Page 99 of Chasing Your Ghost

He turned to her, his jaw tight. “Why didn’t she tell me about this? Better yet, why didn’t you?”

Riley flinched at the accusation in his tone. “I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone. There’s more to the story that she didn’t want you to know.”

Her words only made him angrier. “This is bigger than secrets. It’s my life we’re talking about.”

“I know, and that’s why I begged her to try to find you after she told me and again this morning. I wanted to tell you,” she assured him, needing him to believe that she’d only ever wanted to help him. “I promise I never wanted to keep this from you.”

“But you did,” he replied with a slow shake of his head. “You both did. And you know what makes it even worse? I was really starting to fall for you, but the whole time you were kissing me, and telling me that you needed me, and playing my dumb game last night, you were sitting on this secret that could save me.”

“It wasn’t like tha—” she started, her vision beginning to blur and her voice growing thin and wavering.

“I can’t be here right now,” he cut her off sharply. “I’m going to check on my parents.”

“When will you be back?” Riley asked through her tight and aching throat.

“I don’t know. I need some time to cool down.”

“Okay,” she replied when what she really wanted to do was beg him not to leave.

“When I get back, I’d like to hear the whole story from Ella .” He twisted his lips in disgust. “I deserve that much.”

Riley didn’t get a chance to agree or to say goodbye. Asher vanished as soon as he’d finished speaking. The empty space he left in his wake sat heavy with all the things left unsaid, all the things she’d wanted to tell him but hadn’t gotten the chance to.

Riley stayed in the bedroom for a long time, her gaze locked on the place where Asher had been standing, and when she managed to drag herself downstairs to join Ella, Noah, and Chris, she remained silent.

None of them said a single word until a female officer and the detective who’d been working on Asher’s case arrived. Within seconds and with much barking from Archie (the Yorkie apparently didn’t mind spirits, but drew the line at law enforcement), the officer had bagged the watch.

The detective—a tall man with a receding hairline and a stern expression—asked Noah to show them where he’d found it, after which he and the officer looked around the house for signs of a forced entry that they didn’t find.

Once they’d spoken to both Noah and Ella privately, the detective told them they’d look into it, but he made it clear that he thought it was simply a case of Asher having taken the watch off while he was there the night of his disappearance. He seemingly didn’t put much stock in Ella’s insistence that she hadn’t seen the watch until that morning, despite Noah having found it proudly displayed on her dresser.

Riley couldn’t help but feel that calling the cops had accomplished nothing. Unless they found prints other than Noah’s on it, which she didn’t think was likely, no use would come out of their surprisingly brief visit.

And by the looks of his downcast eyes and slumped shoulders, Asher, who’d reappeared shortly before they’d left and hadn’t so much as looked at her, felt the same.

“You can let yourselves out now, too,” Ella informed them once the door had closed behind the detective and police officer. She pushed her loose hair out of her face in a manner that spoke of her irritation and dwindling patience.

Riley cleared her throat. “Uh, before we go, Asher wanted to get the full story from you.” She twisted her hands together, feeling twitchy under the woman’s harsh stare. “He deserves that much, don’t you think?” she added, rephrasing the words Asher had used as a question.

“I think we all do,” Noah muttered.

Ella flung her hands up. “You know what? Fine,” she gave in. “You want to know why I can’t find Asher while I’m awake? The answer is that I’m terrified to do it. I used to use that part of my ability all the time, but when I was sixteen, someone with similar abilities got ahold of me while we were both spiritwalking—that’s what he called whatever it is that we can do.”

“When you say got ahold of you…” Noah murmured, looking more concerned than angry now.

“Nothing too serious,” Ella said with a shrug, but she looked away from them all, making Riley question how true that was. “Our physical bodies were on opposite sides of the country, but once I made it back to my body, my arms were bruised from where he’d grabbed me. He could have killed me, and he would have succeeded as though he were in my bedroom with me and not in California. That was the last time I dreamwalked while awake.”

“Why did he attack you?” Chris asked, his features drawn into an odd mixture of skepticism and horror.

Ella pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Because he wanted to?” she suggested with a shrug. “Because he could.”

“I can’t imagine how scary that must have been, and I’m so sorry that it happened to you,” Riley said while the others absorbed her story. “But, Ella, that was years ago. Whoever that man was, he’s not going to somehow find you in the short time it would take to find Asher. Surely doing it again now, for only a few seconds or minutes, wouldn’t be a risk.”

Ella’s storm-ridden eyes narrowed. “You don’t get to make that call. None of you do. And you might think my reluctance makes me a terrible person, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not doing it.” She looked away and wet her lips. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Asher huffed out a disbelieving breath. “That’s it? She’s sorry? She won’t even try after everything I’ve done for her?”

“Not even for Asher? For your best friend?” Riley asked Ella, the question gentle in tone but pressing in nature.

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