Free Givin' Up The Ghost (An Indigo Eady Paranormal Mystery) by Gwen Gardner Page A

breathless.
    “Nice. Very nice.” He smiled.
    I laughed softly. The darkness, my friend for a change, hid
my warm cheeks. “Thanks. But I meant...”
    “Oh! Right. Two men. Near the entrance. And doing a pretty
poor job of hiding behind a tree.”
    I laid my head against his chest so I could peek down the
path. “It’s starting to rain again. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about to pour
buckets. We can give them the slip by pretending to run from the rain.” 
    “Yeah, we could,” he whispered. “But that would take all the
fun out of what we’re doing now.”
    He was flirting with me. Me! I laughed again lightly.
Given the situation, his heartbeat should have been rapid, erratic. Instead, it
beat steady and reassuring beneath my palms.
    “Seriously, though.” I looked up into his face.
    “What color are your eyes?” he asked.
    If eyes are the gateway to the soul, he was staring straight
at mine.
    “Focus,” I reminded him.
    “Oh. Right. Running it is, then.”
    “Do you think you can keep up?” I teased.
    “That sounds like a challenge.” 
    I grinned up at him and hoped he couldn’t read the
expression underneath. That had been my first kiss. Okay, not a real kiss, but for a fake one, it was really good.
    A crack of thunder followed by lightning and then torrential
rain came right on cue. I pushed against Badger’s chest and took a few steps
back, turning with a playful swagger, and a catch-me-if-you-can smile thrown
back over my shoulder. I threw my long braid of wet hair back and crooked a
finger at him playfully, inviting him to chase me, totally into the game now.
And then I turned and ran for all I was worth, Badger on my heels.
    We tore off across the sodden grass, sprinting through
bushes and trees toward a park exit. Rainwater streamed down our faces. I
dashed toward a slit between buildings leading into a rundown historic area.
    Dark, narrow alleys closed around us, the buildings leaning
together overhead as we raced through the twisting passageways.  The corridors
became cave-like, dark and damp, as we ran further and further, and ever
downward into the maze of passages. I hadn’t seen anyone, but muted light shone
through shaded windows. The further down we ran, the more noticeable the odors;
cooking smells mingled with rotting garbage, and the faint odor of urine.
    Mist and fog distorted the sounds of pounding footsteps
bouncing off the stone walls so that we couldn’t tell how close our pursuers
were.
    The cobblestones beneath our feet, slick from rain, made it
difficult to stay upright. We used the stone walls to keep our balance, running
our hands along the rough surface to guide us through the darkness. The
blisters popped on my burnt hand and I gasped with pain. I hurtled around a
corner and ducked into a dark stairwell, dragging Badger behind me. We tumbled
further up the stairs, breathless, into the shadows. I hoped that I hadn’t
gotten us trapped. Trying to control my heavy breathing, I peered into the
alley below for the two men.
    A crashing noise reverberated down the alleyway, as if
someone had run into a garbage bin and sent it rolling downhill. Two men passed
the stairwell, their chests heaving. A voice rasped out, “We lost them.”
    Still we waited. The only sound in the dark stairwell was
our own heavy breathing, when out of the shadows above us, a whispering voice said,
“Are you two going to ‘ang out in the dark ‘all, or are you going to come
inside?”

Voice From Above
    ––––––––
    W e both jumped and started to bolt, but then I recognized
the voice, the way he dropped his h’s.
    “Cappy?” I whispered into the darkness.
    “Yeah, it’s me.”
    I tugged on Badger’s sleeve, pulling him upward. Cappy
grabbed my coat sleeve and pulled me inside a tiny, cold apartment. He led us
down a dark hall, past a closed door with light shining beneath and canned
laughter coming from a television. At the end of the corridor, he pulled a set
of wooden