Page 253 of The Internet’s Most Haunted Influencer
She adjusted her chair and looked at Leo. “We’ll do the restoration first. Then we’ll take a moment before we do anything else.”
Leo nodded. He understood why she wanted to wait, even if he would have preferred to get on with the whole thing.
Beside him, Nate’s fingers curled slightly against the table.
“Ready?” Miriam asked.
“Yes.”
She raised one hand toward him. Leo recognized the feeling of her attention settling over him and tried to sit still while she worked. He’d managed it yesterday. He could manage it now.
Her other hand rested beside the ring.
He could feel something in it, something that answered every time her attention moved through him. It was getting harder to sit there and do nothing.
It was his. Whatever Caleb had put in that ring, it was his, and he wanted it back.
He leaned forward.
“A little longer,” Miriam murmured.
Leo huffed. He’d never been a patient person.
Nate gave him a small, encouraging smile. Leo tried to return it, but something shifted inside him, and he caught at the edge of the table.
There. That was—
His life came rushing into him.
Voices, faces, people he’d talked to, places he’d visited. A short lifetime’s worth of impressions, all of them his. He heard his mother’s voice, warning him not to be stupid. Not to be—
The thought slipped away. He saw Walt’s face, young and smiling and in love with him.
He remembered their first kiss, remembered Walt reaching for him. The light in his eyes whenever they talked about the life they would have.
He’d wanted it. Just as much as Danny had.
Even though…
Even though…
He remembered himself on the floor.
A woman was bending over him. He caught at her arm before she could turn away.
“Please. You have to keep him safe.”
She was saying she would. But did she know about Walt’s brothers? Did she understand what would happen to Walt if they got him? They might come here. They might tell her they were taking him home, and she couldn’t let them.
“Don’t let them take him. Please.”
Her hand closed over his. She kept talking, but it was difficult to hear her now, and he still wasn’t sure he’d made her understand. Walt was scared. He’d heard it in his voice all the way here, and he’d told him this was somewhere they could be safe.
It had to be safe.
Walt was sobbing in his ears, calling his name, begging him.
“Stay with me, Danny. Stay with me. Danny!”
