Page 116 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Don’t play coy,” Brett snapped. “I know you’re in love with him. Why do you think I chose him? Why do you think I punctured his tire before he left your house? I punished him for you because he hurt you.”

“No,” Ella argued, but her voice wavered too much for the anger she was undoubtedly feeling to come across.

“Don’t lie to me,” Brett roared, spittle shooting out of his mouth. “I watched him come to your house night after night. I know he’s the one you told me about before. He’s the one who made you feel like you weren’t good enough.”

It was becoming abundantly clear that there was far more to the story than Ella had told them. This wasn’t some stranger she’d run into once while spiritwalking. They’d known each other—and well, by the sounds of it. She looked at the brunette, wondering how long their friendship had lasted before it had turned sour.

Tears started rolling down Ella’s cheeks. “You’re wrong.”

“You chose him over me even though he doesn’t love you!”

“It wasn’t him,” Ella yelled back, her voice cracking beneath the weight of her emotions. “It wasn’t him,” she repeated quietly, her shoulders slumping like the fight had gone out of her. She closed her eyes. “He wasn’t the one I told you about.”

Riley couldn’t help but steal a glance at Noah. She knew he was the one Ella must have told Brett about. The one she was in love with.

Brett jerked his head violently from side to side. He began pacing. “No,” he murmured, pulling at his hair in a way that made him look unhinged. “No, I wasn’t wrong. I punished the person who made you cry. I did it for you so we could finally make it work.”

“You’re delusional,” Ella told him, a delirious and sobbing chuckle escaping her. “You kidnapped my best friend. You had to force me to come looking for you. Did you honestly think we could make it work after that? After what you did before?” She retreated further, her back pressing against the wall. “How did you even find me? Did you hire a private investigator? Drive through the whole of Virginia before you found me?”

“Of course not,” he replied, looking so offended that Riley almost wanted to laugh. He’d abducted someone, but he would apparently draw the line at hiring someone to track down the girl he was infatuated with. “That’s what’s so brilliant. I was thinking of transferring to Georgetown, and when I visited the campus in May, I saw you. Don’t you see? Fate brought me to you. I found you again for a reason.”

“That wasn’t fate,” Ella disagreed. “That was bad luck.”

“No.” Brett jabbed the knife forward as he growled out the word. “You don’t mean that. Look at everything I’ve done for you. I found this house for you. For us. I love you, Ella. You know that.”

She shook her head. “This isn’t love.”

It’s obsession, Riley thought.

“Yes, it is,” he yelled. “I did all of this for you.”

“No, you did all of this for yourself,” Riley told him, unable to let Ella be subjected to any more of his insanity. She lifted her hand from where she’d hidden it behind her back and showed him the screen of her phone. “Also, I might have called the cops a few minutes ago. It’s over, Brett. You just confessed to everything. You’re done, so just put the knife down before it goes any further.”

“No, neighbor,” he said, the muscle in his jaw jumping. “It’s far from over.”

He lunged forward. The sound of Ella’s scream rang out like a siren, and before Riley could even think about moving, Noah was there, placing himself in front of Ella. Brett’s arm lashed out like a snake, striking so quickly she almost missed it when she blinked. Again, Noah was faster, his arm instinctively lifting to protect the rest of his body from the blow that was coming.

The knife in Brett’s hand met the flesh of Noah’s forearm, tearing through his skin like butter that had been left out on a hot day. Ella wasn’t the only one screaming anymore. Riley’s voice had joined hers. The flash of red burned onto her retinas, and the feel of warm drops of blood landing on her face would be permanently etched into her memory.

The phone slipped through her fingers, and time seemed to decelerate, turning to slow-moving molasses.

Riley watched Noah clutch his arm to his chest, screaming in pain as red liquid spilled out between his fingers. Despite whatever claims she would have made about not needing and not wanting a family, she couldn’t deny it anymore that her life would be so much worse off without Noah in it. All her protests and worries about not wanting anyone to replace her father seemed so childish when faced with the image of that knife slicing through his arm.

She might have stayed frozen like that forever, glued to the floor of that cursed basement with the color of Noah’s blood ingrained into her mind, had Asher not unsteadily surged forward and landed a punch to Brett’s face.

Time seemed to bend and warp before snapping back and moving at double its normal speed, Brett’s fall to the ground taking less than a second and his body disappearing into thin air before Riley could even think to pick up the knife that had fallen from his hand.

She made sure Asher was steady on his feet before she bent down and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the weapon, trying to ignore the slick warmth beneath her hand as her eyes moved frantically around the room. From what Ella had told them about his abilities and what Brett had admitted himself, he wasn’t gone. He had only moved onto another plane—one that none of them, not even Riley, could see.

“Where is he?” Asher asked.

“He’s here,” Riley replied, her voice hoarse from screaming. “I can feel him.” The back of her neck itched uncomfortably, the same way it had when Ella had been in her bedroom while spiritwalking. But it was of little use when she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where he was. The dark recesses became even more menacing, their ability to cloak Brett making them seem as dangerous as the man himself.

She stepped away from the wall and the others, holding the knife in front of her in a grip tight enough to turn her knuckles bone-white. The feeling at the back of her neck intensified, making the hair on her arms stand up and a chill run down her spine.

“I’m right here,” a voice whispered into her ear, making her jump.

Fingers curled around her upper arm and dug painfully into her skin. Riley barely had time to spin around before Asher grabbed the back of Brett’s shirt and pulled him away from her, only for the man to vanish again.

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