Page 26 of Treasure and Tarot

Yesterday, Sebastian had come down to do an on-camera walk-through, talking about the history of the house, and about how bad the ghosts had gotten.

Which, of course, meant the ghosts had been completely silent the whole time Sebastian had?—

“Ow!” Mason jumped back from a bookcase, rubbing his head. “Man, who’s tossing, uh…” He bent to pick up a little brass trophy. “Best-show rabbit trophies at me?”

Law goggled. “Show rabbits?”

“Such a city kid,” Mason teased him. “I showed pigs.”

Colton chuckled. “I showed heifers.”

“Sure. You had money.”

Colton shrugged. “My folks were horrified that I did 4-H. The housekeeper signed me up.”

“Wow.” Iago came in with his clipboard. “You hadthatchildhood, huh?”

“You’ve met my folks.” Colton felt his back start to stiffen up just thinking about them.

“We have.” Iago made a face, crossing his eyes. “Evil overlords. No way would they go to a cow show.”

“They wouldn’t come to the hospital. And they gave away all my rights to my kid.”

Mason blinked, and he remembered then that while Iago knew, no one else had. Until now.

“So she is yours?” Law motioned to Abby’s picture.

“Yeah. And I need to make it up to her and Sebastian.”

“You mean you’re not just going to run?” Law teased, and Colton would be damned if a book didn’t fly right off the shelf and almost hit Law in the head.

“I’m not just going to run.” He made sure that all the truth and belief he could muster was in his voice. “I think, guys, that part of the problem is Sebastian’s been so unhappy. I think the ghosts are trying to protect Sebastian and Abby.”

Iago frowned, and Law turned the cameras on. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why drive them crazy if they’re protecting them?”

He put on his game face. “I don’t know, exactly, but we’ve seen this before—the communications can get very convoluted. Distorted, even.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we can just ask them.” Mason rolled his eyes. “We do have one of those spirit boxes. We have EMF readers; we have all the things. This is our job. Hello, focus.”

Every so often, Colton wanted to hit Mason, just pop him right between the eyes. He didn’t, but sometimes he really wanted to.

“Well, that’ll be one of the focuses. I want to get this show on the road. We want to set up equipment here in the parlor because that’s where the alphas were murdered. The children were killed on the third floor.” They’d do a historical rundown, too, but he wanted to get Law as much footage as possible so Gent had something to edit.

“So, what’s up there on the third floor again?” Iago asked. “It’s just storage, right?”

Colton nodded. “Yes. Sebastian said he wanted to do a playroom slash office, but the activity was just too intense. Abby wouldn’t stop crying, and now she won’t go up there.”

“Hell, if you were an omega and you and all of your children were murdered up there, you wouldn’t want anybody up there either.”

“I think we just really want everyone to be able to relax. Especially Abby.”

His little girl.

Colton knew he had to be really careful not to think things like that because she was Sebastian’s, but biologically, she was his too, and he wanted to be something in her life, something good.

He would never, ever, ever have denied her, and just knowing that she spent three years with her dad believing that he had made him sick.

Colton cleared his throat. “So yeah. Walk-through now. Find any and all hotspots. Set up the night cameras. I want some kind of bait on the third floor. The teddy bear or the ball or something they can interact with…”

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