Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons by ReGina Welling (you can read anyone txt) 📕

Zack flexed his arm to pull her closer; he had to know, to taste.

And his phone shrilled out the tone that signaled an emergency.

Half tempted to ignore it, he swore and levered himself off the sofa. Grabbing the phone, he punched the answer button with savage force.

“Roman.” He barked and heard the wince on the other end as the dispatcher, a very nice young woman named Dannisha spoke excitedly into his ear, “Sir, there’s a disturbance at your sister’s house. Her alarm system was triggered. I’ve already sent a car but I knew you would want to know.”

“Thanks, Danni.” He clicked off the phone just as Estelle shivered into view.

“It’s Logan. Finn and the little girl are with her, Julius stayed behind to keep watch. Hurry.”

By the time Zack had retrieved his service weapon, Kat was already waiting for him at the door and the pair of them, interlude forgotten, raced to check on Gustavia.

The silence during the short ride was made of worry and rose up like a miasma between them.

_,.-'~'-.,_

“…do the right thing. I know it’s in you. Where’s that little boy I knew who had such sweetness, such heart…do the right thing…” Bert continued his litany even though he knew Logan’s heart was probably closed to him forever. But if there were a chance, no matter how slim that his words would sink in and find purchase on some shard of decency no matter how deeply that shard might be buried, he would keep whispering into the boy’s ear.

***

Do the right thing. Do the right thing.

Logan didn’t know where the words were coming from only that they kept repeating through his mind like a hammer on a nail. Endlessly sinking, piercing through until they touched the last vestige of humanity left to him by Billy or by Thornton. The vision of him beating Gustavia, throwing her into the back of a car played across his memory.

Do the right thing. Do the right thing.

He’d felt the devil inside him already, was this the angel come to sit on his shoulder now?

Do the right thing.

Without knowing the outcome, Bert relentlessly drove Logan back to Oakville until he ended up in the very last place he should ever have gone. Gustavia’s front step.

_,.-'~'-.,_

Finn’s daughter, Samantha, was already asleep in Gustavia’s spare room when Fritzie went on full alert. Ears back, he dashed toward the front door just as a heavy thud shook it in its frame.

Chaos erupted as the house alarm shot to life with a blare followed by Sam’s piercing shriek. “Daddy…”

“Go to Sam,” Gustavia gave Finn a shove as she snatched up Fritzie with shaking hands and keyed in the code to shut the alarm down.

In the blessed silence that followed, her ears rang for a moment, and then she heard it. The faint sound of crying coming from outside.

Finn strode into the room cradling his daughter, her eyes wide with fear. He was just in time to see Gustavia yank open the front door and peer into the night.

“What do you think you’re doing. Get back in here.” He moved to pull her away from nearly certain danger but she shrugged him off. Just at the edge of the shadows cast by the motion sensor spotlight mounted above the door, she could see a dark form.

“Shh. Listen.”

Then Finn heard it, too. A ragged voice repeating, “Help me. Please, I’m sorry. The right thing.”

Sirens rang out in the distance and the shadow slid deeper into the night. Gustavia knew he would be long gone before the first flare of red and blue reached the house.

She was still standing there in the open doorway when Zack pulled up in front and parked illegally. Even with the excitement coursing through her veins, Gustavia quirked an eyebrow at her brother as Kat stepped out of the car. Angrily, he brushed off her quizzical look and demanded to know why she wasn’t still locked inside the house where she belonged.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt me. It wasn’t Billy. It was Logan out here crying for help.”

“I don’t care if he was bringing you the Hope diamond,” Zack punctuated each word by poking her in the shoulder and taking a step forward to drive her back indoors, “you stay inside the house.”

“She’s right, son,” Julius spoke from just behind him startled Zack. “And so is he,” the ghost wagged a finger at Gustavia.

Turning on his heel, Zack stalked back outside slamming the door behind him and joined his deputy in what he knew was a futile search through the neighborhood. His gut had already told him the danger was minimal and it was already too late Logan would be well out of reach. It was why he hadn’t bothered calling in for extra backup but none of it made up for Gustavia’s foolish behavior.

The early spring mix of melting snow and emerging mud crept into Zack’s running shoes like frigid slugs but he kept on walking until it also cooled his temper enough to go back and take his sister’s statement.

“For the fifth time, we heard a thud, the alarm went off. Finn took care of Sam while I turned off the alarm and that’s when I heard him crying outside. I opened the door, he saw me and pleaded for help then ran off. That’s it. There’s nothing more to remember.”

Julius chimed in to say he was certain it had been Logan and not Billy outside Gustavia’s door. Estelle returned from a quick trip to Hayward House to report there had been no disturbance there.

“What I don’t understand is why he would come to me of all people and ask for help. I didn’t like him before he turned into some kind of skin Muppet.”

“Don’t you mean puppet?” Kat asked knowing Gustavia probably had some logical reason for her word choice. Gustavia logic.

“Hey, you watched what you watched when you were a kid and I watched what I