“Dammit,” he hissed.

Looking over his shoulder, he spied the cooler Paul kept on board. He flipped the top open with his foot and gave a celebratory jab in the air with his free hand when he saw the cans of warm beer, the ice long melted. Carefully squatting and reaching as far as he could, he tipped the cooler over. A can rolled out and into his waiting hand. He popped the top, pouring some of the warm beer onto his fastened hand.

Eddie pulled it free from the motor, but not without losing a layer of skin. Shaking his hand to flick the raw pain away, he jogged back up to Jessica. Paul was gone, but Jason had taken his place.

“They completely froze the motor,” he said.

Jessica had a hand around each child’s shoulders. “Are you kidding me?”

“I wish I was.” He shivered. Jesus, it was like standing in a meat locker.

“Well, I tried my cell phone but there’s no service.”

Eddie grabbed his own, saw there were no bars. “Mine has been reduced to a camera and alarm clock.”

“Hey kids, why don’t you go back to the yard and Mr. Home and I will be with you in a bit?” Jessica said.

“You’re going to stay?” they asked at the same time.

“Looks like it,” Jessica said with a fake but convincing smile.

Jason and Alice broke into cheek-bunching grins and sprinted back to the house.

Jessica said, “Before, when you were down at the dock, it felt like an invisible iceberg went right through me. Shit, my liver feels like it’s been freeze dried.” Her teeth started chattering. “I’ve been holding back the entire time. I didn’t want to freak the kids out.”

“I tried talking to the EBs, but it was just too much. Then they left, heading back toward the house. I’m sure they couldn’t resist coming around you. Their strength is building.”

She hugged her arms across her chest. “I know I was a bitch about it before, but you have to teach me how to turn my internal EB generator off. We’re stuck in the middle of a friggin’ harbor with no way to communicate to the mainland. The last thing I want is an island full of pissed off EBs on steroids, especially with Alice and Jason around.”

Eddie looked at the old colonial house. He couldn’t see a single EB outside. They must all be in there, wondering what the Harpers and their friends are up to.

“If it makes you feel any better, I think for once, you’re not the one the EBs will be pissed off with.”

Jessica followed his gaze. He took off his light jacket and draped it over her shoulders, rubbing her upper arms to break the chill that had seized her. Three years ago, he was sure if he tried a move like that, she would have kicked him in the ribs.

She leaned into him, the cold of her cheek bleeding through his shirt to the flesh of his bicep.

“Fuck it,” she said. “We came here to keep those kids safe. That’s just what we’re going to do. Paul and his film school buddies better play it smart and keep out of my way.”

Now that’s the Jessica I know, Eddie thought. They were going to need her strength if they expected to get off the island with their sanity intact.

Chapter Nineteen

Tobe Harper was more than mildly shocked when Jessica and Eddie walked through the front door, bags still over their shoulders. He was just about to show Mitch and Rusty to the library, a room big enough for them to set up their makeshift studio.

“Did Paul tell you?” Jessica asked, letting one of her bags drop to the floor with a resounding thud.

“He’s in the kitchen with everyone else,” Tobe said. He noted the dark expression on the girl’s face. Perhaps they hadn’t underestimated her supposed powers—he could feel it in the change in atmosphere alone—but they hadn’t taken her ferocity into account. As much as they needed her, she may also prove to be their undoing.

“Well, your little boat is fried. Actually, it’s frozen. So, even if we wanted to leave, other than swimming across the harbor, we’re stuck here.”

The boat was frozen? No wonder Paul had shuffled out of the room so quickly, avoiding eye contact. That was a most unexpected development.

She continued, jabbing her finger in his direction to emphasize her points. “Look, this is your house, your island, so I can’t tell you what to do. But I can tell you that you are not to film Eddie or me at any point. I’m strictly here for Alice and Jason now. You have no idea what you’re doing, and someone needs to keep their welfare in mind. So shoot your documentary, be a hack ghost hunter. Just leave us out of it.”

The sound of heels tapping along the wood floor made her pause. Nina entered the great room, a sandwich in hand. She took a bite, chewing slowly, her eyes flicking between Jessica and Eddie. After she swallowed, she said, “Actually, we do know what we’re doing. That’s why I was hired by the Harpers to find you.”

“Are you a private investigator or something?” Jessica asked.

Tobe noted Eddie’s subtle shake of his head.

Nina’s face blossomed into a wide, superior grin. “I guess you could say that’s partially true. I believe your friend Eddie has enough pieces to figure out the puzzle. Am I right, Eddie?”

He held onto her gaze as if he was attempting to see into her very soul. Without breaking his stare, he said, “She’s like me, Jess. Well, kinda.”

Jessica flexed her fingers, the knuckles popping. She turned to Tobe. “You hired a psychic to find me?”

Tobe cleared his throat. “Not exactly. She came to us with a business proposal.”

Nina interjected, “As you and Eddie know, the dead talk. And let me tell you, girlie, they talk a lot about you. Your money and secretiveness make it easy for you to hide from the living, but the dead can’t be bought and you certainly can’t escape them, especially when you’ve had such an impact on their after-lives.”

Daphne came into the room, confused by the gathering. The sound of Paul, Mitch and Rusty’s voices, talking and laughing loudly, followed her. Tobe put a finger to his lips. It was best to let Nina take the reins.

“So the spirits told you to trick me into coming here?”

Nina shook her head. “It wasn’t quite that simple. Your reputation precedes you. You’re looked at as a savior for souls who want to move on and escape the half-alive path of an orbital ghost, if you will. For those who like things exactly the way they are, you’re a monster. I’ve been hearing whispers about you for some time now. Then about three or so years ago, you met Eddie, and what you did together was like an atomic bomb detonating in the transom.” She clapped her hands once, loudly. “And then you disappeared. But what you didn’t know is that you’ve been followed, every minute of every day, and watched. It only took asking the right, ah, spirits to find you and confirm the stories are true. You were merely a fascination until I met the Harpers at a dinner gathering in Savannah with an eccentric entrepreneur that was a common acquaintance. I put them in contact with Daphne’s mother who had passed on ten years to the day during a particularly fruitful séance. We’ve stayed in touch ever since.”

Jessica’s chest heaved. Nina’s accounting of how things came to be didn’t seem to be sitting well with her.

“That doesn’t explain how you lied to us to get us on this island.”

“We need money,” Tobe said. He knew he sounded weak, desperate, but it was the truth. If they were all going to co-exist on Ormsby Island, the time for deception was over. “We…we never recovered from the market crash. Failing investments led to bad investments, until the bulk of our accounts was simply gone.”

“That’s usually when people get a job,” Jessica spat.

Tobe sighed. “You don’t understand. Daphne and I have never worked a day in our lives. I can’t see many companies willing to take on a middle-aged man or woman with no obvious skills or work experience.”