Chapter 10

10

“What happened?”Cash asked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The room swam, and he had to shut his eyes to ward off the dizziness.

“Here, drink this,” Shaun said, kneeling beside him.

Cash blinked away the blurriness and focused on the glass being held up to him.

Shaun pressed it to his lips. “It’s water.”

“I can hold it,” Cash said impatiently and reached for the glass. The liquid was cool on his tongue and a welcome relief. Once he’d drained half the glass he looked around and asked, “Where’d she go?”

“Who? Harlow? She’s on her way.”

“What? Why?” Cash stared at his brother and then scrambled to his feet as his head pounded. “Ouch. Son of a… What happened here?”

“A ghost attacked you with a board. That’s why I called Harlow.”

The door slammed below, followed by rapid footsteps as Harlow called out, “Shaun? Where is he?”

Shaun moved to the door and called, “Up here!”

Cash frowned as he ran a hand over the back of his head, finding a small lump. “How long was I out?”

“Too long. Ten minutes maybe?”

“Dammit,” Cash muttered. That meant he’d have to go see a healer to check for a concussion.

Harlow appeared, her iron spike in one hand and a pentacle in the other. She stopped abruptly and glanced around the room. After a moment, her concerned gaze landed on Cash. “The spirit’s gone. Did it leave on its own or did you send it back to the shadows?”

“She left on her own,” he said and closed his eyes, trying to keep the room from spinning.

“She?” Shaun and Harlow asked at the same time.

Then Harlow added, “Was it your ghost stalker?”

“No, that would have been more preferrable, I think,” Cash said, moving to lean against the wall. “At least she’s never attacked me with a board.”

Harlow’s eyes widened as she quickly moved to Cash’s side and ran a gentle hand over his head.

Cash stiffened at her touch, but then warmth spread through his body and the ache in his breastbone disappeared once more. He stood still, watching as she inspected every inch of his skull until she found the lump and scowled. He took a step back. “I’ll need to get to the healer.”

“Definitely.” She turned to Shaun. “Can you take him to town? I’ll do my best to cleanse this place and get a protection circle in place.”

“Sure.”

Shaun was already moving toward the door when Cash said, “Neither will work.”

Harlow, who was already pulling bundles of sage out of her bag, paused and looked up at Cash. “Why not?”

“The ghost is my great-aunt. The house is hers,” Cash said.

Harlow dropped the sage back into her bag. No explanation beyond that was needed. When someone died in their home, the only way to get them to move on was for them to do so willingly. They could ask, but Aunt Jane wouldn’t be swayed by sage or salt circles. In fact, he’d already done both before he’d moved in and was surprised Harlow had just assumed he hadn’t.

“Okay,” Harlow said, rubbing her temple. “Any idea why your aunt attacked you?”

He knew exactly why, but he’d be damned if he was going to tell her. No matter how misguided, his aunt had been trying to get them in the same room to try to play matchmaker. Maybe she thought that if they spoke they’d work things out. But Cash knew better. He’d spent the last few months dropping in down at Equinox and that hadn’t changed anything. “Maybe she didn’t like the fact that we’re doing renovations. You know how ghosts get when their homes are in upheaval.”

Harlow’s shoulders relaxed. “If that’s the case, you know what to do.” She lifted her bag onto her shoulder and moved toward the door. Immediately, that ice-cold wind picked up again, but instead of boards flying, the bedroom door slammed shut so hard it rattled the walls. The wind vanished and the room went silent again.

“That certainly was a statement,” Harlow said as she tried to pull the door open. It wouldn’t budge, and she made a face. “Oh, just perfect.”

“Now what? Are we supposed to put the damaged boards back to get her to let us out?” Shaun asked.

Cash chuckled softly. The situation was just so absurd he couldn’t help himself.

Harlow raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain.

Dammit, she really did know him too well. He contemplated making up a lie, but then decided there was no point. What difference would it make anyway? Aunt Jane wasn’t likely to stop harassing them until she got what she wanted.

“Cash,” Harlow said with both hands on her hips. “What aren’t you telling us?”

He leaned against the wall and then slid down so that he was sitting on the subfloor. “Aunt Jane did all of this to get you here,” he said to Harlow. “She said we need to work our stuff out.”

“Aunt Jane doesn’t even know me,” Harlow said, looking taken aback. “Does she even know you?”

“She does now. I’ve been living here for months.” He sounded tired even to his own ears. “Besides, does that matter? If she watched our show, she’d know we were partners.” In every sense of the word, he thought, but he didn’t add that.

“Right.” It was Harlow’s turn to sound tired. “What does she want us to do? Rehash why we broke up?”

“Maybe.” Cash let out a long sigh.

Shaun glanced back and forth between them and finally said, “You know, I’d really like to know what happened myself.”

The door swung open, and Imogen walked in. She stood in the doorway, her face frozen with fear as she scanned the room. She was holding a cross with one hand and a sachet of what Cash assumed was herbs in the other. She held the items out, moving in a semi-circle as if to ward off any evil. It was only when she spotted Harlow standing near Cash that relief shone from her dark eyes. “I got worried.”

Harlow hurried to move toward her, but as soon as she moved, the icy wind picked up again, holding her in place.

Imogen let out a scream of terror and tried to run toward her sister, but there seemed to be some sort of barrier that kept her from getting closer than ten feet to either Cash or Harlow.

“Stop!” Harlow cried. “Aunt Jane, that’s enough. You’re terrifying my sister.”

The wind died down immediately, but the door slammed closed again.

“Harlow?” Imogen asked, her voice shaking. “What’s happening?”

“Cash’s Aunt Jane appears to be upset that Cash and I broke up, and she engineered a plan for us to get in the room together to talk it out. Now we’re stuck here until we hash it out, I guess.”

Imogen blinked a few times and then turned her focus to Cash. “Your Aunt Jane is upset you’re not with Harlow anymore?”

“It would appear so,” he said. “Looks like she might be looking for an explanation. Or a reconciliation. Not sure. All I know is she knocked me out and got Shaun to call Harlow, and now here we are.”

Imogen’s expression went from terror to pure fury. “Seriously, Aunt Jane?” she yelled. “You think it’s okay to just interfere in someone’s life like that? Well, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. I hope you’re ready for this.” Imogen paced around the room, her arms flailing as she said, “It all started when some witch of a ghost was pissed at Harlow and decided to use me to get back at her.”

“I didn’t know this part,” Shaun said quietly.

Imogen glanced at Shaun, the fury in her expression disappearing for just a moment when she said in a quiet voice, “It’s not something I talk about.”

Shaun nodded once.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him curiously.

“I got the feeling it was where I was needed.” He winked at her, and Cash couldn’t help wondering what the hell that was about. They knew each other, obviously, but Shaun and Imogen hadn’t been particularly close.

“You could have told me the details, you know,” Shaun said, giving Cash an accusing glare.

Cash gave him an apologetic look. It was true, he hadn’t told Shaun everything. He’d been too upset after everything went down to get into the minutiae of what had happened.

“Harlow and Cash were hired to eradicate a ghost that was haunting a giant estate out in Virginia. The property was worth a crazy amount, but so was the jewelry and art collection that was left to the family. Buyers kept getting scared off by the spirit who didn’t want to let any of it go. It just so happened that I was with Harlow one day when she was there trying to banish it. She wasn’t having any success, because as luck would have it, the ghost was like the one spirit that never reveals itself to Harlow. She couldn’t see it and only knew it was there when it was so agitated it put off some sort of vibe that made Harlow sick to her stomach. Anyway, Harlow tried everything she could to get that spirit back into the shadows, only in the end, the spirit found a way to possess me.”

Shaun winced. “That’s horrifying.”

Both Harlow and Cash nodded.

“Oh, yeah,” Imogen confirmed. “But Harlow had no idea. And over the next few months, that spirit overtook my entire being. She made me mean and spiteful, spent all my money on crazy expensive stuff like lavish spa days and four-hundred-dollar meals. She even rented an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City. When my money ran out, she started stealing the antiques from the estate and pawning them to fund her over-the-top lifestyle. The entire time, Harlow had no idea it was the spirit and tried to drag me to three different psychiatrists because she was convinced I was having a prolonged manic episode.”

“I had no idea what was really going on,” Harlow said quietly.

“That’s right,” Imogen said, sounding defiant. “My own sister believed that I was mentally ill. The one who had been fighting spirits for over ten years. It wasn’t until another spirit happened to show up in that Central Park apartment one night when Harlow was there. The ghost called me by another name, and Harlow started to figure it out. It took her another three weeks to finally free me from that Crazy Cora.”

“And she almost died doing it,” Cash added, his tone full of fury.

“Holy hell,” Shaun whispered. “I knew the breakup was a disagreement over ghost hunting, but I had no idea.” He reached out and squeezed Imogen’s hand. “I can’t imagine how terrifying that was.”

“No, you can’t. That’s why I told Harlow that I couldn’t be in her life if she was still hunting ghosts, because I never want to go through that again. Or this. So thank you very much, Aunt Jane, but I want off this ride, right now!”

The door swung open very slowly.

“Thank you,” Imogen said as her shoulders sagged in relief.

“And that’s why you two broke up?” Shaun asked Cash, looking confused. “Because Harlow gave up ghost hunting?”

“Yes… and no,” Cash said.

“Yes,” Harlow said, her hands on her hips. “Cash wasn’t ready to give it up. And I knew that if we stayed together, we’d end up right back here.” She waved a hand around the room. “Ghosts wouldn’t ever leave us alone if we were together.”

“Looks like they aren’t leaving you alone while you’re apart,” Shaun said, stating the obvious.

“I never asked you to break up with Cash,” Imogen said to Harlow. “That was your choice and honestly, I think it was a mistake. You can’t live your life for me, Harlow. You need to do what’s right for you. And I’ll do what’s right for me.” She turned to Shaun. “I’m leaving. Can you give me a ride home while Harlow takes Cash to the healer?”

“I can take you home,” Harlow said, already moving toward her sister. “Shaun can take Cash to the healer.”

“No,” Imogen said, her expression set in stone. “Like I said, I never told you to break up with Cash. You did that, and you haven’t been yourself since then. So while I don’t care for Aunt Jane’s tactics at all, I don’t disagree that you two need to work this out. Either get back together or figure out how to be apart without being miserable, because I’m tired of feeling like I ruined your life!”

Cash stared at Imogen, wondering if he’d just heard her correctly as she stormed out of the room.

Shaun glanced at Cash, clearly looking for confirmation that he should go after her.

Cash nodded. “I’ll call you when we’re done at the healer.”

When their siblings were gone, Cash looked at Harlow and said, “So… That was interesting. What will it be, Harlow? Get back together or⁠—”

Before he could finish that sentence, Harlow was right there in front of him, her hands on his cheeks as she claimed his mouth with hers, kissing him with everything she had.