Something in the Shadows Read online

  SOMETHING IN THE SHADOWS.

  Copyright © 2020 by Elle Beaumont, Christis Christie, Heather Karn, and Melanie Gilbert.

  Published by Midnight Tide Publishing.

  www.midnighttidepublishing.com

  Cover designed by Psycat Digital Ink & Motion.

  www.seriesbookcovers.com

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, brands, trademarks, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

  All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law.

  Contents

  Headless

  Darkness Untold

  Whispered Summons

  Die from a Broken Heart

  A Note to the Readers

  More Books You’ll Love

  The Girl in the Clockwork Tower

  Lyrics & Curses

  For those who love all things dark and beautiful.

  “In a quarter mile, your destination will be on the left.” The monotone GPS’ voice gave both me and my bladder hope. Maybe I wouldn’t wet my pants after all.

  The lodge for Ranger’s Ranch came into view and I took the turn into the gravel drive a little faster than I should have. That didn’t stop me from speeding up the long road to the lodge’s parking area. Dust washed over the car as I came to an abrupt halt between a black SUV and my bestie’s yellow Range Rover. Was I still jealous of her car six months after she’d bought it while I drove something a step above a beater? Yes.

  Other cars filled the parking area, but my bladder screamed to find a bathroom so loud that I didn’t care to look around. If anyone else I knew had arrived, I’d see them inside instead of searching the lot for their car.

  My phone rang as I turned off the car’s ignition. The sound of Justin Timberlake’s voice singing the tune of “SexyBack” made me yip and dive into the purse beside me before anyone could possibly hear the ringtone I did not choose. I’d picked a classy Harry Potter theme, but my sister thought that too tame. Now I regretted my lack of password on the phone during my visit home last weekend.

  The phone showed my sister’s face. Being the awesome sister who had to pee that I was, I ignored the call and promptly changed the call volume to vibrate before dropping the phone back into my purse.

  Grabbing my purse off the seat, I shoved my door open.

  “Ouch!”

  Dang it, I’d hit someone. I bit down on my lower lip as I looked up into the face of a god. I winced. Of all the men on Earth, I’d hit the district manager with my car door. Not only was he the god of hot men with his sandy brown hair, brilliant blue eyes that dazzled in pictures, and broad shoulders, but he was also my boss’ boss and son of the company’s president, Henry Simmons.

  “Sorry, Mr. Simmons.”

  “Could you close your door so I can close mine?” He grabbed something off the passenger seat of his SUV and waited for me to get my head together to close my door.

  My cheeks would have lit a forest on fire as I closed my car door, much to the objection of my bladder. I should have stopped alongside the road. No one would have seen me relieve my poor bladder in a stand of trees ten miles back, but I’d allowed pride to make me miserable.

  The cell phone in my purse buzzed as Bryce Simmons closed his door and walked to the lodge. This time, my BFF’s face showed on the screen.

  “Hey, Zoe, can I call you back?”

  “Eloise, are you here yet, girl?” I shouldn’t have answered the phone because Zoe would never listen to an attempt to call her back.

  “Yes.” I groaned as Bryce Simmons and his tight backside entered the building.

  “What is it? Where are you? I have our room key.”

  “I smacked Bryce Simmons with my car door. Hard.” I dropped my forehead to my steering wheel as the reality of what I’d done fully sunk in.

  “You did what?” Zoe’s shriek broke my eardrum before I could pull my phone from my ear.

  “I have to pee. I’ll call you back.” I hung up on her, something I’d hear about later, but there was no time to care now.

  After checking to make sure my door wouldn’t hit anymore hunks, I opened the door and climbed awkwardly to my feet. My walk up the stairs and into the building was an incredibly sexy waddle from full bladder and stiff legs. I’d been on the road for ten hours. Normally I’d tell someone to bug off if they mentioned how nice I walked, but as the sun began to set behind the horizon, I was all for keeping my mouth shut. I was too tired. They could think what they wanted.

  The lobby of the place was amazing, just as it had been last year. The natural, smoothed wood accents were comforting against the Halloween decorations of orange and black. Even a large pine tree stood in a corner beside a burning fireplace with its orange lights and pumpkin garland creating the mood in the room. Halloween had been, and always would be, my least favorite holiday of the year. Still, Ranger’s Ranch knew how to decorate.

  A hallway at the back of the room held a family bathroom. I made a beeline straight there. The motion sensor witch that sprang to life and cackled at me from her bench beside the hallway nearly created a puddle on the floor.

  “Of all the nonsensical decorations to put by a bathroom.” No one was around to hear my muttered grievance, so I kept walking.

  At the door to the bathroom, I pushed down on the handle. It didn’t swing down to open the door. Locked.

  I rapped on the door hard and fast. “Is there anyone in there?”

  No one spoke, or at least I didn’t hear them over the music playing from an overhead speaker, so I rapped harder and faster. “Hello? If there’s someone in there, please say something so I know the toilet’s not broken.”

  An employee passed the opening of the hallway, heading further into the main lobby area, and I rushed to catch him.

  “Excuse me-ahh!” The witch sensor caught me, again, and she cackled while I nearly wet myself, again, and gave the employee a heart attack because of my scream.

  “Can I help you?” The young man was kind enough not to mention my near murder of him.

  “I’m so sorry. Can you tell me if there’s something wrong with the bathroom?” I pointed over my shoulder to the hallway.

  “Um, I don’t think so, but I can go check?” He didn’t want to, but I nodded, and he was off to the front desk.

  While he was gone, I made my way back to the bathroom door, prepared for Miss Cackle this time around, and gave a long series of knocks on the door. Still no answer and I’d even put my ear to the wood to really listen hard this time.

  I turned my back on the door, leaning against it while waiting for the young man to return to inform me the bathroom was out of service.

  “Apparently this is your lucky day, Eloise.” After ten hours by myself, and being a naturally chatty soul, I’d taken to talking to myself to fill the silence when music and audiobooks had grown old in the car.

  The door behind me flew open. I, of course, went with it.

  “Ahh!” My arms pinwheeled to catch my balance, but I still fell backwards.

  Strong arms caught me before my butt or head hit the ground. I did manage to hit my rescuer with my flailing, for which I felt bad, but they were kind enough to put me back on my feet anyway.

  “Oh my gosh, thank you.” I held a hand to my chest as I turned with a smile upon my rescuer. “You saved my-”

  Bryce Simmons, god of all gods, stood looking down on me with mild annoyance written in every li
ne of his face. I cringed.

  “Sorry? Again?”

  I backed out of the bathroom as the young employee, announced by mechanic cackles, strode down the hallway.

  “There’s nothing wrong with the bathroom.” He paused with a smile as Mr. Simmons exited the room. “But I guess you can see that.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” I gave the lodge’s employee a halfhearted, wimpy salute and he was on his way with laughter that I’d been the cause of creating.

  Bryce, otherwise known to Zoe and I as Simmering Simmons because of his obvious hotness, glanced down his nose at me.

  “I did respond to you by the way. The door is thick and the music up there,” he pointed to the ceiling speaker, “is very loud.”

  “Oh.”

  We stood in awkward silence while my bladder screamed.

  “Well, um…” What in the world did I say to get out of this?

  “Where are you heading next, Ms…” Bryce raised an eyebrow when I didn’t give my name on schedule.

  “Brandt. I’m Eloise Brandt, sir.”

  “You know me, so I assume you work for the company?”

  My cheeks heated so much they nearly burned. “Yeah, I do. Norman Gates is my boss.”

  He nodded. “I see. Well, is this,” he waved a hand between us, “going to keep happening? I just need to know if I should wear armor or be on the lookout.”

  “No, sir. I’ll watch out better. I just really need to use the bathroom. For like, twenty miles.” This was the most embarrassing moment of my life and I was having it in front of Simmering Simmons. Zoe would kill me for this! She’d keep a mile from me while at the retreat.

  Bryce stepped aside and motioned to the bathroom. “All yours. Enjoy your evening.”

  I didn’t allow him time to walk away before I ran into the bathroom and pretty much slammed the door behind me. I made sure to lock it straightway so no crazy person who needed to pee as badly as I did would barge in on me.

  After taking care of business, for which my bladder was so happy, I stared at myself in the mirror while the water ran down the sink.

  “Eloise, you are in so much trouble. So much. Don’t count on a promotion. Just look for a new job. It’ll be easier and less embarrassing for you in years to come.” My shoulders fell and my reflection pouted. I really liked my job.

  I grabbed my phone out of my purse when I left the bathroom and scowled at the witch when she cackled at me as I entered the lobby where people from my office and other areas gathered to meet up with each other.

  “Where are you?” Zoe answered the phone in a tizzy. “I can’t see you – wait there you are.”

  Zoe, with her black hair in tight curls, bounced down the stairs of the lodge. Her jeans were tight as was her shirt, regular Zoe style, but she had the body for it. Me, not so much.

  “Eloise, what in the world is this?” Zoe waved her arms up and down at my appearance. Wrinkled shirt and what she called “last season’s holey jeans” were my travel apparel. Ten hours in a car meant I’d wanted to be comfortable. Meeting Simmering Simmons hadn’t been on my list of things to do with sparse makeup, a crooked ponytail, and my current garb. Neither had smacking him with my door or falling on him in the bathroom been on the agenda.

  To save my ego, I gave Zoe a half-hearted glare as I turned to leave the building, my bestie at my side. “Unlike you, Zo, I had to drive the entire ten hours today, not start yesterday and sleep over at family’s house halfway.”

  “You could have come with me.”

  “That would have been weird, and I had to drop Mr. Muffin Top at the sitter’s last night after work.” The cat didn’t like me much and preferred the sitter so that had gone smoothly.

  “And you hadn’t finished packing because you’re the world’s biggest procrastinator. Not to mention you bring the weirdest stuff with you on trips. And, you don’t use a list so you’re running around last-minute packing stuff.”

  Zoe shook her head at me when I popped the trunk.

  “What?” I looked into the trunk.

  “Girl, no one else brings a sword on a company retreat.”

  “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Anything could happen. Besides, Dad gave it to me last weekend when I was at their place and I forgot to take it upstairs.”

  “Sure, ya did. More like conveniently left it inside the trunk for a week.” Well, she wasn’t wrong. “Okay, let’s grab these bags, leave the sword, and go upstairs and you can tell me about what happened with Simmer and how much damage control we’ll have to run.”

  Zoe stopped walking when I didn’t leave the back of the car, hand over my eyes. She groaned.

  “It’s that bad? Please tell me it’s not. I mean, you hit him with your car door. Right? Can’t be all that bad. He didn’t fire you.”

  I peeked at her between my fingers. “It got worse.”

  She gaped at me. “Do I even want to know?”

  “Probably not.”

  Her shoulders fell. “Come on. Let’s get upstairs so you can tell me whatever horrific thing I need to know about, and I then I can proceed with the lecture.”

  My bestie turned and began walking up the stairs to the lodge while I followed. Well, at least she’d taken things well so far. I had a bestie for about maybe a half an hour longer. Then all bets were off.

  “Please, tell me this isn’t happening.” Zoe laid on her bed with an arm slung over her face, hiding from my bad news.

  “You think it’s bad for you? What about me?” My reflection in the room’s large mirror made me wince.

  Zoe had been right. The tiny bathroom mirror down in the hallway off the lobby hadn’t shown how rough I looked. Now, I had my appearance to add to my growing list of embarrassments.

  “We grab our schedules at breakfast tomorrow. Maybe you and I will be lucky enough not to be in the same group for activities.”

  I gave Zoe the stink eye for her comment.

  “What?” She sat up and threw her legs off the bed. “You’re the one who did this, not me. Now, are you hungry because I’m starving.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, go change.” Zoe tipped her head to indicate the bathroom. “It’s a very nice bathroom.”

  “I was here last year, Zo. I know.” My shoulders sagged and I let out a deep breath. “Sorry, Zo. It’s been a long day. I’m tired, hungry, and embarrassed. Maybe you should head downstairs, and I’ll meet you down there.”

  “Nope. Not happening.” Zoe shook her head back and forth. “You were alone too much today and that led to simmering amounts of trouble, if you catch my drift. So, you need your bestie to keep you out of trouble.”

  I scrunched up my face. “I hate it that you’re right.”

  Zoe stood and walked over to me, throwing her arms around my neck. “Everything’s going to be fine from here on out. We’re here for two days. Let’s make the most of it and forget what happened with Simmer.”

  “You’re the best.” I hugged Zoe back.

  “Yes, I am. Now, go change and we’ll head down to dinner and sign up for events. I’d love to go horseback riding tomorrow afternoon, so let’s sign up before there are no more spots left.”

  I grabbed some clothing from my suitcase along with my toiletry bag and headed to the bathroom. After the miserable half hour I’d just lived through, I wanted more than a change of clothes to boost my confidence.

  A thicker than normal layer of makeup applied to my eyes on top of a cute outfit later, I left the bathroom to hear a whistle from Zoe.

  “Girl,” Zoe shook her head and laughed. “Even if Simmering Simmons sees you again, he’ll probably not recognize you as the girl who nearly took him out twice.”

  “Is that supposed to be flattering?” I cocked an eyebrow at her.

  Still, she wasn’t wrong. My long, wavy blonde hair shone after a good brushing and my high cheekbones did their job, along with the makeup, at bringing attention to my bright blue eyes. I’d even been lucky enough to inherit Dad’s long eyelashes.
They hadn’t been layered in mascara earlier, so Bryce probably hadn’t noticed them.

  “He probably has a girlfriend.” The thought both relieved and depressed me.

  “Doesn’t mean he can’t look.” Zoe winked at me.

  I rolled my eyes. Zoe’s notion remained that if there wasn’t a ring on the finger, other fish in the pool were still eligible. Commitment and I didn’t have a problem with each other. My last two boyfriends and I had been together for over two years each. They’d been the ones with the commitment issues.

  “You make me feel like I need to gussy up along with you, but I’m starving, so let’s go.” Zoe grabbed her room key, a real key, not a digital card, and handed me my own. "When was the last time you were at a hotel and had a real key?”

  We’d had the same discussion last year, but the key still amazed me. I’d expected to come back to updates like the key since last October. At this point, I didn’t expect changes next year. But hey, if it worked for the Ranch, why change?

  We left our room on the third floor, manually locking it behind us, and walked around the balcony which looked down onto the large lobby.

  “I can’t stand Halloween.” Zoe shivered. “All the decorations creep me out.”

  I held my fist out and she bumped it with hers. Zoe and I had bonded over our lack of love for the holiday at hand. We spent Halloween night curled up on one of our couches watching Christmas movies. That was the holiday we could both get behind. Who couldn’t love tinsel and presents?

  We made it around the balcony to the open stairs before I caught sight of Bryce and his buddies walking up toward us. The stairs had wooden railings like the rest of the balconies, and you could see the lobby and all the floors of the lodge if you stood on the landing between each of the three levels. The men were on their way up the second flight of stairs between levels two and three by the time Zoe noticed them.

  She stiffened beside me and we both picked up speed to be past the men before Bryce noticed me. I even tilted my head to the side and down so my hair would shield my face from view. Why did I have to keep running into him? Quite literally. Well, this time I wouldn’t.