Page 49 of Treasure and Tarot

Then that shape flew down the hallway again, Jeremiah trying to escape with his children. All of a sudden, the axe handle dipped, and the thundering sound of boots seemed to ring through the house, following Jeremiah’s flight, and then stopping.

Mason stood there for a second, then he eased the axe back down to the floor. “Okay, that sucked, man.”

“What happened? What did you see?” Colton hoped the camera caught something.

“There was a great big dude. Burly like, um, Gaston from the Disney cartoons. You know, evil expression and popping muscles?”

“All right, all right. Well, we’ve got to regroup. I’m serious. I think we need to get the medium in here, and I think we need to talk to Hank. Vargas will know things about the history of this place that maybe even Sebastian doesn’t. He’s always done the digging, even if he doesn’t step on toes.”

“One way or the other, I don’t think that little girl should be here.” Iago was scared. Colton could read that in the guy’s eyes. “I mean, I don’t think that the omega ghost is gonna hurt them, but that big guy wanted to get me.”

Colton stopped and tilted his head and blinked. “I need to talk to Sebastian.”

“What?”

“I need to talk to Sebastian right now.” He headed downstairs and grabbed his phone, tapping his foot as it rang. “Come on, come on, babe, answer the phone.”

It took a couple of rings, but Sebastian finally did, his sleepy voice rumbling, “Colton, are you okay?”

“I need to know something.”

“Sure, sure what?”

“Are you the first omega? The first Belle omega to own this house?”

“Well, sure. My family tends toward alphas, you know that. Everybody was shocked when I ended up as an omega. Not disappointed or anything, just shocked.”

Colton shook his head. “So, good to know. Thanks, honey.”

“What? No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to just call here and say, here I have this question, and then just say, okay, thanks, bye.”

“Yeah. Look, we’re shutting down until we can get the medium in tomorrow, so I’ll come talk to you at the hotel. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Would you guys like some food? Xavi is off, but I can go to the kitchen and make something up.”

“If the ladies will let you? Sure. But don’t put yourself out, baby. We can just eat cereal.”

“I can make late-night pancakes.” Sebastian sounded kinda cheerful about it.

“Okay, baby. Thank you. We’ll lock up and be up there as soon as we can.”

“Got it.” Sebastian hung up, and he looked at the guys. “Let’s lock the axe—I guess in here until tomorrow so there’s no weapons at the hotel?”

“I can lock it in the van. We’ll leave it here and all ride up together in the SUV.”

“Oh, good idea.” They could lock the equipment in the house, and then all that would be in the van would be the axe. “Let’s lock this shit down and get out of here.”

“Thank God,” Iago murmured. He handed Mason the keys to the van. “Go lock that thing away.”

“Yeah. Ugh.” Mason went to lock up the van, and they all turned off and unplugged and made sure things were put away. No fire hazards or anything.”

“Okay, guys,” Colton called. “Keep it locked down tonight, okay?”

A hush seemed to settle over the house like the ghosts were listening to them.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it.

Chapter

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