Ghost of Lies (Medium Trouble Book 1), page 28
I narrow my eyes at this awful ghost. “Those are quite easy to mix up. I can see why you were so easily confused.”
He’s clearly pleased. “I know, right? Whoops. My bad. Got your hopes up and everything.”
“I call forth God to come down and smite—”
“What are you doing?” Reggie asks.
I stare at him like it’s quite obvious. “Performing an exorcism. It seems Maddox’s bed has been possessed.”
“By an incubus, yes, yes, it has,” Reggie purrs as he runs his finger up my bare chest.
“No.”
He lets out a defeated noise. “Come on… you and Maddox aren’t a… thing yet. And I miss the touch of a man.”
“Go find a ghost man!”
“But I want you,” he says with a grin like that just answers everything.
“Nope. I’m going to work,” I say.
“Your bird is evil,” he says as he reaches out to Spite who pecks at him every time Reggie tries to get close to him. “No one loves me. I’m loveless. That’s the issue here, isn’t it?”
“No, you’re stubborn, and Spite knows you’re trying to bully me,” I say as I get out of bed to get ready. I send Maddox a text asking if he needs me, but he quickly replies that he’s stuck in the office for now and will let me know. I still feel like he’s just finding excuses not to include me, which upsets me a little. But hey, we did a lot of shit yesterday. I can let him brush me off for one day.
I head to the bookstore and open up. It’s oddly peaceful working a day here. And I honestly don’t mind it, since it gives me a bit to let my brain calm down. Reggie and Natalie, who’ve become far too close, harass me for a while before disappearing.
That’s when I see someone I hadn’t expected to see.
“Sean?” I call out.
He turns to look at me. “Hiro.”
“Sean, where the hell have you been?” I ask as I rush over to him and grab for him, but just as my hand starts to wrap around his wrist, he pulls back.
He gives me a sharp look and I’m startled still by it.
“Hiro, you need to stop. Please. Just stop.”
“But… I’m being careful,” I say… though what if that’s not why he wants me to stop? What if he doesn’t want me to find out the role he played? “You… Sean, who was Millie to you?”
He jerks back at that name, his eyes going wild. “No…”
I reach for him again, slower this time. “Sean, please. Please help me. Who was Millie to you?”
“No, no, no…” He starts to back up faster.
Fuck, no… not again. “Please don’t leave. Just talk to me. We can figure this out. We can help you and her and everyone else. We can keep people from dying.”
“What if we deserve to die?” he asks, and just like that, he’s gone.
Fuck.
I take a deep breath, but it feels suffocating in here, so I walk out the back door, into the alley where I slump down to my ass. I feel exhausted, and it’s only eleven. How the hell am I supposed to face the rest of the day like this?
A noise to my right draws my attention as I see a small gray cat walking toward me. A dead cat, that is.
“Come here,” I say as I hold my hand out.
The cat seems startled at the attention but trots over to me, reaching close enough I can scratch under his chin. “You have someone you’re following around?” I ask.
The cat obviously doesn’t answer, so I pick him up and carry him into the bookstore. If he did have someone, he’d likely jump off and run back to them, but instead, he keeps kneading my shoulder. Even his little ghost claws are painful as they dig in while he purrs.
I send a text to Maddox, close up shop, and head back to Maddox’s because I’m just done for the day. Not even able to care enough to bother Wes or Barry, I decide to leave the shop locked up until Barry opens tomorrow.
Parking my car in Maddox’s driveway, I grab the ghost cat and head inside.
“Well, you’re back already. Sexy time?” Reggie asks, but instead of “sexy time” I hold out the peace offering because I can only fathom how hard it is for him to live in a world where he can’t touch or interact with anything he loves.
“Here,” I say as I stuff the cat into his arms. “Sex demon who I can’t exorcise, meet Cat. Cat, this is the sex demon I can’t exorcise.”
“Oh… my… god,” Reggie breathes. “I CAN TOUCH IT.”
He’s enamored, so I leave him to the mauling and decide another nap is in my future before climbing into Maddox’s bed.
Maddox has been in the room for a few minutes while I play dead… or asleep or whatever. He’s just standing there, like he’s trying to decide what to do with me while I try to decide how long I can pretend this bed is mine and not remove my body from it.
Of course, he’s a fucking mind reader and knows I’m not asleep as he goes, “What happened, Hiro?”
“I don’t know,” I admit as I squeeze his pillow tighter. It’s now my pillow. “Maybe I’m just… having a hard time believing my brother deserved this.”
“You think he did?” he asks, and I hate the question. It’s the same question I’ve asked myself again and again.
“I don’t know what I think, but he thinks he did. He… When I was at the bookshop this morning, I finally saw him, and he asked what if they all deserve it… and what if they do? How am I supposed to stomach that?” I ask.
Maddox sits down on the edge of the bed, making it dip toward him, so I pull the blanket down far enough to look at him. He’s watching me with his steady blue eyes. “There are two ways to look at it. Sometimes guilt manifests in strange ways. A mother or father can feel guilty if something happens to their child, even if they never played a part in it. A ‘what if’ situation in a way. What if I kept them home from school? What if I listened more? What if I hadn’t looked away? They get this feeling like they deserve something to happen to them because they feel guilty, even though the role they played had no part in their death. So he could be feeling guilty for something like that. He could have been an active participant, but if he was, I can assure you, he’s not some cold-blooded killer, Hiro. He feels guilt. He feels like he can’t tell you what happened because he thinks he deserved this. He feels afraid of what you might think of him, even in death.”
He reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it tightly as I hang on to every word, really hoping it’s just guilt Sean feels… guilt for something he couldn’t have changed.
“Hiro… just know that whatever you find or whatever you learn, Sean is still your brother. He loves you and you love him. People fuck up sometimes. And sometimes, it’s hard to stomach and it’s hard to deal with, but they do. Even the most wonderful person in the world can fuck up. I could fuck up. You could fuck up.”
I let my fingers tangle with his and squeeze them, thankful for the support when I feel like I can’t talk to anyone else about this. Patricia and Nicolás are so hung up on keeping me out of it, we can’t even talk about it. “Thanks… I really appreciate it. I was just feeling a bit down.”
“How about we get out of the house and do something else for a bit? It’s not healthy to fixate on work so much,” he says.
“Deal. What are we going to do?”
“I’m going to teach you how to shoot a gun. And then we’re going to put you into concealed carry classes, and then I’m going to place you in a safe little bombproof shelter.”
“You… you do realize ghosts can just slip right through walls, right?” I ask.
He’s silent for a moment. “Of course I know that.”
“Yeah? And currently a ghost is the main participant in trying to kill me. I’ll be all ‘Save me!’ but because I’m in this box no one can break into, no one will even hear me to save me.”
Maddox stares at me for a long moment. “Let’s just go. Stop procrastinating.”
That makes me smile and I feel relieved by it. “I’m not procrastinating!” I say as I get up and follow him.
“Your hands feel good enough for this?”
“Yes, they don’t hurt at all. I promise they’re healed and fine,” I assure him.
In the living room, Reggie is just literally rolling around on the ground with this cat while my bird tries pecking him. Spite, seeing me, flies up and lands on my shoulder after getting a real good peck on Reggie’s ear.
“Look! Look at him!” Reggie says, so enamored by the cat he doesn’t even care about the bird’s harassment.
I glance down at the cat who is licking his paw. “Wow, it can lick.”
“What’s… what’s licking what?” Maddox asks, sounding concerned.
“I found Reggie a cat, and he’s finally stopped harassing me,” I say.
“HE YAWNED,” Reggie yells. “Oh my god. Tell me you saw that.”
“Hurry, leave. He’s losing his mind,” I say as I rush for the door before I can be forced to wait for the cat to yawn again.
Maddox just chuckles and follows after me. “I’m glad he has something to entertain him.”
“Besides me?” I ask.
He smiles as he sets a hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. “Besides you.”
Simply talking to Maddox as he drives to an outdoor shooting range outside the bustle of the city fills me with ease. I was so stuck in my own thoughts, yet he could just pull me right out of them, allowing me to think about how fun this will be instead. Sexy Maddox pressing me in close, steadying my hand, showing me exactly how to hold it right.
I really think he should just take his shirt off for this lesson. I mean… why not, really? He doesn’t need a shirt to teach.
There are a few others shooting, so once he has me fitted with proper eye and ear protection and the right forms signed, he takes us to the far end where I can hear a bit better and not have to worry about the others.
“Okay, the first thing is that you are never to point the gun at someone you’re not prepared to shoot,” he says. He has to talk loud for me to hear him with the ear protection on, but it’s not too bad.
I heard this lecture from the guy who made me sign the papers when we’d gone into the office, but I nod and promise him I won’t.
“Your finger stays off that trigger until you’re prepared to shoot, got it? Treat every gun like it’s loaded, which is why you shouldn’t have a loaded gun under the seat of the car with the safety off.”
“Yeah… I’m getting that,” I say.
“The second thing you need to know about shooting a gun is your stance,” Maddox says, getting his serious look on.
I raise a hand.
“Yes?”
“Do you have to have your shirt on for this?”
“I do.”
How dare he immediately burst my bubble without a care in the world? “Dammit.”
He kicks my foot. “Get into the right stance.”
“What? I don’t even know what the right stance is.”
“That’s right, so do you have time to be asking about my shirt? Someone’s coming and they’re going to murder you. If I’m missing a shirt, what does that solve?”
I think about it for a moment. “It will make my last moments blissful ones because I’ll get to see your muscles. Basically, I’ll die happy.”
Maddox sighs, clearly not impressed with my reasoning, even though I think it’s pretty good. “I’m going to show you a couple of different stances and you can use what feels most comfortable to you. But for the first one, I want your feet apart,” he says as he knocks into my foot with his until I do what I’m told. “Knees flexed.”
I drop down some.
“Too much.”
I try to even it up as he shows me himself. “That’s what I’m doing.”
“What you’re doing just makes me want to smack your ass, it’s out so far.”
“Well… I might not be opposed,” I say as he walks up and knocks into the back of my legs. I drop down quite quickly before turning my narrowed eyes onto him. “I can’t believe I thought this lesson was going to be sexy! Instead, you’re just bullying me!”
“Gun safety is extremely sexy. Here. Come knock me out of my stance. You have to be steady. If you’re not steady, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You have kickback to deal with as well as if someone tries to get you off balance. Come on. Get me off balance.”
I walk up to him and knock into him like he did me. He’s like a fucking rock. Of course he’s not going to move. He’s a demon in disguise. A sexy one… that I can’t move.
“Okay… point taken.”
“Good. Now you want enough bend to your knees to absorb recoil but not to be knocked off balance,” he says as he gives me a good shake like he wants to be positive I have it down this time. I’m proud to say that I stay semi-still as I’m whipped around.
“Perfect,” he says before taking out his gun and holding it. “Now you see these here? These are the sights.”
“Oh yeah, I actually know that from playing video games.”
“Great, your gun knowledge comes from video games.”
“I’m a really good sniper.”
“Ah, well… I’ll keep that in mind next time I need someone sniped… in a video game.”
I grin at him as he shows me how to hold my arms so the sights are set perfectly for me to see and follow.
He hands the gun over to me and I take it. Then he adjusts my arms and shows me how to line the sights up to focus on the middle of the target.
“Do you feel good?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“The gun isn’t loaded so I’m going to have you run through it all the way to the end, got it? Don’t jerk the trigger, pull it gently.”
“Got it,” I say as I do exactly what he says.
“Alright, start from the beginning. Stand normally and get into your stance.”
After he makes me practice that at least twenty times, he runs me through loading the gun. “You’re going to go from standing normally, into position, and fire, alright? Don’t forget the safety.”
“Okay,” I say.
He nods for me, so I step into position, switch off the safety, line up the shot and fire.
I hit the target, but it’s not a pretty hit.
“Good job.”
“Is it?” I ask skeptically.
“Yes. That was your first shot. You need to relax a little.”
“Okay,” I say.
“Ooh, what’s this?” Natalie asks as she appears in front of me. I jump and Maddox looks startled.
“What?” he asks.
“Natalie.”
“And Reggie! Or just Reggie. We know who is really important here,” Reggie says as he appears with his cat because of course the cat couldn’t entertain him enough to just stay home with it. “Look what he can do.” He puts the cat on the ground and holds his hand out, and the cat jumps up to smack at his fingers. “Look. Did you look?”
I turn to Maddox. “About that impenetrable room you were talking about. Think we could find one a ghost can’t get in?”
“Tell them to fuck off, we’re teaching you gun safety. Shoo,” he says as he waves, and I’m mystified when they all step to the side.
I glare at them because we all know they wouldn’t listen to me that well no matter how much waving, cussing, whatever I’d do.
Maddox runs me through a few more exercises before he eyes me for a second. “Good. Why do you look disappointed?”
I grin. “I’m not. I just kind of suck at this.”
“You don’t suck. You just need practice.”
“You know what would make up for my level of suckage? If we made this like Titanic… where you’d be holding me and stuff. I bet that’d make me feel better,” I joke.
He looks mildly concerned. “Which part? When they’re floating off into the ocean and she lets go of Jack as he freezes to death and sinks down into the ocean?”
I’m trying not to laugh now. “No! When they’re on the front of the boat thingy! And he has her in his arms. Instead, you just turn back into Commander Maddox… which is also kind of sexy.”
His eyebrow is rising quite a bit. “You think shooting guns is sexy?”
“Umm… No, I’m pretty sure it’s not the gun I want to fondle.”
He scrutinizes me for a long moment. “I’m gonna fondle you so fucking good when we get home but not until you get a bullseye.”
That doesn’t even burst my bubble, it fucking shatters it. “Um… We will be here all day… no… all week!”
“Ooh!” Natalie says. “Here! Let me push Reggie’s head in front of the target, I bet you can hit it then!”
She shoves Reggie in front of the target, which is extremely unhelpful.
“Natalie put Reggie in front of the target since she thinks I’ll be able to shoot it better,” I say.
Maddox starts laughing. “Well, if it works.”
“I’m not shooting Reggie. Reggie, shoo!” I say.
He flips me off until Natalie returns with an apple she puts on his head. “Shoot it off,” she says.
I glare at them until they both eventually leave me. It takes far longer than I wish it would, and of course, no one bothers to move until Maddox gives them the look. How the hell can he control things he can’t even see with just a look? And why is that hot?
After Maddox finally gives in to the fact that I am, indeed, useless with a gun, he just smiles. “Let’s hope the person is the size of an elephant, alright?”
“Yeah, good plan! But does this mean I don’t get sexy time?” I ask.
“Correct.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Guess what? That also means you don’t get sexy time,” I say before giving him a wink and heading off.
“Hold on now… I shot my target,” he says.
“Yes, and I didn’t and you were my teacher. Now who looks bad in this situation? The poor, innocent student who is just finding his clothes far too constricting, or the stuffy and savage teacher?”
“I guess we should go back and shoot some more then so I can teach you better,” he says.
“Maybe later; I’m going to go home and get all naked and stuff with myself.”
“You can get naked with me,” Reggie says.
“Fuck off, Reggie.”
