After Moonrise Read online

  “A what?”

  “Tree doctor. This many elms, old and young, tell me they’ve been well cared for. Hang on, if I remember correctly…” Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she searched and clicked. “And I do! There’s an innovative preventative treatment for Dutch elm disease that needs to be applied in the spring and early summer.” She looked at him. “Mid-July would have been a perfect second-application time.”

  “I was calling the right department, but asking the wrong question,” Raef said, but before he punched the city number again, Lauren’s words had him pausing. “He has more souls trapped than just Aubrey’s. I can feel them.”

  “He’s a serial killer,” Raef said grimly. “I wonder how many more accidents have happened to people in Tulsa in the past year or so, and how many of them were close to other well-tended groves of trees.” Raef hit the number to the After Moonrise office. “Preston, I need you to get into the database and do a search for me. Deaths ruled as accidental in the past year. I’ll need specifics on the death sites. Pay special attention to details about the trees in the area—like, did the accident happen in Mohawk Park or did someone fall down the stairs at the BOK Arena. I’m interested in the trees, not the structures. Our killer has a connection to trees, might even be a tree doctor. Got it?…Good. Call me back ASAP.” He disconnected and glanced at Lauren.

  Even though she was completely focused on the computer she must have felt his look because Lauren said, “I’m already checking arborists in the area. Call the city back.”

  Raef did as he was told.

  * * *

  “SO, THE CITY USES three arborists. Chris Melnore, out of Hardscape in Bixbie, Steve Elwood, who has his own tree-trimming business in Broken Arrow, and Dr. Raymond Braggs, who is a professor at TU.” Raef read from the list the public-works director had given him. “All three have serviced Midtown. Murphy’s Law is working well, which means the city had a major computer crash last week, so they don’t have a record of which one of the three might have been to Swan Lake in July. They’re gonna check and see if anyone kept any physical notes, but it’s doubtful that they’ll find anything. It was back in July and this is October.”

  “Can’t we just call the three men and ask if he was at Swan Lake that day? We could pretend like we’re calling from the city for, uh, tax records or something like that,” Lauren said.

  “We could, but you see how jumpy the guy is already. He jerks Aubrey outta here if she so much as mentions a damn tree. I don’t want him going rabbit on me.”

  “Then how do we figure out which one he is?” Lauren rubbed a hand over her face and brushed back a strand of long blond hair.

  She looks tired, he thought. Again. I have to remember that this is draining her along with Aubrey.

  “Well, we can’t do much until we get the list of accidental deaths from my office. Then we’ll check out the death scene and see if there is any link to a tree doc, and go from there.”

  “Or we could print off pictures of each of the three guys and when Aubrey manifests next see if she can point us to one of them.”

  “You mean before she screams and gets torn into pieces and part of you gets sucked away with her? No. How ’bout I try some old-fashioned detective work instead.”

  “Aubrey and I can handle it. We’ve been doing this for months.”

  “How much longer do you think you two have?” he asked bluntly, his voice a lot colder than he meant it to be.

  Her face lost the little color it had had. “I don’t know,” she said listlessly. “I can’t tell because I don’t feel right—don’t feel whole—without Aubrey. So a piece of me is missing whether I’m being drained by a serial killer or not.”

  “All right, then, let’s not push it.” He gentled his voice. “You’re tired.”

  “I’m always tired.”

  “I’ll take you home. You can rest and I’ll call you as soon as I have something.”

  “Do you have to?”

  Raef raised a brow at her. She looked away and he saw some color in her cheeks. Before he could say anything she seemed to collect herself and turned her eyes back to his. Their gazes met and held.

  “I know you have a thing for Aubrey. That’s fine.” Lauren looked away.

  “That’s weird,” he said, wishing she’d meet his gaze again. “She’s dead.”

  “That’s fine,” she repeated as if he hadn’t spoken. “I don’t want to stay because I want to have sex with you or anything like that.” When he just stared at her, she added, “Not that you’re not an attractive man. You are. Really. Obviously my sister thinks so, and she and I have similar tastes in men.” She pushed a thick strand of blond hair from her face, looked up at him. This time her cheeks were bright pink.

  She was beautiful.

  His throat felt dry. He cleared it. When she didn’t continue speaking he prompted, “You and Aubrey liked the same guys?” Then he realized what he’d said and he hastily added, “Not that I’m into twin sex fantasies or anything too weird.”

  “Define too weird.” Her eyes found his again.

  And damned if his cheeks didn’t suddenly feel hot. “Well, after what happened last night between your sister and me, I think my definition of too weird is changing.”

  Lauren’s smile was warm—so warm it made his skin tingle. She gave a little laugh. “Okay, before this gets too crazy, let me start over. Raef, I’d really appreciate it if you’d let me stay here until we find my sister’s killer. I mean, if you don’t mind too much.”

  “That might be days or weeks,” Raef said.

  “It can’t be,” she said, no longer smiling or blushing. “There’s no way Aubrey and I have that long.” She drew a long breath. “The truth is that every time Aubrey gets ripped out of here and takes part of me with her, I’m afraid I may never come back. For some reason you are able to get me back. I don’t think you always will be able to, but for right now being around you makes me feel as safe as I’m able to feel.”

  Ah, shit, no! he thought. What he heard himself say was, “Fine. You can stay. But you get the couch.”

  “That’s perfect. I like to go to sleep watching TV.”

  “That shows a lack in your upbringing,” he said.

  “To say the least.”

  “What, rough time with nannies?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Mother doesn’t believe in nannies. She didn’t have any. Mother also doesn’t believe in children, especially not girl children. Sadly, she had two of them. And our father never paid any attention because we weren’t a son. Here’s a news flash—you don’t have to live in a trailer to be abused as a child.”

  “Hey, sorry. That was out of line of me,” he said, feeling like a douche bag.

  “Don’t worry about it. Almost everyone assumes Aub and I are spoiled rich girls.” She shook her head wearily. “Were, I mean. She’s dead. I have to start remembering that.”

  “All right, that’s enough. Let’s go.” Raef gestured for her to come out from behind his desk.

  “Are you making me leave?”

  He hated the soft, scared tone of her voice. “No, I said you could stay. I may be an ass, but I don’t break my word. What I’m making you do is take a nap.”

  She stopped halfway down the hall. “Seriously?”

  “Naps are healthy. Again, this shows another lack in your upbringing.”

  “I can assure you that’s only the second of many,” she said, following him to the wide leather couch that was already loaded with soft pillows and a faux-fur throw. She plumped a pillow, kicked off her shoes and curled up on her side, pulling the throw up to her neck. “You know, it really does look like a girl lives here.”

  “I didn’t realize pillows, a blanket and a few antiques and art were gender specific.”

  “Your pillows are baby-blue and cream, your throw is faux leopard and your art is Erté. I have two words for you, and they’re hyphenated—girl-like.”

  She was looking at him through big blue e
yes that were ringed with shadow, her hair was already rumpled and she was all curled up in a ball that he thought was so little he could almost pick her up and toss her into the other room—but she had an impish smile and a lifted chin that said she’d dare him to try.

  Raef liked her. Really liked her.

  He leaned down, clicked on the universal remote and handed it to her. “Girl-like or not, I also have all the cable channels—in HD.”

  “That’s not girl-like. That’s civilized.”

  He chuckled all the way back to his office.

  * * *

  RAEF TRIED TO WORK, but it was an exercise in frustration. He searched the internet for everything he could find about the three tree doctors, and then stared at their websites. Nothing stood out and screamed psychic serial killer about any of them. Melnore, a white guy in his mid-thirties, was divorced and had a part-time kid, or at least that’s what his Facebook page said. Elwood, another white guy, didn’t have a Facebook page. His website had a fish with a cross in it and by his Photoshopped picture he looked to be late thirties to early forties and in denial about balding. “Great, a church boy. He’s gonna be fun to research.” According to the TU faculty website, Braggs completed the white, middle-aged trifecta. He was single and newly tenured at the university. His faculty picture was standard conservative suit and tie. He looked professorially boring. His bio didn’t mention any family. He needed a haircut, but besides that looked as harmless as the other two. “Could be any or all of them.”

  Raef pushed his chair back from his desk and rolled his shoulders. He felt like shit. Not hungover anymore, but tired and woolly-headed. He glanced at the computer clock—just after noon. Preston would be at lunch. He wouldn’t call for at least the next hour or so.

  “Combat nap time,” he told the air around him, then he padded quietly down the hallway and stole a peek at Lauren. The TV was on, but turned way down. The day had become overcast, and the room was dim, but he could see by the light from the TV that her eyes were closed. Good. We’ll both be better off after forty winks. Raef reclined onto his wide bed, fully clothed, put his phone on Vibrate, slid it into his jeans pocket and closed his eyes. Sleep came to him like it had since his days in the military—fast and easy.

  Which was exactly how he came awake, too, when the feeling intruded on an excellent dream he was having about playing shortstop during the World Series.

  Hope! I know it’s ridiculous, impossible, but I can feel hope. Raef lay there for a moment, just soaking in the emotion. God, it felt good. Better than pleasure. Better than joy.

  And then he realized why he was feeling it.

  Aubrey had to be here.

  Quickly, quietly, he padded on sock feet to where he could look into the living room. He’d been right. She was there, sitting on the couch beside Lauren, who was awake. They were talking in low voices, their heads tilted toward each other, and Raef was struck by how alike they were. It wasn’t just how they looked. It was the way they moved—the way they both talked with their hands. As he watched, Aubrey swept back a strand of diaphanous blond hair that had floated over her face, just like Lauren had been doing all morning. She said something Raef couldn’t hear, but it had Lauren giggling and then pressing a hand over her mouth, as if she’d just laughed at something mischievous—or raunchy, Raef thought as he watched Lauren fan herself like her face was suddenly hot.

  He didn’t think he’d made a noise, though he was smiling, but Aubrey chose then to look around her sister and straight at him.

  “Come on in, Kent. We have a proposition for you,” she said, sounding both mischievous and raunchy.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “What’s the proposition?” he asked, wondering why even though he sounded reluctant his feet were propelling him quickly to join the two women.

  “Aubrey wants to give you something,” Lauren said, still looking flushed-cheeked and sounding a little breathless.

  “But I need Lauren’s help.” Aubrey grinned at her twin. “And she’s agreed. Happily.”

  Raef was almost as suspicious as he was curious. Almost. “All right, what do you want to give me?”

  “We’ll tell you—or rather, we’ll show you—but first I want you to promise me you’ll open your mind and your heart and be willing to just go with it.”

  A red flag went up for Raef, but it was hard to assess the warning when Aubrey and Lauren were both beaming full-wattage smiles at him. “I need to know what it is I’m being open about before I make that promise.” Even he could hear the bullshit in his voice. Hell, he’d agree to be open to sprouting wings and jumping off the fucking garage if those two kept smiling at him like that.

  “It’s part of being open, Raef. You don’t get to know what you’re promising—you get to be open to all sorts of possibilities.” Then Lauren giggled, and her cheeks got even pinker.

  Raef went from being curious to intrigued, and that trumped suspicious. “All right. I promise. Now, what are you two cooking up?”

  Aubrey stood. “Just a little hope, and that plus pleasure and joy makes for a feast.” The ghost lifted her hand and Lauren stood beside her. The women smiled at each other. “Are you ready?” Aubrey asked her.

  “As I’ll ever be,” Lauren said. Raef thought she sounded nervous.

  “It’ll be fine. I’ll drive,” Aubrey said teasingly.

  “You always were better at driving than me,” Lauren said. She shook back her hair and laughed. “Just do it. I’m ready to take one for the team.”

  Aubrey looked from her twin to Raef. She really looked at Raef—moving her gaze from his feet, all the way up, slowly, to meet his eyes. Raef felt himself start to harden. What the hell? Just her look does that to me?

  Then Aubrey turned her gaze back to Lauren. “Oh, please, sis! Take one for the team? This is going to be better than buttered popcorn and Raisinets!”

  Raef thought he heard Lauren whisper something that sounded like “Nothing’s better than popcorn and Raisinets…” but he couldn’t be sure, and what Aubrey did next blew his mind so totally and completely that he forgot everything except what was happening right before him.

  Aubrey and Lauren were facing each other. Lauren opened her arms and Aubrey stepped into them, as if they were going to embrace. But their joining didn’t end with a hug. Aubrey seemed to melt into Lauren. Slowly and without any of the ripping or tearing or shattering that had come before, Aubrey disappeared.

  Lauren was silent and still for several moments. Then she lifted her right hand. Staring at it, she traced the fingers of her left hand down her palm, wrist and forearm. “Wow, I’d forgotten.”

  “Lauren?” Raef asked, even though his gut told him her answer before she did.

  She turned blue eyes to him. Her smile widened. “No, Kent, not Lauren. Or at least not just Lauren.”

  “Aubrey!”

  She closed the few feet between them. “Yes, it’s me.” She lifted her right hand again, cupping his cheek. “You shaved just this morning, but you’re already stubbly. All that dark, manly stubble. I like it. It’s going to feel wonderful against Lauren’s soft skin.”

  “Possession—it’s, uh, dangerous.” He sounded like an idiot, but her touch had his pulse jumping and his dick hardening.

  Her hand went from his cheek to his neck. Her fingers were soft and delicate and so, so warm. They slid from there down the front of his sweatshirt, pausing over his nipple, where she used her nails, lightly, to caress him.

  He inhaled sharply.

  She smiled.

  “For most people it is dangerous, but we’re twins. We shared the same womb. It’s different for us.” As she spoke, Aubrey moved her hand to the waist of his jeans. There she paused again, and slipped her hand up under the edge of his sweatshirt, until her fingers touched the skin just beneath his belly button. There she used her fingernails again. Lightly she stroked naked flesh, following the waistline of his jeans.

  “It’s still not healthy. Not right.” Raef was breathing so
hard he sounded like he was running a damn marathon.

  “This is where the part about promising to be open comes in.” Her fingertips moved down until they found his erection, and then she traced the long, hard line of his cock—slowly—up and down. “Kent, you strike me as a man who keeps his promises,” she whispered as she leaned into him. “Am I wrong?”

  “No!” The word came out with a moan of desire. “But you’re not alive. And you’re not Lauren.”

  “Kent, just open yourself to me and let yourself feel it.” She lifted her other hand and curled it around his broad shoulder.

  “Feel what? All I can feel is you, and I’m fucking sure that’s not right!”

  She smiled. “Yes, feel me, but also let yourself feel hope—the hope that there is more to this life than what you’ve known, or even what you’ve believed yourself capable of.” Then, before he could say anything, or move away, or second-guess what was happening, Aubrey kissed him.

  She was sweet and soft, and so damn warm. Her mouth was open and inviting, and he could not say no. His arms went around her and his tongue met hers, touching, tasting, desiring, and as he moaned again and lost himself in the taste of her, he felt it—hope. It filled him to overflowing. He’d been right in the bedroom. It was better than pleasure and joy. It was a rare and wonderful thing that lit him from within.

  Raef stopped kissing her long enough to look down at her flushed, smiling face. “I don’t care that you’re dead. I don’t care that this is Lauren’s body. Right now—for this moment—I’m going to hope that somehow this is all going to turn out right. And I gotta have you, Aub. I gotta.”

  “Then I’m yours—for this moment.” She gave him a little push and he sat back on the couch. Lauren had been wearing a pullover sweater the color of her eyes, and a pair of ass-hugging jeans. Still smiling at him, Aubrey pulled off the sweater and unzipped, then stepped out of, the jeans. She paused for a moment, looked down at herself and laughed softly. “French lace from Muse at Utica Square. Sis, I knew I could count on you for the sexy specialty lingerie.” Her eyes found Raef again. “Do you like it?” Aubrey touched her nipple through the pink lace.