What a Ghoul Wants (37 page)

Heath turned narrowed eyes on me while the corners of Steven’s mouth quirked, and
that rather big ego that’d been a part of the reason I’d left him came shining to
life again. “Yes. To both of you,” he said. (But I thought he looked a bit smugly
at me.)

“Well. . . er. . . ,” I sputtered, doodling large circles on the notepad while I tried
to collect myself. (He was getting married? We’d only been broken up for a few months!
What the hell?) “Congratulations!” I said. Perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.

“Why do you think this guy’s possessed?” Heath asked.

Steven sighed and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You have to see it to believe it,”
he said. “But I’m telling you, there is a ghost haunting this young man. My fiancée,
Courtney, can tell you about it better than me. I’d like to introduce you if you’re
interested in taking on the case.”

“Possession isn’t exactly our area of expertise,” I said. No
way
was I getting involved in this. (Okay, so really, no
way
was I meeting his fiancée!)

“It wouldn’t hurt to meet her and talk about it,” Heath said, never once turning his
face away from Steven. “Is Courtney nearby?”

I felt my posture stiffen. Again the corners of Steven’s mouth quirked. “She’s at
work at the hospital.”

Now my smile was forced. “Oh? Is she a candy striper or something?” (Please, oh, please
let her job be unimpressive!)

“Surgeon,” Steven said.

(Dammit!)

“General surgeon?” I asked. Before a devastating injury to his hand, Steven had once
been one of the best heart surgeons in the world. Maybe he’d met another heart surgeon
he was attracted to but secretly competitive with. Maybe their competitive nature
would eventually escalate to the point that they’d hate each other. . . .

“Neurosurgeon,” he said.

(Double dammit!)

“Ah,” Heath said smugly. “A brain surgeon. That’s cool.”

I was sincerely regretting not having dashed out of the room ten minutes earlier.
“Well, I’m sure she’s lovely,” I said. No one in the room believed me. “And while
I’d
really
like to meet her, we’re just coming off a crazy intense shooting schedule and I’m
not sure we’ll have time on this hiatus to take on any new cases.”

Steven cocked his head. “That’s not what your Facebook page says. Forgive me for keeping
tabs on you,” he said with a sheepish grin, “but I needed your help and looked online
to see where in the world you were. I was surprised to find you back here in Boston,
and your status this morning said that you couldn’t wait to get back to work on some
regular cases.”

(A dammit three-peat!)

“We can at least meet her, Em,” Heath said agreeably. I wanted to choke him. “How
about dinner tonight?”

“That’d be great,” Steven said, already standing up. “Say around seven?”

“Seven thirty would be better,” Heath said, just to be a pain in the butt, I thought.

Steven smiled tightly. “Of course. Courtney will be coming off a twenty-four-hour
shift, but if it’s better for you. . .”

Heath wavered and I was still looking for a way out of this. “We can probably make
seven,” he said.

“Good,” Steven said, and with that, he turned and headed to the door. Before exiting,
he paused and turned back to look at me. “We can meet at the place I took you to on
our first date. Do you remember?”

I felt my posture stiffen again. At this rate I’d need the Jaws of Life to ever get
myself to relax again. “I do.”

“Excellent,” Steven said. “See you.” And with that, he was gone.

ALSO BY VICTORIA LAURIE

The Ghost Hunter Mystery Series

What’s a Ghoul to Do?

Demons Are a Ghoul’s Best Friend

Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun

Ghouls Gone Wild

Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls

Ghoul Interrupted

The Psychic Eye Mystery Series

Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye

Better Read Than Dead

A Vision of Murder

Killer Insight

Crime Seen

Death Perception

Doom with a View

A Glimpse of Evil

Vision Impossible

Lethal Outlook