Read Online Framed by Amber Lynn Natusch - Free Book Online Page B

tightly around me. "He was there .” I pointed to the back of the long lot where the river divided yard from forest. “He was just watching . He seems to get off on the thrill of violence from what I can tell, but there was something different about him tonight...like he didn't want to get too close to you . Any of you.”
    “Interesting,” he said casually. There was nothing casual about his gaze. His eyes were attempting to pry my skull open and fish around in my head for the information he wanted. "Tell me exactly what he said to you tonight."
    The tension was so thick I could have cut it with a knife. He knew something, I could see it. I'd learned in a very short while how to read him and under that cool facade was a caged beast ready to attack. I hoped I wasn't the one about to be pounced on.
    "He said," I started, my mouth suddenly very dry, "to be careful of the company I keep...that people who play with matches tend to get burned."
    The eyes of the brothers, which had been pinned on me, were darting around at one another as a low level rumbling broke out amongst them. Sean said nothing, but his mouth had nearly disappeared from his face as he pressed his lips together tightly. His expression was beyond grim.
    “What did I do now?” I asked panicked. "Who is he?"
    "His name is Keith James, or was at one time,” he said, his voice all business. “ We refer to him as the Revenant.”
    “The Revenant?” I asked, gulping hard. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded ominous to say the least.
    "It means ghost."
    “Another ghost? Are you shitting me?” I asked, the pitch of my voice increasing.
    “Not a real one, Ruby. He's a rogue . We call him that because he's impossible to find,” he said with a sour face. “We've been looking for almost two decades. He surfaces once in a while, goes on a killing spree, then drops off the face of the earth. I had high hopes that the dead women in Portsmouth had nothing to do with him. It would seem I was wrong.”
    Sean didn't like being wrong. That fact was displayed very plainly on his face.
    "So you know him?" I asked, thinking I needed to seriously consider sharing things with Sean more often in the name of efficiency and time saving.
    "Unfortunately, yes."
    "Then you should know how he's giving me these visions," I said, feeling hopeful.
    The look I received in return was far less so.
    “I don't know.”
    “You don't know? What do you mean 'you don't know', Sean? I've got a psycho in my head giving me play by plays of his kills, following me around, watching me. I'd like to know something helpful right about now,” I cried, bordering on hysterical. "What the hell does he want from me? Revenge for what? Why am I choosing sides? Why am I playing with matches?"
    “It would have been helpful to have learned about all of this before now so I could have tried to be helpful,” he growled, doing a poor job of concealing his anger. I realized that my apparent insubordination was not helping things with his brothers. Even though I really didn't answer to him, his oath to the elders linked his life to mine whether I liked it or not. My lack of cooperation and unintended affiliation with the Rev were clearly not boosting my street cred, and lowered his exponentially. I feared a mutiny was brewing amongst the PC.
    "I don't know how he's doing this. I don't know what he wants from you, or who he wants his revenge against, though it could very possibly be me," he said more calmly. "I don't know why he wants you choosing sides, though the implications are not favorable there. And as for the matches comment—that was meant for me. He wanted you to tell me that. He wants me to know it's him."
    "How does that help you know it's him?" I asked, wanting something concrete to grab onto where the Rev was concerned.
    "Because that was the last warning he gave me before he disappeared last time," he said stone-faced. "He is not only taunting you, Ruby."
    "Oh," I whispered. I felt