Free Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) by Morgan Kelley

he got it.
    That didn’t matter then, but it really mattered now. A part of him was aching that he’d been with the wrong woman. Never, in his life, did he believe he’d say that. In ten years, it was still an ache in his chest, but this woman…she had been the one he fell for, and he felt duped.
    He felt…cheated.
    His mistake had cost him so much.
    “I’ll show you around,” he offered.
    “That’s okay. I remember it like it was yesterday. Just tell me where you want me to stay, and I’ll head there. If you want me to head to my place, I get it. I only live in town. I have a cottage there.”
    He glanced over at her as she drove up the drive. “You’re welcome to stay here, Mattie. I don’t hate you.”
    Yeah, he hated himself.
    “If it matters, Roman, I don’t hate you either. I never did, even before she died.”
    Speaking of which…
    “Yeah, we need to talk about it.”
    “What’s there to say? Fate intervened. You picked the other twin. We have nothing to say about it. You gave your heart to my sister, and I was forced to watch.”
    Well, when you put it that way.
    Apparently, that spark on that first day wasn’t only felt by him. Matilda had felt it too.
    “Mattie.”
    “Just tell me where you want me to stay,” she reiterated. Matilda wasn’t in the mood to rehash this. It was the story of her entire life.
    Devora was the fun one.
    Devora was the one everyone flocked to in droves.
    She was the athlete.
    Mattie was the math-lete. She was the mousey one who played the piano and that no one saw.
    “Mattie, honey.”
    “Please stop. Today has been a very rough one for me. I never woke up thinking I would see you again, and I never woke up believing that the Littlemoons would help me find my sister’s killer.”
    He got it.
    Maybe they both needed a little space.
    “Okay, Mattie. I won’t bother you with this tonight.” Later was going to be a different story, and he knew it.
    As they got out of the vehicle, he stared up at the door. It was as if his feet were rooted to the spot. He couldn’t move. Once he entered that building, everything was going to change.
    He could feel it.
    Honestly, he didn’t think it would be for the best, either.
    “Roman?”
    He didn’t move.
    Mattie moved toward his side. When he still didn’t look away from the door, she didn’t know what to do.
    “Are you okay?”
    He nodded.
    “Sure.”
    He lied.
    This was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He was returning to the place that destroyed his life.
    “We can do this,” she said, gently taking his hand in hers.
    When he looked down, her smaller, more delicate fingers wrapped around his, offering him a sense of peace.
    He didn’t deserve it, and he knew it.
    “Let’s go.”
    He let her lead the way. Once at the top of the stairs, he entered the key code.
    The beep sounded the door’s opening.
    “We have this,” she offered, worried about him. He looked scared shitless.
    Roman headed in, flicking on the lights in the building. The place still stole his breath, just not in a good way.
    Upstairs was the family suite, but this was the hallway that lead to the offices, library, and the conservatory.
    He forgot how massive the place had truly been. He’d stopped thinking about how it was filled with aged, old wood and very grand.
    It was…home.
    It was Hell.
    As they moved toward the steps, their feet echoed. At the bottom, they stopped, but the footsteps didn’t.
    They kept walking, and it sounded like it wasn’t far behind them.
    Mattie gasped. “Jesus, please tell me that was an echo,” she whispered, bringing her mouth close to his ear.
    He wanted to, but he was pretty sure that it was more than that. After what he learned, working for the Littlemoons, he wouldn’t be shocked if that place was fraught with spooks.
    How could he be?
    He was accustomed to the dead.
    Wait until Mattie saw Tori Littlemoon in action. If this freaked her out, she was in for one hell of a surprise.
    That was the