The Curse of a Single Red Rose (Haunted Hearts Series Book 7) (22 page)

“Are you gonna tell him? I would think you’d want to stay away from that crazy man.”

Elsa’s instincts tap-danced on her nervous system. Her early warning system blared in her ear. “Does he come here often when no one is here?”

The woman grinned, but her expression was devoid of warmth or humor. “Every single night around midnight. I can’t get a good night’s sleep with all that humming. Of all the people that goes in there…” She pointed at the front door. “The hotel hates him the most.”

Hate was a strong emotion to ascribe to a building.

“Why would the building shake with so much hate unless that man was filled with hate? He’s a bad man. A very bad man. If that crazy man has your friend, she’s in a lot of danger.”

Of all the weirdoes Elsa had met in New Orleans, this woman was the weirdest. Did she think she was a seer?

“Did he give your friend a rose?”

Elsa had given the woman enough of her time. She should be inside helping the guys look for Sophia.

Her temper finally blew. “A rose? Really? My boyfriend…” Yeah, Collin was her boyfriend. That was the first time she’d ever referred to him that way.

A lump formed in the pit of her stomach. Which was scarier? A potentially long-term relationship with the most aggravating man she’d ever met or facing the threat of the unknown in the hotel?

“Someone has been leaving roses for my boyfriend for days, and if you really have been spying on us, then you know that Collin is still alive. So that stupid curse… No, Sophia hasn’t been gifted with a rose.”

“A rose? Yeah, she found a rose on the kitchen counter this morning. Gave us the creeps because we couldn’t figure out how it got there.”

Dylan’s voice startled her. She hadn’t heard him come up behind her.

The woman’s eyes roamed up and down Dylan’s body as if she were sizing him up for a delicious dessert. “Don’t ignore the curse of a single red rose, young man. You have to find that girl, or she’ll be dead by the end of the night.”

Dylan turned to Elsa. His face had turned bright red. “What’s she talking about?”

“You can’t even get your story right, lady. The legend says the rose has to be gifted in the hotel.” She pointed toward the building. “Sophia has never been inside the building, so your legend is just a really, really bad sleepover horror story. Mind your own business.”

Collin finally emerged from the building. “She’s not in there. We’re wasting time here.” He stopped. The frown on his face deepened. “What do you want?” He sounded as if he’d met the busybody before.

“Your woman told me you’d been given a lot of roses. If you’re still alive, he must have special plans for you.”

Collin’s fists clenched into two tight balls. “I told you to stay away from here.”

The woman cackled. “You don’t own this place.” She backed up a step when her eyes strayed to his fisted hands. “No living person owns this place. The hotel belongs to the spirits, and the spirits want to be left in peace.”

That’s not what the spirits had told Elsa. The spirits wouldn’t rest until
he
was stopped, and Elsa had been given the task of stopping him. “I need to go inside.”

Collin objected in a hoarse roar. “Why? Sophia’s not in there.”

“They’ll tell me where she is.”

The woman backed further away from them. “I want no part of that. I have done my duty and warned you. I will not be responsible for what happens.” She spun on her heel and rushed away, and two seconds later it was as if she’d never been there at all.

Elsa grabbed Collin’s upper arm. “You saw her, didn’t you? I didn’t just imagine her, did I?”

“The crazy lady? No. She’s real. A real nut job. I’ve had to run her off from the front door a few times. She stands outside and tells people that walk by about the curse.” Collin wrapped his arm around Elsa’s waist. His voice softened. “But she’s right. You can’t go in there again.”

“I’m not going to let her crazy talk stop me. That woman is full of—”

“I don’t care what she says. I still remember what happened to you the last time you went in there. We shouldn’t have brought you here.”

Elsa shook his arm off. “Did you think you could stop me from coming? I drove us here, remember?”

He lifted his hands. “I know. I know. You have a mind of your own. I get it.”

“It’s more than that, Collin. Les took Sophia instead of me. What he said…the way he looked at her…I have the feeling he’s been looking for her, and I led him straight to her.”

“Aw, come on, Elsa. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

Dylan jumped into their argument. “Maybe it is her fault. Maybe Les would have never found Sophia if Elsa hadn’t insisted on going to the parade.”

Was Dylan going to start a fight with Collin again? She cut off the conversation and headed toward the door.

Collin followed Elsa through the front door. “If you’re going in there, I’m coming with you.”

Dylan burst with irritation. “What are you doing? She’s not in there. We’re wasting time here.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Where’s Moreau?” He barged in right behind them and came to a hard stop, almost bumping into them.

Elsa had stalled right inside the door.

The hotel vibrated with its displeasure. Maybe the building didn’t want its secrets revealed, but the inhabitants had other ideas. The spirits that still clung to the hotel tugged on her soul. She moved toward the spiral stairs and reached the top as if in an instant, as if she’d floated to the third floor. In another minute, she was standing in the middle of the corner room.

She whispered, afraid to raise her voice. “I know you want to go home, and I know you can’t go unless I stop him. If you want me to help, then tell me how I’m supposed to do that.”

Maybe she was rushing things, but her sixth sense urged her to ask the spirits for help. There was no time to waste on speculation.

Her heart felt like it had expanded in her chest and filled with myriad emotions not her own. The fabric of her shirt pressed against her chest, heavy enough to crush her. She clutched the material and yanked hard. Intense light filled her vision, casting a harsh glare on her surroundings. She wanted out of her body, so that she could float above everything and view the world from a different perspective.

A voice filled her head. He
is not here
.

She shielded her eyes and screamed into the light. “Then where is he?”

He
took the man
.

Clarity exploded in her mind. Just as she’d suspected, just as she and Collin had speculated,
he
and Les weren’t the same being.
He
was a stronger force, and
he
had overtaken Les.

“Where did he go?” Her question swirled around her mind. She’d asked without opening her mouth.

Where
he
began
.

The light folded into itself and disappeared. The scene lost its surreal vibe. The corner room seemed like any other room in a hotel, merely a place for people to stay when they were…traveling.
The malicious spirit travels.

She turned and found Dylan and Collin standing in the door. The two of them looked helpless, as if something had just happened that neither of them had any power to control.

In a couple of steps, she stood before Dylan and took his trembling hands in hers. “They told me he’s taking her back to where he began.” That was the short explanation.

He jerked, and the color drained from his face. “The manor house. I should have known.”

“Yes. We should have realized he’d go back to where it all started. Tell Moreau to meet us there. He’s wasting his time coming here. Do you know how to contact the sheriff up there? I’m going to need all the help I can get to stop him.”

Her voice held such command of authority that the tone of it startled her. Neither man questioned her presumption that she was the one who had to stop whatever was about to happen.

Chapter Seventeen

If the ride from the Irish Channel to the French Quarter had been long, then the drive from New Orleans to Wakefield had been interminable. By the time Elsa pulled onto the dirt track that wound from the highway to the manor house, the sun was taking it daily dive over the western horizon.

The car wouldn’t go fast enough. The guys were on edge because they hadn’t heard any news from Moreau, which meant no one in law enforcement had spotted Les or Sophia. Elsa would have been surprised if they’d been located and Wakefield had been held for questioning. New Orleans was a big city that was easy to disappear in. If Les hadn’t taken Sophia back to Wakefield Manor, they might never find her.

An uneasy feeling settled over her. Elsa’s whole body was a tingling mass of nerve endings. It seemed a dark premonition was taking control of her mind. If they didn’t find Sophia alive at Wakefield Manor… No, Elsa couldn’t allow the negative thinking to control her. They would find Sophia. She had to be there. Where else would
he
take her?

And there was the problem. She didn’t know who
he
was, so how could she be sure where
he
would take Sophia? Her assumptions could be totally off.

The day had been long already, and tensions were high. No conversation, pleasant or otherwise, broke the heavy silence in the car on the drive. When the mansion finally came into view, she spotted a sheriff’s department vehicle parked almost on top of the front steps of the house. Just as Elsa put the car in park, Sheriff Soileau exited the manor through the front door.

Elsa was surprised to see the sheriff come out of the building alone. Soileau had balked at entering the house when the two of them had come up there for her ghost tour.

Car doors slammed and feet rustled the ground cover that had overtaken the front of the house. Dylan was the first to close the distance to the sheriff.

Soileau shook her head before he could ask the question. “I’ve done a thorough search of the house. She’s not here.”

The sheriff addressed Elsa as she approached her. “I know what you’re thinking. I said I’d never go in there again, but if someone’s life is in danger, then it’s my job to suck it up and go in there whether I want to or not.” She glanced over her shoulder at the house. “Nothing happened…this time.”

“What about the cemetery?” Collin’s voice wavered a bit when he asked the question.

Dylan flinched. “Of course, we should search the cemetery. That’s where they were all buried.”

Soileau shifted her gaze toward the trail that led through the woods. “I’m not going to go down there by myself.”

Dylan blew a gasket. “Why didn’t you bring a deputy with you?”

“All of my on-duty deputies are on calls. Half of them are working a huge wreck out on I-10. Surely, you got caught up in the traffic jam.” Her gaze shifted toward the highway. “I called Perot on his day off. He was supposed to meet me here.”

She was right. There had been some congestion on the highway just past the Wakefield exit, but Elsa hadn’t gotten caught in it.

“I’m going down there.” Dylan marched toward the path to the cemetery.

Collin yelled at him. “I’ll go with you. Just let me grab a flashlight first.”

The rosy gold of late evening turned to dark in a flash, before Collin could finish his last sentence. Without the sun to punch insistent fingers of light through the moss-covered oak branches, the world underneath the canopy of limbs seemed thick with foreboding.

Dylan halted with his hands on his hips, staring at the ground until Collin caught up to him with a light. They were gone in a flash. Elsa turned inquisitive eyes toward Soileau.

The sheriff shook her head. “I’m not waiting around here in the dark for them to come back. Unless you want to stand here all by yourself, let’s go.”

She took off after the men, and Elsa hurried to catch up with her.

Near the swamp, the air hung heavy with moisture, even after dark. A far off owl hooted a lonesome call. Tree limbs swayed and bent into strange shapes, and moss dangled so low that it caught in Elsa’s hair. The scene came straight out of a monster horror movie.

Yellow eyes glowed from a few feet away. Elsa gasped and nudged the sheriff, who was only a step ahead of her. “What’s that?”

Soileau’s head turned for a second. “Keep moving, and he won’t bother you.”

“What won’t bother me?” Her question screeched on the rising wind.

“Alligator. They’re pretty sluggish this time of year. If you leave him alone, he’ll leave you alone.”

That’s what her father used to say about red wasps. She’d been stung enough to know it wasn’t true. A quick glimpse over her shoulder assured her that the gator hadn’t moved. That didn’t mean the beast wouldn’t come after them.

The men met them on their way coming back. Deeping shadows covered their faces, but Elsa could tell from their sagging shoulders that they hadn’t found Sophia. Dylan kept moving past them back up the trail toward the house. The sheriff stared down the path toward the cemetery as if her steady gaze alone was enough to make Sophia materialize. Collin stopped in front of Elsa, placing his hands on her shoulders. A lonesome patch of pale moonlight lit his face. His worried expression sent a stab of dread through her.

“We have to keep looking.” His whispered words drifted on the chilly night air.

“Where are you gonna look?” The sheriff’s skepticism echoed around them, passing in and out of the woods along the trail. “Is there somewhere else he would go? He wouldn’t take her back to South Carolina, would he?”

There was no answer for that. Did anyone really know the man?

“Let’s get out of here.” Collin took Elsa’s hand and pulled her along the trail toward the house.

She passed the alligator, keeping her sights on him, ready to bolt and run if he made a move toward them. The animal stared at her with large yellow eyes but remained sunk in the mud. Elsa shuddered at his size but never slowed her pace.

As they entered the clearing, Elsa caught a glimpse of Dylan entering the manor house.

Soileau made a noise of frustration. “I wish he hadn’t done that.” She moved around Collin and Elsa and ran toward the house.

****

Elsa glanced over her shoulder. The path called to her, yet she had the deep down sense that going to the cemetery could be very dangerous for her.

“Don’t ever let me go back there.” The words dropped from her lips as if they had a mind of their own. Much of what she’d been doing and saying ever since Sophia disappeared had been guided by instinct.

Collin turned curious eyes toward her. “Are you getting some strange vibes about the place?”

She nodded. It wasn’t a full-blown impression, just a niggling warning, low-key and insistent.

He squeezed her hand. “There’s a good reason for that. If I have to tie you up and hold you down, I promise to keep you out of there.”

Of course, he would. He’d had a frightening experience in the Wakefield Cemetery. The relief on his face told her he was glad he’d gone back and come out again without another incident.

He pulled her toward the house, and she was thankful for his gentle, yet insistent tug away from the path. Together, they climbed the front steps. Shadows played along the warped boards on either end of the porch. Tendrils of kudzu had overtaken one of the end columns and brought it down. The vines had crawled halfway up the column next to it. White plaster crumbled from the side of the house and clumped on the porch in chalky-looking globs. Several of the slats in the dark green shutters had come loose, giving the window covers a bedraggled appearance.

A flicker of movement in the glass panes of one of the French doors caught her eye. She jerked her head to gaze at the door. Whatever had caught her attention was gone. Probably just a reflection of tree limbs rustling in the heightening wind.

Sure, Elsa. After all the stories you’ve heard about this place, you’re going to try to explain away something strange like that. Maybe it was your imagination. Maybe it was a reflection. Maybe it was just what you think it was.

She stalled just outside the double front doors.

Collin cleared his throat. “Are you ready to go inside?”

“No, not really, but let’s get it over with.”

He entered the house ahead of her. She expected her psyche to take a hit as soon as she crossed the threshold, but nothing rushed her.

The size of the grand hall astounded her. No other antebellum plantation home along the River Road had such a grand staircase curving up one side of the room in a graceful arc. From the balcony at the top of the stairs, a person could look down at the grand hall below.

Collin pointed to the railing along the balcony. “That’s where it happened.”

“Where what happened?” The trembling in her gut told her she already knew the answer.

“Brandon Wakefield hung himself from the balcony rail. Les had just come in the door. That’s when Dylan thinks it started.”

“When what started?” Why was she asking questions for which she already knew the answers? They’d already discussed Brandon’s death and Les’s crazy behavior. Many times.

“Ever since he saw Brandon hang himself, he’s acted just like Brandon did right before he died.” His voice echoed around the big room.

Elsa stared up into Collin’s eyes. Why was he repeating the story now?

Someone has to die.

“Brandon wasn’t the first person to swing from that rail.”

Elsa shuddered. Collin’s words were significant.

Dylan’s voice boomed around the upstairs, loud enough that Elsa could understand every angry word. “Where are you? Come out and face me like a man.” The bang of a fist slamming into a wall rattled the whole house. “I know you’re here. Show yourself, old man.”

“What is he doing? Soileau said there’s no one here.”

Collin slid his arm around her shoulder. “I think he’s trying to antagonize the ghost of Les Wakefield.”

“I don’t sense a malicious presence here.” She whispered her opinion so only Collin could hear her.

Collin stood as still as a stone statue, his eyes focused on the balcony above. “You’re right.
He’s
not here.”

“The spirits at the hotel told me that
he
had taken Les. Maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong. What if
he
would take her somewhere important to him instead of where Les would take her?”

“Then we have no idea where to look for Sophia because we have no idea who
he
is.”

She glanced up at the balcony. Ideas were forming in her head, but key pieces of information were still missing. She turned her gaze toward Collin. “Dylan isn’t going to get them to talk to him by showing his anger. The women who died here won’t respond to an angry male voice.”

Collin rubbed his mouth while staring into her eyes.

“I have to do this, Collin. It’s why I’m here. This is never going to leave me alone unless I finish it.” She placed a hand on his cheek. “As soon as this is over, we can be normal. I want to know what normal for us looks like. I want to know that when this is over we won’t fall apart. I need this to be over, so I can find normal. So we can find out normal together. I want that.”

He didn’t flinch at her declaration of intent. “Me too.”

All the while, Dylan’s railing at the absent spirits of Wakefield Manor rang in her ears. The longer the spirits remained silent, the angrier Dylan’s words became. She feared they would retreat and not show again that night.

“Do what you need to do. I’m here. You’re not alone. I’ll be here when you fall.” Collin brushed her lower lip with his thumb, a simple gesture that sealed his fate.

His words, his expression, his actions revealed the extent of what he was saying. He meant more than just the moment. His declaration of intent suggested a long-term situation. If she hadn’t already fallen for him, that one action, the gentle caress coupled with his reassuring words, under any circumstances would have pushed her over the edge.

He took her hand and together they climbed the stairs following the sound of Dylan’s angry voice until they found him in one of the front bedrooms.

Soileau pleaded with Dylan. “Tearing the place up isn’t going to help. You need to get out of this house. It’s making you crazy.”

Elsa entered the room and placed a hand on Dylan’s arm. His angry beseeching of the spirits ceased. Soileau’s eyes widened with apparent surprise. Maybe she hadn’t heard Elsa enter the room.

The sheriff backed away from them with her hands in the air. “Maybe you can talk him into leaving.”

“Let me do this, Dylan. They talk to me.”

He studied her face, his muscles working and stretching his features into odd shapes. One moment he was a handsome man, and the next moment his anger had transformed him into an ugly caricature of himself. Finally, he nodded and backed away, leaving Elsa alone in the middle of the room.

Collin stood in the open doorway. Dylan pressed his back against the bedroom wall. The sheriff finally joined Dylan against the wall, but she clearly wasn’t pleased with the situation or Elsa’s solution to Dylan’s mania.