Her breath frozen in her chest, Charli crab-walked backward toward the stairs then lurched to pick up thebox and the journals. She raced down the spiral staircase, nearly stumbling several times, feeling like her heart would pound out of her chest. Panting, she ran the rest of the way down to the first floor and screamed when she slammed into what felt like a wall.
“Whoa! Charli,” Gus exclaimed, grasping her forearms. “What the hell’s going on?”
For a moment, Charli couldn’t catch her breath as she clutched the pilfered items from the Widow’s Walk to her chest.
Gus’s eyes squinted and his head tilted. “Are you okay?” He glanced at the box in her arms. “Whatcha got there?”
Charli pointed up. “Amelia...It was Amelia,” she babbled, still huffing from her escape. “Widow’s Walk,” she sputtered, pointing up. “Broke a board in the floor...found these.”
Gus’s mouth flattened. “What? Charli, are you freaking serious right now? You went up to the Widow’s Walk? I literally just told you not to go up there. What part of ‘don’t go up there, it’s not safe’ wasn’t clear to you?”
Charli nodded in agreement, holding a hand to her chest in an effort to calm it down. “Yeah, yeah,” she replied, still trying to catch her breath. “You’re right about that.” She held up the items she’d found. “Aseagull hit the window...scared the shit out of me...and I, I stumbled back...cracked a floor board...found these under the floor,” she rambled.
Gus’s eyes bulged. “Are you freaking serious? You found a hidey hole?”
Charli bobbed her head vigorously. “These were all hidden in there. And when I started looking through one of the journals, the room got really cold.”
“Madre di Dios!” Gus’s jaw tightened and he crossed himself several times, mumbling under his breath. He cleared his throat and leaned in. “Did you feel anything? Like any weird tingling?”
Charli took a deep breath. “Yeah. Right here,” she gasped as she ran her finger along her jawline.
“Mierda!” Gus muttered, crossing himself yet again. His gaze dropped to the floor for a moment, then it snapped back up at Charli and narrowed. “Do. Not. Go. Up. There. Again. It’s not safe and we really don’t know what the fuck we’re dealing with.”
“It was Amelia,” Charli insisted, knowing in her heart that she had found something key to their mystery.
Gus shook his head, panic in his eyes. “We don’t know that.”
Charli clutched the box and journals to her chest. She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I do. It was her. I know it was her and she wanted me to find these.”
* * **
Charli watched with a smirk as Jack spewed his mouthful of wine across the kitchen table and coughed hard to clear his throat. “You did what?” he nearly shouted.
She pressed her lips together to fight off a smile. The man was predictable. Her brows rose. “Are you okay? Do you need a towel?”
“I’m fine,” he choked, dabbing at the mess with a napkin. “Are you telling me that you went up to the Widow’s Walk even after Gus and I specifically told you not to?”
She casually reached up to pull dinner plates down and then turned fully toward him. Leaning back on the counter and planting her hands on her hips, she answered, “Yeah, I did, Jack.” Her chin tilting up to challenge him.
On most occasions, she loved his protective streak. But every once in a while it could be completely overbearing.
“You do realize that I am a grown woman and have been successfully navigating life for over thirty years now without a man telling me what to do, right?” she added, her voice thick with the sass she felt.
Jack blinked several times as if he were processing her words, then his brows dropped as if he werebuckling down for war. “Have you been successfully traipsing through centuries-old houses that are full of rotten floors and foundations, and then successfully renovating them according to regulation?”
He stood from his chair and took a few steps toward her. “Have you successfully managed an entire construction crew with absolutely no injuries in dangerous old houses because you made safety the top priority? And, have you successfully worked inside a haunted house before?”
Charli’s posture relaxed, folding her arms over her chest. Mmmmmm...watching him rant with fire in his eyes made her want to rub her body against his in the very best way.
What was it about this man that made her want to throw caution to the wind?
“That’s just ridiculous, Jack.” She gave him a sassy smile.
Holding her gaze, he pursed his lips and moved his head from side to side as he continued his walk toward her. He placed his feet outside hers and braced his arms against the counter on either side of her hips. Leaning in, his lips nearly grazing hers, he shook his head again.
“Nuh uh,” he whispered. “Working in these houses can be extremely dangerous and that Widow’s Walkis unsafe. I told you that...Gus told you that. What you did today was reckless, baby.”
His body pressed tightly into hers, and Charli licked her lips as a tingle began to move through her body. His gaze dropped to her mouth, watching her tongue, and at that moment, she wanted nothing more than his lips on hers. Something about arguing with this man was the ultimate aphrodisiac.
