Page 98 of Chasing Your Ghost

“You promised you wouldn’t tell them,” Ella sobbed, and Riley looked over her shoulder to face her.

“That was before Noah found Asher’s watch in your room,” she replied weakly. “And it was before we ran out of other options.” She looked back at Asher, but the hurt on his face was far harder to face.

“You knew about this and didn’t tell me?” he asked.

She bit down on her trembling bottom lip and jerked her head up and down. “Ella told me in confidence while you were gone, and I didn’t tell you when you came back because I thought we’d find another way to get to you.” Knowing it would be a bad idea to hug him, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I didn’t think it was my secret to tell.”

Ella let out a dark chuckle that was too choked by tears to sound anything but sad. “That’s because it wasn’t your secret to tell.”

“Is there a reason you haven’t used this ability to find Asher?” Noah asked her. “Or are you just that goddamned selfish?”

Ella wiped her face even as more tears spilled down her cheeks, but something had died in her eyes at Noah’s question. “You’ve already made up your mind,” she replied, her voice void of the pleading desperation it had housed only seconds earlier. “There’s no point defending myself.”

Riley sighed. “Ella, just tell them.”

“No, he’s right,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “You’re right, too, Riley. What kind of a heartless, selfish, despicable person wouldn’t do everything in their power to find their missing best friend?” Her voice sounded emotionless, dead, but it was apparent that she was anything but.

Riley didn’t know what to think anymore. A few minutes ago, she never would have suspected Ella of anything nefarious. But with Noah finding the watch in her bedroom, she couldn’t help but question if the woman knew more than she was letting on, or worse, that she was somehow complicit in Asher’s kidnapping.

“Maybe we should call the police,” Chris suggested, his hands rubbing agitatedly at the back of his neck. “The watch is evidence, right?”

“I’ll call them,” Ella said flatly. “And after we’ve given them our statements, and they’ve taken the watch to dust it for fingerprints or whatever and hopefully figured out how someone got into my bedroom while I was out, I’d like you all to leave my house.”

She left the room after that, pulling out her phone as she did so. Archie trailed after her, the only one whose loyalty hadn’t been shaken.

“This is messed up,” Chris whispered. “Why the hell would Asher’s watch be in her room?”

“I’m guessing from your reaction that you hadn’t taken it off and left it here the night you went missing?” Riley asked Asher.

She’d never seen the watch on his spirit form, which meant that he’d never been wearing it on his physical body from the time they’d met. Either he’d taken it off before he was kidnapped, or it had been taken off his body afterward. She was betting on the latter.

“No, I had it on me,” he replied, confirming her theory. “The first time I noticed it was missing was when I appeared like this is my parent’s house.”

She nodded and turned to Noah and Chris. “He’s never had it on him in his spirit form, which means it was taken off of his body soon after he was taken.”

“Which still doesn’t answer the question of why Ella had it,” Noah pointed out, his eyes locked on the door the woman in question had disappeared through.

“Could someone have planted it?” Riley asked. “She’s calling the police, which doesn’t seem like something a guilty person would do.”

“I suppose it’s possible,” Chris agreed.

Asher nodded. “There’s no way Ella was involved in me going missing. She’s obviously kept a lot of secrets from me, but she’d never do something like that.”

“Are you sure?” Riley asked. She didn’t want to think he could be wrong, but she barely knew Ella. Despite how nice she’d seemed, there were things that didn’t add up.

“Positive.”

Ella walked back into the room. She held her head high despite the tears still tracking down her face and the Yorkie she was holding who was trying to lick her salty cheeks. “The police are on their way,” she told them.

“Care to tell us why you’re refusing to use your ability to find Asher?” Noah asked.

Ella’s gaze cut to him, as sharp as knives and as cold as Noah’s tone had been. “It’s dangerous. That’s all you need to know, and that’s all you’re going to get.”

They fell into silence after Ella had spoken, everyone lost in their own thoughts and speculations. Riley was lost in her guilt most of all, the things she’d kept from Asher clashing with the things she’d revealed about Ella.

She wished she could say she’d made the right call in telling the others about her other ability, but all she felt was a confusing mix of relief and remorse. So, when Asher gestured for her to follow him out of the room, she didn’t hesitate to make an excuse to the others about needing the bathroom.

He led her upstairs to Ella’s parents' bedroom—the bedroom they’d spent the night in—but he didn’t make himself comfortable by sitting on the edge of the bed or even leaning against a wall. Instead, he halted in the middle of the room and ran his hands through his hair in a way that looked painful.

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