I glanced at the spirit of Xavier. He was almost to the light, which was in the direction the voices were coming from. “Xavier,” I whispered.
The spirit glanced over his shoulder at me.
“You have to decide. Now,” Roan said.
I’d been in small towns like this before. I’d been the odd girl out. The weirdo. The one no one quite understood. It was easy to cast blame on the outsider. That’s what I was in Haunted Hollow—an outsider. As much as I wanted to stay, I knew Roan was right.
“I’m coming with you.”
I let him drag me away, but glanced over my shoulder and watched as Xavier Bibb disappeared into the afterlife.
It was when we reached the B and B that I noticed the silence creeping in. The home was still, but the floorboards creaked in a weird, almost ghostly way.
Roan led me back to a small suite of rooms off the kitchen. “Is this your place?”
He nodded. “It’s mine. Where I live.”
I still had blood on my hands. “I’m going to wash up.”
I cleaned my hands and face in the B and B’s kitchen sink. When I stepped back into Roan’s room, I took a moment to assess it.
There was a leather couch, dark wooden furniture, a guitar on a stand.
“Oooh, you’re in his place? It must be love.”
Susan popped up beside me. I jerked my head in a way that meantleave. She took the hint and darted from the room.
I stood awkwardly in the doorway.
He peeked at me from behind a door. “I don’t bite.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You hungry?”
“No.”
My stomach growled. A slow, teasing smile curled on his delicious lips.
Stop it. Stop it right now. Stop thinking lusty thoughts about a man who creeps around town at midnight.
“I’ll get a snack.”
He walked back into the kitchen, passing me on his way to the door. The woodsy smell of him trickled up my nose. I pressed my back into the wall, trying to get as far away from it as I could.
I took a moment to glance around. Bookshelves were filled with books—classics likeMoby Dickas well as newer thrillers. Lots of different instruments hung from the walls—a ukulele, flute, even a recorder.
I stifled a laugh.
“Something about my apartment funny?”
“Ah!” I clutched the wall. “Don’t sneak up on people.”
“Don’t make fun of someone who just saved you from a night in jail.”
“You don’t know that.”
His gaze seared me like a spear made of hot coals. “I do know that.”
