23. Gideon

Gideon

D ane convinces Jax to stay in the car and not go into the hospital. It took some arguing, but seeing that angry glare and the knowledge that she'll be safe is Dane's only goal. I pull out my phone and start searching.

"What are you doing?" Jax asks grumpily.

"Searching the obituaries."

She leans over my shoulder, pressing closer as I read through people who died in Hurricane.

"No, it has to be…the eleventh of November, six years ago," Jax murmurs.

I hesitate. The eleventh of November is in two days. I shiver.

I set the search terms. "This is a long stretch. He came back, so he might not be on here."

"It's worth a look," Jax says grumpily.

We look through the obituaries, but there's only three people that died that day in this area, and only one of them from Hurricane, and it was a ninety-year-old woman named Valerie Greene who left behind an enormous family.

"All right, which leaves us with the hospital records," I say calmly, "which is what we thought was going to happen."

"I think someone died in there at a certain time, around the same time that he did, and they came back, but they came back different," She says the words calmly, letting them sink into the air around us .

I reach out and put a hand over hers. "We will find him."

She bites her lower lip hard enough that I wonder if it's going to bleed. "He died on the table, he coded, he was in a coma, someone turned off life support. It was something like that, a story like that."

I twist around, reaching for my phone that I put in the side of the door. "Or he was in an accident."

I search for old news articles in Hurricane. Specifically accidents on that day. "Was it morning or night?"

"Night," Jax whispers. "Around eleven."

"There were two accidents. One happened in a factory, it caught on fire and some squatters who lived there were hurt." I read through the article. "No one was critical. It was all minor."

"This might be stupid. It could have been someone who slipped and fell at home. No one would even know."

I shake my head. "No, the body needs to be really damaged in order for the souls to swap." I pause, hearing that information in my head again. I didn't even know I knew that. "Oh, here's another one. There was a car accident that night around nine pm. The man was in critical condition and transferred to the hospital."

"Do we have a name?" Jax asks, leaning close.

I scowl at the article and shake my head. "No name. But he was a man, forty-five at the time. No family."

Jax sighs. "Is there anything else?"

"Um, yes, one more. A younger guy almost died that day, too. He was a teen, prominent family, found critical after a near drug overdose."

Jax stares at her hands. I can see her thinking, and I want to reach out and make it stop.

"Younger or older. But no information on names. Hopefully Dane and Rafe get some information from the hospital."

She sits back in the seat and tilts her head up to the roof of the car. "I was sitting here thinking about how Louis has cut off all my moves, and I got so angry, like, worse than normal anger because, now, I have something I want."

"I'm going to hazard a guess and say we might be the things you want."

She turns her head to me and grins. "You, Rafe, Dane, and a future, travel, hope, maybe a job that I like. Things like that."

"You're thinking about a future again, and he's actively taking it away. I can see why you're angry," I say and hide the smug grin I get from her words.

"Yeah, and then I see you guys, and I feel this desperation to show you, to tell you how I feel. Like if I don't get it out, I might not get a second chance."

Those words arrow straight into my heart. I open my mouth, but she puts her hand over it. "No, don't. I know it's silly, I know it's useless, but it's this driving fear I have."

"If anything happens-"

"No!"

I raise my voice over hers. "If anything happens, you need to know that all three of us have no regrets."

"You can't speak for the others," she snaps.

"I can. We talked about it at length. And if something does happen to one of us or more, there is a backup plan. I want you to run. With whoever comes for you, get in the car and just run."

"He'll find us."

I shrug. "So keep running, find somewhere no one will go."

I reach into my pocket and pull out the necklace that's been on my person for days. I clear my throat and hold out my hand; when she cautiously lifts hers, I put the necklace in it.

She is careful when she lifts it. Looking over the silver star curiously.

"Are you a wiccan?"

I cough a laugh. "No. But my mother believed in the stars. "

She gives me a look that makes me laugh out loud.

"She believes in wishing on stars, the constellations, and navigating. She believed in life out there and that everything is bigger than us. It was a collection of beliefs that were eclectic as her."

"I like that," Jax says quietly, palming the necklace.

"It's all I've got left of her, but I want you to have it. I want you to have a piece of me with you."

She lifts her eyes to me. I'd give anything to be able to take that haunted look off her face.

I curl my hand around her neck and stare into her eyes. I'm just about to lean forward when the door opens, and Rafe throws himself into the back.

"What did you find?" I ask as I reluctantly draw back from her.

"There were two people, a young man who overdosed and an older man, but all the records for the older man have disappeared," Rafe snaps and yanks on the seat belt, tugging three times in quick succession. He pauses, closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and pulls it again, smoothly and slowly.

"Who was the younger man?"

Rafe pauses, his eyes flick up to mine, and then he looks back down again. His silence is tense.

"Rafe!" Jax growls.

"It's River," Rafe says furiously. "River overdosed that day. He was technically dead for a couple of minutes. Fentanyl. The paramedics brought him back, he went into private treatment for a month, and it was, as far as I could see, never an issue again."

Jax is kneeling on the seat, staring at Rafe like he's just delivered a mortal blow.

"My baby brother overdosed on Fentanyl, and no one told me?"

"Which leads one to wonder why?" I ask .

Jax whips her head towards me and shakes it viciously. "River is not Louis. I would know. I spent a lot of time with River, and I…I…I just would know, all right."

"We have to check," I say calmly.

"How do we do that? An exorcism?" Jax puts her head in her hands. "I can't believe this is happening."

Dane gets back and slides into the driver's seat. He casts a quick look around and stiffens. "What's wrong?"

"River overdosed."

Dane snorts. "It's not River."

"How do you know?" Rafe asks.

"Because the man, the older man in the car accident, was in for three months while he recovered. I spoke to a nurse who treated him. She remembers him for one reason. His driver's license said he had blue eyes, but when he woke up, his eyes were brown."

"We found him," Jax says breathlessly.

"Perhaps," Dane says, "Cautiously."

"I don't care. It's more than I've had in years."

"You still need to check in with River. And ask about that day because, according to the information I received, they were roommates that fateful evening in the hospital. Recovered side-by-side for a few days before River was released."

Jax grumbles under her breath and then looks at the time. "Shit, you need to get me back home before the lock down occurs."

"The lock down?"

"Yeah, Dad locks down the property at midnight," she says as Dane starts the car.

He pulls away from the curb and drives us back through to the Harmon estate. We sit there, none of us saying anything, none of us moving. The car ticks as it cools down.

"We'll be okay," I say gruffly.

Jax turns a watery gaze to me. "When will I see you next? "

I glance in the front and see Dane shake his head minutely. "I don't think we should risk it."

Jax sniffs and nods quickly. "Of course, safe is better than dead."

"Hey, that can be our battle cry," Rafe says and hugs her. When he pulls back, Dane leans around, burying his face in her shoulder.

"Stay safe. I don't care what it is or how tempting. Don't take chances, just stay safe," he murmurs. He sits back.

I grip her chin and drag her face to mine. "I'm your shadow, your ghost. I came back for you. He's not going to have you," I growl.

Her eyelids flutter, and she exhales like what I've said is sweet. I'm aware I sound like a borderline stalker, but I don't even care anymore. I've never felt this way about anyone.

"Go to bed, baby girl," I murmur and kiss her lightly.

She waits another two seconds like she's summoning her strength. "Don't get hurt or I'll kill you," Jax growls and then throws herself out of the car and jogs away.

We watch her go, and then we drive away. I do five circuits of the city until the car's almost out of petrol before we dump it and torch it. I lead the way as I jog towards the parking garage.

Rafe points out the new silver SUV, and we climb in.

"River and a mystery man," Dane says evenly, breaking the silence with his musings.

"Providing there wasn't someone else."

"I've been thinking about it," Rafe says. "I think that perhaps this body is the bio daddy."

I jerk my head to Rafe. "What?"

"He's of an age to be the father, not the brother. I think he's the daddy or uncle. I think, perhaps, if this man is the one, then Lee Banewood is not actually a Banewood, and we're looking for a man who was having an affair with the Mrs."

I grimace. "I hate family intrigues. "

"Says the man with a secret cousin."

"Hey, Mason wasn't a secret. We just didn't have anything to do with each other as adults," I defend and pull into our car garage.

Dane gets out and locks the garage while Rafe and I do a sweep of the house, checking for signs of entry or disturbance, and checking again for cameras or bugs.

I see something black and follow its movements.

"He's coming."

I stiffen. I lean my head to Dane without taking my eyes off the ghost. Astaire, I think with sadness. "Did y'all hear that?"

"Sure did."

"He's coming," Dane says stiffly. "Wait? Here?" He races through the house, grabbing several items, and then whistles to get our attention.

I grab my stuff and follow him outside. Rafe on my heels. We hide in the branches of the three conifer trees in the backyard. I can barely make anything out, but then I hear a car pull up. From my perch, I can't see anything, but Dane is staring at something on his phone.

"What's he doing?"

"He's wandering up and down the street."

"How did he find us so fast?" I growl out furiously.

"Fucked if I know, but this is bad," Dane says. "He's talking to a neighbour and just handed an envelope of money over."

"Can you see his face, build, anything?"

"No, he's wearing a mask."

I groan and put my face in my hands. Everything in me wants to charge out and go and take this prick down. But when I was Terrance, that's what I did. I charged, and I died. I might not know specifics, but I know who I was, and I was impulsive. I acted, and I didn't think. I can't do that to her again. There are no more secret cousins .

So, I sit in the tree, and we wait. When he disappears, we collect our stuff, and we follow suit.