Page 16 of Ghost
And if they didn’t like it, then I’d like to see them try to stand against the four of us at once. They needed us more than we needed them. If we agreed on something, they had to submit.
Besides, I was past caring about the consequences. I was tired of living a half-life.
What made it worse was the fact thingscouldhave been different. But now we were the ones paying the price for the Dubois family’s splendid failure.
Bryce Dubois had been touching her when Kasai arrived.
That knowledge brought up unfamiliar feelings, and I wasn’t certain how to sort them. But I did know I didn’t like the idea of anyone else near her in that way. It was the strangest thing, because I had never been a possessive person before. And I had been with many women.
The whole situation was jarring.
It wasn’t even the romantic feelings she evoked in me, because I wouldn’t deny that I was interested. For once in my life, I longed for something more than a one-night stand. But there was more to it than that.
We had never been friends with others. Never had any interest in it.
Asking her to join our group had been the most natural thing in the world. And even Miles, the most secretive of us, opened up to her. Asking her to be our friend had been an accident—the words escaped before I could even consider the repercussions.
But I had never been more thankful for my intuition.
I couldn’t explain it, but something fundamental had already shifted in our group. Something that should be impossible. The others had to feel it too. After all, what affected one of us, affected the other.
I didn’t know if it was good or bad. Or if it was simply hormonal. But no matter what happened, I didn’t care the reason. As long as she stayed with us. This was a new feeling for me, and I would die before I let them take it away.
Just the thought of it made me angry.
“No.” I stepped away from Conner. “Leave her alone. She’s with me.”
He lowered his arm, an unpleasant look crossing his face. “Don’t lie. She’s too cute for you anyway. You can’t even keep her.” He glanced back, meeting the eyes of another officer. “Seth, why don’t you look for her? Get her number. She shouldn’t be alone in a crime scene anyway.”
Before Seth could even lower his spoon, I already had the front of his uniform twisted in my fist. The bowl of ice-cream, and the spoon, slipped from his fingers as his hands moved to grasp my wrists instead.
“Don’t youdare.” The thought of any of them going near her made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My fury even trumping my annoyance at their unprofessionalism.
In response, he paled considerably under my glare.
I should probably call Titus. Something was off about the scene, and I was already on edge. When I was around, shifters fell into line. It made sense, normally my dealings with them ended in violence, and Titus had far more patience than I.
And we couldn’t leave now.
“She’s off-limits,” I emphasized, shaking Seth slightly.
“Dude,” Conner had taken a step back—leaving his lackey at my mercy. His hands were in the air in a placating manner. “No one is going to steal your girlfriend. But seriously, do they know—”
I turned my glare to him, daring him to say another word. It was none of their business.
He visibly gulped.
“That’s enough, Abernathy,” Jamie interrupted, nervously twisting his hands. “I’ll send the paperwork to your office. I’m sure that Dr. Stephens will want to do it though. Is he going to stop by the scene tonight?”
I dropped Seth. “Gregory actually left town yesterday, a family matter. He won’t be here tonight. But keep the scene taped off. He’ll probably want to investigate later.”
The senior officer began to show another emotion other than apathy. “Why would he do that?” Jamie asked, annoyed. “Are you doubting my ability to close a suicide case?”
“No,” I responded, not intimidated at all. But I understood his concern. “If thiswerea suicide case, then there would be no need for Gregory to arrive at all.”
“What do you mean?” Jamie’s anger slipped from his wiry frame. “This is just you beingyouthen. Why are you always trying to find conspiracies where there are none? Why can nothing ever be simple?”
Well, now that was just unkind. And false.
