Page 80 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
I settled into their arms. The idea was intriguing, and Bevan proved it was possible.
“I have so much to learn,” I sighed. “I enjoyed that.”
“Baby steps, Beyla. I don’t want to scare you off.”
“I don’t scare easily,” I said, biting his shoulder.
“Stop that,” Arden growled. “It makes me want to claim you.”
The more time I spent with him, the more I thought that wasn’t such a horrible idea.
Chapter22
El Gato Blanco
The little witch was good. She put together most of the puzzle with almost no information. She knew who I was, and she was looking for me. But she risked blowing her cover by assembling a team to find me.
She wouldn’t succeed, no matter how much help she had. I was everywhere atThe P.I always had been. I knew every inch of the studios and theatre, including how to sneak around without being seen.
I’d also been alivemuchlonger than these children. I wanted her to break this curse, but she had to know she couldn’t kill me. I wouldn’t be caged while she tried to figure out another way to break this curse, either. If it were that easy, I would have done it a long time ago.
I didn’t want to kill her. I wanted to help her, but she absolutely could not see my face. None of them could. I’d made damn sure Santiago Suarez disappeared without a trace when I let some dumb agent think I moved to Canada.
Selena adored the press. She had subscriptions to every paper and tabloid back then. If either of us were photographed or mentioned, she cut it out and kept it in a book. I knew exactly who to go to and pay off, or threaten, to make sure the photos got destroyed and never made it into their archives.
She’d never find me. Not unless she failed to break this curse in time, and that forced me to kill her. The curse was designed to make me pay, but also to terrorize Tabitha. The understudy was always the last to die. The male leads died horribly until the tension was unbearable, then the understudy was last.
Selena wanted Tabitha nice and terrified before I killed her. I didn’t realize I was the one committing all the murders until I snapped out of it and was looking down at Tabitha’s bloodied corpse. That was when it all came flooding back. Before that, I was doing everything I could to help find the killer.
This version of the ballet was progressing. However, it would eventually reach a point when I couldn’t stop myself from killing them. Right now, I was in control of my actions, but once the ballet reached a certain point, I wouldn’t be anymore.
I needed to do something drastic to get the ball moving.
Chapter23
Nicolai
Ishould have been furious Beyla was in the next room having a threesome with Arden and Bevan. I fully expected Merlin to keep me up all night, pouting about it. Instead, we were both oddly okay with it. We both would have given our left nut to be invited, but we weren’t sullen about it.
If Arden could share, so could we. I didn’t get what his thing with Bevan was, but Merlin and I made our intentions clear, and he didn’t pitch some gryphon bitch fit about it and try to fight us. So, we weren’t invited… yet. We were willing to wait though.
Uncle Angelo came through like he always did. I was awake and getting ready to go to the studio when I got a text from him asking me to open my front door. Three of his men were waiting with carts full of boxes. That was kind of his thing. Uncle Angelo and his men never knocked. He always texted me to open the door, and then someone was standing outside. If it was anyone else, the door was kicked in, or the lock got picked.
Uncle Angelo did this to my mother, too, even though she gave him a key and had told him a million times just to let himself in. It was just his thing, and I let him do it because he usually had shit I needed when he or his people were on my doorstep.
I ushered them inside, and they stacked the boxes up against the wall. They didn’t say a word to me, even when I thanked them. They just grunted and disappeared. Uncle Angelo was a talker. Once he got started, it was difficult to shut him up, but if he sent his people, they never said a single word to me. Probably because Uncle Angelo told them not to disrespect me or he’d kill them.
We had the boxes now. We just needed to go through them and see if we’d struck gold. I had a feeling these boxes were going to be our only shot. The one rule in my family was never to get caught.
Santiago was able to use the curse excuse the first time to avoid jail, but I doubted that he’d be given the same courtesy the second time. He was supposed to have moved to Canada, far away from the source of his curse. Instead, all those innocent lives were taken because he stayed in New York and kept convincing people to attempt this damn ballet again.
It was a beautiful ballet, but I couldn’t figure out what Marsden got out of all of this. He was shrewd, and did many things I disagreed with, but he had always been all about our safety.
I could stay and start looking through the boxes, but I had a ritual every morning. Ineededto be at the studio early, even if Madame Lucinda wasn’t there to give me lessons. I’d done that as soon as I got accepted into residential ballet school, and hadn’t stopped when I became a member of a professional company. Being so diligent had kept me from being seriously injured so far.
I stood in the middle of our living room, looking from the boxes to the front door, and then back at the boxes.Damn. I heard a noise and whirled around to see Beyla standing there, in the clothes she wore last night.
“Want to come with me to change clothes and get my dance bag? Then we can walk over together.”
