Levi touched Gray’s arm. “Do you want to tell Mom or should I?”
If Levi wanted Gray to confess to something rather than telling me himself, then it was bad. The silence stretched before us, and I suddenly just had enough. “I drove over here half thinking you were all dead. So someone talk, now, or I’m going to scream my head off.”
Levi’s eyes met mine. “Gray attacked two of the players. On the sidelines. With their helmets off, using his lacrosse stick.”
“Is everyone okay?” I looked at the coaches.
Gray had been playing for them for three years. Lacrosse hadn’t been on my radar before that; I hadn’t even known kids did that these days. Soccer, football, baseball … those I knew. But his friends played, and eventually I’d gotten him signed up for it. He’d been a natural midfielder, managing transitions well and being fast. Lacrosse always made me wince, the chance for injury and violence a little more than I wanted for my ten year old, yet this was the first time Gray had been involve in an incident off the field.
The coaches were named Dan and Anthony O’Grady. They weren’t brothers but cousins who had grown up together in Austin. Finding two people who were actually from Austin and still lived there was quite unusual. Dan was taller than Tony but not by much. They both had sons who played on the team who had inherited their blue eyes and dark hair. The two boys icing their faces were not the coaches’ sons but rather two of the younger kids on the team whose names, I thought, were Derek and Josh.
“They’re going to be fine. Their parents aren’t happy, but I think we got everyone cooled down. Grayson isn’t going to play for two games. Isn’t that right, son?” Coach Anthony answered me. Of the two men, he definitely qualified as the mouthpiece. Dan tended to get more physical, running up and down the fields while Tony dealt with the parents.
Apparently, today it had become our day to be managed.
“Gray,” I turned my attention back to my son. “Why did you hit them, buddy? Did they hurt you? Were they making you feel bad about things?”
Gray was many things, but violent had never been one of them. He was much more likely to whine than to swing at anyone. Lately, he’d been surly and rude, yet I thought this behavior constituted something new. Unless it had all been leading to this and I didn’t know. I had to hold onto the hope he’d somehow been provoked.
“I told you not to call her.” Gray spoke through gritted teeth to Levi.
“That’s not how this works, big guy.” Levi narrowed his eyes. “You don’t get to tell me what I do and don’t do. I brought your mom here because I thought it was important she be here to talk to you and your coaches.”
And he’d never dealt with a crisis with the kids by himself. I shook my head. Levi would hate to think he didn’t do his part, but the truth was, when it came to kid-drama, I was the woman in charge
“Why don’t you want me here?” I ran my hand over his hair, and he jerked as though I’d struck him.
“Because I don’t. I don’t want you. Ever. And I hate Lacrosse; I’m not playing anymore. Can we go? Now. Please.”
Gray stormed away towards the parking lot, and I didn’t move for a second, needing to recover from the shock. My first born—whose face I looked at the second he was born and loved instantly—hated me.
“He’s a good kid.” Anthony couldn’t have sounded more uncomfortable if he’d tried. “He’s welcome in Lacrosse after he sits out the two games. I mean, Gray has never done anything like this before. I know with the divorce and all that, things have been hard.”
Levi rose and extended his hand. “Thanks for the understanding.”
I was glad my ex could be so calm because the little divorce comment made me want to take Gray’s lacrosse stick and go after the coach. I chased after Gray instead. Whatever his anger was, we’d deal with it. He already had a counselor. We’d taken all of the kids when we’d officially decided to separate—that terrible night when it had felt like all of the ceilings in our home should crumble into a thousand pieces—and they’d all been talking to her since. Dex and Molly went occasionally while Grayson had a weekly appointment.
“Gray.” I charged after him, finally catching up. “Come on. Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“I hit them. They’re … so annoying, and I wanted them to shut up.”
That response did nothing to quell the rising panic in my stomach. “What were they talking about?”
“I wanted them to shut up. And you know what, Mom? I want you to shut up, too.”
“Hey.” Levi’s voice startled me, and I swung around. He had Dex on his shoulders and Molly by the hand. “You do not, ever, speak to your mother that way, son. I mean ever. When we get home, you are going straight to your room.”
A muscle ticked in Gray’s jaw. “Whatever.”
Who was this person inside my ten-year-old’s body? I couldn’t cry in front of him. This had to be addressed head on. “I know the person you’re putting on isn’t you, but someone you’re pretending to be. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. I love you. We’re going to figure this out.”
His eyes widened, and for a second I saw the little boy I’d loved since I’d known he was coming into the world staring back at me. Then his anger took over, clouding his open look.
I turned to Levi. “Thanks for standing up for me.”
“You’re my wife. What do you think I’m going to do?” I raised an eyebrow at the lack of the word “ex” in his statement. Levi must have realized what he said too because his cheeks turned red. I didn’t acknowledge the slip. Why bother? We both knew the truth.
The sun beat down on my head and I wished I had put on sunblock. Had Levi put it on the kids? I forced myself to focus. Dex could blame his attention problems on me, particularly when I was stressed. He came by his maybe-ADHD honestly. I touched Gray’s arm.
“I’m not proud of what you did. I don’t believe this is who you are. I know we’re all going through a lot. Daddy and I both love you to the moon and back. We’re going to figure today out and talk to Dr. Bloom on Tuesday when we go to see her about what happened .”
Levi touched my shoulder before whispering in my ear. “You don’t think it’s worth it to call her now?”
“That’s up to you. Calling her now will constitute an emergency appointment and paying for Saturday hours. I’m not opposed to it. She clearly needs to know what happened today. But I don’t know that she’s going to say anything differently on Tuesday than she will today.”
Parenting always involved so much guesswork. Did he need to run to the therapist right this second or would it be beneficial to wait a few days and see if he’d open up about why he did it?
“I want to get out of here.” Gray’s face turned even redder than it was, and Levi placed a hand on his shoulder to guide him to the car.
“Are you coming with us? I guess I didn’t have to call you. I could have handled the incident myself.” He rubbed his eyes and it dawned on me he was tired. There had been a time I’d been so attuned to his moods I’d never have missed the telltale signs. “I just…My first instinct when this went sour was to reach out to you.”
I nodded. “Look, we’re always going to be their parents together. You should always call me when it comes to the kids.”
These types of conversations with Levi always left me drained and wanting a nap. Or a stiff tequila. I didn’t have time for either of those things. I had to go find something to wear to my job—assuming the kids were good enough for me to actually go.
I took Molly off Levi’s arms and gave her a kiss before I got her into Levi’s car and strapped her into the booster seat. She was so tiny. It would be years before she could use the seatbelt alone. Dex crawled in across her, happily chatting the whole time. I wasn’t sure what he was rambling about, something about Pokémon and Minecraft. I didn’t really care what he said; Dex’s enthusiasm was always contagious, at least for me, and I ended up grinning like a fool by the time I’d checked his seatbelt.
Gray still wouldn’t look at me and moved away when I tried to touch his face. I took a deep breath. “I know you’re angry, and you have the right to be. We’ve really done a number on your life without your permission. I’m afraid you’re part of the divorced kids club. That doesn’t give you permission to be hurtful, mean, aggressive, or violent. It’s a tough lesson to learn, but just because you’re feeling a certain way does not mean the world owes you any sympathy for bad behavior. Your dad and I love you. We care. We’ll keep working at this.”
I stepped away from the car.
“You didn’t answer me. Do you want to come home with us?”
I shook my head. I spent as little time as possible at Levi’s new place. Seeing it was depressing. Some of the items decorating his living space used to share space with mine. They looked wrong, like an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while who might not like me much anymore. Divorce had apparently made me start personifying inanimate objects. If Levi needed me with the kids, then of course I would go, and every other Sunday we ate dinner as a family at his house, but that didn’t mean I relished hanging out over there.
“No.” I shook my head. “If you’ve got this, I need to get ready for tonight.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What do you have going on tonight?”
“I have a trial for a job. A man who can help me get some work wants to see what I can do.” Maybe I could have or even should have lied to Levi. Despite his assurances to the contrary, there always was the possibility he might call CPS on me and try to take the kids away. The crazier he thought I’d become, the more likely that scenario was to occur. People who worked in my business had to be careful. It was easy to get locked up or proclaimed a danger by others who never, ever were able to see what you did.
To them it was nuts, and I understood the sentiment. Could I have easily accepted Levi proclaiming to me that he saw little green men running around and had dinner with them on Tuesdays? If I couldn’t see them, I’d never really be on board.
Or at least that’s what I told myself when I talked myself out of wanting to strangle my ex for not supporting me the one time I’d needed him to and for turning my life into a shambles in the process.
Yet I’d promised myself the day I’d finally confessed my abilities that I’d never lie to him again, and I hadn’t. Like it or not, Levi got truth from me these days.
“What kind of job?” He leaned against the car. With the sun behind him, he could have been modeling for a photo shoot. While I would never call myself ugly, I questioned what he’d ever seen in me in the first place. I’d been a clueless girl who hadn’t known how to dress myself to go to nice restaurants.
If I had any polish now, it was only after years of working at it. For some reason, he’d been okay with loving me as a girl who grew up in the back of a van but not as one who could rid the world of evil beings.
“The kind you don’t want to hear about because you think it’s nonsense.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, and it took him a few seconds to answer again. “Will you be safe?”
Wow. I hadn’t expected his question. Something inside me warmed; he cared. “Probably.”
“That’s not good enough.”
I threw up my hands. “Not doing this with you. I have to figure out what I own that will make me look more appropriate for the job, or I have to go take the hundred dollars that my would-be broker gave me which is burning a hole in my pocket, and go buy something. So I don’t have time to do this round with you again.”
“Like what? A cape and black, witch boots?” I could hear the disdain in his voice, and that was why I answered the way I did.
“No.” I turned on my heel to face him. “Apparently I need to show a little leg. I can still do sexy, can’t I, Levi?”
I didn’t stick around to hear what he would have said. Digging at my ex was allowed when he was an asshat. My elation didn’t last long. Gray’s angry eyes haunted me the rest of the day, even when I pulled out my clothes to go meet Malcolm. With my world the way it was now, how was I to balance all the sides of myself?
Chapter Five
I pulled up to the address Malcolm had given me and parked on the side of the road. A gray brick house, with overgrown grass and a For Sale sign in the front, proved to be my destination. My best guess was the owners wanted it cleared so they could sell it. My parents used to take me to jobs like this. Generally, they were pretty safe.
Ghosts and demons could still affect the people who didn’t see them, whether those people knew what was happening to them or not. A cold shiver down their spines, a sudden bout of nausea, unexplainable anger between a couple who had not fought often before—all of those things could indicate the existence of a dark presence in the house. In the case of real estate, a house that should move quickly off the market might sit for years empty and virtually unsellable. No one would ever be able to tell the agents why.
But if the agent had a sense of things—sensitivity toward the darkness, even if they couldn’t see it themselves—they might call in a professional to do a clearing.
Sometimes it took a good saging; only every so often did the house require a stronger touch. That was where people like my family came in.
I got out of my car and locked it behind me, leaving my purse inside. Malcolm leaned against a dark gray SUV, staring at his phone. I hoped his presence would be lessened.
Logically, I should be able to see him and keep my libido under control. Or so I hoped. He raised his dark eyes to meet mine and heat suffused my body. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. The last thing I wanted was for him to realize how hot he made me.
Had I noticed how big his eyes were the night before?
“Nice outfit. Good choice.”
I’d really struggled with the what-to-wear factor as I’d stood in front of my closet for half an hour. In the end, I’d put on a denim jean skirt and a black V-neck t-shirt. My feet had been harder to judge. Most of the time, I didn’t end up having to run for my life, but I needed to be able to move fast if the circumstances called for quick action.
“Thanks. I already owned it.” I pulled his hundred dollar bill out of my pocket and handed it to him. When he took it back, he raised his eyebrows before the money disappeared into the wallet he pulled out of the back of his pants. “I’m not taking money from you for clothes. I’m not a prostitute.”
He shrugged but otherwise didn’t comment on my response. Instead he indicated the house in front of him with a nod of his chin. “Then have at it, Sage.”
“Still with the nickname.” I walked past him toward the house, calling over my shoulder as I did. “They trying to sell this place, and they need it cleared?” Even though he’d told me as much the night before, I still wanted confirmation.
He waited for a moment before answering me, and when he did speak, the low timbre of his voice, the way I couldn’t identify his accent, it moved through me like heat lighting up my cells. “You tell me.”
“Great. Door open?” I couldn’t turn around to look at him. Somehow, I had to avoid eye contact with Malcolm up and until the point that he no longer affected me the way he did.
“Yep.”
I steeled my back, forcing myself to pay attention to the job at hand. By now, as close as I was to the house, I should have felt the initial tingles of otherness around me. Ghosts, spirits, demons—whatever I was about to encounter—should leave a residual energy, even outside the house. I should have goosebumps all over my arms, particularly since I didn’t have my guard up to try to block the energy.
I took a deep breath. Had I lost my touch? Had my years of forcing the ability away done harm to my natural talent?
I’d had no trouble encountering the entities in other places the last few weeks.
A quick glance over my shoulder told me that Malcolm hadn’t moved. He still leaned against his car, looking at his phone and decidedly not regarding me at all. What kind of test was this if he wasn’t going to pay attentio
n to how I did?
I opened the door to the house and stepped inside. After a second, I found the light and turned it on to illuminate the entrance. The gray brick of the outside did nothing to express how beautiful the interior was. Although the house was empty, which usually made me think the space barren and cold, I could see the lovely details of the place. The center of the hall had a staircase dividing the house into two parts.
Whoever bought it would decorate it as they chose, but I thought it seemed reasonable to assume to the left would be a living room. Maybe it was the fireplace that gave me the impression. So few homes in Austin had a real one; it wasn’t like we had any kind of winter to require one. Still, I’d always found them pretty. To the right was probably a dining room. Someone had installed a brass light fixture, which hung where I imagined a table would someday sit.
The same dark wood floor covered the living room and dining room. Stepping further into the hallway, I let the door close behind me with a click. The house was freezing, and I shivered, rubbing my arms. Something was wrong.
“Okay, Kendall. Let’s not be crazy.” I walked further inside and bent down to touch the floor. The owners had taken time with their hardwood. Someone had made sure they weren’t scratched, a small detail for sure, but one that indicated a lot to me. Most haunted houses—and I hated that term for what happened in some homes—were run down. The dark energy played havoc on everything. I made my way further inside until I found the kitchen.
Unlike the front two rooms, the kitchen had seen better days. The cabinets appeared to be in a half-done state. Someone had started stripping them and stopped before they were finished. The tile was old and the grout needed to be replaced. The appliances were old. Still, I didn’t have any indication of the presence of anything other than the air conditioner being turned on too low.