Page 1 of Treasure and Tarot

Chapter

One

“Hank, have you lost your mind?”

Hank Vargas grinned at Sebastian. “No, Mr. Belle, I swear to you. I have not lost my mind.”

“You know, every time you say that, it sounds like you’re saying Mr. Bill.” Sebastian winked at his friend’s teasing and shook his head. “I’m not sure that you should. Things are already really stirred up.”

Everyone knew that the Belle house was haunted. Everyone.

It had been built when Hot Springs Junction was brand-new 150 years ago. There was a row of houses, about ten of them, which basically was the entire town. Ten row houses. A scattering of ranchers. A gas station. The Hot Springs Lodge, which had a curio store next to it and a restaurant in it. His great, great, great, great-grandfather had built these homes. Had started a family and they had been murdered during a poker game at the house—three children, the omega, and an entire group of alphas had died.

So, living with ghosts was something Sebastian had done his entire life. He knew that sometimes things would be moved,sometimes he’d hear footsteps, and every so often, he might catch a glance of a face in a mirror.

That was easy.

The last few years had been hard.

“I know, and I feel terrible about it. Had I known that having Colton and his team come to your house at that time would be such a disaster?—”

“No one knew what kind of a disaster it was going to be.” No one, but that didn’t matter anymore. He had to fix it. “I don’t have time to think about all of that anymore. I have Abby to worry about, to take care of, and I can’t do my job if I’m constantly having to worry about her and worry about things falling and crashing. I don’t want to lose my house. It’s been in my family for decades, and to be honest, it’s one of the only ways I can keep my head above water. I don’t have to worry about making payments, but I need help.”

“Well, that’s what I’m going to do.” Hank leaned forward and focused on him. “Let’s have one more big televised experience. Let’s do the whole thing up. You and I both know that—” Hank stopped as a book flew off the bookshelf and landed on the floor with a thud. “—that we’ll be able to prove that something’s happening here, right? This company is willing to pay you twenty-five thousand dollars up front, one hundred thousand if they get good enough footage. If nothing else, this gives you a chance to start over if you have to, right? Worst-case scenario, you take the money, you go live somewhere else, and you rent this place out as a haunted B&B and get a manager in.”

Like it was so easy. “Do you think it’s actually going to work like that? I mean. I just want to know what he wants. Why is he being so mean? I mean, this is my grandfather. Why now?”

Hank glanced at the picture of his daughter that was hanging above the mantel of the fireplace, her black curls framing her heart-shaped face, her pretty eyes the most amazing shade ofviolet gray. She looked just like him, except for those eyes. Those eyes belonged to her alpha.

“I think that things got disrupted, and I feel responsible for part of that. Besides, we don’t know that it’s your grandfather. Three other alphas died there, plus three children and an omega. That’s eight possibilities.”

Bastian sighed softly and closed his eyes against Hank’s earnest face. The dapper man could sell ice to Eskimos. “How long will the crew be there?”

“A week, ten days at the most. Twenty-five thousand dollars, even if they don’t find anything for a week’s worth of work, it gives you some options.”

“I like options.” He felt like his options in the last four years had shrunk to incredibly little. It was hard being a single omega. He hadn’t known he was pregnant when Abby’s father had disappeared. So, life had been challenging.

Exciting, and he wouldn’t trade Abby for anything on earth, but it had been challenging.

“Daddy. I haf a cookie please?” Abby stood there like she’d been summoned, her fingers curled in the tight champagne curls of their standard poodle, Jeanette.

“Of course, baby. I thought you were having a nap.” He held his arms open, and she came right to him.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “The man waked me up. Nette barked at him, and him went away.”

He looked to Hank. “See, we can’t live like this.”

“I understand. You don’t have to. We’ll fix it.” Hank smiled at Abby. “Hey, Abby, how you doing?”

“Good. Hungy. My tummy needs a cookie.”

“My tummy might need two,” Hank said.

“Daddy sad.” Abby reached up to pat Sebastian’s cheeks. “Why?”

“Oh, because we’re about to have visitors, and you know Daddy is used to being alone,” Sebastian said, giving Hank a searching look. He was always sad. Nothing new there. “But it will be all right, won’t it?”

“Uh-huh.” She made grabby-hand motions at the plate of cookies.

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