Free Black Ghost Runner by M. Garnet Page B

this nightmare was going to take her.
    The house was small. An old A-frame, probably made in the Fifties when A-frames had become popular. This one was in good shape. Someone had done a nice job on the inside. It was small, but complete with the open design of the A-frames. The first level, even though small, felt large because of the high pointed ceiling. The open room sat back under the second level. Under that second level was the kitchen with a couple of doors closed. She later found that thus led to a storage room led out to the back porch. The porch was very large, only partially covered by the extended overhang created by the balcony from the upper level bedroom with the free hanging roof.
    Beth saw that he had just dumped her bags on the floor. He was moving to the rough wooden table by the kitchen bar. There was a fat folder on the table. He pulled it over.
    “Beth, I have created a problem for you that I am sorry about.”
    She looked over at him. This was not what she had expected. He was talking like a normal human. His voice, although low and still sexy, wasn’t threatening. She put her thumbs into her back pockets and sucked on her bottom lip, wondering what the hell was going on.
    She felt his eyes on her for a long moment.
    “Please do not look so enticing. I am trying to do something for you. I am trying to get out of here without throwing you over my shoulder to take you upstairs. Now, help me and listen.” He looked back down at the folder as he opened it.
    His word, upstairs, hung her up. She knew that upstairs had to contain a bed. Shit.
    “Come on Beth, help me. Come over here and let me explain.”
    Okay, she was here in the middle of BF with an animal in man’s clothes. What else could go wrong? She moved over to the other end of the small table.
    “There are people after us. Because I used you to get money, they think you might know something about us.”
    She looked up from the papers. “You mean there are more like you?”
    He looked across at her. “What, you think I was hatched on a rock?” He spread the papers. “Now, I have given you a new identity. Better than what you got on line, so here is a birth certificate, a driver’s license from Ohio, and some credit cards.”
    “Wait, who is after you? Better still, who is after me ?”
    Noble took a deep breath and ran his hand through his long hair. “Sometimes it seems easier to ask who is no t after us. Right now, you are lucky. A rich mogul from Europe that is trying to take over the world is after us. He thinks if he could live forever, always young, it would help. He has had a bunch of doctors and scientists trying to clone his body parts so that if any of them wear out, they can replace it easily. He is looking for vampires, werewolves, and shifters. Mostly, his people have been convinced that there really are not any of these things in the world, but any time he gets a hint, out go his hunters. They get paid a lot to hunt, so they want to keep their job. They don’t care if they believe, they just want to hunt and get paid. They have hurt many innocent people and if they get their hands on you, they won’t care that you can’t tell them anything. They will hurt you, and then to keep you from telling anyone what they did to you, they will kill you.”
    Beth felt her knees grow weak. She pulled out the chair from under the table and sank down carefully into it.
    “But I really don’t know anything. I have some guesses, but you scare the hell out of me.”
    “I know, Beth. I have tried to keep it that way to protect you, but we can’t undo what has already been done. Let me show you what I have done for you.” He spread some of the papers. “This house is in your name, and paid for. You inherited it from an aunt, your last living relative, who wasn’t that old. She died in an accident in California. There is a new jeep. I know you like those, so it is next to the house. You paid for it from your Aunt’s insurance. Here is