Milner & Dunn: Ghost in the Woods (Paranormal Gay Romance) E-Book

Trina Solet

• Herausgeber: Trina Solet
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

A request for help with a haunting sends Adrian back to his home town. The trip is bound to bring back unwelcome memories for him, but Dunn isn't about to let him go alone. Trying to find out the identity of a ghost might confirm Adrian's worst fears and put them on the trail of a killer.

Leseprobe

Milner & Dunn: Ghost in the Woods (Paranormal Gay Romance) By Trina Solet

Copyright © 2023 by Trina Solet

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or actual events is entirely coincidental.

All sexual activity takes place between persons eighteen years of age or older.

This novel contains material intended for mature readers.

Cover image is only for illustrative purposes. Any person depicted is a model.

Milner & Dunn: Ghost in the Woods

Paranormal Gay Romance

Trina Solet

Chapter 1

Adrian didn't have to teach a class until later so he was going to the offices of Milner & Dunn Investigations to see what his partner was up to. When he parked in front, he didn't even get to go inside. Dunn was coming out of the front door and heading to his car.

When Adrian yelled to get his attention, Dunn flashed him a gorgeous smile and his hazel eyes lit up as he waved him over. "I'm on my way to do a quick cleansing at a travel agency. Come and be my assistant."

"No, but I'll come along to keep an eye on you," Adrian told him and got in his car. Based on past experience, he didn't like to let Dunn deal with hauntings alone, but maybe this was just routine. "Is it just a cleansing?"

"It is. The owner arranged for it because one of the employees keeps feeling a cold spot and hearing whispering. It might just be the A/C and random noise," he said sounding like more of a skeptic that Adrian.

"You mean you didn't have a look already?" Adrian asked.

"Travel agencies don't exactly rake in the money these days. The owner is not paying much so I'm not doing much," Dunn said with no remorse. "If it wasn't for your company, it wouldn't even be worth the drive."

"I'll just assume you didn't do any research either," Adrian said and got out his phone.

"That's why I have you," Dunn said with a grin.

"You have me because Uncle Arthur stuck me with half of your business," Adrian said. He got the name and the address of the travel agency, but nothing came up except their website and ads.

He was still trying to figure out if anything happened at that location when they arrived. The travel agency was the last storefront in a nondescript strip mall with a lot of vacancies. No wonder there wasn't much money in this job.

"The owner sent everyone home," Dunn said as he got out of the car and frowned. "Good thing. There is a troubling presence here."

"Oh great," Adrian said as he got out of the car too.

Carrying the bundle of herbs he would be burning for their cleansing smoke, Dunn unlocked the travel agency front door then propped it open. He lit the herbs on fire then blew out the flame. "We'll make our way to the back door and open that too," he said.

There was a small area in front and more office space in the back. The place was bland except for the posters of exciting travel destinations. So far, Adrian hadn't felt any kind of negative vibe.

"It doesn't feel really bad in here," he told Dunn.

"That's because the apparition isn't in here." Going over to a desk in the corner, Dunn pointed to a nameplate that read Sawari Banerjee. "That's the employee who sensed something, and the apparition is outside, beyond that wall the desk is next to."

They went outside and found themselves in the employee parking lot behind the building. "A murder happened here," Dunn stated and waved the smoking herbs over the space until he reached a cement wall.

With his phone out, Adrian was searching for what happened there but his phone screen kept blinking out. "The apparition is interfering. I'm going to step away," he said to Dunn, who was busy speaking to the ghost.

"Spirit who lingers here, this isn't a good place to dwell. Let go of the pain and go to your eternal rest," he was saying as Adrian started to move away.

"So far nothing," Adrian told Dunn when he paused.

"Don't bother researching anything recent. This happened a long time ago," Dunn said then he suddenly kneeled on the ground.

Rushing over to him, Adrian felt something pull him down to his knees too. "What the hell?"

"Unresolved issues," Dunn said with a grunt and shut his eyes. He set down the smoking herbs and pressed his hands to the ground.

That worried Adrian. "You're making contact, aren't you?" he said, not happy about it. Reaching out and creating a connection to apparitions was dangerous to Dunn.

Dunn didn't answer him. He only spoke to the ghost. "I know you have a reason for doing this. What are you trying to tell me?"

Now Adrian heard whispering really close, right next to his ear, but the words overlapped, nothing was intelligible. Dunn shuddered and Adrian warned him, "Don't get pulled in."

"I know why he's still here," Dunn said, his voice a harsh whisper. "He was murdered on this spot, shot, even though he kneeled and begged for his life. This is where he's clinging to the life that's gone."

A shudder passed through Dunn again and Adrian felt like the tremor went through the pavement under them. Afraid something was going wrong, he was ready to pull Dunn away from there though he wasn't sure he could move. His knees felt like they were nailed to the ground.

Opening his eyes, Dunn took hold of the smoking herbs and started speaking calmly and evenly while waving them back and forth. "The ones who killed you are long dead. You have no reason to stay. There's nothing for you here. Leave this place. Find peace. Go to your rest." His voice rose and the apparition let go. Finally Adrian felt free to move.

Dunn slumped forward and groaned. "We are not getting paid enough for this."

Adrian leaned over him, pressed his bearded chin to his shoulder and put his arms around him. After a moment like that, he helped Dunn to his feet.

Though he was standing, Dunn still leaned on him. "You OK?" Adrian asked.

"Fine. You just feel nice," he said and chuckled as he nuzzled the side of Adrian's neck, rubbing his short beard against his skin.

"You need to be more careful," Adrian told him.

"I shouldn't have bought into the client's version of things. Just because he was dismissive, I shouldn't have been," Dunn said with a sigh and moved to go back inside through the back door.

"If the ghost was here for a long time, why did it only start being a problem now?" Adrian wondered.

"Nothing changed out there. It was the employee who was sensitive to the supernatural and noticed its presence," Dunn said as he waved the herbs around the travel agency like he did for a normal cleansing. "If she was rich, I would ask her if there were other places she wanted me to cleanse."

"Maybe she has rich parents," Adrian said as he noticed from the photo on her business card that she was young.

Now Dunn perked up. "Oh, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to look into it."

Adrian rolled his eyes at him, then a fuzzy pencil topper on her desk reminded him of Nessie. Just that morning, she had been talking to Dunn's namesake, Dustin the bunny, about how they all lived together with Dunn on the beach but now they didn't. It was a vacation, not living together, but she was only three and didn't understand the difference. Nessie talked about Dunn a lot, and not just about where he lived. It worried Adrian.

He knew they were spending too much time with Dunn and his little girl was getting ideas, but he didn't know what to do about it. The obvious thing, to stop seeing Dunn so much, seemed impossible.

But even when it came to being business partners, Adrian didn't really need to see him all the time. Adrian just couldn't stay away and he knew it wasn't the allure of the ghost hunting business.

Adrian was still thinking about it on the drive back, prompting Dunn to wonder, "What's on your mind?"

"Nessie was asking me about where you live," Adrian said and skipped over how she talked about Dunn living with them.

"Should I get ready for a visit?" Dunn asked.

"I wasn't fishing for an invitation," Adrian told him testily. "I only know where you live because of the paperwork for the agency."

"That's about to change," Dunn told him and made a turn that wouldn't take them back to the office and Adrian's car.

"Where are we going?" Adrian asked but Dunn only smiled at him.

When Dunn parked, Adrian knew where they were because he memorized the address without exactly meaning to. They were going to Dunn's apartment.

As they went up, Adrian couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. That turned into kissing and groping as they exited the elevator. They stumbled through Dunn's door, and Adrian didn't even get a look around before they were falling into Dunn's bed.

By the time Adrian was climbing out of Dunn's bed, well-satisfied, he had to go and teach a class. "You almost made me late," he told Dunn as he hurriedly put on his clothes.

"But it was worth it," Dunn said and smiled up at him from a tangle of sheets that didn't cover any part of him, thank God. Adrian couldn't help leaning down to kiss him and rub his hand over his chest.

Adrian got home in good time to prepare for the lesson. He even had time to check his email and saw that the college had forwarded a message to him. When he saw who it was from, he had to stop and just breathe.

The name stunned him, brought back old pain and he couldn't bring himself to even read the message. Finally he did. Max's sister, Becca, wanted him to call her. "I need to talk to you about Max," her message read.

Adrian was terrified of what she would tell him and at the same time stupidly hopeful. After his class, he spoke to her then he sat quietly for a while trying to take in what she told him. But as he mulled it over, he knew what he really needed to do was talk to Dunn.

Chapter 2

On days when Luna had classes, Nessie got to go to daycare, which she loved as much as spending the day with Luna. When Adrian picked up Nessie from daycare, she showed him the drawing she did of her favorite people. There was Adrian, Luna and some kids and then Dunn. Or at least she claimed it was him. Nessie pointed him out and which part was his head and his arm and his other arm and so on. Adrian had to take her word for it.

Then he used the drawing as an excuse to swing by Milner & Dunn offices and show Nessie where Dunn worked while she showed the drawing to him. When they arrived in the lobby downstairs, Nessie looked around and said, "This isn't Dustin's house."

"No, honey. I told you we were going to see Dustin's office," Adrian told her.

"Your office is in our house, Daddy," Nessie pointed out reasonably as he led her past the always unoccupied reception desk and up the stairs.

"She got you there," Dunn said from the top of the stairs as he smiled down at Nessie. "You're visiting me. It's my lucky day."

Nessie smiled up at him too and wanted to race up the stairs. "I'm visiting you," she confirmed.

"Come on up," Dunn told her. "Your daddy has an office here too. It has his name on the door and everything." He gave Adrian a significant look since he never used that office, and Dunn had only put his name on the door to taunt him and maybe scare him away from the ghost hunting business.

Nessie wasn't impressed with Adrian's impersonal office, but she was excited to show Dunn her drawing. Looking at it, Dunn asked her, "Did Luna draw this?"

Nessie didn't for a second doubt that her drawing could be mistaken for the work of an art student. Shaking her head so that her strawberry blond hair bounced, she assured Dunn, "No. I did it all by myself. Do you like it?"

"Yes. It's beautiful and it looks just like me," Dunn claimed though it just looked like some yellow, orange and green squiggles.

As Nessie watched Dustin tape the drawing on a wall in his office, she was very pleased. She showed more interest in his office than Adrian's then she suddenly asked, "Are you gonna live with us again, Dustin?"

Dunn got a deer in the headlights look, which Adrian couldn't recall ever seeing on his face. He was not easy to fluster, but Nessie had done it.

When he didn't answer, Adrian taunted him, "Well, are you?"

Dunn laughed and Nessie somehow took that as a yes. She clapped happily, and Adrian glared at Dunn.

"See what you did?" Adrian hissed in his ear. "Fix it."

Finally Dunn set her straight. "I have my own place, an apartment. Would you like to visit me?"

"Yes!" Now Nessie was celebrating again but she stopped to ask, "Can Daddy come?"

Dunn took a moment to regard Adrian critically then he nodded. "Yes. Your dad can visit me too, and Luna. We'll all have dinner together. And cake."

With a promise of cake, she was even happier about the visit. "You'll show some restraint, right?" Adrian said to him but the look on Dunn's face showed him he had no idea what the word meant. Knowing his warning would fall on deaf ears, Adrian still told him, "Don't go overboard."

Leaving Nessie to color at his hardly used desk, Adrian stepped away to talk to Dunn. Dunn leaned on the edge of the assistant's desk, which was also never used. With him waiting patiently, Adrian felt overwhelmed by all the things he might tell him.

The moment passed, and he kept it simple and only told him about Becca. "I got a strange request. The sister of someone I was friends with in high school asked me to come and help her verify that an apparition she's been seeing is him."

Dunn frowned then his eyes searched Adrian's. "Sorry, but you're not qualified to determine something like that," he said apologetically. "Even if the apparition looked like him, it might not be him."

"Really?" Adrian said, surprised.

"Most apparitions don't look like anyone. Ones that do can reflect what someone expects to see." Glancing toward Adrian's office where Nessie was consumed by her coloring, Dunn lowered his voice to tell him, "I once dealt with an apparition that looked like a small child only because the woman who was seeing it believed it was the son she lost. It was actually the spirit of an old woman who died a long time ago."

After thinking about it, Adrian said, "I don't think that's likely to be happening to Becca. The whole reason she contacted me is because she's skeptical about what she saw. She and Max were separated when their parents split up. They lived apart for years and hardly kept in touch. She's only back in Railcliff because her father passed away and she's taking care of things at his house."

"Railcliff?" Dunn said and Adrian wondered if there was something about the way he said the name of the town, if he made it obvious how he felt about the place.

"My home town," he said.

"And you don't want to go back there," Dunn guessed without Adrian having to tell him. He already knew that Adrian had no relationship with his parents, and that meant that Nessie had no relationship with her grandparents.

"I'll go anyway. I feel I have to," Adrian said. To him, it wouldn't be a homecoming. It was an obligation, not to Becca though. He owed Max even as he fervently hoped it wasn't him.

"I didn't doubt you would go," Dunn said like he could read him easily.

"I just need some pointers. What to look for."

"I already told you that you're not qualified. I'm the expert. You're only my assistant," Dunn said making Adrian groan. He then got a little more serious. "There are no pointers. I'll go with you, or I can go instead of you. Your choice."

Chapter 3

Nessie was very excited to be going to Dunn's for a visit. She made sure she got to wear a blue dress because she asked Adrian Dunn's favorite color and he guessed, "Blue?"

After that, Adrian texted Dunn to inform him, "Your favorite color is blue."

"Anything you say," he replied without asking what that was all about.

Adrian explained anyway. "That's what I told Nessie so back me up." He could just hear Dunn laughing at him.

He still decided to wear a blue tie, which Nessie was delighted about. Luna was going too though she tried to decline the invitation by saying she didn't want to intrude. She implied that he and Dunn must be getting serious.

"It's a casual dinner and it's mostly for Nessie's sake," Adrian told her.

"The dessert will be for Nessie. Everything else will be for you," she predicted.

Arriving at Dunn's apartment, Adrian was struck with how gorgeous he looked as he opened the door. His eyes were bright and beautiful, his smile so welcoming and sexy. Adrian was instantly jealous of every man he ever entertained. He gave a different smile to Nessie and Luna.

"Something smells good," Luna said.

"That's me," Dunn told her.

"It's some kind of food," Luna told him. But actually Dunn was right, he smelled better than anything.

Nessie was more interested in looking at things than sniffing things. Instead of giving a tour, Dunn invited her and Luna to wander around while he hung back with Adrian.

"I'm feeling uncharacteristically nervous," Dunn confessed.

"About having some guests over?" Adrian said.

"Maybe it's just my usual fear of disappointing you and Nessie," he said with a sigh and Adrian wasn't sure if he should take him seriously.

"Aren't you going to give me a tour of the place?" he asked since Dunn was having the dinner catered so he wasn't busy.

"You've seen it," Dunn claimed.

"No. You rushed me straight into the bedroom," Adrian reminded him, but Dunn disputed his version of things.

"I rushed you? That's not how I remember it."

Dunn then showed him around, starting with the living room. It was stylish, modern and very cold, like no one ever kicked their feet up in there. "It's like no one lives here," he said and then he noticed Dunn's face fall. "Oh, sorry. It's a very cool place. I'm used to tripping over toys and having kids drawing stuck on every inch of free space. I'm just envying you."

Dunn knew better. "No, you aren't. I don't do much living here. I don't even eat here that often."

As Dunn showed him his study, a more lived in room, Adrian stopped and stared at what was hanging on the wall. "That's the crazy hat Nessie decorated for you."

"It is, but I like it better on the wall than on my head," Dunn told him. "You might like what's behind you even more."

Adrian narrowed his eyes at him and turned to see several of Luna's sketches framed on the wall including some of Adrian. "This is where they end up?" he said while he went closer to admire one of Nessie holding Adrian's hand and pointing up at something.

"They'll be worth a fortune some day," he predicted, but Adrian was distracted by a framed watercolor of him and Dunn under a beach umbrella. "Don't just assume that that's my favorite," Dunn said and smiled like he was trying to shatter the weird mood between them that the watercolor created.

Dinner was incredibly good, and Adrian was happy to discover that Luna was wrong. Dunn chose pork medallions and asked Nessie, "Are they cute enough to eat?"

"They're cute meats," she said.

There were also some pretty and sweet mini peppers stuffed with couscous and raisins. Those could have been a dessert. They were definitely more to Nessie's taste. Meringue shells stuffed with berries and topped with whipped cream were the actual dessert.

The excellent bottle of wine was the only thing that wasn't chosen with Nessie in mind, but Luna ignored Adrian's 'I told you so' looks. Instead, she gave him a smug smile when he offered to help Dunn clear the table and went with him into the kitchen.

There, Dunn poured him a different wine, telling him, "I was torn between this one and the one I already served."

"They are both good. Thank you for going to all this trouble for us," Adrian said.

"What trouble? The caterer is sending someone for the dishes." Dunn then got a little more serious and asked him. "What did you decide about your trip to see your friend?"

"I'm going but..."

"And I'm going with you," Dunn said then he got out his phone. "Now look at his sweet bed and breakfast. It's not too far from where you're going."

"What?" Adrian asked but, really, he shouldn't have been surprised.

"So is there a chance you might want to take Nessie there?" Dunn asked like he was fully expecting Adrian to shut him down.

Adrian hadn't even considered taking her. "Another mini vacation?"

"It might be fun to show her where you're from," he said.

"Where my parents still live," Adrian said.

"You don't need to let them meet her. The B&B is a half hour out of town. More if you obey the speed limit. Halfway between Railcliff and Buntville."

"Buntville is a pretty little town. I wouldn't mind showing it to Nessie. I have some good memories of visiting my great-grandmother there," Adrian said and got wistful for a moment.

"Do we have a plan?" Dunn asked.

Adrian nodded then looked at his wine glass. "This is why you're plying me with wine."

But Dunn didn't need much help to break down his defenses. He was doing it now, tugging on Adrian's tie and drawing him into a kiss.

Chapter 4

Any time they drove anywhere, Nessie always got excited about sightings of cows or horses. On the drive to the B&B, she saw more and more of them all the time and only got more excited.

Luna was sitting in the back with her and Nessie kept asking her to draw her "a horsie and a moo cow". But Luna wasn't sketching at the moment.

"I'm resting my creative muscles. But it is pretty country out here," she said of the fields and hills that started out green and gold and then crested to the west and turned rocky at the top.

Luna knew Adrian had family where they were going and that they weren't visiting them, that Nessie had no contact with her grandparents and that this trip wouldn't change that. Adrian had talked to her about it so there wouldn't be any misunderstandings.

Now he told her, "There are some nice views from the tops of those hills. Maybe we'll climb one of them." He smiled at Nessie in the rearview mirror, but she was just hoping to see more livestock.

Adrian wished he could be carefree about this trip, but with the familiar scenery, more and more memories were coming back to him. Max liked to stand on the edges of high places, and any warnings from Adrian only made him want to rattle him more.

He did that when they climbed those hills. Adrian snapped a picture of him standing on one leg on the edge of an outcropping because Max blackmailed him into it. He wouldn't climb off until Adrian took the photo. He lost the photo when his parents confiscated his phone. Then he lost Max.

The B&B was rustic with a lot of wood accents like the posts, the wood shingles and the planters lining the porch. There was a forest on one side and fields on the other. Adrian couldn't have picked a better spot. If only it wasn't less than an hour from his home town.

Dunn met them in front, and Adrian knew he got there first to do a cleansing and make sure the place was safe from anything supernatural before Nessie set foot in there. Adrian got her out of her car seat, and the first thing she did was run to Dustin to give him a hug and tell him about all the cows and horses she saw.

The first thing Luna did was to take photos of Nessie in front of Dove Tail Bread and Breakfast. Adrian squinted at the sign.

"Yes, it does say Bread and Breakfast," Dunn told him as he came over. Then he recapped. "The owner, the lovely Alma, married a bread baking woman, the lovely Cathy. And then they changed the name and the sign." The sign was a dove pecking at a piece of bread.

"Something baked every day for breakfast, I bet," Adrian said and grumbled.

"Making sure to stay trim for someone?" Dunn asked teasingly. Like there was anyone else seeing Adrian naked these days except for him. That's why Adrian was always saying to himself that he should date other guys before his feelings for Dunn got completely out of hand. But every man he considered ended up getting compared to Dunn and coming up short. Who on Earth could compare to him? It was hopeless.

"Don't worry. I'll help you skip out on breakfast," Dunn promised him and patted his back since he was still frowning.

Adrian didn't tell him it wasn't breakfast making him brood.

As they went in, they heard voices in the kitchen and went to greet the B&B owners. They were both older, maybe in their sixties, and very sweet and welcoming. Alma and Cathy gave them a tour. The place wasn't too fussy but Nessie still found plenty to charm her including a painted, wood dove.

Adrian wondered who else was staying there and Alma and Cathy both looked from him to Dunn. "You are the only ones staying here," Alma informed him.

As the others went up the stairs, Adrian turned to Dunn. "You booked all the rooms, didn't you?"

"How many do you think there are. It's not a hotel," Dunn pointed out.

That was true. There was a room for each of them though Luna volunteered to share with Nessie. That left an extra room, but Dunn didn't see that as a problem. "Luna can do her art in there."

Luna poked her head in and nodded. "It should get decent light before noon."

"I guess Dunn knows what he's doing," Adrian said resigning himself to how things worked when Dunn took charge.

Getting ahead of them, Nessie was checked out the rest of the upstairs with Alma and Cathy, and then she showed Dunn and Adrian their rooms at the end of the hall and across from each other.

"We're hiring her," Cathy said.

"Did you hear that? You work here now," Dunn told her.

"Me?" Nessie said like she was worried she wasn't up to the job.

"You just have to fluff the pillows," Alma told her, and Nessie was relieved.

Though the B&B didn't serve lunch, Cathy and Alma made an exception and shared their lunch with Luna and Nessie. After that, the two of them were going to explore the fields which were already turning from the summer greens to the yellows of autumn.

Skipping lunch left Adrian and Dunn time to go and meet Becca. On the drive Dunn noticed Adrian's tense mood. "You're nervous about seeing her."

"I didn't know her well, but she's bound to remind me of Max," Adrian admitted.

"This is all going to be hard for you," Dunn predicted as he looked over at him and smiled with understanding.

"I didn't expect it to be easy. It just has to be done," Adrian said. He had been steeling himself for this whole trip since he decided to come.

"Not everyone would see it that way. Plenty of people would have just refused to get involved," Dunn said.

"I couldn't do that. Not when it comes to Max." Adrian felt the pain of those days come back to him though not as sharp as it was then.

"You were close."

"We got close when we discovered we were both gay," Adrian said and Dunn waited for more. Adrian only filled him in about the obvious thing he might be wondering. "We didn't do much. Mostly we were just friends with a few benefits." The rest he couldn't talk about yet, but he was sure that Dunn could tell that there was more.