Ryley’s fingers trembled as she tried to pull out of her father’s hand. He tightened his grip. There was no escape.
The flowered shirt man pulled out his gun and met Ryley’s gaze from across the room. Evil beady eyes stared back at her. He winked. “You’re up, little miss.”
“You must be Eli.”
He pointed his gun at the man on the floor with his finger on the trigger. “Did your daddy tell you my name?”
She shook her head, swallowing around the lump in her throat. “No, your momma did.”
Eli’s lip twitched as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet went into the man’s head.
Ryley’s scream lodged in her throat. In the blink of her eyes, the man’s apparition was now hovering over his dead body on the floor.
“Is he dead?” Her father asked.
Ryley nodded, wiping at her tears. “Yes, he’s standing right there. We need to leave, Daddy, the creepy crawlies will smell him soon.”
Eli crossed the room, making Ryley step back. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Not that her dad would let her.
Eli clasped the gun in front of him. “Your daddy said you have a special gift. Is that true, or was he lying to me again?”
Ryley looked up at her father. He nodded that it was okay to talk. “I see dead people, and they tell me things even when they don’t want to.”
“Things like what?” He asked.
“Your mother thinks you’re the devil’s spawn.” Ryley swallowed hard. “She said you hurt my daddy.”
He huffed. “She’s been dead a decade.”
“Stretch is my friend now, and she wouldn’t want you to hurt me.”
The man’s eyes narrowed into dark slits, and Ryley glanced up at her father once more. Eli grabbed her chin. His fingers pressed hard into her jaw as he wrenched her face to look at him. “If you want to keep your daddy alive, you’ll get the location of where he hid my damn diamonds from the dead man, and if you don’t, then I’ll think you’re a liar too.” He glanced at her father. “Why don’t you show your kid what I do to liars and thieves.”
“Honey, just tell Mr. Floyd what he wants to know.” Her father was sweating. Beads dripped down his sunken cheeks. He unwrapped his hand and showed her his missing finger.
No amount of fear could have prepared her for the sight of blood and bones. She spun away seconds before everything in her stomach surfaced and spewed in a puddle behind her.
Ryley swiped at her mouth and turned back to the man. “I’m not lying.”
He sat back on his haunches and tilted his head. “You’ve got a set of balls, kid. Now be smart and prove what you can do. Get Marty to tell you where the hell he hid my diamonds, and I might just let you walk out of here.”
Chapter 3
Ryley’s fingers trembled as she stepped around Eli Floyd. Marty’s body lay busted and dead on the floor. His wide, unseeing eyes were staring at something in the distance. Marty’s ghost was watching her. “You can see me?”
She nodded and glanced over her shoulder once more before clearing her throat. “Mr. Floyd wants to know what you did with the diamonds.”
The ghost glanced up and chuckled a full belly laugh. “Then, I guess he shouldn’t have killed me.”
“What did he say?” Eli asked.
“He’s laughing. Says you shouldn’t have killed him.”
“He doesn’t know your secret like I do.” The man sneered. “Now, get me that information before I kill you and your daddy.” He cocked the trigger on his gun and pressed it against her daddy’s temple.
She held up her hands. “Please. Don’t hurt him.”
Ryley rounded where the man was lying and looked up at the ghost. “I’m sorry. This is going to hurt, but at least the creepy crawlies won’t eat you first.”
She touched the body. An electrical shock tingled in her hands. The cost of which made the spirit unable to move. Her energy melded and tingled.
“Where are the diamonds?” she asked.
As if on cue, a scene flashed in her mind. The answer played out like a short movie before her eyes.
She gasped when her father, Mr. Floyd, and Marty were inside a jewelry store. They were smashing cases and grabbing jewelry and shoving it in their bags. They’d just walked out the door when a cop was waiting on them.
Mr. Floyd shot him. The cop fell to the ground, the sight making Ryley’s fingers tremble.
“You know what to do and where to meet!” he yelled, and they all ran off. She’d wanted to follow her daddy but was tuned into Marty’s memory. Tendrils of electricity skyrocketed through her body from just the touch as she watched his memories.
She watched as he crossed the road and hopped in his car. She blinked and was in the same warehouse where they were standing. Marty walked through the door, straight into the back room. He crossed to another door and stepped inside a bathroom without pause, where he stepped up on the toilet, flicked his knife, and removed the ceiling vent.
Her eyes flew open, and she pulled her hand away. Her ice-cold body shivered from the connection. Marty was staring at her as if she’d violated his personal space.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as the bright light appeared behind him and engulfed him.
She knew her touch moved the spirits along. It didn’t give them any choice to stay where they were. It was forceful, and it looked as though it hurt.
“Well, kid, where are they?” Mr. Floyd growled, pointing the gun harder into the side of her daddy’s head, making him cringe and squirm.
“They’re—” Ryley said when the door behind them busted open. Shouting started, and men with guns ran into the room. Gunfire erupted, and Ryley dropped to her knees and covered her head with her hands.
When the room got quiet, she lifted her gaze to find her father lying on the ground with his hands sprawled out to the side.
Mr. Floyd’s white shirt was covered in
