Chapter Six
Michelle watched in more than a little anxiety as the ghost of Utah Baines faded from her sight.
It took her a moment to gather the strength to return to her bedroom.
Peanut stood on her bed, whining and sniffing the covers.
The pistol she’d gotten from her top drawer lay on the nightstand where she’d dropped it before running from the room.
She flipped on the light and dropped shakily on the bed next to Peanut.
The little dog jumped onto her lap, licking her hand in nervous, excited strokes.
“It’s okay, boy. He’s gone now.”
Michelle’s entire body trembled in fear. She’d encountered another ghost.
And she knew Utah had been a ghost as surely as she knew the last entity she’d witnessed had been one.
After her encounter with the previous ghost, Michelle had Googled the entity, only to find out the ghost had been one of the victims who’d disappeared from a neighboring county more than ten years before.
Michelle had spoken with her mother about the ghost sighting the next morning after it happened.
After listening to Michelle’s fears of what she’d seen the night before, Galilani had replied, “You carry the White Buffalo totem, my daughter. Which means keeper of souls, the bringer of the light, the builder of the bridge, the giving spirit. White Buffalo is the totem for one whose life path is to awaken the souls of others.”
Setting Peanut on the pillow next to her, Michelle stood on unsteady legs, crossed the room, grabbed her laptop from the chair it rested on, and then returned to the bed.
She gathered her robe more tightly around her and crawled beneath the covers, placing the laptop on her thighs.
Once it finished booting up, she quickly typed in the search bar, “Utah Baines.”
An article from the Destin Chronicle appeared that read, Local Fire Fighter Dies in Structure Fire.
A picture of Utah Baines in uniform sat to the right of the article.
Michelle’s breath caught as she stared into the face of the man who’d been in her bedroom not twenty minutes ago.
What did he want with her? she wondered, reading more of the article. Just because she was somehow able to see him didn’t mean she wanted to.
And then another part of the article caught her attention. “Utah’s sister, Leanne Baines, disappeared eight years ago and is presumed dead, leaving Utah’s mother to grieve the loss of both her children.”
The story went on to tell of Utah’s father who’d died a couple of years before Leanne’s disappearance, but Michelle barely paid attention. Her mind continued to drift back to the gorgeous ghost who’d landed in her bed.
Heat flew up to her face as she recalled kissing him and stroking his erection in her dream. Only she hadn’t been dreaming, she mentally corrected. “Jesus, I felt up a dead man.”
Finishing the rest of the article, Michelle continued to search for anything she could find on Utah and Leanne Baines.
According to the police reports, a homicide detective out of Bay County had found evidence linking Leanne’s disappearance to a Jane Doe that had washed up in the Choctawhatchee Bay some years back. DNA evidence had later confirmed her to be Cara Perez, Leanne’s childhood friend.
Michelle grabbed a pen and pad from her nightstand drawer and wrote down the agent’s name, along with the identity of Jane Doe, Utah Baines, and his sister, Leanne.
Fighting back a yawn, Michelle glanced at the clock. It was four in the morning. She’d been researching the ghost of Utah Baines for three hours.
She closed the laptop, set it on the nightstand along with the pen and paper, and rolled onto her side.
Hopefully she wouldn’t encounter any more company in the middle of the night.
Yeah, she’d go to sleep with the light on. Just in case…
* * * *
Michelle woke the next day to the feel of a tiny tongue licking her on the face.
She opened her eyes to peer at an overly hyper Peanut. “You need to go outside, boy?”
The little dog spun in a circle, whined some more, and then trotted to the foot of the mattress.
Throwing her feet over the side of the bed, Michelle sat up, pushed her hair back from her face, and glanced at the clock. It was five o’clock in the evening. She’d slept the entire day away.
“No wonder you’re so hyper, Peanut. You’ve probably been holding your bladder for hours. Let’s go.” She followed behind the little dog down the hall and through the kitchen.
For some reason, Peanut refused to use his puppy pad. He’d gone on it a handful of times when Michelle had to work and wasn’t home to let him out. But he definitely preferred to do his business outside.
“Go on.” She yawned, opening the door and watching the dog bound out to the fenced-in backyard.
She left the door cracked open for him and trailed back to her room to grab the list of names she’d made the night before.
Her cell phone buzzed from the pocket of her khakis that lay on her bedroom floor. She bent and fished it out.
Swiping her thumb across the screen, she saw a message from her good friend, Cassandra. “Miss you. Dinner tonight at Scruples?”
Michelle quickly typed out a reply. “Sounds good. I can be there by six thirty.”
“Awesome,” came Cassie’s quick response. “Malik will be joining us. Hope that’s okay?”
“Of course, it’s okay. See you then.” Michelle hadn’t seen Cassie and Malik since their wedding a few months ago. It would be nice to catch up with the newlyweds.
Tossing the phone onto the bed, Michelle strode to the closet to pick out something to wear.
Thoughts of Utah plagued her every step. She couldn’t shake the memory of his lips moving beneath hers, his hard, throbbing—
Peanut’s sudden barking jerked her back to the present.
Michelle hurried from the room and into the kitchen, pushing the back door open wider. “Come on, boy.”
The dog continued to bark at the side gate, signaling that someone had to be in the drive.
Leaving the door ajar, she moved into the living room and peered through the peephole.
“Mother? I didn’t hear you pull up,” Michelle announced, unlocking and opening the door.
Lani sent her daughter a warm smile and stepped inside. “I brought you some strawberries, fresh from the garden.”
Michelle gave her mother a kiss on the cheek, accepted the gift, and closed the door. “You didn’t have to bring these over here. I would have picked them up.”
Her mother softly smiled. “It’s all right. I needed to get out of the house for a minute anyway.”
Moving toward the kitchen, Michelle murmured. “Dad being an A-hole again?”
“Michelle,” her mother gently scolded. “You shouldn’t say things like that about your father. But yes, he is being crotchety today. He came home from work, prowling the house like a caged lion.”
Michelle opened the fridge and set the strawberries inside. “Maybe he got a visit from the same person that visited me last night.”
Her mother looked at her strangely. “What does that mean?”
With a sigh, Michelle closed the refrigerator door. “Do you remember a few years back when I told you about the girl in my room that disappeared after scaring me to death?”
“The spirit you saw,” Lani confirmed. “Yes, I remember.”
“Well, I saw another one last night.”
Lani’s eyes lit with curiosity. “Was it the same girl?”
Michelle shook her head, leaned her hip against the counter for support, and filled her mother in on Utah’s appearance. She intentionally left out the part about her molesting him in her sleep.
“It is a gift that you have, my daughter. A gift that I have often longed for myself.”
Studying her mother’s face, Michelle asked, “How can you say it’s a gift to see ghosts? I’d rather not ever run across one again. Especially in the middle of the night. I just want to live a normal life. Not a life filled with the unknown and spirits haunting me.”
“You possess the White Buffalo totem, Michelle. The spirits you encounter in your life need help with something. They are lost. You hold the power to help them, to free them from what is holding them here.”
Michelle raised an eyebrow. “If that’s true, then what happened to the girl I saw before? I didn’t do anything to help her, other than scare her away with my screaming.”
“Perhaps she moved on to find another who could assist her. Someone more accepting of her presence.”
With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, Michelle leaned harder against the counter. “So, for the rest of my life, I’m to be visited by spirits who are trapped, unable to get the hell where they’re supposed to be going? Great. Just great.”
Lani reached up and cupped her daughter’s cheek. “You’re special, Michelle. Don’t think of it as a burden. Think of it as the gift that it is meant to be.”
Michelle hugged her mother’s neck, glancing at the clock hanging on the wall in front of her. “I have to get in the shower. I’m meeting Cassie for dinner at Scruples in an hour.”
Pulling back, Lani squeezed her daughter’s hands. “I’ll go and let you get ready. Remember what I said. Spirits who come to you seeking assistance are nothing to fear. You hold the power to help them. Use the gift that Yo He Waah gave you, and use it wisely.”
“You don’t have to go, Mom,” Michelle assured her, attempting to change the subject. “You are welcome to stay here or come to dinner with me.”
Her mother sent her a gentle smile. “I must get back anyhow. I have to go to the market on my way home. I just wanted to stop by and drop off the strawberries.”
“If you’re sure?”
Lani turned toward the living room. “I’m sure. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
Michelle followed her mother to the door, kissing her once more before she left.
Locking the door, Michelle trailed back to the kitchen to call Peanut inside, her gaze scanning the backyard for signs of her midnight visitor. But nothing moved on the wind save for the trees.
It was going to be a long night.