when he only got her voicemail, but thought he’d try her again later. Making their way to the building, all he could think about was being back home. Landon wondered how Mitch and the others did it, leaving their wives behind all the time.

“You with us?” He looked up at Mitch and realized that he had no idea what was going on. “You should see your face right now. It’s all sappy and warm looking. Like a man in love.”

“We only just met. Like today.” Mitch asked him what that had to do with it. “I’m not sure, but I think it takes more than twenty-four hours for someone to fall in love, don’t you? Besides, we have some things to work out too. Like who is looking for her and how dangerous they are.”

“She’s okay with what you do, then?” He told Mitch that she seemed to be. “I think that’s half the battle in our line of work, don’t you? Having someone that believes in what you do. And Steele said that she’s a little like us. Vinnie told me a little about her and her ghost. I guess...you know about him too?”

“Yes. He’s watching her…I’m glad for that. I don’t think she has all that many friends. Not that I do, but you know what I mean.” Landon looked around before continuing. “My parents have...they want me to marry some woman so that their companies and families can be merged.”

“Did they say it like that?” Landon nodded. “Well, aren’t they the nicest people in the world? I guess you didn’t get along all that well. To be honest with you, I had no idea your parents were still alive. You never talk about them. Like never. Is that the reason why? Because they’re so fucking nice?”

“Pretty much. We don’t talk. I don’t think I’ve said more than a dozen words to them in twenty years. If that many.” Mitch nodded and stood up. “I guess we need to get this done, right? So we can get home quicker.”

“You got it. But Landon, you really do look like a man in love. If you don’t love her now, you will soon. She’s nice too. I like her a great deal. So do Vinnie and the rest of them.” Landon said nothing but stood up as well. As they made their way to where the rest of them were waiting for them, Landon thought of falling in love. For some reason that didn’t frighten him as much as it had a few weeks ago. Or forever, for that matter. Being in love with someone like Dillon would be worth it, he thought. For however long it lasted, he was going to enjoy every single second of it.

The basement where the walls had been knocked down was busy with people. Not with the living, though there were plenty of those milling about. But there were perhaps a dozen ghosts—clients, Landon supposed they might be called—that looked as confused as he’d ever seen any looking. When one of them came toward him and Mitch, his first thought was that they were going to be hurt. But the man asked who they were. After telling him, twice, the man nodded to the rest of the dead.

“They don’t know it yet.” Landon thought that wasn’t right. “I’ve been keeping them in line all this time, and now that you’re here, I’m sure you’re going to want to do things your way. Well, you can just get that notion out of your head right now. I’ve got this, and you aren’t needed. We liked things, everything, the way it was, so you just have them set it to rights and go away.”

“What do you mean, they don’t know? They don’t know that they’re dead?” The man told him to keep his voice down, and Mitch turned to him with a look of pure shock. Landon knew just how he felt. Some of them looked as if they’d been here for some time. “Look, we’re here because there is work being done and you and your friends are messing things up for them. Let them do their job and you’ll get to stay; that’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t care what they want. You see, we were here first. And as such, we’d very much like for you to leave us alone.” The man actually crossed his arms over his chest as he continued. “I don’t care who you think you might be, but we’re happy here and we like it this way.”

“You like it this way, or you all do?” The man looked confused. “You’re going to have to go elsewhere to stay. This place is going to be renovated soon, and with all the problems you guys are causing, it’s not going to work out for them.”

“I don’t care. I like it here.” The ghost started forward to no doubt run though him when Landon lifted his hand. It was just a way to ward off someone, but the ghost stopped as if he’d really done it. “Let me go.”

Landon looked at Mitch, who was staring at him too. The ghost was caught in his hold, like he’d wrapped him up in a chain. As he stood there struggling with it, Landon tried to think how the hell he’d just done that. Turning to Mitch, he thought for sure it was him.

“What just happened? Did you do this?” Mitch shook his head. “I’m not doing it. Do you suppose...? I have no idea what to think. Are you sure you’re not holding him?”

“Nope, it’s not me, Landon.” Mitch grinned before he elaborated. “I think that you’ve met your match. As in the woman that you’re in love with is your other half.”

“No.” Mitch laughed. “I just met her. How the hell can she be...? We’re just people, we don’t have mates.”

“I didn’t say mate, I said match. I was talking to Connie about things the other week, and she was telling me—”

“Hello? Let me go, whoever is doing this, and then I want you to leave. Then I want to know when these beings are leaving us to our privacy.” Both he and Mitch looked at the man as he struggled harder against whatever bond was holding him. “Let me go right now. Then we’d like you to have them stop doing what they’re doing and leave us alone. I want this wall put back up too. We can’t stand having all you people moving in and out of here like you own the place. Now. Get to it.”

Mitch put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. It was loud and full of energy that made Landon laugh. When everyone turned in his direction, including the ghosts, he smiled. It wasn’t the kind that he reserved for friends, either.

“Now. This is what we’re going to do. If you are living, or think you are, stand to my right. The rest of you to my left.” It took ten minutes to get the people moving and where they thought they should have been. All of the ghosts, including the man they’d been talking to, were standing on the right hand side.

“We have to figure this out.” Mitch nodded and asked him if he had any suggestions. “Yeah, we tell them. Get their names first, then look up how or when they passed, then tell them. Or show them. But that guy there, he’s first.”

“Randall Phillips. That’s two ‘l’s’ in both names.” Landon keyed the name into the small computer he was using when the man spoke to him. “But I don’t know why you think this is necessary. I’m not going anywhere. And I might be dead according to your records, but I’m very much alive and here.”

Ignoring the man, he brought up the information that he needed and looked at the man. “You killed yourself.” Randall shrugged. “And it says here that when the police went to your house to tell your lovely wife, you’d killed her and your youngest son. Not a nice person, are you?”

“So what? What’s done is done, and I had my reasons for this. But that does not negate the fact that you are trespassing. When you leave, I expect you to have these walls returned to the way they once were as well.” His name was added to the list by the police that were helping them sort things out. Landon looked around. He had a picture of the family now, and wondered if his family was here as well. But Randall stepped in front of him. “You are to leave them alone. You have no business meddling in my life.”

Landon saw her then. She was talking to Hugh and looking decidedly confused. When he started toward her, Randall in tow, he knew that this wasn’t going to go well for either of them. The woman had a small boy standing next to her.