Page 40 of Ghost Note

“And if I find out what you said isn’t a lie… I’ll killhiminstead.”

By the time I exhaled, the bell rattled again, and Danny was gone.

What the hell had I just done?

* * *

“I have a favour to ask.”

“Missing me already, Dais?” I could hear the smirk in Ben’s voice, even though he was a little out of breath and in the middle of something. His groans of manual labour would have set any other woman’s heart a flutter, but mine was broken, so it had little effect. “Fucking get in, you stubborn prick,” he strained.

“Is now a bad time to ask? You sound busy.”

“It’s fine. Just fixing up the Myers’ boat.” He blew out a breath, and it sounded like he shifted some tools out of the way. “What do you need from me?”

“Well, nothing huge. It’s no big deal, really. I just wanted to give you a little head’s up. I may have done something… stupid.”

“Stupid? You? Never.” With a groan, I heard a pop, and Ben laughed to himself. “Gotcha, you little bastard,” he said quietly. He did this often when we spoke. Had a conversation that was half with me, and half on the task in front of him. “What have you done now?”

I pushed the key into the shop doors, locking up for the day, fifteen minutes earlier than I’d promised those two ladies. The day had dragged, and I needed to go home for a long soak in the tub.

“I may or may not have said something to Danny that made him a little… ragey.”

“Ragey?”

“Yeah.” I cringed as I turned to walk the streets of Hope Cove.

“Like…”

“Well, I may have been trying to hurt him… and I may have written your name on one of the bullets I fired.”

There was an unusual silence for a moment before Ben cleared his throat and spoke. “What, exactly, does that mean?”

“It means that Danny might think we’re an official thing.”

“We were barely a thing. Never mind an official thing.”

“I know. I know. But—”

“Listen, Dais, I love the shit out of you, but if you’ve used me as a mean’s to—holy fuck!” Ben grunted loudly, and it sounded like he dropped his phone before a commotion ensued.

I stopped walking, a strange tickling of fear crawling down my spine. “Ben? Ben, are you there?

“Fuck,” he groaned again, and there was scrambling on the line.

“Oh, shit,” I said to myself, turning in the direction of Harbour Beach.

All I could see was Danny’s anger when I’d said what I’d said… and all I could hear was his threat to kill him. Had he got there already?

“Ben!” I called out, my voice loud, drawing the attention of a few passers-by.

The noise continued until a desperate, gasping Ben came to the phone. “Fuck, Dais, you there?”

“What just happened?”

“I tripped over my wrench and dropped the phone behind two loose deck panels. Tore my damn hand open.”

Closing my eyes, I released a breath. “Jesus, Ben. You had me scared. I thought you were fighting.”

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