October Ghosts (A Southern Romance Monthly) Read Online Free

wasn't going to be a ghost hunter. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. The funny thing was," he shook his head as he folded his arms over his chest. "I got a job with this company that created haunted houses. Not the kind you see in amusement parks, but the serious kind where we went in and bought old houses, renovated them specifically for seasonal use."  
    "Seriously? You mean like Netherworld?"  
    He nodded. "A lot like that. Franchised company though. That's how we met, me and this girl. She was doing a volunteer gig with the legal team."  
    Chloe was completely fascinated now. This guy used to work on making haunted houses and now he investigated them for real ghosts. But she was more curious about his mom. "So…your mother didn't like the haunted house job or your girlfriend?"
    "See that's where it got weird." He moved away from the wall and stood close to her at the counter. "She kept telling me I needed to quit the job. That it was dangerous. But I loved the job. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to scare the crap out of people who wanted to be scared. And I got pretty good at what I was doing—in fact I was so much better at it than school, I quit school. And that did not make her happy."  
    "I'll bet. But the job wasn't what she was warning you about?"  
    "Oh no, it was the house." He shifted and put a hand on the counter. Chloe noticed a silver band around his wrist with a medical caduceus on it. He had a medical alert. "We moved in together and made wedding plans. But when October first hit, I got incredibly busy keeping the house mechanics working. I would get in at four in the morning and sleep until noon, then I'd be back out getting ready for the next night. It was a lot of fun. But it made her crazy."
    Chloe listened but she was straining to see what the medical alert was. It made him even more human to think of him as having some kind of medical problem. "Crazy like…frustrated crazy?"
    "Eh…" he glanced at the front door. "I had a friend I worked on the house with. She was good at sensor triggers—I mean wicked good. And I built the actual scares. So we worked closely together. My girlfriend started to get real weirded out by it. Even when I told her Carmin was gay. She wouldn't believe it. It got to a point where I couldn't handle the nagging so I started sleeping at the house."  
    "The haunted house?"
    "Yeah. Weird huh? Eventually I broke it off because my friends all thought she was a nut-case. After that," he shrugged. "I realized mom was right. The house tried to kill me."  
    "Huh?"
    "Things in the house started messing up. And every time they did, I was the target. Long story," he waved at me as the parking lot filled with flashing blue and red lights. "I'll tell you about it later. Much later. After a fifth of tequila." He winked.
    "Wait—what about your ex? So…what happened to her?"
    "She tried to kill me." He held out his hand. "Let's give the cops the grand tour."  

CHAPTER FOUR

    Margo met him in the parking lot of the crew's temporary housing. The company had rented out several apartments at the Crossings Woodbridge off of Creekside Way for the week. Chloe's store was close to two miles away. It was past two in the morning when he drove up. He was tired but still keyed up.  
    His assistant's no-nonsense glare wasn't something he wanted to deal with at that moment. "Well?" She said as he shut the door of his car, locked it, and then grabbed his backpack out of the trunk.  
    "Well what?" Matt kept his voice low. "It's like I told you on the phone. Some nutcase broke into her shop and hung up this stuffed witch."  
    "But don't you think this sounds familiar?"  
    He'd started walking past her toward the stairs of his apartment. "Margo—it's not Sarah. I haven't heard from her in three years. I want to put that behind me."  
    "Isn't it a little coincidental? I mean, we come here to investigate this landmark house. We contact this psychic and then she gets a threat? It's