Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"Is there anything I can do to convince you to come with us?" Natalie tipped her chin down and her eyes up as she stared seductively at Liam.

Since he smiled—the kind of smile that led to a laugh and not to the bedroom—she guessed she'd failed at her seduction.

"Not a thing. Nice try though, babe. I love you. Be good." He wrapped her in a hug before releasing her.

"Not sure what trouble I could get into in Utica with Alice as a chaperone but okay, I'll be good."

"I was talking more about your interactions with Madame Letisha. I don't want to have to drive up there to bail you out of jail."

She let out a snort. "I won't end up in jail. She's the one who should be in jail."

"Save that piss and vinegar for Letisha. Now get. Alice and Harper are standing by your car with suitcases." Liam lifted a chin toward the front window.

"Suitcases?" Natalie spun to look, her one oversized tote bag in her hand. "What did they pack?"

"I don't know but it looks like they're ready to go."

She turned back. "Jules's friend Shalene should be here by ten to open. She's Stone's cousin."

"I know. And you left Agnes's number in case of emergency and Stone's number in case his cousin doesn't show. I got it. I've had more responsibility on my shoulders over the years than making sure someone opens the shop by ten. I promise you. It'll be fine."

Natalie drew in a breath and let it out, the dread riding her hard. She didn't want to go. She missed home already and she hadn't left yet. The shop, the ghosts, Liam… even the damn antisocial cat.

Liam pinned her with his gaze. "It's only five days."

She scowled.

He ran his hands up and down her arms. "And I'm just a phone call away."

"A phone call and an hour and a half away, you mean."

"You wanted to do this," he reminded in his lecturer voice.

"That's helpful. Thank you." She felt the pout settle on her lips.

He cupped her face with both palms and kissed the pout away.

"I'll miss you, but you have to actually leave first so…" He turned her and walked her toward the door, opening it for them both when they got there.

Before she knew it she was on the sidewalk and surrounded by her two babbling travel companions.

Liam took the keys out of her hand and opened the trunk for Alice and Harper's luggage. Enough they could be circumnavigating the globe, by the looks of it.

"Call when you arrive."

"Will do, Doc. Right before they take our phones away." Alice delivered that news with a mock salute.

"Wait, what?" Natalie spun to face Alice.

"Didn't you read the rules?" Alice asked.

"They don't want the cast to have any contact with the outside world," Harper explained.

Natalie spun wide-eyed toward Liam. He gripped her shoulders and leaned his head toward hers. "It will be fine."

"Oh, good. You're still here." Gabe swooped in. "I thought I'd missed saying good luck."

"I don't want to go," she whispered as much to Gabe as to Liam.

"Little late for that, Nat. Didn't you sign a contract?" Gabe cocked up a brow high.

In a mirror move, so did Liam, but he didn't lecture her. He just kissed her mouth one more time, then opened the car door.

As she reluctantly sat in the driver's seat, Liam said, "Do great. I'll be watching you."

"Me too," Gabe called from behind Liam. "But I hope he watches on the television at your place instead of on his laptop in the lab. Tell him that, Nat."

Oh, God. Just what she needed. Reminders that the world would be watching her on camera—her least favorite place to be.

But she did manage to say, "Watch on the television in my apartment, okay? In case someone wanted to watch with you."

"Who would be watching—oh. Yeah. Okay. Will do," Liam agreed as realization hit.

"Thank you." Gabe grinned.

"This is so exciting!" Harper squealed from the front seat as Alice climbed into the back.

"If we ever get there it will be," Alice sniped, leaning forward between the seats.

"I guess I'd better go." Natalie raised her gaze to Liam's. If he asked her to stay, she would. She'd break that contract and send Harper and Alice on their merry way.

What Liam said instead was, "Letisha's waiting. Go get her."

And that was the exact perfect thing to get her motivated.

"We will," Harper said, leaning low to answer Liam.

"Next stop, Utica! Or maybe that rest stop on the way because I'm gonna have to go before then," Alice informed them, coaxing a laugh from Natalie.

"All right. We're going," she said and with one more wistful look at Liam, shifted the car into drive.

"Can I turn on the radio? Would you mind?" Harper asked.

"How about turning on the heat? A girl could freeze to death back here," Alice added.

They hadn't even turned onto Main Street yet but Natalie could already see how this drive was going to go.

She swung onto Main Street, heading in the direction of the entrance to the highway that would—for better or worse—take them to Utica for what could be the biggest mistake of her life.

"Feel free to turn on the radio. And Alice, don't you have your own heat controls back there?" Natalie glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Alice. "Right there facing you in the center console."

When she brought her gaze back to the road, it was to see a full-sized horse, complete with a rider coming directly at them at full speed dead center in the middle of the street.

She screeched, swerving to avoid the animal. The car bumped up on the curb, then back off again as she overcorrected to avoid crashing through the iron rail fencing of the cemetery.

"Jeez, doll! Where are you going?" Ricky shouted from behind the fence.

But she couldn't deal with him as she slammed on the brakes, rocking the car to a stop along the curb.

She spun to look where the horse and rider had gone, just in time to see the animal gallop right through a UPS truck.

Ghost horse. Sybil.

The ghosts had told her about this. But holy crap, hearing about it was one thing. Coming against it, face-to-face at full speed, was quite another.

Heart pounding, Natalie finally turned to face her passengers. "Everyone all right?"

Harper, one hand still gripping the handle on the roof while the other braced on the dash stared at her.

"I'm in one piece, miraculously. If I knew you were such a bad driver I would have offered to drive. It would have been safer, and the idiots at DMV took my license away last year," Alice grumbled as she reached to put on the seat belt she hadn't been wearing.

"Sorry. I'm fine. I just saw an animal."

"Death by squirrel. That's not how I wanna go out so just hit the damn thing next time and keep going, will ya?" Alice suggested.

"Yeah. I know. Sorry. It won't happen again." Heart pounding, Natalie flipped on her blinker, checked both mirrors and eased carefully into the lane.

"Good luck on the show, doll!" Ricky called from the cemetery amid what had become a gathering crowd of local spirits, most of whom she recognized.

The reminder that she was leaving those she knew and heading to face new spirits in a new place caused a twisting in her chest. Part dread. Part fear. Part plain old nostalgia to be leaving what she'd come to think of as her ghosts. Some of them friends.

"Break a leg!" Amanda yelled from the sidewalk.

"Don't embarrass us. Or yourself," Bob, standing next to his wife, yelled.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Bob. Be nice!" Amanda slapped her husband in the arm.

Natalie pursed her lips to resist reacting to the voices the others couldn't hear.

She forced her attention back to the road and accelerated away from the cemetery and toward the highway that would take her away from Mudville on this fateful road trip.

If the rest of the week continued like this, it was going to be one hell of a ride…