Jenny took several deep breaths and tried to relax. An orb was just a light. Even it if it were some sort of spirit, it wasn’t going to hurt her. She closed her eyes, determined to get a good night’s sleep. She needed to be at her best when she went to work at the Grandview.
Went to work for Cain.
Jenny sighed into the silent darkness. She hoped Anna wouldn’t be there tomorrow. No matter what she told herself, seeing the woman with Cain would make her uncomfortable.
Jenny tried to relax. If she didn’t fall asleep soon, she’d take a couple of Tylenol PM.
Unfortunately, half an hour later, her restlessness continued, and her eyes kept cracking open, looking for another orb. Almost an hour passed before she got up and dug into the medicine cabinet, popped two pills, and finally went to sleep.
It was three in the morning when the plinkity-plink of an old upright piano reached her through a deep haze of slumber. Her eyes slowly opened. It took a moment to rouse herself enough to recognize what she was hearing—piano music, laughter, and the sound of glasses clinking in the bar downstairs.
She jolted wide awake, and her heart started knocking. What was going on? The bar was closed, and there was no old piano anywhere in the building.
Jenny sat up in bed. A few feet away, the closet door swung open, then very slowly closed. Her pulse kicked up. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the closet and jerked open the door. Nothing but her clothes and shoes, and the rolling suitcase she had brought from home.
Her mouth felt dry. Her heart was hammering. The music and laughter downstairs continued. Grabbing a pair of jeans, she jerked them on, pulled on a sweatshirt, and jammed her feet into a pair of sneakers. Snatching her flashlight off the floor beside the bed, she headed for the door.
Dim light from the sconces in the hall provided just enough illumination to see there was no one there. No sounds, just the creak and groan of the old building, sounds she had heard a hundred times since she was a kid.
When she reached the bottom of the staircase in the lobby, she turned and went into the saloon. Panning the flashlight around the room, she saw that the bar was empty. No piano music was playing, no people talking, no laughter or the clink of glasses.
Her pulse eased a little, but her mind still raced.
It was a dream, she told herself. It had to be. Right? Either that or she was going slightly crazy. Ghosts in Cain’s bedroom. Now ghost sounds in her room upstairs.
With a heavy sigh, Jenny returned to her suite. She’d been working in the Copper Star since she was a teen. She had never seen a ghost. True, she’d heard a few eerie noises, a few gruesome tales from customers and employees, but nothing like this.
Then again, until now, she hadn’t spent any time in the newly opened, recently renovated rooms in the hotel.
Did that make a difference?
As she climbed into bed, Jenny remembered Uncle Charlie’s words.Odd things happen in the rooms in that section. Dangerous things.
Uncle Charlie had left that part of the hotel closed up. She wished she could talk to him, ask him why he had never remodeled the rooms and instead left them outdated and unrented.
Jenny closed her eyes, but she didn’t fall asleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CAIN WAS WAITING WHENJENNY ARRIVED AT THEGRANDVIEW THEfollowing morning. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a red plaid flannel shirt, her sun-touched curls freshly washed and gleaming around her shoulders.
How a woman in jeans and flannel could make him think of the night she had spent in his room—in his bed—and make him hard, he had no idea. Cain forced his mind in a safer direction, for the first time noticing the dark circles under her eyes and the pallor of her usually robust complexion.
He thought of Ryder and frowned. “You all right?”
“Bad night,” she said.
“Tell me it had nothing to do with Ryder Vance.”
She gave him a faint smile. “Would you believe me if I told you it was ghosts?”
“Let’s get some coffee, and you can tell me what happened.” He took her arm and started guiding her toward the dining room instead of the kitchen.
“Shouldn’t I be getting to work? That’s what you’re paying me for.”
“Let’s talk first.” As they walked along, he noticed her discreetly glancing around the lobby. Pure male instinct told him she was searching for Anna. Cain swore a silent oath.
“In case you’re wondering, Anna Hobbs isn’t here. I have no interest in Anna.”
