Free Steele by Kathi S. Barton

again. Not the sex part—that’s…I could take you again right now if I had the time—but the pissing you off part.” She felt her body heat up with the thought of him taking her out here. “You tend to make me say things I don’t mean.”
    So much for letting him take her out here. Every time the man opened his mouth it was as if he wanted to make her mad at him. Kari couldn’t wait to get out of the place and put as much distance between the two of them as she could.
    “Will you be here when I get back?” She nodded at him. Where the hell would she go? It wasn’t as if she had any sort of transportation or even enough money to get herself a place to stay. She’d looked at apartments too when she’d been searching for a job. Nodding back to her, he moved back in the direction he’d come from. But he stopped again before he spoke. “When we get back, I’d like to sit down and work out a plan with you. I can’t…having you here is making me want you all the time. I think if you…if you moved to a place of your own, I wouldn’t be so crazy with need all the time.”
    He moved on then, and she lay down. Kari wondered if in a few weeks anyone would care that she’d been a living, breathing person if she were to die right here. Standing up, she moved to where she’d left her clothes and shifted. She pulled them on and moved toward the house again, and hoped that he’d be gone by now. Luck was with her. Not only was he gone, but so were the rest of the men.
    Kari didn’t bother asking what he was doing or where he was. Izzy put a plate of food in front of her, and she made an attempt to eat it. But when she finally stood up from the table, she noticed that she’d eaten very little of anything, and even that weighed heavily on her belly. Going to her room, she noticed the envelope on the dresser and the money. Laying down and ignoring them both, Kari cried herself to sleep.

Chapter 4
     
    Ray watched his men. He knew that Mitch was having a difficult time right now. Not what about, but that he was hurting from something. He’d found the young man more often than not out by the old cemetery, and wondered which one of the people there he was pouring his heart out to.
    Drew moved like a man on a mission through the building they were in. A report of a ghost, several of them actually, had brought them out in full force. And Drew was determined to find every last one of them before the building was set for demolition in a few days. The man was hard working and extremely lonely.
    Ray moved to the next room to check on Nick and found him staring at the floor where the first sighting had been recorded. It had turned out to be a fake sighting, yet there was enough going on that his friend had called him in. The blood on the floor had startled more than a few of the cops that had been here before.
    They’d already determined that it was goat’s blood and that the movements around this room were done with wires and mirrors. But Nick stared at the spot where the blood was like it was going to give it all to him.
    “She said that we should go deeper.” Ray looked around the room and didn’t see anyone but him and Nick. “I can hear her. She said that we need to go deeper. I was just thinking that Steele should talk to her. He has the most luck with shy people.”
    “Okay.” Ray yelled for Steele but didn’t leave Nick. There were times, and he was sure this was one of them, that Nick would sink into a specter enough that he’d lose himself for a week or so. He told Steele what was going on when he came into the room with them.
    Steele knelt down to the floor and put his hand over the stain. He didn’t say anything for a long time, but both he and Nick waited. If there was a reason to go deeper, whatever that meant to this woman, then Steele would find it. When he stood up, he looked grim.
    “There are bodies in there. Seven that I can feel.” Ray started to go for the police when Steele stopped him. “They