Page 68 of Ghostlighted
Dominik clearly picked up on it. “Come on, Jillie. We’ve imposed on Maz long enough.”
“Oh, that’s not so.” My voice sounded weak, even to me, and Dominik laughed.
“You don’t have to pretend. We’ll see you tomorrow at six.” His expression turned serious. “But if you need to cancel for any reason, just call.” He pulled a business card from the pocket of his olive green button down and handed it to me. “That’s the Jenkins House front desk. One of us will answer it.”
“Or at least collect the message,” Jillie piped up, “because Mom is always puttering in the kitchen and Uncle Dom is usually swearing at the computer about bank balances.”
“And that’s enough out of you, madam.” Dominik placed his hand at the small of Jillie’s back and propelled her down the hall. “We’ll see ourselves out.”
He opened the door and stepped onto the porch, but Jillie broke away from him and turned back toward me, clearly about to have the last word. Before she could say anything, though, Avi appeared by my side.
“Maz!” His hair looked like he’d been through a whirlwind, and the cover of a paperback I’d left on the sofa started to flutter. “You have to come quickly. Something’s happening.”
Aclangechoed from the porch, and Dominik’s admonishing, “Careful, Jillie!” was cut off by the snick of the closing door.
“What is it? Avi? What’s wrong?”
But Avi wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead, he was staring at the door, a look of utter shock on his face.
“Avi?” I flexed my fingers, irked that I wasn’t able to touch him to draw his attention back to me. I decided to try for decibel shock. “Avi!”
He flinched. “You don’t have to shout.”
“Apparently I do, because you weren’t answering. What’s going on?”
He shook himself, like a dog emerging from a lake. “So much. I’ll tell you. But Maz?” His voice held a note that I’d never heard from him before.
“Yeah?”
“I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure…” He met my gaze, his eyes wide. “I’m pretty sure that kid could see me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Seriously? That’s great!” I started for the door. “I’ll call them back and we can?—”
“Maz. Stop. That doesn’t matter now.”
I turned back to see Avi wringing his hands. “One more person who can see you? Of course it matters. Plus, it doubles our data points. If we can figure out what differentiates us from people whocan’tsee you, then?—”
“Yeah, sure. Fine. Whatever.” Impatience and irritation warred with something like flat-out terror on his face. “But that’s for later. What matters now is what’s happening next door.”
“Next door? In Sofia’s house?”
“Yes, Maz. In Sofia’s house. Where I’ve been all day.”
I frowned. “There’s no need to get snarky. Er.”
“There is, if it means you’lllisten.”
I held up my palms and patted the air. “You’re right. I’m sorry. What’s going on?”
“Liam is in the house.”
“Liam? But we locked everything up. How did he get in?”
Avi gave me a flat stare. “How do you think?”
I slapped my forehead. “A key. Of course he has a key.” I’d seen his damn keychain—the gold charm had nearly embedded itself in my nose. “He’s got his own suite upstairs. Maybe he’s finally relocated from the B & B in Richdale.” I stalked into the kitchen and peered out the turret windows at Sofia’s house. “Although it would have been better if he’d showed up when she was actuallythere,” I muttered.
