A Sinful Trap (Three Sinful Wishes 2)

She finally started her truck and was about to put it in gear when her phone rang. “Shit.” She wanted to ignore it, but the ringtone told her it was coming from her inn. “Damn it.”

She sucked in a trembling breath as her numb fingers fumbled with the phone. “Cyndy? Now’s not the best time.”

“This is Ava. And you don’t sound so good, Bailey. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Her voice cracked and she leaned her forehead against the steering wheel. “Where’s Cyndy? She said she could stay for a few more hours. Did something happen?”

“She’s here.” Ava’s hesitation made her stomach knot. “We’ve had some excitement that I thought you might be interested in.”

Meaning Cyndy hadn’t agreed. “Lay it on me.”

“Well, I was prepping for dinner when Dani showed up with an older gentleman she said was Kaya’s grandfather,” she started.

Will was at her inn? The grandfather who’d literally walked away from the reservation and appeared at Kaya’s house back when Dani needed help with her Liam situation? “Why?”

And why was Dani with him instead of Kaya?

“The ghosts, dear.” Ava sounded utterly unfazed, as if she were still discussing her evening menu. “She says he’s got a talent for talking to them. Unfortunately, a few of the guests heard her mention what he was planning and decided to join him in the attic.”

“What?” She was losing her mind. First pornographic delusions of shifters, and now this? “Who is in the attic? Don’t answer that, I already know. How did Mr. Olyphant even get up there without stairs? I know he didn’t use the ladder from the shed.”

“That last part was going to be your surprise, Bailey. Alwin—you know him. He’s got a thing for my roast beef, so I told him about our missing ladder problem and he got right on it. It was installed before Dani arrived.”

“The cooking carpenter, Alwin?” He’d worked at the resort with Jace and Liam before starting his own carpentry business this year. At least she remembered that. It was a good sign that some part of her brain was still working. “He installed a new ladder in the attic?”

“That’s right,” Ava said cheerfully. “It’s very sturdy, and it even has a handrail. I was impressed. And he says there’s no charge as long as he’s invited over for dinner every once in a while.”

Bailey dug her throbbing forehead deeper into the wheel. “He’s got an open invitation.” She was still going to pay him. He was a good guy, but that wasn’t up for negotiation. “So, we have a ladder and two old men in our attic as we speak?”

“Oh, they aren’t alone. Ms. Littleton went up there with them.”

Son of a… “I’m on my way.”

“Was I right to call you about this?” She sounded uncertain for the first time since Bailey picked up the phone.

“You did exactly the right thing, Ava.” Bailey shook her head, turning the car around and heading back down the hill. “Please tell Cyndy to go home now and we’ll discuss the dangers of allowing senior citizens to wander through hundred-year-old attics another day. When I’m not having a heart attack.”

“I’m on it. And don’t worry. I’m keeping an eye on them while Dani goes to get help in case one of them falls.”

Which she wouldn’t have had to do if she hadn’t brought the old man over in the first place. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Bailey hung up and grimly navigated the curving road despite her swollen, bloodshot eyes. Her guests were in physical danger on her watch. That was more important than mental breakdowns and emotional angst. That was all she needed to focus on. One problem at a time.

Ghosts and spiders and shifters. So many things she would have sworn were fiction a few days ago were real, and Cam’s emotions and Davide’s were mingling and merging with her own, confusing the hell out of her. It was too much. Her head felt like it was exploding. Her heart was breaking. She was—

Running through the desert on four legs. Fast. Strong. With Davide beside me.

We have to get to her. Have to stop her. Mate.

“What the fuck?” She gripped the steering wheel for dear life and shook her head as if clearing cobwebs, frantic to dismiss the images. She couldn’t run on four legs and drive at the same time. What the hell were they doing to her?

Almost there. Stop, Bailey. Pull over. Now.

She slammed on her brakes as a wolf came out of the brush. And it was a wolf, not a stray dog or a bear, even if it was the size of one. There were houses right behind her and a crowded town mere blocks away, but she’d managed to stop on this isolated curve of the hill just in time to witness his arrival.