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“Who is Ted?”
Gerald chuckled and pulled a gun similar to Ryan’s from his pocket. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Don’t play games, Owain. I’ve had a long journey.”
I fidgeted. “Why do you think this person is here?”
“Process of elimination. Ted is smart enough to know he couldn’t hide out anywhere close by with family or friends…or lack thereof, in his case. Either way, he needed somewhere he had no personal ties to lie low and a person stupid and sympathetic enough to take him in.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you think he’s here. That could be any number of people.”
“But Ryan offered his help so nicely on the phone.”
Ted was right. Gerald wasn’t as unassuming as circumstances made him seem.
“I was going to quietly search the place, grab what I needed, and leave. But this has all gotten a bit more complicated, wouldn’t you say?” he said while raising the gun to point it at me.
I stared at it. “I’m not a ghost.”
“You’ve got a little bit of ghost in you in some form or other though,” he said, eyeing me up and down clinically. “I’m curious to know how you would react to something like this. Do you want to test it?”
“Do you want to test getting pushed off the side of a cliff?” Ryan growled from behind me.
Gerald kept the gun trained on me but glanced over. “Ryan, dear boy. I think you have something that belongs to me.”
“A personality?” he quipped. “Good looks? Talent? Sorry, Grandpa, pretty sure you never had any of those in the first place.”
“Talent, he says.” He laughed. “The failed entrepreneur with the terrible credit score who came crawling to me for a job and begged not to be fired.”
I could tell that the words touched a nerve in Ryan from the way his jaw clenched and the vein in his neck jumped. But he controlled his reaction and said, “Still good-looking though.”
“Let’s cut the bullshit. Hand over Ted and the flash drive and I won’t shoot your little psychopomp. I have a plane to catch.”
“Sure,” Ryan said easily, gesturing. “He’s right this way.”
“Ryan…” I said in a warning tone.
He met my gaze. “If it’s a choice between you and Ted, love, you know where I’m going to fall.”
“What a charming sentiment,” Gerald said, sounding anything but. “Now clear the door. And you,” he said to me. “Stay in sight until I get that drive, won’t you?”
I swallowed but did as asked. We only took one step before the lights flickered. Gerald tensed, looking around.
“I didn’t think you spooked easily, Gerald,” Ryan said.
Blue eyes narrowed. “Don’t take me for a fool or I’ll shoot your boytoy right now.”
“The house is old and my ghost guests make the lights flicker,” I mumbled. “It’s normal activity.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“We’re not responsible for your paranoia,” Ryan said, trying to step in front of me but stopping when Gerald’s fingers tightened on the gun. “If you want that drive, Ted is upstairs.”
The wall behind Gerald had started leaking black goo, small trails running over the wallpaper.
“Go and tell him to come down. Owain and I will stay right here.”
“I’m not your lapdog anymore. You go fetch.”
The light began to shake almost infinitesimally.
