Bitter Spirits (Roaring Twenties #1)(57)

“He won’t budge,” she said, breathing hard as she twisted out of his grip and stood her ground. “Feels strange—solid, but unreal.”

“Move behind me or so help me God, I’ll put you over my shoulder. And do not touch that thing again. It’s dangerous, Aida. Jesus! Here he comes again. Move!”

“All right, I’m moving.” She ducked under his gun arm and started to shuffle past him, then grabbed his coat. “Buttons . . . Winter! Four of your buttons don’t match. They’re—”

He glanced down quickly, shifting his gaze back and forth from the coat to the approaching ghost. She was right—they didn’t match. They weren’t cabochon. In fact, they were embossed with dragon heads and looked as if they’d been hurriedly sewn, with loose threads sticking out like spider legs.

Four coins. Four buttons . . .

Some rat bastard had switched them out during dinner when he’d checked his coat. He’d been so desperate to get Aida’s clothes off—and back on, when the raid started—that he hadn’t noticed. That was careless and stupid.

Aida didn’t wait for permission. Just ripped them off and spun around to face Arnie. “After these, are you?” She held the fisted buttons above her head.

The ghost’s head tilted as dead eyes tracked the magic inside them.

“Ha!” she said triumphantly. “You want these, huh?” She shook the buttons in her hand like she was baiting a disobedient puppy.

Arnie’s bloated body lunged for her. So fast! Winter’s heart nearly exploded in shock.

She jerked away from the ghost but dropped one of the buttons. It bounced off a wall and skipped across the tunnel’s uneven floor.

Winter froze.

The ghost stumbled against the wall, lumbering, then bent to pick up the fallen button.

“Goddammit, throw the rest of them, Aida!” Winter shouted.

As the ghost stood up and refocused his attention on her, she shifted her gaze to some sort of sawed-off drainage pipe jutting from the wall where it was embedded. Dirty water dripped from the pipe’s hollow mouth. “If you want them, old man, you’ll have to find them,” she said to the ghost, then clamped her hand over the pipe and forced the buttons inside. They made a horrible racket as they clanged through the pipe—first sideways, straight into the wall, then down. Yes, definitely down below the tunnel.

Pulse pounding, Winter snatched Aida backward, ignoring her protests. He brandished his gun at the ghost and they both watched him, waiting for a reaction.

Arnie Brown walked to the pipe. Turned to face the wall.

And walked right through it.

“Mother of God,” Winter whispered.

“Unbelievable. Did you see that?” Aida said, unmistakable awe in her voice.

Yes, he damn well did, and he wasn’t sticking around to find out if the ghost was going to reappear. All he knew was that he didn’t have the damn buttons to attract it back and that was enough for him. He whisked Aida through the tunnel’s length, looking back over his shoulder a couple of times. It wasn’t until they climbed the steps to the House of Shields’ storage room and shut the tunnel door that he holstered his gun and allowed himself to relax.

He’d been stupid to let his guard down. Whoever wanted to scare him wasn’t finished. Was he going to have to endure the sight of every person he’d killed? The list wasn’t long, but he sure as hell didn’t want to relive it.

It came back to him again, the memory of Arnie Brown’s death. Winter hadn’t killed him—Bo had. Was the ghost gone now that the buttons were sitting under the street? What if the sorcerer sent another set of four Bo’s way?

“Did you know him?” Aida asked from his side. “Was he like the other ghost?”

Winter nodded as another dusty memory popped into his head. After Bo and Winter had watched Arnie Brown drown in the bay, they’d gone back home to his house on Russian Hill. The police were in his parlor, talking to Paulina as she stood in her robe and slippers while they hauled Mr. Johnson away in handcuffs. It was the cook. She’d blamed Bo, but it was the cook the whole time—one she’d brought with her from her mother’s house.

“What?”

He glanced down at Aida’s confused face. Had he said that out loud? Maybe seeing Arnie Brown had unnerved him more than he wanted to admit.

“Nothing,” he said. “I have to . . . I need to check on Bo.”

NINETEEN

IT WAS ALMOST MIDNIGHT WHEN THE TAXI DROPPED HER OFF AT Golden Lotus and immediately sped Winter away to God knew where. To find Bo, he’d said after he’d briefly explained how Arnie Brown had come to his grisly end. And to warn his men about the raid.

She wanted to go with him, but he was a bull about refusing her. Said he wasn’t dragging her into danger. When she protested, he kissed her soundly—an unfair trick. “I’m not going to sit around worrying about you,” she’d said grumpily when he left.

And she didn’t worry about him . . . not much, anyway. She actually meant to, no matter what she’d said, and she stayed up for an hour or so, in case he called needing her for another ghost. But as soon as her back hit the creaking Murphy bed, she was out. Probably Winter’s erotic exertions in the hotel room that did it. That was certainly what she was dreaming about when the telephone rang the following morning.