Page 5 of Ghostlighted
I glanced over my shoulder. Still no sign of Avi. “It’s not mine.”
“Look.” She hitched her bag onto her shoulder. “I can sort of see your point about the royalties, although I think you need to get over it. But this is different. Think of it as a… a finder’s fee.”
“Finder’s fee?”
“Yes. If it weren’t for you, Avi’s last book would have remained lost, maybe forever, possibly destroyed. His reputation had been tarnished by Carson’s actions, but you’ve set its redemption in motion. You faced the barrel of a gun for his sake, Maz.” She shivered, blinking rapidly. “You’veearnedthis, and I’m sure Avi feels the same way. So just take the fricking money and buy a car, okay?”
She didn’t wait for my answer this time, just swept out the door, closing it behind her with a decisiveclick.
“A finder’s fee. Sure. Whatever.”
I wandered into the library and watched from the turret windows as she marched down my walk and climbed into her Prius. Although I waited, scanning the street while she drove away, there was no sign of Ricky yet. He’d told me he had a couple of stops to make first, so?—
“She’s right, you know.”
I screeched and stumbled away from the window, banging my hip on the edge of the desk in the process.
“Jeez, Avi. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
He chuckled as he drifted over and sat on the window seat. Well, on-ish. He had one leg tucked underneath him, but his butt was floating about an inch above the cushion. Gil hopped up next to him and zeroed in on a crested jay who was squawking away on the porch railing.
“You live with a ghost, Maz. Surely you should be used to jump scares by now.”
“I suppose.” I dropped onto the curve of the window seat next to the desk. “Did you, um, hear what Taryn said about Carson?”
He nodded. “I did.”
“Does it bother you? That he wasn’t charged with your murder?”
“Honestly?” He lifted one shoulder and reached out to stroke Gil’s back, making his fur lift along his spine as though Avi’s palm were infused with static electricity. Which, for all we knew, it was. “Not as much as it probably should.”
I glared out the window at the pansies nodding along the edge of the walk, at the shadows cast on the neatly trimmed lawn by the maple leaves, at the porch swing swaying in the breeze. Avi had never had the chance to enjoy that with Oren. All because of Carson.
“It sure as hell bothers me.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m still angry. Incandescently so.”
Since a stack of unpaid bills on the desk started to stir, I knew he was telling the truth about that. Avi’s rage tended to express itself with airborne paper goods.
“However,” he said, “my anger is more on Oren’s behalf. Yes, I was robbed of time we could have spent together, but I wasn’t aware of its passage. I was”—he made a circular motion with one hand—“elsewhere. But Oren had to live through those years without me, withoutus. From what you’ve told me, he never recovered from the loss, not even to return here, to this town, to this house.” His expression hardened. “That, I can never forgive.”
“Yeah, I get that. But?—”
“But.” He held up one finger. “But.I probably know more about Carson than anybody except his revolting spiritual twin.”
I lifted a brow. “I take it you mean Liam? Sofia’s grandson?”
“The same.”
“Ricky calls their relationship the Young Assholes of America bond.”
Avi snorted. “Apt. Anyway, I know that the best way to punish Carson is to deprive him of what he values most. His possessions. His reputation.” He fixed me with a stare. “His money. So will you do me a favor, Maz?”
The intensity of Avi’s gaze practically shoved me against the window. “S-sure, Avi. Anything.”
“Cash that check andtake his fucking money.”
I winced.Crap. I’d just painted myself into a proverbial corner, hadn’t I? I probably shouldn’t be surprised. As Jake Fields, Avi knew how to craft a good plot twist, not to mention lay a mean trap for poor, unsuspecting ghostwriters.
