The Ghost Files 3 (36 page)

Her words all come out in a rush and Jake is frowning, trying to sort them out. He seems genuinely concerned. Maybe my protective instinct is in overdrive. Jake is one of the nicest guys I know. Besides, our would-be kidnapper is off running in the woods looking for us.

“Do you have a phone?” I ask.

“Mattie?” He looks from Meg to me, confused. “What happened?”

“Do you have your phone?” I repeat.

He fishes it out of his pocket and tosses it at me. “Here. Now what happened? Meg’s not making any sense.”

“We got grabbed at the Masquerade and tossed into the trunk of a car,” I bark and then wince. He’s only trying to help. “Sorry, it’s just…it’s been…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he soothes while trying to console a blubbering Meg.

I go to switch on his phone and nothing. What? His phone is dead? No, no, no!

“Your phone is dead,” I say and give it back to him.

“Sorry, I forgot to put it on charge last night. Haven’t used it much today.”

“Can you take us to the police station?” I ask, my voice soft and tired.

“Sure
.” He nods. “Are you guys hurt?”

“Just some bumps and bruises, mostly.” I shake my hand
, which is throbbing. “I think I might have broken my wrist earlier, though.”

“Maybe we should take you to the hospital first and have the police meet us there,” Jake suggests.

“No, police first, hospital later.” I shake my head. “Can we please go before he comes back?”

“Too late.”

We all hear the click of a trigger being pulled back on a gun and turn to see one pointing at us.

Even I can’t outrun a gun.

Chapter Thirty

“You’re late,” the shooter grunts.

My eyes widen and I look at Jake, who’s still holding onto Meg. Oh. My. God. Jake is working with this guy? I stare at him, confused. How could I have misjudged him so badly? I’m usually good at reading people. Jake is a murderer?

“Sorry, had to grab the shovels.”

My head whips around and I see Paul Owens, Jake’s little brother, standing behind us. He looks a lot like Jake, but he’s taller and a little more muscular than his older brother. They share the same dark hair and build. You would never guess Mitch is a year younger than Jake. He looks older.

“Paul?” Jake asks, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” Paul shuts the trunk of his car and walks over to us. He must have gotten here before Meg and I came out of the woods. We hadn’t seen his car pull in. “You’re supposed to be home.”

“There’s a party on the lake tonight. People should start arriving any minute,” Jake tells his brother, frowning.

“I didn’t hear about a party.” Paul swings his flashlight over to the guy holding the gun. “You know anything about it?”

“He’s right.” The guys step into the beam of the flashlight. “I heard them talking about it on campus.”

Mason Jones?

My mouth drops open. Mason? My friend Mason? The same Mason that tutored Dan? The same Mason that Eric body jumped so he could be with me on my birthday? How can it be Mason?

“Surprise!” He grins at me, but it’s all teeth and malice.

“Why?” I ask. Why would he do this?

“Why not?” he shrugs. “You look confused, Mattie.”

“I am,” I admit. “I never suspected…”

“You weren’t supposed to
.” He grins. “After you decided to brush me off for your precious Officer Dan, I got a little upset. Imagine my surprise when I found out the Beauty Queen over there started dating him and you were with someone else. Upset is too mild of a word for what I felt when I discovered that. I had been patient until that point. Killing the others eased some of my frustration and anger. It moved up my timeline.”

“Mason, we’re friends,” I say.

He laughs harshly. “Friends? I was never good enough for you, was I, Mattie?”

“What is going on?” Jake demands. He keeps glancing from Mason to his brother.

“Why Meg?” I ask softly.

“Meg isn’t for me. She’s Paul’s. He has his own reasons.”

“What is he talking about?” Jake asks. “Paul, what’s going on?”

Paul laughs. “Beauty Queen. That’s an apt description for the girl who looked down her nose at my family all her life. By the time I’m done with her, no one will ever mistake her for a beauty queen again.”

Jake gapes at his brother. Paul sounds so cold, so casual about mutilating a girl he’s known most of his life, who’s been friends with his brother since grade school. I’d never really gotten to know Paul very well and I’m so glad I didn’t. It’ll be easier to hurt him.

“So what, you two hook up in
a Serial Killers R Us chat room and decide to pool your resources?” I ask, my voice as snarky as I can make it. I can’t let them know how terrified I am.

Paul laughs. “I always liked you, Mattie. You got game, girl. Shame Mason hates you so much.”

“My brother is not a serial killer!” Jake shouts, startling us. His eyes are wild, unwilling to accept what’s staring him in the face. He pushes Meg away and starts to walk towards Paul.

“Dude, I wish you hadn’t show
n up,” Paul shakes his head. “Now you have to die.”

Paul raises his own gun and points it at his brother. Three loud pops sound and Jake jerks, falling to the ground. Red begins to spread over his
white tee shirt. He stares up at his brother in shock for a moment and then his eyes dim. Paul reaches down and lifts his brother into his arms. “Pop your trunk, Mase.”

I watch, numb, as Paul puts his brother’s body into the trunk of Mason’s car. The same trunk I’d been in just minutes before. He shot him. His own brother. He shot Jake.

Mason shoves me and I stumble. Meg grabs me before I hit the ground. She seems to have broken free of her own shock. Seeing Paul shoot Jake must have woken her up. It only made me numb. I shiver when the wind picks up a little and I watch as Jake appears next to Mason’s car. He looks confused.

“Mattie? What…happened?”

“You shot your brother,” I whisper, my eyes on Jake. “You killed him.”

Jake cocks his head and frowns. Then he looks down at his chest and sees the bullet holes in his chest, his blood-soaked shirt and stares
, confused, at Paul.

“Unfortunate, but necessary,” Paul says. “He should have stayed home.”

“He’s your
brother
,” I shout, angry. Jake was the kindest person I’ve ever met. He had his flaws, but deep down, he was always a good person.

“Mason, shut your girl up before I shoot her,” Paul growls. His eyes are insane and Meg shrinks back from him. Jake’s ghost looks at his brother, horrified.

“You heard him, darlin’,” Mason laughs. “Now, how about we all get on board the boat before the partygoers arrive?”

I look down and see I’m still clutching Meg’s stiletto in my hand. She has hers as well. We’ll only get one shot at this. We could have handled one of them, but two is going to be trickier. I hope to God Meg has some fight in her. Dan will never forgive me if anything happens to her on my watch.

I need to pass Mason in order to strike, which will put me farther from the trees, but not by much. Meg needs to run. Paul is fast, though. I’ve seen him on the field. He’s crazy fast. Maybe I should have Meg hit Mason and then run. I can handle Paul. I think.

Brushing up against Meg, I whisper, “Use the heel on Mason when you pass him and then run for the trees.”

She nods and starts to walk. I follow, conscious of Paul and his gun right at my back. I see her grip the shoe and then swing with all her might just as she gets even with Mason. The heel sinks into the exposed flesh of his arm, causing him to stagger and curse. Meg takes off in a dead run.

Paul snarls and starts after her, but I turn and aim higher. He wasn’t expecting it
, so my aim is true. I hear a pop as the heel sinks into his left eyeball. Paul screams, his hands automatically going up to clutch at his eye. I don’t hesitate, I take off after Meg, but Mason grabs me by the hair and yanks me back.

“Oh no
, you don’t,” he hisses. “We aren’t done yet.”

“Oh, yes
, we are,” I smile. My foot comes up and hits him squarely in the family jewels. He hits the ground, screaming. I take off running again, listening to their voices fade. Now where the heck is Meg?

I slow down a little once I’m in the trees to look for Meg. The first place I check is our original hiding spot, but she’s not there. Stupid girl! Where did she go? I can’t call out for her because they’ll hear me. The woods are dark, made even blacker by the entwined canopy of tree tops. The moonlight doesn’t even shine through them.

After ten minutes of stumbling around, I give up. “Meg?” I call quietly. “Meg?”

A branch breaks to my right.

I dodge behind a thicket of trees and stand perfectly still.

“One, two, I’m coming for you…”

More twigs snap and heavy footsteps are just in front of me.

“Three, four, I’m gonna even the score…”

Oh, God, it’s Paul. How is he even up and moving? That heel to the eye should have put him down.

“Mattie, come out, com
e out, wherever you are,” he calls. “If you make me find you, I promise it’ll be worse for you.”

Come out? Not bloody likely.

“MATTIE!”

My heart stops. Eli. No! Mason and Paul have guns!

“MATTIE, MEG!” There’s Caleb.

Guns. These two have guns and Eli and Caleb don’t know it.

“Are you sure she’s here?” Dan yells from somewhere close.

What is he doing here? He can’t be here.

I hear the hammer of the gun and then Paul laugh softly. “If you won’t come out, Mattie, I’ll just go looking for your friends.”

NO!

I jump out at the same time Meg tackles Paul to the ground. She must have heard Dan and realized he didn’t know about the gun.

The gun goes off just as Dan and Eli round the bend.

Slow motion. I never understood that concept until this moment. I watch as Paul stands up. He looks down at Meg and smiles and fires a bullet into her stomach. He aims the gun again, for her head this time, but Eli shoves him out of the way. The bullet fires somewhere to the left of us. Paul turns around and tries to wrap his fingers around my throat, but I dodge him. My fist slams into his throat instead. He grunts and aims the gun at me. Dan grabs his hand and forces the gun up just as it goes off again.

They wrestle him to the ground and I run for Meg. She’s gasping for breath. Jake stands by, watching, his face a mask of shame and fear. “Shh, Meg, it’s okay,” I soothe. “You’re going to be okay.”

She makes a rasping sound and blood begins to stain her lips. No, please no. Please don’t die.

“Bitch.”

The gun goes off and I feel a burning sensation in my shoulder followed by a wrenching pain that makes me scream. I look up to see Mason standing a few feet from us, holding his stomach. Blood seeps out of the gunshot wound. Paul’s wild shot must have hit him.

Mason raises his gun again and then I hear another shot from behind me. Mason falls. Dan is standing behind me, Paul’s gun in his hand. He throws the weapon and then runs over to where Meg and I are. He takes one look at Meg and his face pales.

“Can you do something?” he asks me. “Can you save her like you did me?”

“No.”

The voice is loud like thunder and it hurts my ears. I’m not sure where it’s coming from, though.

Meg coughs and more blood bubbles out.

“I can try,” I say and then cringe when the same voice says, “NO.”

“Who’s there?” I call, my voice more arrogant in my fear than I meant it to sound.

A man steps out of the trees. He’s tall, dressed in jeans and a green tee shirt. Hard as I try to focus on his face, I can’t. Every time my eyes travel up, they shy away against my will.

“You will not save her,” he says. “This is the price that must be paid.”

“Who are you?” I demand.

“I am Azrael.”

“The Angel of Death,” Eli whispers.

Azrael nods. “If that is what you wish to call me, young Knight. I am here to see the price is paid for the young
Reaper’s transgression.”

“Transgression?” I shout. “I saved his life!”

“It was not yours to save, child,” Azrael says calmly. “By saving him, you have killed others. Had Daniel died, Jacob would not have died and this girl would have been home, grieving. She would be alive and well. Because you held onto him, you altered her timeline. She’s dying now, when she could have lived a full, rich life. By upsetting the balance of life and death, you have altered timelines. There are more who will die, but these deaths, you will witness and understand the consequences of what you have wrought.” His voice booms around us by the time he is done. Caleb and Eli have both covered their ears, but Dan and I stare at Azrael, ashamed and scared.