Well, that’s better than his bad mood, I guess.
Brad was also soaked to the skin.
“Buddy, why don’t you go change clothes? You’re wet.”
“I’m okay!”
Ellis caught Mandaline’s eye and arched an eyebrow at her. Fortunately, she seemed to understand. She nodded before turning to Brad and taking his hands in hers.
“Sweetie, it’s okay. We’ll wait on you. Go change.”
“Okay!”
He ran out of the kitchen.
Mandaline cocked her head, listening as he pounded up the stairs. When she heard the door of Brad’s room open, she leaned in, a scowl on her features. “What the hell’s going on with him?” she whispered.
He shook his head and kept his voice low. “He’s been like this all day. He spent all night cooped up in the attic working. I’m really worried about him.”
Sachi spun toward the door but Mandaline caught her arm. “No,” Mandaline firmly said.
Sachi looked enraged. Or maybe scared.
Perhaps both.
“You said!” she hissed at Mandaline. “I’m getting it!”
“No, it’s okay.” She nodded to Ellis. “We have him here.” Sachi tried to jerk free, but Mandaline wouldn’t let go of her arm.
“I don’t care what you say, I’m getting it.”
“Getting what?” Ellis asked.
“Sachi brought her peacemaker,” Mandaline explained. “Her skeet gun.”
It didn’t take much for him to board her train of thought after what they’d just been through with Julie. He glanced up at the ceiling. They heard Brad opening and closing dresser drawers. “I have a concealed carry permit. I’ll go grab my .38 from my gun safe. Will that relax you? And I won’t leave him alone with either of you.”
Sachi frowned, looking from Mandaline to Ellis and back again. She hooked a thumb at him. “Is he acting normal?”
She shrugged. “He seems to be.”
Sachi leaned in close to look at him. “Then what the hell are you waiting for? Move your ass.”
He couldn’t suppress his smile as he took off. Despite her prickly nature, Sachi was fiercely loyal to and protective of Mandaline, of that there was no doubt. Maybe if he could win her over, he could win back Mandaline’s trust.
Mandaline watched Ellis hurry from the room. She released Sachi. “Happy?”
“No. Not until we’re done and out of here. Do you not feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“There is something super funky going on with Brad, and I’m not talking funky town, funky chicken, or play that funky music, white boy.”
“I don’t feel anything wrong with the house.”
“I didn’t say the house.” She tapped Mandaline on the forehead, between the eyes. “Open your ears, boss. I said with Brad. Even you noticed it.”
They both looked up as they heard Brad open his bedroom door again. Then the sound of muffled voices as Ellis said something to him. Followed by the sound of Brad moving around and even going up to the attic.
Ellis quickly returned, slightly winded and now wearing a baggy T-shirt over his jeans. “I sent him to turn on all the lights upstairs for us to delay him getting back down here.”
“You packing, chief?” Sachi asked.
He turned and lifted the hem of his shirt, exposing the holster clipped to his belt in the small of his back. He dropped his shirt and turned around to face them again. “Good enough?”
She nodded, satisfied. “Allrighty then.”
Brad returned a moment later, wearing a goofy grin. “All set!” He rushed over to Mandaline again and gave her another hug. She looked at Ellis, who shrugged at her what the fuck expression. This was the less-there side of Brad, for sure. But something did feel off, now that Sachi mentioned it. Not…well, not bad off, just…off.
Disconcerting, sure, but nothing dangerous or dark the way Julie had sensed with Steven Corey, according to what Matt and Sami had told her.
They put Brad to work stringing extension cords throughout the house, since he knew where all the working outlets were located. It also kept him out of their way and allowed Mandaline, Sachi, and Ellis to talk in low tones without Brad hearing.
Still, even in the deepening gloom due to the weather, Mandaline didn’t feel anything…negative. Not about the house. She felt no fear, not even the slightest bit of trepidation.
Nothing set her witchy senses off in the slightest.
She almost didn’t want to start with the EMF sensors. She suspected they wouldn’t find anything out of the ordinary in that department, either. Usually she was hypersensitive to high EMF levels. So was Sachi. Even an initial walk-through, first floor to the attic, didn’t ping any of Sachi’s internal warnings.
Mandaline desperately didn’t want the issue to be Brad’s already traumatized brain. She wanted something she could grab, hold on to, produce as evidence that they could fix.
Because I love him.
Hell, as crazy and irrational as she knew it was, she loved both of them. She also remembered how she thought she loved Carl, and the world of hurt that gave her. Until she felt for sure Ellis wouldn’t end up demanding changes she couldn’t make, that he would be able to fully accept all of her the way she was, and that he wouldn’t throw another hurtful hissy fit, she didn’t feel safe letting go of her heart to them.
As the evening wore on, she noted how Brad’s attitude and demeanor deteriorated as they focused on the attic.
Their equipment showed nothing. Yes, they’d have tape and digital audio to go through, but Mandaline knew deep in her heart that they wouldn’t produce anything but hours of zilch.
At eight they stopped for a break and Ellis called out for a pizza. Sachi got Mandaline alone in a corner in the living room on the pretense of needing help adjusting the infrared camera settings.
“The only thing I can see,” she whispered to Mandaline, “is that Brad is worse when upstairs in the attic.”
Mandaline slowly nodded, pretending to look at the camera. “I think you’re right. I don’t understand it.”
“I’m not feeling anything here.” She touched Mandaline’s hand and waited until she met her gaze. “I really think it’s something wrong with him. And…” She took a deep breath. “I think it’s medical, not supernatural.”
Mandaline pressed her lips together. “I know.” Even Sachi had relaxed as the evening progressed. While she stayed close to Ellis, she’d stopped acting flighty and on edge as it was obvious Brad’s behavior wasn’t violent or dangerous.
She’d also stopped asking Mandaline to let her get her gun.
“Do you still want to do the house blessing?” Sachi asked.
Mandaline curtly nodded.
They ate downstairs in the kitchen on folding chairs gathered around a card table. Mandaline took her time, not wanting dinner to end, knowing the closer they drew to the end of their evening, the closer they drew to sentencing Brad to another trip to the VA.
Closer to Mandaline being forced to admit she couldn’t help him.
By ten o’clock they’d done every scan, every test, used every piece of equipment in every room of the house. Brad had gone quiet, his expression dark as they finished in the attic.
“Well, Sachi and I are going to go ahead and perform the house cleansing ritual, if that’s okay?”
Ellis nodded. They all looked at Brad, who now sat on his sofa.
He didn’t speak.
“Are you all right, buddy?” Ellis asked him.
“Fine.” He stared at all of them, his arms crossed in front of them. “I’m not crazy!”