What Remains by Bailey Bradford (to read list txt) 📕

up her butt and died, but she could either extricate it—along with her snarky attitude—or she could just stay gone. Surely he could get someone else to work the desk, even if all they did was answer the phone and greet people. Maybe Rich, if Laine begged him enough.

Or perhaps he wouldn’t have to beg, what with Miriam and her coven being down for a visit. Rich might appreciate a valid excuse to escape for eight hours.

Laine drummed his fingers on the desk. It was too quiet, had been, in the way he was thinking, for days. Who knew he’d miss Conner’s pranks so much? Laine snorted. What he wouldn’t give now to have his hat knocked off by that ghostly hand, or for the papers on Loretta’s desk to fly up in the air in a whirlwind of Conner’s making.

Where is he? Where are all of them? Laine’s thoughts centered in a moment of clarity. Five days ago, all this weird stuff had begun. The spirits of McKinton had disappeared without a warning. The only other unusual thing he could think of that had happened besides that five days ago was Miriam and some of her coven had arrived. He heard Rich’s voice in his head, telling Laine about a blessing ceremony Miriam had done.

The fine hairs on his arms prickled with an electrical current of unease. She’d know how to get rid of spirits, wouldn’t she? And considering her son’s partner had been the victim of two malevolent spirits, maybe she’d think getting rid of all the spirits here would be a good thing.

It made sense. It also scared the crap out of him, because if she had sent them away, Laine wasn’t sure they could be brought back. The dull ache in Laine’s chest grew to a breath-stealing intensity. Sending spirits along to wherever was all well and good if they wanted to go, but Conner wouldn’t have.

After what Conner had suffered during the last hours of his life—restrained and tortured to death—the idea of him being forced to leave the Earthly plane was too much. Laine drew in a shaky breath and rubbed at his stinging eyes. He didn’t have any proof, but he felt the truth of the situation all the way to his bones.

Someone had sent the spirits away, and if it wasn’t Miriam, maybe she could tell him who would have the power to do such a thing. Or maybe Chris could, what with him reading auras and such. Laine wasn’t sure how that worked, but he knew Chris could do it.

One last swipe at his eyes and another long breath and Laine had himself back under control. He’d find a way to fix this. First thing to do was to talk to Miriam, something he wanted to do in person, but he needed to make sure she was at Chris and Rich’s. She and the people who came with her were all staying there, although all of the other coven members were in tents whereas Miriam was staying in the house. Looked like a damn campsite.

Laine reached for the phone just as the door swung open. Sev smiled at him and Laine spotted the two people behind him. Laine stood and rounded the desk as Sev, another man, and a woman who could only be Sev’s sister entered the building.

“They got in a few minutes early,” Sev said. “Scared me half to death when I was outside of the café trying to keep the wind from dumping your coffee.”

Laine nodded then held out his hand. Roger and Alma could decide who shook it first. “Laine Stenley.” He thought about adding, ‘Sev’s partner’, but they knew that, and besides, he wanted to see how they reacted to him.

Roger smiled easily and shook Laine’s hand with a decently strong grip. “Roger Martinez, and this lovely lady is my wife, Alma.”

Laine looked at Alma as he shook her hand. She appeared to be a little nervous, but he didn’t see even a hint of disgust in her pale eyes. Laine was glad—she looked so much like Sev he wasn’t sure he could hold a grudge against her. Then he had to be honest with himself and admit he’d been doing exactly that toward all of Sev’s family for years now.

Well, he’d let it go in this case, unless Alma turned out to be something other than what she seemed—a caring, nervous sister who maybe knew she’d made mistakes where her younger brother was concerned.

Laine looked past the trio in front of him. He spotted a silver minivan in the parking lot. “Y’all lose the kids?”

“They didn’t want to scare you off,” Sev said, winking at him. “It seems all the times I told them what a calm, quiet man you were, Alma here took that to mean you had a delicate disposition—”

“Severo!” Alma’s face flamed as she popped her brother on the arm. “I did not! Adela smelled like puke and needed to shower, and…” Alma looked at him unflinchingly. “I thought, well, Roger and I thought you might be angry with us. We know we haven’t been the family we should, but please believe me, we would like to change that, if you’ll give us a chance.”

“Even if I had been angry, I wouldn’t have said anything rude in front of your kids,” Laine pointed out, only a little irked that Alma and Roger would think different. It wasn’t as if they knew him, after all. “And, yeah, I think Sev deserves better than what he’s got from his family, but—” He held up a hand when Sev started to speak. “I know the family dynamics are kind of…” He couldn’t think of a polite way to dig himself out of the corner he’d stupidly shoved himself into.

Roger’s eyes lit with amusement. “Screwed up? Yeah, you could say that. But we’re not really involved in those parts of the dynamics, as you called them, any more. Maybe eventually Sev and Alma’s other siblings will