“I’m not an abuse case if that’s what has you worried.” The smile I turned on her pulled the scab on my lip taut, and she caught my wince. “I live alone. I don’t have a boyfriend—”

“Ms. Meacham seems to believe otherwise.” Detective Russo consulted a small notepad on her palm. “She says you’re dating the brother of one of her other employees, one Amelie Pritchard. The brother’s name is…” she skimmed her information, “…Boaz.”

“Boaz is my friend, not my boyfriend.” I kept tidying the room to hide the tremble in my hands. “He and Amelie are my neighbors. We all grew up together.”

“Is there any tension between you two?” She held a pen poised above the paper. “Has he made any unwanted advances?”

I snorted out a laugh. “Um, no.”

Her expression remained severe. “Why is that funny?”

“He’s always been like an older brother to me.” Minus the whole platonic-love thing siblings had going on. The love I’d had for him had not been so innocent. “He wouldn’t hurt a hair on my head, and he would take exception with anyone who tried.”

Except for, you know, the woman he recruited to use me as a grappling dummy.

Maybe I ought to leave out that part.

“All right.” She removed a card from her back pocket. “If you say you’re okay, I have no recourse at this time but to accept your word.”

Meaning she didn’t believe me for a hot minute.

“I’m fine.” I palmed her card and tucked it away while she watched. “Really.”

“If you say so.” She turned to leave, pausing to glance over her shoulder. “Keep that. You might need it one day.”

Giving up on convincing her otherwise, I patted my pocket. “I’ll do that.”

No sooner had I gotten her out of my hair and slumped on the couch than Neely barreled through the door. He gasped at the sight of me and clutched his chest with both manicured hands. I brushed my fingertips over my lips. “It’s not that bad.”

“You vanish for a month and come back looking like this?” He crossed the room and sank down beside me. “Amelie mentioned a family emergency, but I saw those men lurking outside the building the night I covered your shift. They were looking for someone. Dare I say someone Grier-shaped? That’s why Boaz got involved, wasn’t it?” He gathered my hands in his. “You were dating Danill Volkov, and you edited out that tidbit of information with the detective.” He hushed me when I protested the part where he’d been eavesdropping on official police business. “What happened?”

Turns out Danill was just as crazy as you thought. He kidnapped me and held me prisoner for a month on a country estate. The men you noticed were his vampire lackeys, and Boaz was holding them off to give me a chance to run home to my haunted house to safety.

“I did have a family emergency.” Keet had been kidnapped, so that lie had some meat on its bones. “My face is a separate matter altogether.” I debated how much to tell him then stuck as close to the truth as possible. “You called it. Volkov was way too possessive. He didn’t take me leaving town well, so we broke up, and I enrolled in self-defense classes in case he ever comes around again.”

“Oh, Grier.” Neely squeezed my hands. “I’m so sorry.” He noticed me in street clothes well past tour departure time and frowned. “Why aren’t you dressed?”

“I lost my job. Again.” And Cricket was well within her rights to fire an employee who tended to vanish like fog on the river without so much as a note. “I came in to beg for it back, but she axed that idea. She’s letting me fill in for Dom tonight, but I don’t know about tomorrow.”

“All is not lost.” His eyes sparkled in a wicked flash of inspiration. “Have you heard about the Cora Ann?”

“Amelie was just telling me I might get my spot back when Cricket starts hiring girls to fill her roster.”

“That’s a possibility, but the launch is weeks away. We need work for you now.” He whipped out his phone and fired off a text. “The owner is a client of mine. I’m going to put in a good word for you with him, see if you can get hired on there. You’ll still be paid by Cricket, and the familiarity with the boat might help you land one of those hostess spots.”

Grateful tears made my vision swim, but I blinked them back on the sobering reminder he was sticking his neck out for me because he thought I would starve without a paycheck. But if I explained I had an insta-fortune, he would ask questions. He already knew too much as it was thanks to his run-in with Volkov and his goons. I wouldn’t endanger him further.

“Thanks, Neely.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” He tucked away his phone. “Did Amelie explain the sudden interest in boats?”

“Nope.” I had been out of the loop for too many weeks to know the latest buzz.

“There have been ghost sightings during the dinner cruises. Word is the apparition started out benign. People seeing a little boy dressed in a dark-blue sailor suit with ankle socks and canvas shoes. Some reports mention a white cap, others mention his blond curls. For a while, bookings increased. That’s where Cricket got the idea to buy in.” His expression shifted. “But the last cruise ended with three people getting treated for injuries sustained while onboard. They claimed a ghost was hurling cutlery at them during their meal. A few claim a boy’s voice was yelling, ‘I’m hungry. I’m hungry. I’m hungry.’”

Foreboding slithered up my spine. “This was in the news?”

“Yep.” He slanted me a pitying look. “I forgot you’re one of those weirdos who doesn’t watch TV.”

I wanted to laugh at his disdain for my preference in viewing streaming movies and television shows online, but I couldn’t shake the chills. First a B&B owner was down a spook and handing out interviews, and now there was a riverboat with an active haunting on the local news. What did it mean? Spurts of paranormal activity weren’t uncommon in cities like Savannah. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was humans were aware of it, capitalizing on it, this time.

“The news coverage means Cricket is champing at the bit to get the Cora Ann rebranded before the commotion dies down,” he said. “She’s trying to book one of those ghost hunter shows for the maiden voyage.”

The longer he chattered about Cricket’s plans, the more I wondered what stance the Society would take. Ghosts weren’t a priority for them. There was no money in exorcisms, except when a third party hired them to cleanse a space. But, at the same time, there was a difference between an orb of light caught on film and a specter capable of damaging property and harming people. From the sound of things, the B&B ghost leaned more toward a low-level entity while the Cora Ann harbored a burgeoning poltergeist.

“Does this mean you’re going to work a split shift?” I noticed the quiet, wondered when he had stopped talking, and made a valiant effort to fill the lull. “Or will Cricket be hiring another stylist?”

“There will be two haunted cruises nightly until the buzz dies down. One coincides with our first tour at dusk and the other with the late-late tour. Since passengers will board early, the River Haints, and yes, that’s what I overheard Cricket calling them, will need to be primped in advance. I’ve got time to style them then rush back to the office before the first walking tour leaves. I’ll handle touch-ups here until it’s time for the late-late tour, and then I’ll head back to the boat to refresh the girls there.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Cricket is paying for the gas, so I can’t complain.” He lifted a wrinkled copy of Vanity Fair and pressed it to his chest. “I’m going to miss the downtime, though. That’s when I get caught up on my reading.”

“Um, Neely.” I cocked my head at him. “When do you sleep?”

“I work from home during the week, and I’m very good at what I do.” The upscale accounting firm responsible for half the pens in the office, whether they knew it or not, was a testament to that fact. “There are no clauses in my contract prohibiting me from holding a second job. As long as I’m available for conference calls and questions, my boss doesn’t care what I do with the rest of my time.” He traced the dark circles under my eyes. “Besides, I could ask you the same thing. Do you ever sleep?”

“Oh, I sleep.” Sometimes for whole minutes strung together. “The problem is how I wake.”

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded as if he understood. “Talking helps.”

“I have someone,” I assured him before he made the offer I sensed coming. “She’s helping me work through my issues.”

“Let me know if you need another ear.” He cupped his and leaned closer. “I’m always hear.”

“Ha ha.” I shoved him rocking back on his heels. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I have to get back to work.” He rolled up the magazine and tapped me on the shoulder with it. “I’m glad you’re back. I’m relieved you’re safe. Just do me a favor and call me next time? Amelie kept me in the loop, but I worry about you. I would have rested easier hearing updates direct from the source.”

“I’m sorry.” I touched his wrist. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

With any luck, he didn’t notice I hadn’t promised to call. When I vanished, the only cells I had access to tended to be the barred kind.

“I hid your dress. Just in case.” He jutted out his chin. “I refuse to acknowledge a Blue Belle who isn’t you.”

“You’re the best,” I told him with absolute conviction. “Cruz has no idea how lucky he is.”

“Oh, I remind him every now and then.” He winked. “I hope this thing with Volkov doesn’t put you off dating. It was nice seeing you all dolled up and hitting the town with a hot guy on your arm instead of riding your death machine home and crawling in bed alone.”

Alone meant no one saw, really grasped, how deep the cracks extended in my façade. No matter what Woolly thought, it wasn’t always a bad place to be. “Guys are a lot of work.”

“Amen, sister.” A dreamy expression blanketed his features. “The right one is worth it, though.”

Between studying with Linus, self-defense with Taz, figuring out what it meant to be the Woolworth heir and goddess-touched, my dance card was full. And then there was Boaz. I had no idea where to pencil him in.

A prickling rush of heat tingled in my cheeks when I thought of the press of his lips on mine the night before he left to rejoin his unit, but I had seen him smooch enough girls that his technique had never been in doubt. It was all the rest of it—the mechanics of a relationship with him—that made me question his skills. And mine.

“I’ll hold you to that.” I checked the time on my phone as I stood. “I have some thrones to polish before I head your way, but I’ll see you in about thirty.”

“There’s a chance of rain in the forecast. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the girls will track in mud for you to mop.” He unfolded to his lanky height. “Failing that, I’ll sprinkle bobby pins like confetti so you can hang out with me longer.”

“Thanks.” I snorted. “You’re a prince.”

He smoothed back his hair. “If the crown fits.”

After swatting him on the butt to get him out the door, I got down to business. By the time I marked off the last item on my to-do list, a victim had blown chunks on the sidewalk leading up to the front door. I blasted the concrete clean with a hose and reevaluated my life choices. When the late-late tour returned and Amelie flounced up to me with my spare helmet dangling from her fingertips, I was miles past being ready for sweet chocolate oblivion.

* * *

Amelie was the first brave soul to hop on the back of Jolene and let me take her for a spin after Boaz taught me how to drive his one true love. That same trust had her crowding behind me so I could zip us over to Mallow. Plus, I think the bike reminded her of the brother she missed something fierce.

The best thing about Mallow, besides the fact everything on the menu was mouth-wateringly delicious, was the fact it stayed open until dawn. Most folks in town thought it was a gimmicky tourist lure, but the truth was the owner was a necromancer, and she kept Society hours.

After I parked, we crossed the lot together, our shoulders bumping, and got into a shoving match to see who could squeeze through the door first. She won by tickling me until I almost wet my pants, then she slid through the opening like a greased pig at a county fair.

“You play dirty,” I grumbled with admiration. The only person who could tickle her was Boaz. Try as I might, I couldn’t get so much as a giggle out of her. “You should buy me a drink to apologize.”

“Crybaby.” Rolling her eyes, she approached the counter. “I’ll take two hot chocolates with extra marshmallows and a side order of Kleenex.”

The cashier blinked at her owlishly then passed over a handful of napkins.

Amelie thanked the woman then stuffed them down the front of my shirt, giving me a lumpy third boob, cackling all the while. I ducked out of her reach before she could tweak my nonexistent third nipple and caught movement outside the shop from the corner of my eye.

“Be right back.” I left her waiting on our order while I stepped up to the large display window. Jolene was the only vehicle in the lot, and I saw no pedestrians. I lingered a moment longer, scanning the area, but I came up empty.

“Grier?” Amelie walked up behind me. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands down my arms. “I thought I saw something.”

The light went out of Amelie’s eyes, and she took a look around as well. “Do you think we were followed?”

It had happened before, and it likely would again. “I’m not sure.”

“I’m texting Boaz.” She whipped out her phone. “He’ll skin me alive if I don’t keep him in the loop.”

“It’s probably nothing.” I closed my hand over her screen. “Besides, he’s not my keeper.”

“No, but he is my brother, and he is your wannabe friend with benefits.” She pried her phone out of my grip. “He’s earned the right to worry.” When she spotted the face I made, she laughed. “He’s four states away. He can’t drop everything and run home to shine a flashlight at shadows for you.”

“So you say.” Her brother was more resourceful than she gave him credit for, and more commanding too.

“He was right there. He saw the car pulling away, you inside it, and he couldn’t save you.” The playfulness in her swirled away like water down a drain. “Neither could I.”

“Ame,” I breathed, yanking her into a hug. “You did the best you could. You both did. I don’t blame either of you, and neither of you should blame yourselves.”

“We just got you back,” she said, echoing the sentiment I had shared with Boaz not that long ago. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I hauled her to the counter in time to pick up our order while it was steaming delicious curls. “I’m working on getting stronger, and I’m going to fortify Woolly too.” We took our drinks and settled at our usual table. “Plus, Linus lives shouting distance away. I’ve got ’round-the-clock backup.”

Amelie blew across her mug. “How weird is it having him as a neighbor?”

“Pretty weird.” Impatient as always, I sipped too soon and burned my tongue. “It’s odd having a guest, let alone one staying in the carriage house. No one’s ever lived there. It’s strange to think I can walk across the yard and talk to someone if I want.”

“I hate to break it to you, Grier, but you’ve been able to do that basically all your life.” She snorted into her cup. “I’m right across the yard in the opposite direction, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Linus was different, though. He had answers for so many of the questions I was just thinking to ask. Amelie was a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a sister of the heart, but Linus was a resource as valuable as any book in Maud’s library.

“You know what I mean.” I played it off like it had been a slip of the tongue instead of me realizing how much I liked the idea of having a living encyclopedia on the grounds. “He’s right there. There’s no buffer. It’s almost like having a roommate.”

“Has he changed much?” Her eyes fluttered closed on her first sip, and she licked the melted marshmallow off her upper lip. “I haven’t seen him in years.”

“He’s taller, thinner. He grew out his hair.” I pictured the wraith in his gaze and shivered. “His eyes are darker.” I didn’t tell her why, and I couldn’t explain keeping his secret, except conversations on magic between Amelie and me always dead-ended with each of us put out with the other. “Otherwise, he’s pretty much the same. Still prefers books to people. Still dresses like a little professor.” Except now he was one. Maybe there was something to the old adage of dressing for the job you wanted after all. “You should pop in and say hi sometime. He might enjoy having another social outlet.”

“Nah. I’ll pass. He never liked me much.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “He hated Boaz when we were kids, no idea why, the possibilities are limitless. He snubbed me since I was tainted by association.”

“I always thought…” Rolling in my lips, I wished I hadn’t opened my mouth.

“That it was a class thing?” Of course, Amelie knew exactly what I’d meant. “Linus was a little snob. How could he not be with Dame Lawson for a mother? But he was polite to other Low Society girls. He did have some manners. He just never used them on me. He wasn’t mean when you weren’t around, nothing like that, more like I ceased to exist.”

“Well, we’re all grown up now.” I poked the bloated marshmallows with my finger to watch them bob in their chocolatey bath. “Maybe things have changed.”

“Maybe.” Her attention drifted to the door behind me and stuck. “I still don’t like this. I wish we’d taken my car. Jolene leaves us too exposed.”

“I can check in with Linus if it makes you feel better.” With Boaz gone, we didn’t have a whole lot of other options.

“Linus?” She laughed so hard she swatted her mug on its side and spilled the last few swallows of chocolate. “Are you sure he’s qualified to act as a bodyguard?” She wiped up her mess. “Or were you hoping he’d borrow a few of his mother’s henchmen?”

Again I found myself biting my tongue about his wraith. “He’s got some tricks up his sleeves.”

“Call him.” She spun her now-empty mug in her hands. “We’ve got no one else unless we want to involve my parents.”

The Low Society tried to stay as far away from High Society politics as possible. Involving them would be a last-ditch effort since any assistance from the Pritchards would put them in the Grande Dame’s crosshairs.

There was only one small problem with my plan. I didn’t have Linus’s cellphone number. All I could do was dial the landline and hope there was still a working phone plugged in at the carriage house and that he would pick up.

“Woolworth residence,” an amused voice answered on the seventh ring. “How may I be of assistance?”

“I can’t believe you’re playing receptionist.” I laughed at the mental picture. “Are you that bored?”

“Not at all,” he assured me. “I was working on a syllabus when Woolly started flashing her lights in Morse code. I put down my notebook to play cypher, and that’s when I heard a faint ringing coming from the kitchen in the carriage house. I assumed that’s what Woolly meant, so I answered.”

Amelie cleared her throat and rolled her hand in a get to it gesture.

“The reason I called is I’m at Mallow with Amelie, and I maybe saw something outside.” I stuck out my tongue at her. “I checked, but I didn’t see anything. Do you think it’s safe to go home, or do I need to wait on backup to arrive? And when I say backup, I mean you.”

A sigh gusted over the line. “Step outside.”

“Oookay.” I pointed toward the door so Amelie knew where I was headed, waved off her protest, then stepped out onto the sidewalk. Still alone as far as I could tell. “What am I supposed to be—?” Movement above my head had me slapping the air like a bee might land on me. “Oh, my goddess.”

“Grier, it’s all right.”

Tipping my head back put me face-to-faceless with his pet wraith. “You’re spying on me?”

He scoffed at me. Actually scoffed. “You really believed I let you leave without protection?”

“No?” I backed toward the door, unnerved when the wraith followed like a lost puppy. “I expected Elite sentinels dressed in catsuits prowling through the bushes, tracking my every move. Not this.”

The mental picture of Boaz crammed into a spandex jumpsuit made me snort, until I was tugging at my collar when my imagination supplied an image of all that muscle wrapped in one stretchy package. Oh, geez. I was not going to think about packages. Nope. Nah-uh. No way. My brain was a delivery-free zone.

“You already felt caged by the agreement you made with Mother,” he murmured. “I didn’t feel inclined to point out the bars.”

Learning he could monitor me so easily didn’t come as a shock, exactly. Wraiths made perfect spies and assassins. Stealthy and silent, they blended with the night. But he should have warned me that the bodyguard he had selected for me lacked, well, a body.

“I prefer to know where the bars are.” I miscalculated my retreat and bumped into the display window. “Comes in handy for figuring out how to squeeze through them.”

“You need protection. You’re not safe on the streets alone.”

As much as I wanted to fling it in his face that Amelie was with me, that I wasn’t alone, we both knew she and I had failed to save my skin the last time. Necromancers weren’t built to combat vampires. Magic was our only hope, and that defense required tools, preparation, and time assailants didn’t allow before attacking.

“I understand you have to take precautions.” I was proud of how even I kept my tone when what I really wanted to do was track him down and thump him soundly on the head. “But next time you take preventative measures, give me a heads-up, okay?”

“Do you object to the wraith?” he asked without answering me.

“No.” Better the shadow than the man himself. “I’m getting used to it hanging around.” The creature inclined its head as though appraising me. “How sentient is it?”

“When fully bonded, they possess limited faculties. They follow orders. That’s all. They remain in a type of stasis when they’re not deployed.”

“Is it male or female?” I studied the billowing hood, the gnarled fingers, and had no clue.

“They’re spirit and bone. That’s it. That’s all.”

How sad to be reduced to an it when you once were a person. “I’m going to call him Cletus. He looks like a Cletus.”

A choking noise filled my ear. “You’re going to what?”

“Cletus,” I enunciated clearly. “You can thank me for naming him later.”

“If it makes you more comfortable to humanize it, fine.” He sighed. “You can call it Cletus.”

“I’m going to give Amelie a ride back to her car, then I’ll head home.” Realizing he would be there, even if it was across the way, struck me as oddly comforting. “See you at dusk for our first lesson.”

“Sleep well.” He hesitated. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“Thanks.” Nothing short of magical or pharmaceutical intervention would suppress the dream, and I’d had enough of being suppressed to last a lifetime. “I can manage.”

After warning me he couldn’t promise to always be at the carriage house when I needed him, we exchanged cell numbers and ended the call. I paused a moment to wonder where he might be going at night but reminded myself it was none of my business. He was born in Savannah and raised here too. He had family in town, and friends. He probably had work too. His mother wasn’t the type to let a valuable resource go to waste, and I would only take up a few hours of his nights.

I strolled back into Mallow to find Amelie ordering us to-go chocolates, proving why she was the best friend a girl could have, and I sidled up to her. “We’re good to go.”

“Is Linus coming?” She kicked up an eyebrow. “Or dispatching someone?”

“He already has.” I picked up the tab before she could dip into her wallet. “We’re safe to go as soon as our order is filled.”

“He’s having you followed,” she said, thinking it over. “Good idea.”

“I wish he would have told me,” I grumbled.

“Would you have thanked him or fought him?”

I cut her a smile. “What do you think?”

“I get the feeling Linus is going to have his hands full with you.”

Poor guy. I got the feeling she was right.