Read Celeste Files: Unjust for Free Online Page B

face.
    She pulled her arms free. She didn’t need his anger right now. She needed his patience and understanding. He turned on the nightstand light. Oh, God. She needed bandages for his arms and chest. “Did I do that to you?” she asked, and stared at the scrapes dotting with blood.
    “You were clawing at the sheet, the air…me. What the hell kind of nightmare was that?”
    “I…it wasn’t.” She blew out a shaky breath. “I don’t even know how to begin to explain what just happened.” She pulled the sheets aside and slid off the bed. “The dead boat captain came to see me.”
    “What? Are you sure it wasn’t just a dream?”
    “I’m not sure what to think. One minute I was sound asleep, the next I was…why are you staring at me like that?” she asked, alarmed by the fear in John’s eyes.
    “Your neck.”
    She clutched her throat. “What about it?”
    He rose to his knees and scooted across the mattress, knocking their camera out from under the sheets she’d just tossed aside. He looked to the camera, then to her. “Move your hand.” When she did, he straightened and swallowed. “There’s a mark along your neck.” He grabbed her hands and flipped them palms up. “Your wrists, too.”
    She met his gaze. “He held me down.”
    “And did what to you, Celeste?” John asked, his voice shaking with outrage.
    “Forced me to go with him. He wanted me to see how bad he could be,” she said, then told him everything. By the time she’d finished, she was back on the bed, sitting next to him. “I don’t know what to make of what I saw, or the woman he was holding in the room.”
    “Human trafficking is something to consider. I don’t think most pimps would be too concerned about selling to the highest bidder. What I’m wondering is who he wants revenge against, and what length he’ll go to use you to get it.”
    “So you believe me?”
    He tucked a lock of her curls behind her ear. “I absolutely don’t want to. I just want to have a nice vacation with my wife. But I can’t deny the bruising around your neck and wrists, or the ones we found around your ankles. You’ve hurt yourself in the past, but nothing like this.” He nudged her chin and studied her neck. “I wouldn’t have to think hard to figure out how you could have done this on your own, but I know you wouldn’t. And if this…ghost could do this, what else can he do? Would Maxine know?”
    “Maybe.” She shrugged. “I’ll call her in the morning.”
    He looked at the clock.
    “I am not calling her at four in the morning.” She let out a breath. “Let me get something for the cuts on your chest and arms, then we can grab a few more hours of sleep.” Not that she’d be able to sleep. This dead man would be a problem, and nothing like she’d experienced in the past. When the dead had called upon her before, they had always been the victims. This man might have been a drowning victim, but if he’d been involved in something as heinous as human trafficking, he deserved whatever had happened to him.
    As she climbed out of bed, John picked up the camera. “Why is this in our bed?” he asked, and turned it on. “I left it on the dresser.”
    “Maybe I got up and did something with it. Maybe the flashes from the camera I saw when I was with Denis were my own creation, if that makes any sense.”
    “It would if you hadn’t woken up next to me with your nails digging into my skin,” John said.
    Guilt and anger settled in her chest. “I told you I was sorry about that. I didn’t know what I was doing and—”
    He held up a hand, dropped the camera on the bed, and rushed to the closet. He whipped open the door, shoved hangers and clothes aside, then left the room.
    She followed behind. “What are you doing?” Stunned, she watched as he opened every closet and cabinet, checked the windows, then the front and patio doors. She grabbed his arm when he moved past her back into the bedroom. “What are you looking