Sinners at the Altar (Sinners on Tour 6)

She squeezed his chilled fingers and smiled. “Yeah and it makes me happy that you feel that way.”

Well, happy in a I don’t really want to do this but can’t refuse the man anything because he asks so little kind of way. Jace was the type who didn’t put his whole heart into many things—with the exception of his band and their music, his woman, his cat, and apparently the troubled romance of a couple who’d been dead for nearly five hundred years—so Aggie supposed she had no choice but to follow him to Queen Katherine’s tomb. On Halloween night. When the woman’s jealous spirit was pissed as hell at her.

Chapter Eleven

Jace entered the dimly lit tomb alone. Aggie hung back in the corridor, peering around with wide eyes. Now that Jace had come to terms with what was going on, he and Aggie had shifted roles. It was common for that to happen in their relationship, so he didn’t waste time pondering why Aggie was afraid of things that probably couldn’t hurt her and he was paralyzed by the things that could. The sight of that chandelier on the floor where Aggie had been standing split seconds before—and the very thought of losing her—had immediately put everything into perspective for him. Jace refused to let a pair of wayward souls endanger his woman or encroach upon what would be the happiest day of his life, so he was going to put an end to this nonsense right now. At least that’s what he told himself until a breeze swept into the room, causing the few lit candles around the perimeter of the tomb to sputter. He wondered if they burned candles in the tomb every night or if Halloween was a special occasion.

“Jace!” Aggie whispered loudly. “Let’s go back to the ball. People are probably worried about us.”

“Not until these two agree to leave us alone.”

“They can’t follow us back to L.A., can they?”

“It wasn’t likely,” he said, smirking at his shoes, “until you just told them where to find us.”

“I refuse to be haunted the rest of my life,” Aggie said. She darted into the tomb and grabbed Jace’s hand, squeezing it hard enough for the pain to rob him of his breath.

“Katherine, I know you’re in here. Come out and talk to us.”

I won’t talk to her. Your whore. Did you wait until my body was cold before you took her to your bed, Thomas?

Aggie glanced around curiously, her full lower lip trapped between her teeth, but didn’t seem upset. She obviously hadn’t heard Katherine’s insult; Aggie didn’t take shit from anyone. Not even queens or ghosts of queens.

“You have me confused with someone else,” Jace said. “I’m not Thomas.”

“Are you talking to her right now?” Aggie whispered.

Jace nodded.

“I can’t hear her.”

“She said she doesn’t want to talk to you. She thinks you’re the one Thomas slept with after she died.”

I know you slept with her. I saw you together in the cottage.

Okay, a ghost watching them have sex was even weirder than when his cat decided to play captivated audience.

“What did she say?” Aggie asked.

“Uh… She… well…” His cheeks burned with the heat of embarrassment. It quickly spread to both ears. “…saw us together.”

Aggie lifted an eyebrow at him. “Saw us together? When?”

His cheeks flamed hotter.

“In the cottage this afternoon?”

He is mine! Katherine’s voice roared through Jace’s head.

Aggie stiffened. “Okay, I heard that.”

“She thinks I’m Thomas.”

“Probably because he’s latched on to you for some reason,” Aggie said. “Is he with you now?”

Jace went still and listened, hoping for the first time to hear those weird voices in his head. Jace’s shrink would have a field day with the entire experience. If he ever told him about it. He hadn’t been to therapy in ages, no longer felt a need for it. Strange that he’d consider it now.

“I think he’s gone. I haven’t sensed his presence since we were in the garden. It seems he’s more afraid of facing Katherine than we are.”

“I’m not afraid of her.” Aggie grabbed Jace by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him close so she could take his mouth in a deep, passionate kiss. At first he was too stunned to push her away and then, as the heat between them escalated, he didn’t want to. His arms circled her back and drew her closer as his lips and tongue met hers.

The sounds of sobs echoed through Jace’s head, growing fainter until he could no longer hear them.

“You two seriously aren’t going to do it in a tomb, are you?” a soft voice said behind them. “I have a taste for the macabre myself, but that’s pretty hardcore, even for you, Ice.”

Jace stiffened. He’d purposely been avoiding Starr—Fire—since Aggie had told him they’d once been lovers, but there was no way out of the tomb except the way they’d entered, and Starr happened to be standing in the doorway.

Aggie tugged her mouth from Jace’s. “I hadn’t planned to take it that far,” she said to Starr, and then lowered her voice to a whisper, “but if we’re trying to upset a jealous ghost, I think that would do it.”

“I don’t want to upset her any more than we already have,” Jace said quietly, hoping Starr wouldn’t overhear. Aggie knowing that he was being haunted was one thing. Starr knowing it was entirely different. “I want her to find peace, even if it’s with a philandering traitor who abandoned his own child and put his ambitions before his family.”

What would you have me do? Thomas’s voice echoed through Jace’s head. I would have gladly laid down in the grave beside her and died to spare myself the last miserable months of my existence.

“He’s back,” Jace whispered. “I can hear him again.”

Aggie released Jace and turned to Starr. “Were you looking for me or did you just happen upon me making out with my fiancé in a tomb by accident?”

Starr grinned. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have interrupted. Looked as if it were about to get interesting.”

“You have no idea,” Aggie muttered.

“I wasn’t looking for you—just trying to avoid that tall whack-job who keeps asking me to autograph things—but I’m glad I found you. I don’t have anyone to talk to but you.”

Jace snorted. Eric was a whack-job, but he couldn’t believe Eric would actually hound Starr for autographs. On second thought, he could totally believe it.

“I thought you had a thing for Dare Mills,” Aggie said.

“Oh, I do. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a thing for me.” Starr scratched her ear and met Jace’s eyes before swinging her gaze back to Aggie. “Can we talk?” This time she gave Jace a pointed look. “Alone?”

“Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of Jace,” Aggie said.

Starr shook her head. “You don’t want him to hear this. This is about that thing you’re trying to pretend didn’t happen.”

“Do you mean our past sexual relationship?” Aggie asked bluntly.

Starr’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “Uh, I thought you didn’t want him to know.” She nodded toward Jace.

“I told him. Because someone gave enough hints to make him question my relationship with you. And someone is giving enough hints now that if the first round hadn’t tipped him off, this encounter certainly would. Why are you doing this, Starr?”

“You’re okay with marrying a lesbian?” Starr directed the question at Jace.

“I’m not marrying a label. I’m marrying Aggie and everything that comes with her—past, present, and future.”

Starr shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Now isn’t that touching?”

“Don’t make me regret asking you to be here for me,” Aggie said. “I’ve been trying to hold on to pieces of my old life so I never forget where I came from, but maybe it’s time to let all that go.”

Jace stared at Aggie in disbelief. She wasn’t serious was she? Her past had made her the woman she was—the woman he loved. Would she change into something unrecognizab

le if she let it go?

Aggie chuckled. “Of course that would mean admitting my mother was right and that ain’t never gonna happen. So why are you really here, Starr?”

“I just came to check on you. If you need to talk to someone about the way he treats you, I’m all ears.”

“The way he treats me?” Aggie swiveled her head in Starr’s direction. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I just know how guys treat women like us. We are alike—you and I—and men see us a certain way. They treat us a certain way. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Aggie.”

Jace saw very few similarities between Aggie and Starr, so he wasn’t sure why Starr insisted they were lumped in the same category.