Storm Surge. Celia Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ it would be dark. Her distress disturbed him. He resolved not to get up from that box until she was back in fighting mode.

      “Paige.”

      She waved her fingers, took another gulp of beer, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m fine. Really. Oh, and you’ll get a kick out of this. You probably know her or heard of her. I went to see someone whose name Mom had marked in her address book. Alva Mabry?”

      He sat up. “The—”

      “Psychic? Yeah. That would be the one.” Leaning her head against the chair back, Paige stared up at the shadowed ceiling. “You know what she told me? That there’s a darkness around me. She implied that I’m haunted.”

      Liam’s muscles lost heat and elasticity as he went still as stone. The susurration of the ocean sounded far away, and the click of a firefly against the rhododendron growing beside the house beat like a stick against concrete. “She said that?”

      “Yep. What do you think?”

      “I couldn’t say. Depends on what you believe.”

      “What I believe was she made a lucky guess. People like her, they learn to read other people. Of course I’m haunted. It probably showed in my face, my body language, as soon as I walked in the door. Aren’t people always haunted by the deaths of others— Are you okay?”

      Blowing out a breath, he rose. “I’m fine. I know you don’t want another, but I’m going to grab a cold one. This one’s a little warm.”

      In the kitchen, Liam leaned his hips against the counter, his back to the window facing out to the porch. A mouthful at a time, he drank half the contents of the bottle in his hand, his gaze glued to the far wall. Then he turned and dumped the remainder into the sink. He didn’t bother to turn on the light. He didn’t want Paige seeing him through the glass because surely his face would reveal more than he could allow.

      Liam listened closely to the sounds of the house around him, for the creaks and snaps of normal settling and the movement beyond the mere cooling of timbers.

      There’s a darkness around me… I am haunted.

      As much as he had no faith in Alva’s brand of quackery, this time the old woman might be right.

      Chapter 5

      Paige gripped the beer she’d been babying. She wasn’t going to finish it. She knew that. Yet she derived some comfort from the feel of the bottle, solid and heavy in her hand.

      Liam had taken a long time getting himself another beer. Paige glanced at the darkened window over her shoulder before returning her gaze to the ocean. In the setting sun, the waves battering the rocky shoreline had gone blue-black, each rolling crest tipped in a wash of gold and red. Gulls soared on the sea breeze in the darkening sky with wings outspread. And there, way out on the water, another freighter winked its tiny lights. The scene tugged at her insides, pulling at old memories, causing conflicting and harrowing emotions to rise to the surface. Teeth in her lip, Paige blinked back tears.

      “Enough.” She struggled up from the deep, angled seat. When she stood, she caught sight of the man she had seen the night before down by the water’s edge, his bobbing lantern bright against the dark sea beyond. She rushed to the porch railing, leaning forward to study the man’s locomotion, spotting something not quite right in the way he moved. The screen door rasped open behind her.

      “Do you know that man?” she asked Liam. He didn’t answer. She turned.

      No one was there.

      “Liam?”

      Paige twisted back toward the ocean and hastened out onto the weathered steps. The man had vanished, lantern and all. Perhaps he had already clambered over the jetty of rock, but he had been moving with profound sluggishness, as if age or infirmity weighed him down.

      The screen door opened and closed again. Liam appeared at her side on the step. “Were you calling me?”

      She frowned at him. “Did you forget something?”

      “I thought you didn’t want another beer?”

      “No, no, I don’t. Thank you. I mean, you started to come out a second ago. I heard the door. But you weren’t there when I turned around.”

      Liam’s left eyebrow shot up. “That happens sometimes.”

      “Absentmindedness?”

      “No, the door opening and closing with no one there.”

      She frowned at him before breaking into laughter. “Ooh, creepy. Got it. But you forget, I used to live here. The door doesn’t open and shut on its own.”

      “Maybe it didn’t, but it does now.”

      “Tighten the screws on the hinges or something. I was calling you because there was a man on the beach. I wanted to know if you knew him. He’s gone now.”

      Liam gave the beach the onceover. “No one there.”

      “He vanished.”

      “Like smoke?”

      “No,” Paige said in sharp impatience, “not like smoke. I didn’t see what happened to him. One second he was there, and the next he wasn’t. And believe me, he was moving none too quickly. But he wasn’t a ghost. Oh!” She skipped down two steps. “Do you think he might have slipped into the water?”

      Unconcerned, Liam went back up onto the porch. “There’s nothing splashing about down there. Probably a mirage.”

      Paige followed. “A mirage? Like you see in the desert?”

      “It happens. If the conditions are right, objects miles out to sea will appear as if they’re right in front of you. That man might have been walking on the deck of a ship that’s no more than a speck on the water.” He resumed his seat on the crate. Paige noticed his hands were empty. He folded them together between his knees. Instead of taking the chair, Paige remained standing.

      “That would mean the conditions were right two days in a row. I saw him last night, too.”

      “What did he look like?”

      “I don’t know. It was hard to see. Curly hair and beard. He wore a hat and coat, now that you mention it. Odd time of year for that.”

      “Hmm. Perhaps a ghost, then?” His eyes cut in her direction as if to gauge her reaction.

      Paige didn’t hold back. She snorted. “A ghost? Come on. This isn’t some television show.”

      “No,” he agreed, “it isn’t. It’s a very real town with three hundred years of history behind it. Before I moved here, I’d heard the town referred to as Haunted Alcina Cove.”

      “Haunted?” Paige tried not to laugh again and was not entirely successful. “Although its residents might not always be the friendliest, and some might be downright peculiar, it’s a quaint, picturesque location. Certainly not the stuff of nightmares.”

      “Neither СКАЧАТЬ