Page 67 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

“If you get ready and we can leave anytime soon, yes,” he returned, that dark brow of his cocked high.

“Fine.” She’d go, but that didn’t mean she liked being kept in the dark.

Whatever reason there was for this ridiculous secrecy had better be good.

Chapter Thirty-Four

From the passenger seat, travel mug in hand, Natalie glanced over at Liam behind the wheel of his Jeep. “Are you eventually going to tell me where we are going and why?”

“Yes.”

A one-word answer.

If this man wasn’t so hot and she didn’t love him so damn much, she’d be immensely annoyed with him, instead of just moderately so.

She let out a huff of a breath then raised the mug to her lips.

The coffee was good at least. Strong but sweet with just enough half-and-half. But she’d have far preferred to be drinking it out of her favorite ceramic mug still in her PJs back in her apartment.

The metal travel cup and its plastic lid with the tiny drink hole along one edge was more trouble than it was worth.

The poor design made the risk of getting scalded or dribbling coffee all over the front of her too great. She didn’t need that kind of challenge this early in the morning while bouncing along in the Jeep at seventy miles an hour on Liam’s mysterious mission.

Finally, after yet another glance at the dashboard, Liam drew in a breath as he slowed and exited the highway. “Okay. We can talk freely now.”

She lifted a brow and lowered the cup, placing it safely in the cup holder, then waited.

Liam glanced briefly over, then back to the road in front of them. “I needed to make sure we were far enough away it couldn’t hear us.”

“The brain ghost?”

“Yes.” He flipped on the directional signal and swung the vehicle into the entrance to the park in Oneonta.

He pulled under a tree next to the lake, shifted the Jeep into park, then cut the engine.

It was a lovely spot, but she wasn’t convinced it was necessary they drive all the way there just to talk.

“Gabe said the test proved they can only travel three and a half miles,” she reminded him.

Meanwhile, she and Liam had been driving for a solid twenty minutes. By now they had to be five times that distance away from the lab where the brain still resided in its lead container, inside a faraday bag he’d had delivered overnight, inside the lab’s brain freezer.

Liam cocked up a dark brow. “Do you really want to take that chance? We can’t be sure of anything when it comes to the spirit world. Why can we hear Millie and Gabe but none of the other ghosts, and only when they are in physical contact with each other? Why can this brain ghost do bodily harm but others can’t? We don’t know. So no, I’m not going to trust that this thing can only travel the same distance as the others. I considered driving us all the way to Cooperstown just to be sure. Hell, maybe I still should.”

He reached for the ignition and Natalie laid a hand on his forearm. “I think we’re okay. I don’t feel him anymore.”

Liam whipped around to look at her. “But you do still feel him in Mudville?”

He wasn’t going to take it well that she’d been walking around feeling the press of evil so strong it made it hard to breathe and she hadn’t told him.

Pressing her lips together, she nodded and braced herself for the reaction.

As expected, his eyes widened. “Natalie!”

“I know. Stop. Don’t yell at me. What were you going to do anyway if I had told you I could feel him?”

“I’d have driven you out of range and put you up in a hotel room. That’s what.”

“And who would take care of the shop? Jules has classes⁠—”