Read Jaden (St. Sebastians Quartet #1) for Free Online Page A

snapped his fingers in front of Kenda's face. "Snap out of it. We need to leave now if we're gonna make it to the old Lancaster Mansion on time."
    Kenda got to his feet. "What time is it now?"
    "Nine-thirty."
    "We're supposed to be there at ten, right?"
    "Yep."
    "So we have what, five minutes to catch the ferry to the island?"
    "You know it never leaves on time."
    His mind was snapping back into place, returning to where it should be. Work. "This would be a huge deal, Chris. Can you imagine how incredible it would be to remodel that place? To see all the nooks and crannies. I hear the maze hasn't been touched since the last Lancaster left the island."
    "Sounds like a lot of work to me, since it would be me and my team doing all the actual labor. You get to do the prissy part."
    "Design isn't easy. Especially when we're looking at a place like the Lancaster Mansion. We have to update it, but not so much that it doesn't retain its old world charm."
    The Lancaster Mansion had sat vacant for well over a decade, on the cliffs that overlook the town. The location was prime. It had panoramic views of the ocean, and it was surrounded by forest, on a small island about a mile out. Getting to the old mansion proved difficult at times. Once you got to the island, there was the matter of driving up the mountain to get to the house. The road flooded whenever it rained, and bad thunderstorms always knocked down trees. Legend had it that old Mrs. Lancaster didn't want anyone in her home, so she warded people off with the flooding and downed trees. But the old mansion was truly a beauty. Kenda couldn't imagine anyone who could afford the house wouldn't buy it just because some occasional flooding. He was of the opinion that the thing really keeping people away was the legend that went with the house. The most recent had to do with the last residents, the Lancaster family. The Lancaster's oldest son, Jimmy, had gone crazy one night and killed his entire family with a baseball bat, before throwing himself off the cliff to the beach below. He'd died on impact. Before Jimmy, a child had gone missing on the estate. He had belonged to a workman who was their redesigning the garden. The boy's body was recovered nearly a year later, in the maze. The Stevenson family had lived there in the early 1900's. Father, mom, three sons and four daughters. All found dead the morning after Thanksgiving. Nobody ever knew what happened to them or how they died. The mansion was filled with stories like this. Deaths and disappearances. These days people believed the old mansion was haunted. Nobody went up there. Workmen refused to step foot on the property for fear of dying a painful death or disappearing.
    Fortunately for Beryl Chambers, the Brownings weren't a superstitious lot. If hired, he'd go to the mansion every day, if necessary.
    Kenda slid on his suit jacket, adjusted his tie, then remembered to grab his coffee before he left the office.
    They walked to Chris' car. Kenda slid into the passenger seat, happy to have something other than Jaden to think about. Fortunately, the day was nice. Not a storm cloud in the sky. It should be an uneventful drive.
    There wasn't any traffic getting to the pier. Summer, with the inflow of tourists, could be a real pain. But it was still too early for that, he supposed.
    They got there just in time to catch the ferry. Chris drove his car up the ramp then parked it. They got out and walked to the upper level. Kenda never tired of this ride. The views were spectacular. Most people took the ferry to go out to one of the small islands to fish or to get to the city on the other side of the water. By car the drive from St. Sebastians was an hour, but by ferry it was ten minutes. Clyde, the ferry captain, had probably assumed he and Chris were spending the day in the city. When Chris told Clyde that they were going to the Lancaster Mansion, Clyde nearly fell off the side of the boat in shock.
    "We may be doing the remodel," Chris