His heart was still thundering in his chest, but he frowned. Was she implying that she’d seen a ghost? He wondered what exactly her grandmother had been writing about in that journal of hers because it was making Belle’s imagination run wild.

“I’m sure you just fell asleep and had another bad dream.”

Her eyes narrowed into a stubborn glare. “I did not fall asleep.” She frowned, swallowing. “I didn’t want to believe it myself, but I think this house is haunted and by more than one entity.”

Yeah, what the hell did he do with that? “Okay, maybe we should have you talk to someone. You’re under a lot of stress.”

Tate cleared his throat and suddenly looked sheepish. “I might need to talk to someone, too.”

Belle turned, gasping as she reached for Tate’s hand. “You’ve seen something?”

Kellan frowned at Tate. What the hell was he up to? “Are you serious?”

Tate flushed slightly, his big shoulders shrugging in a self-conscious gesture. “Maybe. Look, there are some weird things going on in this place.”

Eric pocketed his cell again. “It’s a historic house, man. You’ve never lived in a really old place like this. There’s always settling, and the electricity is obviously still faulty. There’s a logical explanation.”

“Okay, explain why the dog barks at shit that’s not there,” Tate shot back.

It took everything Kellan had not to roll his eyes. “Uhm, because he’s a dog and not a very smart one.”

Seemingly of its own accord, Kell’s head jerked slightly to the right. Damn it. He was going to have to get that checked out. He seemed to have developed a tic in his neck that caused him to jerk occasionally.

Belle stood by Tate, obviously picking her side of the fence. “Sir is not stupid.”

Oh, she was going to change that dog’s name if it was the last thing he did. “Love, he’s out chasing a cat across the courtyard. He’s not exactly a Rhodes Scholar.”

Eric crossed his arms over his chest. “It is a little creepy how he acts sometimes. I caught him growling at a closet the other day. Like really growling. He was ready to attack.”

“A lot of people believe animals see things we can’t,” Belle argued. “That animals have extra or heightened senses.”

“And some people think Santa Claus is real. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s not.” His head jerked again. Damn it. Maybe there was something neurologically wrong with him.

“Are you okay?” Belle’s eyes softened with concern.

“It’s a just a tic, love. Sometimes I get them when I’m stressed.” Though usually it was in his left eyelid. He’d never had his neck jerk like someone had slapped him upside the head.

Tate held up a hand. “Look, all I know is there are creepy parts of this house.”

Kell glared. Tate was supposed to be the logical one. “What does science tell you, man? I really thought you would be on my side. You were raised by scientists.”

“Yeah, uhm, what science tells us above all else is that we don’t know everything. The Greeks explained thunderstorms as Zeus getting pissed off and throwing lightning bolts around. How do we know that the ghost thing isn’t a way of explaining something we don’t understand yet? A truly good scientist leaves room for possibilities.”

“Do you really think that Belle saw a ghost?” Eric asked, shaking his head. “Because that seems farfetched.”

“To you, sure. But an iPod would look like magic to someone who lived a hundred years ago. I’m just saying there are more things in heaven and earth than are obviously a part of the grand philosophy of Kellan. Forty-eight percent of all Americans believe in ghosts. And this particular one seems to like to pat my ass,” Tate said with a sigh. “It’s happened more than once.”

“What?” Belle’s eyes widened.

“Dude, come on.” Kell frowned. Was Tate trying to get in good with Belle or had he just lost his mind?

Even in the dim light of the room, he could see Tate’s face flush a bright shade of red. “I started feeling it a couple of days ago. A cold spot drifts around me. I don’t feel…alone anymore. Then something pats me on the butt. I don’t know how else to say it. I also think I saw the shower curtain moving on its own today. Baby, did you sneak in and write nice ass on the bathroom mirror this morning?”

“No,” Belle assured. But she looked alarmed.

Eric held up his hands. “Dude, I try to not look at your ass even though you walk around with it hanging free most of the time.”

They all turned to stare at Kell, and he rolled his eyes. “Do you honestly believe I would come up with a practical joke like that? I have no sense of humor.”

It was a sad fact of life. He’d lost his sense of humor when he’d lost everything else. Though the idea of some perverted ghost having a fixation on Tate’s butt was kind of funny.

Eric mumbled something completely incoherent.

“What did you say?” Belle asked.

Eric seemed to find his feet very interesting. “I’m saying something keeps patting my butt, too. It’s weird. And sometimes I think I hear a voice saying I’m a good one. I don’t know what that means.”

Belle’s eyes lit up and she raced across the room to pick up her grandmother’s journal. “That’s what my grandma used to say about the men she liked.” She flipped through the pages. “Look here. She says her friend, Harrison, was a good one. One of the good ones. My grandma is here.”

“And she wants to pat their butts?” he asked incredulously. “Belle, really?” Maybe he should call in a shrink.

“I know it sounds crazy, but there is something happening in this house and I’m going to figure it out. I need a computer.” She looked up at Tate. “Would you help me do a little research?”

The faintest hint of a smile lit his lips, the first bit of happiness he’d seen out of Tate for days. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

They walked out, hand in hand. Belle might have scared the shit out of him, but at least she and Tate seemed to have put aside their problems. That alone might make the whole near heart attack worthwhile. Although if she got truly close to Tate and Eric again, where would that leave him?

“You okay?” Eric asked.

“I’m fine. I’m a little worried about her. I think the pressure must be getting to her. It’s the only way to explain this sudden belief in ghosts.”

Eric’s brows rose. “I don’t think it’s sudden. Have you ever seen all the shows she tapes? Mostly it’s shows where people buy houses and then like wreck them and shit, but she also likes shows where people hunt for ghosts. But that’s not what I’m talking about. What are you doing, man?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to help Belle.” What was Eric’s problem?

“Belle’s fine. You’re the one with the problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that Belle’s surrender is inevitable. She won’t hold out on us forever.”

He hadn’t really thought about it. The truth was he’d been happy the last couple of days. Well, he’d been happy at night when they took her and he could be close to her. There had been a deep sense of loss every time the sex ended and he left her bedroom, but he couldn’t do much about that. Sleeping next to her seemed even more intimate than fucking her, so staying the night cuddled up beside her would be implying a promise he couldn’t make.

And now he realized just how little time he had left with her…maybe with all of them. “Do you think her belief that the house is haunted will send her back to Chicago with us?”

If she came back, Kellan had no doubt she would move right into Eric and Tate’s house. What would he do then? Show up for sex? He couldn’t see that working for long. And the night she finally shut the door in his face would fucking hurt.

“Hell, no. I don’t think anything will induce Belle to leave this house. I’ve been thinking… Next week, I’ll be applying for my license to practice law in Louisiana. I’ll take the state bar exam as soon as possible.”

Kellan felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “Are you serious? What about Tate? Have you told him?”

“No. I just decided today.”

“Tate won’t leave Chicago,” Kell pointed out.

“He fears change and always has. Do you know the anxiety he went through when I bought a different brand of toilet paper? But there’s only one thing he fears more and that’s losing Belle. She’s going to soften and let us into her lives. Once she does, he’s going to give in. It’s inevitable. She’s the one. At least, she’s the one for us.”

“Oh my god,” Belle stuck her head back through the door looking more animated than she had in days. There was an excited light to her eyes. “I saw a shadow person tonight. Tate just found all this information. It’s so cool. Apparently when really bad things happen in a space, sometimes energy lingers and forms this creepy paranormal entity that appears as a black mass. It can sometimes feed off of negative energy in the house or the bad moods of people in it. Isn’t that amazing? I also ordered a ghost hunting kit off the Internet. It gets here tomorrow. In the meantime, I have a dictation tape recorder. I’m going to see if I can capture some EVPs.”

“What?” Kell wondered if she’d suddenly decided to speak a foreign language.

“Electronic voice phenomenon. Even if the human ear can’t detect them, recorders have been capturing compelling sounds and voices for decades.” Tate poked his head in, looking just as excited as Belle.

“Ghost voices?”

“Yeah.” Belle nodded. “It would explain so much around here. I mean, when Gates first brought up the idea that the house might be haunted, I didn’t want to believe it, but…it really makes sense.”

Eric laughed indulgently. “Then I guess we’re going into the ghost hunting business, baby.”

She bit her bottom lip, looking almost apologetic. “Is it wrong that I’m a little excited?”

Eric shrugged. “I’m getting used to having my ass patted.” His face went blank. “Yeah, there it went again.”

“I think that particular ghost is harmless, babe. Come on. You have to see what we found out.” She gave them a brilliant smile and ran back toward the living room.

No doubt about it. She was the one. He just wasn’t good enough for her.

When should he pack up and leave? Tonight? Tomorrow? Maybe she’d grant him one last night.

Eric put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go and try to figure this out. Ghost or no ghost, I think an actual person left the message on Belle’s bedroom wall right after we arrived. I would feel better if we found out who wants her gone from here. Maybe we should research the house and see if we can find out if any of our suspects have hidden attachments to the place.”

“Eric, there’s an app!” Belle yelled.

Kell stared, astounded. Eric’s smile could only be described as joyful. “Man, ghost or not, I’m just happy to see her smile.”

He walked away, joining Tate and Belle.

For a deathly quiet moment, Kellan stared at the place where his friends and his love had been before they’d left him behind.

His time was running out.

His neck jerked again, this time stronger than the last. It felt like someone had just roughly smacked him upside the head. “Goddamn it.”

He really needed to get that looked at.


* * * *


Tate stretched as he closed the laptop and glanced at the clock. It was after two in the morning, but he’d found an enormous amount of information on the house he now lived in—and possibly shared with a bunch of creepy shit and one slightly sexually forward ghost grandma. Was he really thinking about ghosts? And was he really thinking about bringing some psychic in to do a house cleansing? All the sites he’d read had suggested he should, though some of the same sites also told him what to do in case of a Bigfoot attack.

Where was he going to find the psychic equivalent of a Swiffer?

“Hey, why don’t you come to bed?” Belle stood in the doorway. She and Eric and Kellan had gone upstairs an hour before, but he’d stayed behind, his brain running too fast to sleep.

She looked gorgeous standing there with her hair mussed and a sleepy expression on her face. Clearly, she’d been tossed a time or two, and his dick got hard, despite his weariness. It was never tired around Belle.

“I’ll be up in a minute. I just want to make some notes for when I head over to the city records building tomorrow.” He’d discovered some very interesting facts about the house, including several rumors that the girls who committed suicide had actually been killed by their father. The incident had happened back in the fifties, before Belle’s grandmother had bought the place. In fact, after the father of the dead young women had passed on himself, two other people had bought the house. Both had sold it again within a year. Belle’s grandmother had paid far below market value for the house. That explained how she’d managed to afford it. But Tate felt sure he was missing more, something that explained who wanted Belle gone from here now. He needed to delve into city records to see if he could find any clues.