Keeper of Spirits Read online

  He couldn’t believe that they would actually force him to stay home because of his drinking. What kind of bullshit was that? He was a drunk, but he functioned just fine and it had never interfered with any of their missions before. Why now?

  He could supply them with the funds they needed and they still didn’t want him to go. He had never felt more betrayed by his family than he did at that moment. He wanted to help protect them. He wanted to be there for them and they were denying him.

  Because he drank and he hated Reapers. They all drank, every single one of them, and he was the only one who ever got bitched at for it. Granted, he knew that he was an alcoholic and none of them were, but still, it wasn’t like he was the only one who had ever flown off the handle and made mistakes.

  They all made mistakes.

  He bent his head and pressed it into the steering wheel. How could they tell him that he couldn’t go? It wasn’t that he wanted to go put his life in danger, but he definitely wanted to help his family. And he was good at helping protect his family, whether he was drunk or not.

  “Assholes,” he mumbled, turning the key and shifting the car into drive. “Fucking assholes.”

  He drove slowly through town, glancing at the bar as he passed and wondering how Reese was feeling. She worked pretty much every day and hardly ever closed the bar. She didn’t trust anyone else to work it, so she was the only one who was ever behind the bar. If she had to take time off or there was an emergency, she just shut the place down.

  The lights were on and several people stood out on the sidewalk smoking and chatting. Maybe tomorrow he would try to talk to her again. Maybe she just needed a few days to cool off.

  He laughed out loud even as the thought rolled through his mind. Right, Reese was not one to let this stuff go. She was definitely a grudge holder, so he was going to have to stick it out until she was done being mad.

  And that could be a while.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  REESE

  In the early afternoon, before opening, the bar was always silent. This was the time Reese loved most. She would enter the establishment that was once her father’s and let the silence envelope her as she stared the bar her father had crafted with his own hands, at the furniture that he had carefully chosen for the room, at the jukebox that he had haggled for with the owner of a pawn shop in the city. These were the things that made up Knight’s Bar, and each day when she looked at them, it reminded her of why she loved this place so much.

  Her mother had hated the bar. She had hated Summer Hollow, too. She had hated those things so much that she had left them when Reese was just seven years old. Reese would love to say that she didn’t think about her mother very often, but she did. She thought about her every single day when she walked into the bar and stood there in silence, remembering why her father had loved the place so much. It was then that she would remember that her mother hated it enough to leave her family and her home.

  She would never do that.

  Sure, she didn’t have a family and didn’t plan to anytime soon, but she would never abandon her family. Families stick together.

  Even as the thought struck her, she knew that she should give the Estmonds another chance. The people of Summer Hollow, the people she had grown up with, they were her family … the Estmonds were her family.

  She began lifting the chairs off of the tables and setting them on the floor. If the Estmonds were in trouble, she needed to help them. The problem was that they wouldn’t tell her what the hell the trouble was, so she either had to trust them and understand that they were keeping it secret from her for a good reason, or she could continue to shut them out.

  She really hated shutting them out.

  If she decided to forgive them, she had to make peace with herself about the lying. They knew that she knew they were lying and they still stuck to their story, so that meant that whatever it was had to be important enough for the whole family to keep their mouths shut, even when they had been caught.

  But, she wanted to know. The secrecy was killing her. That was another thing. She would have to come to terms with the fact that she would be blindly accepting that they were the ones in the right. She really hoped they hadn’t done anything really horrible.

  She was crouched behind the bar, stacking the glasses that had been sitting in the dishwasher overnight when she heard the back door open. The front door was still locked since she hadn’t officially opened the bar yet.

  “We’re closed,” she yelled. “Come back in an hour.” When no one answered, she stood up so that she could yell at whoever was wandering around. She didn’t see anyone. Maybe they had turned around and left when she’d hollered at them.

  “Weird,” she whispered to herself, then bent back down to finish what she was doing. Not a minute passed when she swore that she heard the floorboards creak on the other side of the bar. No, they hadn’t left. There was definitely someone in the room with her.

  Quietly, she felt her back pocket for her phone and then bit her lip to hold back a curse when she realized it wasn’t there. She had left it on the edge of the pool table earlier.

  Well, I guess we’re gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way, she thought as she reached over and wrapped her fingers around of the handle of her bat.

  “I know someone’s in here,” she called out. “If you’re trying to prank me, now is definitely not the time to be doing something like that.” After what happened the other day, she was taking this kind of thing seriously. The Estmonds had put their friendship in jeopardy by lying to her and claiming that that it was too dangerous for her to know what was really going on. She hadn’t expected that danger to be real, but she wasn’t dumb enough to take chances.

  Again, no one answered.

  “Fine, don’t answer me.” Slowly, cautiously, she gripped her bat and stood. As she rose, she scanned the room, searching for signs that anyone was present.

  Nothing. All was silent.

  Keeping her feet soft, she walked the length of the bar and rounded it. She kept the bar at her back as she went the opposite way on the other side. The last thing she wanted was anyone sneaking up on her from behind.

  She held up bat up, gripping the handle tight but leaving her elbows loose in case she needed to swing it. “Come out now and I might not beat the shit out of you.”

  Silence still hung heavy in the air. Only the sound of her breathing and soft footfalls could be heard. Step by step, Reese crept through the bar toward the pool table, hoping she could get to her phone before anyone showed their face.

  Her heart beat loudly in her chest, banging away so loudly that she was sure the intruder could hear it. Instinct told her that she was absolutely not alone and that the person in there with her did not have good intentions.

  When she was only a few steps away, her bat in her right hand, she turned slightly and stretched out her left hand, reaching desperately for her phone. Her fingers were within inches of contact when a figure stepped out of the corner behind the giant cardboard cutout of a beer bottle.

  It was the dark-haired guy from the other night … one of the ones who had faced off against the Estmonds. He had a dark blue hoodie pulled up over his head, but she recognized his facial features, even with the scabbed up scratches on his cheek and bruised eye.

  Reese left the phone and gripped her bat with both hands, holding it in a position ready to strike. “Get out of here! I just called the police.”

  The man shook his head and tsked her. “You don’t have to lie, Reese. We both know you didn’t.”

  Dammit, he knew her name. He must have heard it the other night. “Get out,” she growled.

  He ignored her demand and took two paces forward. In turn, Reese backed up and regretted doing it as soon as she realized that she just signaled that she was frightened, which would give him the upper hand. “Why are you here?” she demanded.

  He tilted his head thoughtfully. “You heard everything the other day. I’m sure the Estmonds to
ld you all about us.”

  “They told me nothing. Now get out.” Sweat trickled down her back and fear had her almost shaking, but she held fast to her bat, hoping that she could defend herself.

  “Lies again.” He moved closer.

  “I told you, they didn’t tell me a damn thing and I was too busy working to hear anything that you guys were talking about before the fight.”

  “We can’t take any chances.”

  Her heart skipped a beat and goosebumps erupted all over her skin. “What … what does that mean? Are you talking about killing me?” Her voice was far more frantic than she had intended.

  “Like I said, we can’t take any chances.” With those last words, he lunged at her. She’d been prepared for that and swung the bat before he got near enough to make contact with her. The bat nailed him in the shoulder, but only caused him to stumble a little bit. She rallied, swirling the wooden shaft and swung again, this time aiming for the head.

  Anticipating her move, he had ducked in time and went for her in a crouch as the bat sailed through the air. He rammed into her with such force that it knocked her to the ground. Her grip on the handle came loose on pure reaction when his body hit hers.

  She landed on the floor with him almost on top of her. “Get off of me!” She curled her fingers into fists and tried to punch him, but she couldn’t get her arm back far enough for it to do any good. He was straddling her, grappling to get ahold of her arms and pin her down. There was no way she could hit him hard enough to impact, so she went old school elementary and used her index finger to poke him in the eye.

  “Fuck!” The Reaper grabbed his eye, releasing her and losing his guard for just a moment. Reese took the opportunity and used as much force as she could to push him off of her. He fell to the side and she flipped onto her hands and knees, crawling away as fast as she could.

  It wasn’t any use though. He recovered quickly. She heard him get to his feet and from behind, he grabbed her shirt, yanking so hard that she heard the front of it rip. He lifted her up and before she knew it, her feet were off the ground and she was sailing through the air.

  She landed hard on top of the pool table. Every bone and muscle in her body was screaming in pain. He didn’t give her anytime to reach for her phone or to run, he was there, looming over her.

  “I really don’t want to have to do this. But it’s what she wants.”

  “Who? What …” before she could get anymore words out, the man reached down, his huge fingers wrapping around her throat.

  Holy shit, he really was going to kill her. Her legs kicked uselessly against him, searching for any impact with his body. Her hands instinctively went to where his was wrapped around her neck. She tried desperately to pry his fingers away, but it was useless, he was insanely strong and for the first time since she realized there was someone in the bar with her, she actually feared for her life.

  Fuck that, though.

  Nope. She was a fighter and she was absolutely not going to let this bastard choke her out without fighting back. Removing her hand from his, she reared it back and then viciously clawed at his cheek.

  “Dammit! You bitch.” He tried to grab her hand with his free one but she used her other hand and attacked in the same manner. She could feel the lack of air now, it made her dizzy, but the fight or flight was kicking in full force. She could not give in. Not a chance.

  He slapped her with his hand still firmly squeezing her throat. If she could have screamed she would have, but only a muffled squeal emerged from her throat.

  “Do that again and I’ll do worse than throttle you. I can make the pain last a very, very long time and you will think dying this way would have been a blessing.”

  She wanted to tell him to fuck off.

  And then, a miracle happened. Her fingertip grazed something cool and hard. Of course! The cue ball was still on the table. To distract him, she blew as hard as she could and all the saliva that had built up in her mouth from not being able to swallow flew onto his face.

  “You fucking…”

  He wasn’t able to finish because her fingers wrapped around the cue ball and she used all the force she could muster as she brought her arm around and slammed the cue ball into the space by his ear.

  His hand released and curses streamed from his mouth. Sucking in air, she wanted to take a moment but knew that she didn’t have a moment. She sat up and kicked him in the balls, simultaneously switching the cue ball to her other hand and cracking him in the head with it. This time, he let out a gurgling scream and she knew she might have a chance.

  Choking now, she rolled, sliding off the table and went for her phone. Grabbing it, she hauled ass, not looking back to see if he was following her. Hauling ass at the moment happened to be more of a stumbling run, but she was moving and that was all that mattered. She pulled up the dialer, tapping out 911 as she ran.

  She hurried to her Jeep rather than her apartment. She needed to get away. Fast. She got in the Jeep and realized she didn’t have her keys.

  Shit!

  “911 what’s your emergency.”

  “I was attacked. I’m leaving now. There’s someone in my place. My bar. Knights Bar. He tried to strangle me.”

  “Do you need medical attention ma’am?”

  “I … maybe … probably. I don’t know. But send the cops to get this guy. Hurry!”

  “Address.”

  Reese choked out the address and they assured her that someone was on the way. She didn’t have her keys and couldn’t go anywhere, so she slipped out of the Jeep, cautiously glancing around the parking lot.

  Seeing no one, she ran around the corner and almost ran right into Liv. “Reese! Slow down!”

  Reese, relieved to see her, no matter how she felt about the Estmonds at the moment, bent over and began to sob.

  “Oh my gosh, Reese, what’s wrong?”

  No one that she could remember had ever seen her cry with the exception of when her father died. So she could understand the shock. Liv dropped her purse on the ground and took Reese by the shoulders, helping her to stand straight. When she did, Liv’s eyes widened and fury ripped through those brown eyes. “Who did this to you?” she demanded.

  Reese sobbed harder and they heard sirens in the distance, but David burst out of the door of the station, which was across the street and one block down. Sheriff Davis was right behind him and they ran toward them at a speed most wouldn’t have thought the Sheriff could pull off.

  Reese looked up at Liv and with a raspy voice whispered, “One of those guys came back.”

  Liv released her, gently but then turned to greet David and the Sheriff. “Check the bar!” she commanded. “He might still be in there. Go!”

  Both men did just that, knowing that Liv would help Reese. David nodded and both he and the Sheriff drew their guns before kicking the door open and heading inside.

  “Let’s walk to the station, they’ll check the bar okay.”

  “Fucking hurts,” Reese whispered.

  “I know.” Liv told her, picking up her purse and leading Reese across the street. “I’ll kill that bastard if we find him, I swear it.”

  Before she knew it, she was in the station sitting in a chair. Liv must have found a blanket somewhere because it was wrapped around her shoulders.

  “What happened?” Liv asked. “Do you want to tell me or wait for the guys?”

  Reese cleared her throat, which still felt like that assholes fingers were wrapped around it. “I was prepping to open, and he, one of those guys, showed up. He told me I knew too much and was a liability. He tried to …” She broke down again, tears streaming down her bruised cheeks. She gestured to her throat and Liv nodded that she understood.

  “I’m so sorry, Reese.” Liv wrapped her arm around Reese’s shoulder. “Dammit, I’m so sorry.”

  David and Sheriff Davis entered, door swinging open and guns holstered. “He’s gone. We scoured the entire place and your apartment. He’s not there,” David told them
.

  As much as she hated it, another sob wracked Reese’s chest and she buried her face in her hands.

  Sheriff Davis knelt down in front of her. “Honey, we’re gonna have to file a report. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but you’re going to have to tell me what happened.”

  And she did, somehow knowing that she should leave out the parts about the interaction with the Estmonds at the bar. She was still angry with them, but she also wanted to protect them if they were involved with something bad.

  “You can stay with me if you want,” Liv offered as they were leaving. “Or the farmhouse.”

  Reese shook her head. “No, I have to work. And I can take care of myself.”

  “Reese, you just got attacked,” Liv countered.

  “I have to work.” Her voice was flat.

  David walked with them as the crossed the street. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to work tonight, what are you going to tell everyone about your …”

  Reese knew what he was talking about and feared the moment she had to look in the mirror. “I don’t know, but I have to make money, which means I have to work. And I can stay by myself. I don’t think he will come back.” It was a total lie. She was terrified that man, or one of the others, would come back for her.

  “Reese, please let us help you,” Liv pleaded with her.

  Reese rested a hand on the handle of Knight’s Bar. “I don’t need your help. But thank you.” With that, she opened the door and strode inside to face the still empty bar that now held a bad memory along with all the good ones.

  CHAPTER NINE

  DAN

  The graveyard was peaceful. No sign of Reapers, thank goodness. He wasn’t in the mood for fighting. He just wanted some peace. He was sure most would find it a strange thing, but the cemetery calmed him. Normal people didn’t like being in a place where they buried the dead, but to him, it was a retreat from the world around him.