Possessed

“I can’t believe you would even think it,” Malcolm said coldly. “You know what she did to Lauren. To that other woman. I’ve told you myself how the monster affects Cass. How it hurt her.”

Cass, who was slightly worn down from the intense workout, shook her head to clear the cobwebs and concentrate on what the two men were saying. Dougie was frustrated. Malcolm was angry. It all added up to a crazy sort of sense.

“You want to use me as bait.”

“It all comes back to you, Cass. Each death. If we can set you up someplace where this person can find you, it might be all we need to draw her out and set the trap. Maybe we can’t stop the psychic thing, but if we nail her and put her ass in jail, that means no more monster for you, right?”

“No more monster for me,” Cass repeated, thinking that there was something she was missing. She pictured what the beast looked like in her head and thought about the figure in the hooded sweatshirt. How he or she had frozen each time Cass had gotten close.

The answer was there. Just beyond reach. She just needed to think about it a little longer.

But then Malcolm was moving to stand between her and Dougie. “You’ve got to be crazy if you think I’m going to let you risk her life like that. It was one thing for her to be at the funeral in case this lunatic happened to show up. But you’re talking about dangling her out there like some kind of carrot. It’s too dangerous.”

“You mean it’s only convenient to use her when it might serve your needs, McDonough.”

Malcolm clenched his teeth together. “What would serve my needs right now, Detective, is for you to…”

“Malcolm…”

“No,” he cut her off. “He wants to use you. Again. This time it would be your life at stake. I won’t allow it.”

Dougie’s face turned hard, harder than Cass had ever seen it. “Maybe you shouldn’t talk about things you don’t know,” he said coldly.

Cass moved around Malcolm until she was once more between them. “Stop it. I need to think. I don’t know what I want to do yet, but I can promise you both it will be my decision either way.”

“Tell that to your new lover boy, Cass. Looks to me like he’s sort of a control freak. First he moves in on your life. Next thing I know he’s moving you into his place. What’s next-daily readings from your sister’s ghost? Is that what this is about, McDonough?”

Cass felt Malcolm jump, but given her position directly in front of him, it wasn’t like he could reach Dougie. Dougie took a step back, his hard gaze still pinned on Malcolm.

“Think about it, Cass. Think about it long and hard. Until we end this, you’re not safe.”

“Excellent,” Malcolm sneered. “You can’t do your job and find this person, so let’s scare the victim into offering herself up. You’re a real hero, Detective.”

“I don’t owe you any explanations. Call me when you’re ready to do this, Cass.”

He turned and left, and the atmosphere, which was thick with heat, sweat and tension, returned to just heat and sweat.

“Can you believe what he’s asking you to do?”

“Yeah, I can believe it,” Cass said, tying the gloves together and flopping them over her shoulder. “And I’m going to do it.”

Chapter 17

“I don’t suppose I get a say in this.”

Cass leaned back and let Malcolm work the shampoo deep into her hair. Ironically, it, too, was strawberry scented. He’d picked it up at the grocery store just for her.

“I let you have a say. And look how right you were. Taking a bath together is much nicer than just taking a shower together,” she answered, deliberately misinterpreting him.

“I’m serious,” he growled.

“I’m serious, too. I want this done. I would think you would want it done, too.”

“I want Lauren’s killer caught. Yes. Crazy me for wanting that and you safe at the same time.” He tilted her head back and filled his palms with water to rinse out the shampoo.

“But I won’t be safe until this is over. Eventually, I’ll have to go back to my place. It’s only a matter of time before she would find a way to track me down there. Dougie is right. Better that we do this on our terms.”

“Why do you have to go back?”

Cass stilled as she felt the tension gather in his muscles. “Malcolm.”

“You think I’m rushing things.”

“Think?”

“Okay.” He sighed. “I’m rushing things. It’s just…It’s been nice.”

Cass couldn’t argue with that. “Yes. It has been. But a few days aren’t real. A week isn’t real.”

He reached around her body and clasped her hand in his. She felt his thighs brush either side of hers, felt his sex start to nudge a little more insistently against her bottom and felt the swoosh of chest hair along her back. Her heart picked up speed as the now familiar rush of sexual heat churned through her system.

“It feels real,” he whispered in her ear before lips claimed the spot right below it. “Maybe you don’t want to admit it, and maybe it happened too fast, but there’s nothing fake about what’s between us.”

She tilted her neck to give him better access down the column of her throat. It did feel good. Good to be in his arms, good to feel safe in this house. Good to be touched. No, it was more than the touching. It was the connection. This was what she had wanted so desperately the night of her grandfather’s funeral. Not just a cessation of the pain, but also some assurance that she wasn’t alone in the world. It’s why Claire’s intrusion, even when she hadn’t understood all the ramifications of it at the time, had been so hurtful.

“I don’t know what’s real anymore,” Cass confessed. And that was the truth. She couldn’t tell anymore the difference between the people who cared and the people who merely wanted to use her. Yes, Dougie wanted to use her as bait, but she knew that was only business. Yes, Malcolm wanted to protect her, but to what end?

“I’m real.” He pushed his hips against her and she smiled at the physical reminder of just how real he was.

She could lie back in his arms, let him make love to her, stay with him here in this house and what? Live happily ever after? It didn’t seem possible. Not because it was Malcolm, but because being happy on a permanent basis wasn’t something Cass had ever figured into her future.

How depressing was that?

A tingle ran down her spine and, for a second, she mistook it for a zing of desire produced by Malcolm’s creative mouth. But the familiarity of the sensation took over, and Cass felt herself mentally withdrawing from him into her white room.

The door opened and she braced herself for the pain, but this time there was surprisingly little. A mere jolt. Lauren’s face shimmered in the mist, and she was smiling.

You can be happy if you want it. You make him happy. That can make you happy, too, if you let it.

Cass had an irrational desire to talk back to the voice in her head, but quashed it. There was no point in arguing with a spirit, and she had to figure that Lauren was slightly biased when it came to her brother.

I was afraid to leave him alone. I was afraid he would isolate himself completely. It’s right that he found you. Right that you found him, too. You’ll see. Let me say goodbye.

And that’s when it changed. All of a sudden, Lauren was inside the room with her, a place only the monster had come before. This encounter wasn’t violent, but it was just as disturbing. In her mind Lauren was holding on to her hands. In the bathtub, Cass was turning, craning her neck so she could see Malcolm.

Her mouth opened and she felt herself saying goodbye before she could stop herself.

Instantly the room in her head was gone, but it was too late. Malcolm jerked back in the tub, causing water to slosh over the side of it.

“What the fuck…”

Cass couldn’t speak. She didn’t want to speak. She wanted out. Trembling despite the warm temperature of the