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As I walked down the path, I heard a horse whinny; that was nothing unusual, considering that we had horses in stables for hire to ride.

I exited and glanced toward the Grand Hotel and paused. To the left of the hotel, a road led to guest and employee rentals. On the right, a second street led to the club’s private homes. Before my shocked eyes, two figures on horseback emerged from the right, and a single figure rode in from the left.

The three met in front of the hotel and began walking their horses towards me. The man at the far right carried a rifle pointing toward the sky. I couldn’t make out any details; they appeared as black silhouettes. However, I could make out the guns, boots, and hats, but nothing about their facial features.

I stood spellbound as they reached the stable and then slowly disappeared. Someone had better explain that one to me. Tiredly, I walked toward the clubhouse, ignoring the sense that someone was watching me.

Inglorious–Church

“Church is open,” I said, banging the gavel. “Nightmare, how’s the finances and the opening figures for the event?”

Nightmare handed out his financial trackers, then ran us through what he needed. The good news was we were making a huge profit, which, when split among us, would be a very nice slice of the pie.

We had already recouped the investment we’d put into the Halloween festival, and now anything on top was pure gravy. I sensed that my brothers wanted to talk about the ghosts as they impatiently waited for Nightmare to finish. When he was done, they all turned to me.

“Well?” Hercules demanded.

I wondered if it was worth messing with him.

“Inglorious, cut the bullshit. What the hell’s going on? We’ve been here several years and never seen a single ghost. Now we’re running a Halloween event, and we have got ghosts coming out of our ears. Is this something that Nanci cooked up, or are we suddenly the most haunted town in this part of South Dakota?” Vortex demanded.

“Law and I have been called out fourteen times for sightings of spirits. Not including the additional ones in the mines,” Bow stated.

Nearly half of the brothers turned to face him and Law.

“What’s this? We haven’t heard anything about the mines?” Moon demanded.

“Number one mine has five reports of a group of miners walking down the track and disappearing. There’s three reports of seeing someone pushing a mine cart. All of them fade, and when people try to speak to them, they don’t reply. Number two mine has two sightings of a man carrying a pickaxe and four accounts of a boy aged roughly twelve,” Bow said.

“What’s going on, Prez?” Riot asked.

My only answer was a shrug. What else could I say? “Make a guess, brother.”

“We’ve honestly no clue what’s happening?” Tracker inquired.

“No. Nobody has anything,” I replied. “I’ve a call in to Callie, Sunny’s old lady from Hellfire MC. As you know, Callie runs her own show, The Ghost Seekers Inc., and I’m hoping she can explain what’s happened. I’ve spoken to Drake, and he swears Phoe isn’t behind this.

“She was my first guess; we’re all aware of what Phoe is like when it comes to Halloween. But Drake sounded bloody terrified that she was planning something for Rage. As diabolical as Phoe is, I don’t think she can mess with two MCs at once,” I said.

“But isn’t Nanci working on a Halloween party with Phoe?” King asked.

Several heads snapped toward me, eyes wide. “We agreed on a party. Nothing was mentioned about Phoe helping organise it,” Grimm stated, rising half out of his seat.

“Phoenix Michaelson is fucking notorious for Halloween. Are we seriously believing she isn’t screwing with us?” Twitch demanded.

“I think this time I can, hand on heart, say yes.” Looking around at my brothers, I saw varying levels of trust. I couldn’t honestly blame them. Phoe was well known for pulling off some doozies.

“What are we going to do?” Vortex questioned.

“Why do anything?” Lasher asked. “This will attract visitors wanting to see a ghost. To me, that means more spending and more profit. Why are we saying no to that?”

Lasher had a damn good point, and I couldn’t refute a word he said.

“That’s not the issue. The problem arises when nosy fuckers go where they shouldn’t to find a ghost. Such as the clubhouse, the score, and the coaching inn where the fire engines are kept,” Law responded.

“And if something goes viral, which is possible, we’ll be swarmed with ghost hunters and Lookie-Loos,” Bow replied.

“We can control that, surely?” Oil said.