Page 121 of Chasing Your Ghost

Hugh chuckled. “It’s a deal.”

“Does it hurt?” Olivia asked.

“My arm was cut open by a knife, Livvy,” Noah replied, nudging his half-sister with his foot. “Of course, it hurts.”

“Not you,” she said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Obviously, your arm hurts. I was asking Riley.”

“Oh.” Riley smiled, glad that the younger girl was speaking to her without any hint of ire or bitterness in her tone. “It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Olivia frowned. “Really?”

“No,” Riley replied with a laugh. “It hurts like a b—” she started, cutting herself off just in time, though not quickly enough based on the narrow eyes all the parents in the room directed at her. “It hurts badly.”

One of the nurses had given her an ice pack to help with the swelling, but that had been over an hour ago, and it now lay useless, barely below room temperature, on the empty plastic chair beside the one she was sitting in.

“Speaking of which, I should probably return this,” she said, grabbing the ice pack and getting to her feet. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll come with you,” Edith offered, and Riley was too tired to do anything but nod.

The woman followed her out of the room but remained silent while Riley found the nurse who’d given her the ice pack.

“Would you like another one?” the nurse asked Riley from behind one of the many desks of the Inova Mount Vernon Hospital Emergency Room.

With all of its private rooms on the outskirts facing toward the desks in the middle of the department, and one long pathway and several smaller ones cutting through the center, the large space felt almost like a maze.

“That’s okay. The swelling seems to have gone down.”

She’d taken a good look in the mirror when she’d gone to the bathroom, and though her cheek was the nasty red of a fresh bruise, it didn’t look too bad. Others, her mother included, might have disagreed, but Riley thought she’d gotten off easily. A bruised cheek was nothing compared to what Asher and Noah had experienced at Brett’s hands.

“Alright,” the nurse replied. “But let me know if you need anything else.”

“Thank you.”

“Riley, can I ask you something?” Edith said once they’d started walking back to Noah’s room.

“Sure.”

“Is there something more to the story than what you told the police?” her mother asked.

Edith was asking her if she’d lied to the police. If they’d all lied to the police in their statements. What was Riley meant to say? Yes?

The sharp smell of antiseptic, the medley of the nurses’ clipped chatter, and the beeping of machines provided no comfort. The harsh and bright atmosphere of the maze-like emergency department was unforgiving in its cold cleanliness. But then Edith placed a hand on Riley’s arm, the pressure as soft as her blue eyes.

“I only ask because I know what you can do, and I don’t believe for a second that Asher’s kidnapper would have invited you all over to the place he was keeping him. There’s something more to it. Isn’t there?”

Riley nodded. Edith knew she hadn’t been telling the whole truth. There was no point denying it, and she was too tired to think up any more lies or half-truths.

“I saw Asher just after I moved in. He was the ghost I told you about. He wasn’t dead, but it took us a while to find that out. Noah figured out what I could do, and we told Chris and Ella. We worked together to find him.”

More accurately, Ella had found him, but that wasn’t Riley’s secret to reveal. She’d betrayed Ella’s trust before. She wouldn’t do it again.

“And you didn’t think to tell me? Or better yet, the police?” She ran her hands through her blonde hair, leaving her bangs disheveled. “You all could have died, Riley.”

“It was a lot more complicated than calling the police. The man who took Asher is like me. He can do things that should be impossible, and if the police had gone there instead of us, I honestly don’t know what would have happened.”

Edith sighed out a heavy breath. “This was precisely what I was afraid would happen. You wouldn’t have ever been in that house if not for your abilities.”

“And Asher would still be missing,” Riley bit out, her hackles rising.

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