Keep Me Close Read online

  “You let him do that?” Jonas was surprised. He knew as well as anyone that Vinny didn’t like to owe people.

  “I’m going to pay him back. But seriously, you’re getting worked up over nothing. Dom doesn’t want anything from me. It’s not like I’m rich or famous. Not like you, superstar.”

  “You’re pretty cute,” Jonas said, giving her a grin. “He might want a piece of you, baby.”

  Vinny blushed. “Maybe.” Definitely.

  “Just be careful,” Jonas said. “You come running to me if that guy tries anything you don’t like.”

  “Since when do I come running to anyone for protection?” Vinny asked. Other than when a vampire attacks.

  “There’s always a first time. Anyway, I’m here for you. Me and Emma.”

  “Thanks.” She stepped toward the door.

  “Hey, we’re not done. I’ve got something for you.”

  “You do?”

  “Birthday present.”

  “You didn’t know I was coming!”

  “I got it a while ago. Never knew where to mail it. You move around so much.” He pulled a little jewelry box from a pocket and held it out to her. His hand shook a little, and Vinny wondered if he was feeling all right. “Here.”

  Vinny took the box and opened the lid, revealing a rather delicate looking gold charm on a long, thin gold chain. The charm was all metal—no stones—and it was an odd, geometric style, with a triangle overlaying a circle and some other bars laid across those. Art Deco. Or something.

  The necklace was not exactly her style, but there was something compelling about it. Vinny touched the charm gently. “This looks old. Like an actual antique.” The golden color was very soft, almost matte. Nothing like the bright, gleamy gold jewelry in all the stores.

  “Yeah, I think so.” He paused. “Actually, Emma found it in some junk shop when we were traveling through Europe a while back and she just…thought of you. You and all your crazy jewelry. So we bought it. You can add it to your collection, hey?”

  Vinny put it on, mostly to make Jonas happy. Once added to her many other necklaces, it blended in surprisingly well.

  He smiled. “Looking classy, Vin. Just like you. Happy birthday. Few days early, but what the hell.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Let’s go find the others.”

  They returned to the table, and Vinny forgot the necklace as soon as she looked at the sky. The sunset had moved to the red and purple phase, and Vinny wanted to stop the colors from changing more, because every second that passed brought them closer to the time Dom would have to move on.

  Emma offered a chocolate cake as dessert. It was crazy good and Vinny practically inhaled hers. Dom seemed to be more into the coffee, which was much fancier than the diner coffee they’d lived on for the road trip. Vinny wondered if Dom was drinking coffee to stay awake once he left the house.

  “More coffee?” Emma asked him. “We have it roasted special. I know it’s insufferably coastal elite of us, but it really is good.”

  “Amazing. As a non-elite midwesterner, I approve.” Dom gave Emma a smile that nearly made Vinny’s stomach flip.

  Jonas put down his fork. He’d barely touched the cake. “Hey, look here, Dom. I know you have to get on the road again. Vinny’s all pay-as-you-go, but that’s not my style. And since you brought Vinny to me—us, I insist on paying you for your trouble.”

  “No trouble,” Dom said.

  “In any case, this should cover expenses.” Jonas casually dropped a wad of hundred dollar bills onto the table.

  Vinny raised an eyebrow. That amount would cover a charming vacation in the Caribbean. Jonas was showing off, in the most blatant way possible.

  “Well, thanks for that,” Dom said, without making a move toward the cash, “but I’m not leaving.”

  Both Vinny and Emma leaned in, saying simultaneously, “You’re not?”

  “Nope.”

  Jonas frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because I haven’t even heard about your problem yet, Jonas.” Dom sat back in his chair, totally at ease.

  “My problem?” Jonas asked.

  “Yeah. You did get the message that I’d be the one to show up, right? You, Jonas Belling, called my family business, Salem Associates, to take care of some supernatural trouble. I’m Dominic Salem. But yeah, call me Dom.” Now he reached for the cash. “Let’s get down to business. What’s haunting you?”

  Chapter 12

  Dom didn’t believe in coincidences, so when Vinny gave him an address matching the one he’d been given by his brother, Dom knew something strange was going on. Strange didn’t faze him. But it did make him extremely curious. There was a reason why he ran into Vinny a few days ago, and it was linked to whatever was happening here, with his client. The very time-conscious Jonas Belling.

  And his client was definitely not spilling everything he knew. Not even to his wife.

  “Haunted? What the hell do you mean by haunted?” Emma demanded. She looked outraged. “I live here, and this house is not haunted! Jonas, explain.”

  “Uh, I didn’t want to scare you, babe.”

  “Let me ask again.” Emma leaned on the table and gave Jonas a look that Dom definitely would call scary. “What exactly has been happening in the house that you’d say means it’s haunted?”

  “Well.” Jonas glanced at Dom, but didn’t say more. He looked incredibly uncomfortable.

  “I’m fairly difficult to surprise when it comes to paranormal things,” Dom said. “Why don’t we start with what you told my brother when you first contacted him?”

  Jonas nodded. “I got a hold of your number through a friend who said you were legit. Cody Hodge?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Dom said. “I remember that. We stopped a poltergeist from tormenting his daughter.”

  “He said he didn’t think it would do a damn thing, but whatever you did really worked. So I was hoping you could do the same thing here. A sort of full-house dehaunting? Or general demon decontamination. Whatever you call it.”

  “It doesn’t quite work that way. I need to know exactly what’s causing the problem so I know exactly how to fix it. So describe what’s going on.”

  “Well. I haven’t been able to sleep for a while. Weeks. Few months really.”

  “That’s true,” said Emma.

  “And I hear a voice sometimes, at night. More than that. Almost every night. Nothing that could come from a real person in the house. Mostly it’s just the two of us here anyway. And I hear music in my head.”

  “You’re a musician,” Emma said. “You’re supposed to hear music in your head.”

  “Not like this,” Jonas said with a shudder. “It’s creepy as hell. Anyway, I honestly believe that there’s something…otherworldly…causing it. And I want it to stop.”

  “I’m going to need a lot more detail than that,” Dom said. “Why don’t you start at the beginning? When did you first notice something wrong?”

  Jonas’s eyes flitted to the women, then out to the spectacular view. “Maybe…a year ago.”

  “A year?” Emma burst out.

  “About that. I came home after a trip to LA, and the house was freezing, then hot, then cold again. I thought it was the HVAC on the fritz, but it wasn’t. I began to realize that the hot and cold was…in a pattern. If Emma and I got into an argument, the temperature dropped right after. The cold would follow me. And I started to hear whispering.”

  “Words?” Dom asked sharply.

  Jonas shook his head. “No. Not exactly. It’s really hard to describe. It was like eavesdropping on another language. Weird hissing and sounds that were almost words, but not quite. I heard the whispering in my dreams, and I kept waking up. Emma, you remember.”

  “You did get insomnia,” she said slowly. “But you told me it was anxiety over that movie score gig. Rewrites.”

  “What else could I say? I didn’t want to tell anyone, because that would mean I had to prove it was real. I didn’t know who’d believe me
.”

  Dom considered, then said, “I’ll need to spend some time checking the house out. And the property. And asking questions.”

  “How much time?” Jonas asked anxiously.

  “It depends.”

  “You gotta solve this by the end of the week.”

  “There’s a deadline?” Dom asked.

  “I’m making it a deadline,” Jonas said. “I’m paying for whatever voodoo you’re doing.”

  “It’s not voodoo,” said Dom. “Voodoo is a very specific type of magic, and I doubt it’s relevant here. Unless you’ve previously worked with a voodoo practitioner for any reason?”

  “No! I haven’t worked with anyone because I’ve got an image to maintain, and I don’t want to sound like a crazy person.”

  Dom was used to clients who hated the fact that they had to take the supernatural seriously.

  But Emma said, rather frostily, “Believing in spirits isn’t going to push the needle on the celebrity crazy meter. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this. Not that we talk anymore.” The last words came out like razors. Dom glanced at Vinny to see how she took her friend’s statement.

  Vinny looked right back at him, but the only thing he saw in her eyes was anger. Whoops. She was pissed.

  Jonas glared at Emma, but then said to Dom, “You can do whatever you got to do. Start tomorrow.”

  “I’ll start right now,” Dom said. “It’s getting dark, and that’s when stuff usually gets interesting. I’ll just look around. Let you know if I have questions.”

  He excused himself. Partly, he really did want to get the lay of the land, and partly he wanted to get away from the cold war between Jonas and Emma. But he also didn’t like the way Vinny was glaring at him. That was going to be a fun talk…assuming she ever talked to him again. After all, Vinny was exactly where she wanted to end up when he first met her. She didn’t need Dom anymore. She could easily avoid him in this mansion. And once he wrapped up the job, he would be gone. Without her.

  Dom used a favorite meditation technique to push thoughts of Vinny out of his mind, along with the awareness that he was not at all looking forward to leaving her. After a couple of minutes, his head was clear. Mostly. Anyway, he had work to do.

  Chapter 13

  After Dom left, Vinny let out a huge breath. “What. The. Hell.”

  “Seems to be the question we’re all asking.” A very put-out Emma looked first at her, then Jonas.

  He stood up from the table, wobbling on his feet. “Um, I gotta take care of something. You girls can catch up.”

  “You’re not getting out of explaining anything,” Emma shouted after him as he fled the scene. Then she took a big drink of red wine and looked back at Vinny. “So. What the hell?”

  “I didn’t know. I swear.”

  “You didn’t know what? That your bad boy was an exorcist?”

  “He’s not my anything, and I meant I didn’t know he was coming here already. Or that Jonas asked him here. I promise.”

  “This is nuts,” Emma said, rubbing her temples. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to take seriously right now. A haunted house? Our house? And this random guy is supposed to be able to fix it?”

  “I don’t know about any haunting,” Vinny said, slowly. “But Dom is for real.”

  “How do you know that? You’ve never been into any of this woo-woo stuff.”

  “Understatement. But I know he’s not a faker.”

  “Again, how?”

  Vinny didn’t see any way to avoid it. She told Emma the whole story, from getting picked up on the side of the road, to her running into another guy who turned out to be a vampire, and how Dom had handled that little situation in a terrifying and terrifyingly competent way.

  Emma’s eyes got wider and wider as Vinny told the story, making Vin glad she decided to leave out the part where Piewicket also joined the battle against the vampire. For some reason, she knew that asking Emma to believe a cat fought monsters would be over the line.

  “So whatever is happening with the house or with Jonas, I’m pretty sure Dom will know what to do,” Vinny concluded. “Even if his only answer is to move out.”

  “I don’t want to move out,” Emma said, looking out over the scenery. “I love it here. I’ll do anything I have to to stay here.”

  Something in her tone made Vinny a little nervous. What did Emma mean by anything? “It’s just real estate,” she reminded her friend.

  “You don’t get it, Vin. You don’t care about this sort of stuff. You drift like…a drifter.”

  “Nice analogy, lady.”

  Emma stifled a laugh. “Give me a break. You know what I mean. You’ve never cared about having a home. You go from place to place to place. You’re always ready to move on. I can’t live like that.”

  Vinny nodded. Emma was way more of a nester than she was, though most of Vinny’s moves were involuntary. She ran out of rent money, or lost a roommate, or just had to squeak out of the way of her parents, who tended to try to find out where she was living despite Vinny telling them several times that she never wanted to see either of them again.

  But that didn’t mean part of her didn’t long for a home base. A place bigger than her backpack. Maybe a place where she could stash a few books, and have a bed, and know that she could always stay there.

  “You can always hang out here,” Emma said. She often had the best friend gift of reading Vinny’s mind.

  “Too fancy for me,” Vinny joked.

  Emma snorted. “This house isn’t half as fancy as what you’re used to. Speaking of which…”

  “What?”

  “I got to tell you,” Emma said. “Your dad called me. Maybe three weeks ago.”

  A wash of cold rushed over Vinny, a visceral reaction to the unwelcome news. “He did?” Her father wouldn’t have known that Vin and Emma had a bit of a falling out a few years ago. It was pretty natural for him to think Emma would know where Vinny was at all times.

  “Yup. He wants to see you.”

  “Did you tell him how to reach me?”

  “Of course not.” Emma looked offended at the notion. “I just told him your last phone number stopped working like a month before. A totally believable explanation, by the way, you vagabond.”

  “Good.” Vinny sighed. The idea of her dad popping up out of nowhere made her furious. As if he could just walk back into her life after what he’d put her through.

  “If you just talked with him, or your mom, maybe you could…”

  “Nope.” There would be no reconciliation. No making nice. Vinny was her own person, and she didn’t need her parents for anything. “They had their chance with me. They both blew it, in their own special ways. I don’t know what my dad wants, but you can bet it’s got nothing to do with making my life better. Let’s change the subject. What’s going on in your life now? Tell me something good.”

  Emma smiled at last. “Oh, I got something. You know who I’ve been working for? You’ll never guess.”

  “Then you better tell me.”

  “Remember Brennan?”

  “You mean Nitro Bombs Brennan?” The Nitro Bombs were a surprisingly long-lasting punk band and Brennan was the one original member left when it finally dissolved.

  “Yup. We started talking online a while back, after I did an interview on women in the music industry. A sort of then and now thing for a TV special. Brennan saw it and got in touch. He sparked so many ideas, I just wanted to write again!”

  “That’s fantastic,” Vinny said sincerely. Emma had really dropped out of writing for a while, and Vinny thought she was unhappy about it. It was one of the subjects that got them into their fight.

  “He’s been so great,” Emma went on. “Always willing to work through my messy ideas. Got me back into writing and the scene. God, I feel like I’ve been asleep for the past few years. He’s got a lot of connections with magazines, of course. He’s working with me on a long-form project for his magazine. And he’s been help
ing me pitch some other articles, even if he’s not the one publishing them. He’s so supportive.”

  “Sounds just like him.” Secretly, Vinny wasn’t surprised at all. Bren had the worst crush on Emma back in the day. Apparently, he still carried a torch for her. Possibly fueled with atomic energy.

  “I thought maybe I would come out to New York and hang out with him in person…” Emma trailed off.

  “You’re a wife, not a prisoner,” Vinny said firmly. “It’s fine for you to have friends who are guys. Jonas has plenty of friends who are women.”

  “I know,” Emma said, her voice tightening.

  “Or is one of them more than a friend? Tell me.” Vinny was certain Jonas had cheated on Emma more than once, though he never admitted it. He blamed all his bad behavior on addiction, and always said he was going to do better. But Vinny thought Emma made a mistake by giving in. Jonas didn’t exactly have a strong moral code when it came to fun. He liked girls, and he liked drugs, and he liked having a good time. Emma was the one person who kept him from the worst of his vices. But that also meant Emma saw a lot of shit no one else ever did.

  “It’s not that,” Emma said reluctantly. “Not cheating. But…he’s getting back into the harder stuff. I’ve never been able to stop him drinking. But he’s doing more than that again.”

  “Ugh. Sorry. I thought he looked a little shaky earlier. Have you talked to him about it?”

  “Not directly. He’s been really stressed out and weird for like the last six months. More than that. Nine? I guess because he thinks the house is haunted? But maybe it’s simpler than that. He could be hallucinating it all.”

  “You want me to mention that possibility to Dom? In a subtle way.”

  “I know I can’t talk about it to some stranger.” Emma sighed. “I really thought that once Jonas and I got married and got this house, things would settle down. He’d grow up. We’d have a pretty normal life, with…kids and all that.”

  “He’s still against the having children thing?”

  “Yeah. He keeps saying we should wait. But I’m going to be thirty in a couple years. I don’t want to wait forever.”