Ghost Handled (Valley Ghosts Series Book 3) Read online

  Ghost Handled

  Valley Ghost Series Book 3

  BL MAXWELL

  Copyright

  Ghost Handled

  BL Maxwell

  Editing provided by: AnEdit

  Proofreaders: Nic Walker, Anita Ford. Mike Van Eimeren

  Copyright © 2020 BL Maxwell

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permissions from the author, except for using small quotes for book review quotations. All characters and storylines are the property of the author. The characters, events and places portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Trademarks:

  This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of all products referenced in this work of fiction. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Warning

  Intended for a mature an 18+ audience only. This book contains material that may be offensive to some and is intended for a mature, adult audience. It contains graphic language, explicit sexual content, and adult situations.

  For everyone who shares my love of ghost stories, and everyone who has shared theirs with me.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by BL Maxwell

  Chapter One

  Jason

  “Hey, babe, I’m home,” I called as I walked into what was now our house. Wade and I had been together for two years, but we’d been friends long before that.

  “Jason, back here.”

  I walked through the house to the backyard, and just like almost every day, Wade’s mom and Jimbo were sitting in the backyard with Wade, drinking a beer and enjoying the great weather.

  “How was work?” Wade asked with a grin; maybe he’d had two beers already.

  “It’s always good as I’m leaving.” He laughed at that and sat back so I could sit on his lap.

  “Mm you smell good. I missed you,” he said with a kiss and a nuzzle to my neck.

  “Oh my god, you guys. Can you spare us the kissy kissy?” Jimbo grumbled.

  “Speaking of, where’s Dean?”

  His smile said more than his words; he was in love, and no matter how hard he tried to hide or deny it, it was written all over his face.

  “He’ll be here soon; he’s got this evening off. We both work tomorrow.”

  That was another thing that had changed; Jimbo had sold his restaurant that he loved so much in Coloma and was now the kitchen manager at Dean’s restaurant.

  “James, you and Dean are as bad as these two. I can see the hearts in your eyes from here.”

  He patted Deidra on the hand and sat back in his chair with what I could only describe as a dreamy look on his face. I thought back to when we first met Jimbo; he was cooking at his restaurant and offered to help us with the ghosts at The Vineyard House. Good thing he did, or I’m not sure how that would have turned out.

  In the years since that day, a lot of things were different, but one thing hadn’t changed. He was still bad tempered, rude, and had no filter. But he’d walked through fire for each of us several times, and he was one of the best friends I’d ever known. Besides Wade that is. No one would ever replace him.

  “So, what’s for dinner? I’m starving.” I looked at the grill and was disappointed to see it wasn’t ready to be used.

  “Dean’s bringing it. He wanted to treat everyone tonight.”

  “James, that really is lovely of him. How’s the restaurant doing?” Deidra asked.

  “The Hitching Post is doing great! Busier than ever. We’ve even started doing a pretty good takeaway business.”

  “Oh, James, I’m just so proud of you both. I know you were sad when you sold the place in Coloma, but this seems to be going really well.”

  “It is, and it’s all worth it to be able to work with Dean. I never, in a million years, thought we’d find each other after so long, and I’m thankful for it every day we’re together.”

  Wade’s mom had the same look on her face she had when any of us talked about our significant other. She was such a big romantic at heart, she couldn’t control her reaction. It was sweet, and at times really really annoying.

  “Do we have any jobs for RSP?” Wade asked, and I was thankful for the distraction, but only slightly. After we decided to go into the ghost hunting business we’d had to come up with a name. We decided on Running Scared Paranormal, or RSP for short, and it stuck.

  “Well, we have a few actually. It seems Sacramento is very busy for paranormal activity.”

  “Not just Sacramento. I took a call from a place in Marysville. A small casino. They’ve been having a rough time of it lately.”

  “What about Preston Castle? I thought that was a done deal.”

  “We can go anytime. It’s just a lot of area to cover. I’m not confident we can cover forty-six thousand feet with just the four of us.”

  “Maybe we could find another ghost hunter or two to help?” I offered, but I knew Wade wouldn’t like that idea. He was very particular about how we ran an investigation, and he wouldn’t trust someone he didn’t know. The look he gave me confirmed it.

  “I’m not sure. I like knowing who we’re working with. We all know each other, and as long as one of us keeps a hold of Jimbo, none of us will go running and leave everyone else there.”

  “Fucking asshole,” Jimbo grumbled. And Deidra slapped him.

  “James, language. You’re teaching the boys bad habits.”

  “They don’t need any help, believe me. They can dish it out as well as they can take it.”

  “James—” She left that hanging, and pretty much dared him to talk back to her.

  Because he’d been on the receiving end of her wrath a few times, he chose to stay quiet on this one.

  “Why don’t we take one of the smaller investigations? There’s a lot to choose from, just depends how far you want to drive. We can take our time with Prescott Castle. I want to go there when we’re more prepared, and I don’t feel we are right now,” Wade said, and looked at each of us in turn.

  The haunting at The Hitching Post had taken a lot out of us all. The spirits were so aggressive, and we’d both suffered at their expense. But if I was being honest, Wade suffered the most. I would never let him be put in danger like that again, not ever.

  “That sounds good, babe. There are a few in Sacramento, or we could check out the one in Marysville, or the hair salon in Auburn.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Wade said. And something in the way he said i
t, I knew I should be worried. He grinned at me before he kissed my cheek and continued. “Why don’t we do a tour? We could start in Sacramento. Pick a haunt that’s fairly easy and well established, give it a night then move onto another haunt the next night. We could make it a three-night run.”

  “What the—are you fucking kidding me?”

  “James!”

  “Sorry, Deidra. But seriously . . . what the fuck?”

  Deidra’s eyes were glued to him, and even though he tried to ignore the intensity of it, he flinched away. Yep, she had the mom glare down pat.

  “Three nights? I’m in,” Dean said as he walked over to Jimbo and kissed him soundly, leaving him with a loud smack of his lips and a goofy grin. Yep, gone. “Anyone hungry? I brought the tri-tip special from tonight’s dinner service.” He set the bags down on the patio table and Wade jumped up to see what he’d brought.

  Jimbo shook his head and cleared his throat. “Fuck, if you’re going then I guess I am too because I’m not letting you out of my sight on a mission.”

  “A mission? Is that what we’re calling it now?” Dean beamed at him with a bit of amusement, and a lot of love.

  “We’re calling it crazy is what we’re calling it,” Jimbo grumbled.

  “Well, when are we going?” Dean asked. Ever since he and Jimbo had had their experience last Halloween, he’d grown very interested in the paranormal. Constantly asking questions about our equipment, and what to do in different scenarios. He’d also started watching every paranormal show he could find. And there were plenty.

  “Give us a few days to call around, see which places we can get to commit for the same time period. This could be really fun, or fucked up,” I said as I mentally ran through the list of prospective clients who’d contacted us.

  “Sounds good, I can’t wait,” Dean said, and unpacked the bags of food he’d brought.

  “You’ve created a monster,” I said to Jimbo.

  “Yeah, but he’s my monster,” he smiled, and rubbed Dean’s arm. And I was pretty sure we weren’t talking about ghost hunting anymore. A glance at Deidra confirmed it. We were living in an alternative universe where grouchy Jimbo found love and talked about it openly. Who’da thunk?

  Chapter Two

  Wade

  “So, what do you really think of doing three nights in different places?” I asked Jason.

  “I like it. I think it’ll be intense, or we might find nothing, but either way I like the idea of it.” Jason propped his head up with his hand as we lay in bed later that night. Reaching out his other hand he wove his fingers with mine, making me smile.

  “Hopefully I can find a few available at the same time. Maybe if we do it later in the week and into the weekend. I don’t know. I’m thinking out loud. Either way, I’ll call a few tomorrow and see what I can find out.”

  “Sounds good, and if it doesn’t work out, we can always choose one place. I was worried we’d be in over our head at the castle. It’s a massive building, and it’s remote. If something happened, I’d be worried we couldn’t get help.”

  “I agree. Even though we committed to study it, we’ll have to inform the owners we’ll need more people, or maybe we can divide it up and spend a few weekends there.”

  “Whatever you want to do, baby, I’ll be there.”

  “Do you think we should involve Janis?”

  “I’m not sure, but we can talk to Jimbo and get his opinion.”

  “Wait, what’s our number one rule?” I asked as I gave him a hard look.

  He let out a sigh before burrowing his face in his pillow. “No talk about Jimbo while we’re in bed.” He repeated what had become our mantra over the past year.

  “You know he’d kill us if he knew we were talking shit about him.” The thought of how annoyed he would be brought a smile to my face. Jimbo was too easy to annoy.

  “Yep, so we can never admit we have a mantra and especially never admit it involves him. Now, Dean would think it was funny as hell, so I might need to fill him in on it,” Jason said with a hint of mischief in his voice.

  I rolled over on top of him and held his hands above his head. “You’ll do no such thing, promise me. No telling Dean. You might as well tell Jimbo.” Jason smiled up at me, and didn’t even attempt to pull his hands free. When I realized he was enjoying this just a little too much, I moved to hold both his hands with one of mine.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  I slowly slid my hand down his side, and his sharp intake of breath told me he knew what was about to happen. Without warning I tickled his side and he immediately squirmed away from me, trying to avoid my wandering fingers at all costs. His laugh reminded me so much of when we were kids, and I couldn’t hold back my own.

  “Stop, oh my god, Wade.” He squirmed and pulled at his hands, but I used my leverage, and held fast.

  “Stop what?” I taunted him as I continued to tickle him to the point he was laughing so hard he’d reached the silent scream of laughter.

  “You’ll make me pee my pants.”

  That got me moving, I levitated off the top of him and flung myself to the side, making him roll on his side and laugh even harder. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and just watching him made me smile so big my cheeks hurt. Before I had a chance to recover, he flung himself on top of me and kissed me. His tongue met mine, and we battled for control while he pressed his weight down on me.

  “Baby, I love you so much.”

  “Love you too.”

  “I can’t wait to tell Jimbo what you said about him,” I breathed out.

  He froze on top of me and leaned back to meet my eyes. “Wade, if you tell him, be warned. He will never let us forget it. And he’ll tell your mom and she will make us pay if he doesn’t. But he will.”

  “I’m sure there’s something you can do to make me forget about Jimbo.” He stared at me for a moment with those eyes I’d know anywhere.

  “Oh, I can think of a few things.” Before I had time to consider the many ways he could distract me, he wasted no time using his mouth in more ways than kissing.

  Chapter Three

  Jason

  Being with Wade was easier than breathing. I think I’d always known he was the one that was meant for me, and my heart wouldn’t allow me to connect with anyone else the way I had with him. He was everything to me, and more.

  “So, have you thought anymore about which places we should check out?” I asked. We’d already visited a few of the more well-known haunted places, but I knew he had an ever-growing list of additional places he’d either heard about or had been called to investigate.

  “I have a list. I’m going to call today and see what we can book. I think we’ll stay in a different area each night. So, we’ll be able to go home in the morning, sleep, then drive to the next place that night. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re crazy and brilliant. It sounds exciting.”

  “Thanks, I was hoping you’d say that.”

  “What have I gotten myself into?” I laughed and pulled him close for a kiss. “I’m off to work, let me know what you decide when I get home.” He was busy looking at his list before I was even out the door.

  “Bye, baby, see you when you get home.” He waved over his shoulder as I walked out the door.

  “Morning, Jason.”

  “Oh god!” I screeched and jumped back from Deidra. “What were you doing there? You scared the shit out of me.”

  She rolled her eyes but didn’t back off. “I was just going to ask Wade if he needed any help today. I feel like I’ve been ignoring the ghosty business.”

  “Oh,” I said, and clutched my heart that was still racing. “I’m not sure, go ahead and ask him.”

  She patted me on the back as she walked by and right into the house without a second glance. Typical.

  Work was work and I was happy when the day was over and I was driving home. It was funny how easy we fell into living together. We’d never even considered it as friends, but as boyfrie
nds it wasn’t something either of us had to consider. And every time I drove up to our place, it bought a happy smile to my face. Then I noticed a car parked out front.

  “About time you got home, I’m trying to talk Wade out of going to three places in three days. You’re obsessed so I’m not even going to try with you.” Jimbo met me at the door looking almost as stressed as he had during the job at The Hitching Post.

  “I didn’t realize you were serious about going to multiple places,” Dean said, from the other side of Jimbo. “I’m so excited. When do you think we’ll be going?”

  Jimbo groaned and gripped his head with his hands. If he’d had hair, he’d be pulling it.

  “Hey, guys, where’s Wade?” I ignored all their chatter and walked into the kitchen.

  “Back here.” He walked out from the bedroom, and right into my arms. “I was just on the line with the last place finalizing the plans.”

  “So, you have it all planned? Tell us all about it.” Leading him to the couch, I sat down next to him and waited for him to explain.

  “I wasn’t sure we could do this, but there are so many haunted places in the area, and the owners are so desperate for help, they were willing to do whatever it took to get us there.”

  “Come on, Wade, tell us where we’re going,” Dean said, and Jimbo groaned once again. Dean grabbed his hand, and tried to ignore the groan.