Jack shook his head. “But … .”
“No! Ask me something to prove that I’m Marcus,” Laura instructed. “This isn’t going to be any fun if you don’t believe.”
“Fine,” Jack said, searching his memory. “Um … what did I tell you after the prostitute murder at the Renaissance Center? We were in the elevator on our way down, and I confided something in you. What was it?”
Laura screwed up her face in concentration. Jack was convinced he’d won until her eyes brightened. “You told me that you didn’t understand how anyone could hire a professional because sex was so much better when emotions were involved,” she said, chortling. “You said you believed you would find love one day. I guess you did, huh?”
Jack was dumbfounded. There was no way Laura could know anything about that conversation, and there was no reason for Marcus to ever confide anything of the sort in his sister. “Marcus?”
“There it is,” Marcus said, gleefully bending over to stare Jack in the eye on an even level. “How’s it going, buddy?”
“I DON’T know what to do,” Ivy said, pacing her living room as Brian and Michael watched. “He’s out there somewhere. Marcus is going to torture him to death. We have to do something.”
Brian rubbed the back of his neck, conflicted. He was convinced Ivy was losing her mind. “Sweetie, I think you’re in shock,” he said. “Marcus Simmons is dead. Laura is the one behind all of this.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “I can’t explain this to you right now,” she said. “I know that Laura Simmons’ body is doing all these things. Marcus is inside of her, though. We’re not going to find Jack by thinking like Laura would. We have to think like Marcus would.”
Speaking of Laura, Ivy hadn’t heard a peep from the ghost since her father arrived. She wanted to talk to her. She wanted to ask a thousand different questions, and yet she knew if she started holding a conversation with thin air Brian and Michael would have her committed.
“Honey, why do you think that?” Michael asked, his voice soft. “Did you hit your head?”
Ivy slapped his hand away when he tried to rub it down the back of her head. “No!”
“I can’t deal with this right now,” Brian said, exchanging a worried look with Michael. “Jack is out there. A crazy woman bent on revenge has him somewhere. We found Laura’s car abandoned on the side of the road about a mile down. That means she has Jack’s truck. That’s why Ivy didn’t see it when she returned to the house.”
“How are you going to find Jack?” Michael asked.
“The state police are sending everything they’ve got,” Brian answered. “Bellaire is, too. They want Laura badly because she took out one of their own. We’re setting up a search grid and going from there.” He darted a look in Ivy’s direction. “Ivy, you need to stay here with your father. I’ll call as soon as we know something.”
Ivy made a face and turned away from Brian and her father. She knew they were trying to do the right thing by her, but she was frustrated. She couldn’t listen to them when she had to focus on Jack. He needed her. Somehow, deep inside, she knew she would have to be the one to save him.
“I’m going to lay down,” Ivy announced, moving toward the hallway. “I feel sick to my stomach and my head is pounding. I … need to lay down.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Michael said, his heart breaking for his only daughter. If Jack died, he knew Ivy would never recover. He had no idea how to console her, though. “Do you want me to bring you anything?”
“I just want to be alone,” Ivy said, fighting back tears. “Just … leave me alone.”
She stalked into her bedroom and slammed the door shut with enough force to scare Nicodemus off the bed. He shot her a disdainful look before crawling under it. He was not having a good day.
“Laura?” Ivy hissed, keeping her voice low. “Are you here?”
“I’m here. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to risk them thinking you were crazy.”
“They already think I’m crazy,” Ivy grumbled. “Where would Marcus take Jack?”
“I can’t be sure, but he went and looked at an empty house about a week ago,” Laura said. “I’ve been racking my brain, and I think that’s where he took him. He would need privacy to do what he wants to do, and that’s the best place to get it. The house was in the middle of nowhere.”
“Do you think you could find it again?”
“Yes.”
Ivy moved to her dresser and opened the top drawer, digging around in the dark until she found what she was looking for.
“Are those keys?” Laura asked. “What are they for?”
“My father’s car,” Ivy replied. “I forgot I even had them until he went off about me stealing his car this afternoon.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“We’re going to wait for Brian to leave so he doesn’t catch us and then I’m going to climb out the window and go to the nursery and steal my father’s car again.”
“What if he hears you?”
“The car is across the way at the nursery. He ran here to get to me. He won’t hear it.” Ivy was grim. “Then you’re going to lead me to Jack. Once we’re sure he’s there, I’ll call Brian with the location.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m sure I can’t lose Jack,” Ivy replied. “I’d rather die with him than live without him.”
Twenty-Four
“I don’t understand,” Jack said, his mouth dry. “How is this possible?”
“You’re asking the wrong person,” Marcus said. “I didn’t even believe in this stuff until it happened. The last thing I remember is wishing I could be in someone else’s body and then … poof … I was. I woke up on Laura’s couch and went into the bathroom,
