Whispers (37 page)

“
Chloe seems to think this rapist is some kind of spirit that’s trying to get at you.”

“
That’s insane.”

“
I’m not arguing that. But the death of Jonathan—that’s something real. That’s something to worry about.”

“
Are you insinuating that this spirit rapist killed him?”

“
Hell no. But what if he didn’t kill himself? What if someone else did? What if Chloe wants to prove she’s right? Bad enough to kill for it?”

Something flashed across her face that told him she’d already thought of that.

“
She’s an old lady.”

“
Yeah. But what about Bill? Jonathan was shot. Doesn’t take Hercules to shoot someone.”

“
What about Zach?” she said. “Why were you so rude to him? Do you think he’s involved somehow?”

Reilly shook his head. “No.”

“
Then why?”

He ran a hand over the short stubble of hair on his head, trying to look anywhere but at Gracie. A few glib lies popped in and out of his mind, but he let them go. Angry with himself, he told the truth.

“
I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

“
And what way is that?”

“
He’s got a thing for you. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

Gracie let out an exasperated breath. “He’s just a kid, Reilly.”

“
No, he’s not. He may look young, but he’s old enough to do everything he’s thinking about when he watches you.”

Reilly could feel his face grow hot. He felt like an idiot.

“
So you don’t think Zach ... and Jonathan ...”

“
No, I don’t think he dragged himself out of bed and down the stairs as sick as he is.”

Gracie took a long, deep breath and nodded. Worry bunched the skin between her brows. “What else did Chloe tell you?”

Reilly shook his head. He didn’t want to relay any more of Chloe’s ranting, but Gracie had a right to know what the crazy woman was talking about. She’d probably blame him for it, but he couldn’t help that.

“
She said we’re all connected. You, me, Chloe. She wants to do this séance because she needs to know what happened in the past. According to her, it’s the only way she can protect us all against the future.”

“
That’s beyond insane.”

“
I think so too. But we’re all trapped until this flood is over and we have no way of knowing what happened to Jonathan. I could be way off—God I hope I am—but I think we need to consider the possibility that I’m not. If Chloe is crazy enough to do whatever it takes to support her psychic predictions or theories, then we need to be on guard. Maybe if we let her have her séance, it will satisfy her. She won’t feel the need to prove that something bad is going on here.”

“
Do you really think she’d do that, Reilly?”

“
Who knows, Gracie? There was tension between her and Jonathan. Bill is so devoted to her that she can do no wrong. Stranger things have happened.”

“
Yeah, stranger things have happened.”

He knew they were both thinking of the doors slamming, lights flashing, and the phone ringing. Of the shattering glass, the smell of dinner still cooking in the cold oven.

“
There’s one more thing,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Did you really look at that picture in there?”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Chloe’s isn’t the only resemblance in it.”

“
You’re talking about me?”

“
And me.”

She stared at him for a long moment and he looked steadily back. This time when she went, he followed her. But as soon as she stepped through the swinging door, she froze. Reilly stopped right behind her. He took a deep breath, his chest brushing against her back and he was overly conscious of her nearness. It was as if someone had put a spell on him and he couldn’t get enough of her.

All faces, human and canine alike, turned to stare at them. He had the dizzying sensation of time seeming to slow to an infinitesimal ping of elongated seconds. The walls around them seemed to draw in. With the heavy aroma of meat, was a thick scent of smoke and malt and a stench of unwashed bodies.

“
Mom?” Analise said. Her voice sounded small and distant.

“
Do you hear that?” Gracie whispered.

Yeah, he heard it.

Music and laughter, faint, like ice tinkling against glass. It came from all around them. Reilly turned in place, looking through the stillness for the source of the sound. Something brushed against his legs, something else teased the sensitive skin behind his ears. The dogs began to bark furiously.

The laughter seemed to grow louder, the smoke now a cloud over their heads. And in the sudden gloom, movement. People, just out of sight. Shadows danced against the walls, cast by objects he couldn’t see. He felt hands move against his shirt, like a woman’s touch as she trailed it up his chest to his neck.

He cursed and jumped, but his voice was trapped beneath the thudding of his heart and the imagined caress became bolder and more demanding. The hands skimmed over his back, down below the waist, taunting and seductive and blood-chilling. Christ, what was happening?

“
Reilly?” Gracie said. Her eyes were huge, her voice the breath of a whisper. He reached out and grasped her hand, pulling her through the thick, turbid film that held them in place and into his arms.

It was as if that touch triggered a reaction beyond the two of them. In the same instant all the air was sucked from the room with such force their clothes and hair rose to the pull.

Gracie was saying something, but Reilly couldn’t hear her. Analise clapped her hands over her ears and Gracie tried to move against the vacuuming pressure but each step seemed only to bring them back to the first.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it ended with a whoosh that left their ears ringing and hearts pounding. Gracie stumbled forward and pulled Analise into her arms.

“
Momma, what’s happening?” Analise cried.

“
I don’t know, honey. I don’t know.”

Reilly came to stand beside them. “It’s just the storm,” he said, knowing it couldn’t have been the storm. Whatever was going on in the Diablo had nothing to do with the rain, thunder, or lightning.

Chloe sat still and owl-eyed on the settee, a strange exultance that tripped the line between frightened and fanatic in her expression. Bill stood dutifully at her shoulder, watching them with those calm, dark eyes. What was he thinking behind that mask of placidity?

Gracie made a visible effort to pull herself together. She touched Analise’s cheek in a gesture so gentle it moved him. He saw an expression flit across Analise’s face, and he realized she’d looked like Matt for just that second. A wave of grief mixed with something that felt like hope hit his raw emotions. Matt was dead, but here was this beautiful girl that could somehow look like him. On the heels of that came a fierce need to protect her. Whatever was going on in this place, whatever was real or contrived, he would make sure it did not touch Gracie or Analise Beck.

Whatever Gracie had said to Analise seemed to work. Reilly met Gracie’s eyes as she stepped away from her daughter and moved to the picture over the fireplace. He’d almost forgotten the reason they’d entered the room in the first place.

He came to stand beside her, watching her face as she stared with dread at the picture. There was the woman who looked so much like her she could only be an ancestor, perhaps her great-grandmother. Surrounding her, the other three unknown women. Gracie rubbed her arms, looking beyond them to the men in the background. They all had a look of roughness about them, a suppressed violence that found ways to escape through their eyes, their expressions, their stances. At the edge was the man in the suit with the fussy tie and sly smile. Reilly saw recognition cross Gracie’s face as she acknowledged again his uncanny resemblance to Chloe. And then she came to the last man who stood almost in shadow. She stared long and hard. Finally, she looked away and into Reilly’s eyes.

“
I don’t understand,” she said.

“
Neither do I.”

Chapter Thirty-One

June 1896

Diablo Springs

AIKEN pounded on the door again. “You hear me? Open up.”

Sawyer looked at me for a long moment and I wanted to shout, “No, don’t open the door.” I was still in his arms, a part of me still seduced by the touch of him. But the sound of Aiken’s voice brought fear low in my belly. I knew now what kind of man he really was. Before I’d thought him cruel and demanding, but I’d not imagined anything that compared to the story Honey had told. I’d been right to feel that Aiken had orchestrated the scene at the miners’ camp. Given the chance, he would do it again.

Sawyer stepped away from me and I was overwhelmed by the loss of his touch. I wanted him to hold me and make me feel safe, but the insanity of that was indescribable. Sawyer may desire me, but only because I required nothing in return.

He seemed to hear my thoughts and turned a probing look my way before he unlocked the door. Once again I wanted to plead for him not to let Aiken in, but it was too late. He’d already swung the door open and Aiken swaggered in with a grin.

He was covered in dust and caked with dirt from his small hat to his black boots. He wore the same clothes he’d had on two nights ago at the miners’ camp and he smelled rank as the sullied streets. He looked around with bright interest at the gleaming beauty of the saloon. His expression spoke of how far his expectations had been surpassed.

“
Damn, look at this,” he said softly.

Sawyer couldn’t keep the answering smile off his face as Aiken looked around him with wonder. “Hell, man, we hit the jackpot.”

I didn’t wait to hear more. As quickly as I could, I headed for the stairs.

“
You can’t even say hello, Ella?” he asked as I passed.

One foot on the bottom step, I paused. “Hello, Mr. Tate.”

“
I saw you shot the other night. I was worried about you.”

I chanced a glance over my shoulder and then back, “It was not serious. Athena patched me up.”

“
That’s good. Glad to hear it.”

“
Good night, Mr. Tate.”

And I hurried upstairs before he could waylay me again. I found the others clustered in the hall, eyes big with worry. I understood their concern. Just having him under the roof was cause to panic.

“
He gon’ be mad at us,” Chick said beneath her breath. “He gon’ see up here how it is and he be mad.”

I hoped it wasn’t true, but I feared she was right. Aiken had been sporting his girls in a tent and now Sawyer had moved them to a real hotel with real beds. Aiken was too mean and petty not to perceive that as a threat and be jealous. From downstairs we heard his jovial laughter as he inspected the saloon and none of us felt comforted by it. To say he was pleased would be an understatement and I wondered just how much of the bankroll he’d provided, how much of a partner was he?

We huddled out of sight and listened as he told Sawyer that after the shootout he’d ridden a full day before doubling back. He was certain he hadn’t been followed, but Athena made a face as he said it.

“
He wouldn’t know if a bear breathed down his neck,” she muttered.

Honey nodded.

He told Sawyer he’d seen Jake Smith riding northwest. “We seen the last of him,” he said.

“
I wouldn’t bet on it,” Sawyer answered.

“
So where’s my girls?” Aiken asked. “You didn’t leave them, did you?”

There was an edge to his voice and I wondered what he would have done had Sawyer left us like he’d planned to do. Sawyer hesitated before telling him we were upstairs.

He’d warned us that if Aiken returned, all deals were off, but we’d hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I felt anger at a world that would let a good man like my father be gunned down for no reason and yet let a bad man like Tate cruise through without a scratch. We heard him start up the stairs.

“
Go to your room and close the door,” Honey told me in a low voice. “Now.”

I didn’t hesitate to do as she said. Athena gave me a dark look as I hurried across the hall, but she didn’t say what she was thinking. I didn’t care if she considered me a coward. After hearing Honey’s story, I was terrified of Aiken. I didn’t want to be in his sight again if I could help it. Before I closed the door, I saw Meaira step in front of the others and hurry to meet him halfway. She had that tight, jittery look about her that told me she, at least, was glad to have him back and expected that he’d have a present for her.

Their voices drifted through to me, but I did not open my door again. I had secured a means of income with Sawyer and I held hope that he would keep me from Aiken. But I wasn’t certain. Whatever was between us, it was not a relationship I understood. His words spoke something different than his actions and I couldn’t say which, if either, I could trust.

My door had a flimsy lock, which I engaged before moving to my bed. I sat on the edge, listening to the others until at last they quieted. Meaira’s room was next to mine and I knew Aiken had joined her in it. I could not help but listen to the sounds they made as he took his pleasure from her. It made my eyes fill and my heart feel huge and empty. I knew not what had brought Meaira to him, but I understood that he owned her as completely as he did Honey. I only prayed I could escape this place before he set his sights on me.