Deaths Excellent Vacation

again before answering.
    Know it’s early—couldn’t sleep. Wanna get breakfast?
    Jessica laughed and sent back a smiley face with one word, OK .
     
     
    SHE greeted Justin with a big smile as he walked across the hotel lobby.
    “Good morning.”
    “Good morning yourself,” she said with a chuckle, then yawned.
    “Couldn’t sleep, either?” He waggled his eyebrows and she looked away.
    “I slept all right.” Her wide grin told on her.
    “Yeah, okay . . . I didn’t.”
    “Then you need some coffee,” she said, laughing, skirting the subject he was fixated on.
    “That ain’t all, but I’m a patient man.”
    She whirled on him and opened her mouth. “You did not go there.”
    “My bad, my bad,” he said, laughing, leaning away from her. “I thought women appreciated honesty, especially those who could see.”
    “We do, but dang.”
    Jessica began walking again, peeping at him over her shoulder as he bounded toward her and then loped a few paces behind her, smiling. There was just something about him that she couldn’t define—something very primal and different yet honest and dear.
    After they’d settled at a table and ordered, Justin’s expression sobered.
    “I brought you something, but not to be used here. This is a going-away present for when you head back to Port Arthur, all right?”
    She didn’t know what to say as he dug into his jeans pocket and produced a handful of silver bullets. “Justin . . .”
    “You take these home, you hear,” he said in an urgent rush. “I can lay the brick dust and all of that . . . If I would have done what I was supposed to years ago, maybe your momma would still be here. But I don’t want you in harm’s way.”
    “But if this woman killed my momma and my daddy—”
    Justin held up his hand. “I’ve got Grand on my side,” he said with a mischievous smile.
    There was no arguing that Grand was a formidable force, no less than she could argue about the way Justin made her feel.
    “Believe me, I’m not trying to send you home . . . far from it,” Justin said quietly, leaning even closer. “But I want you safe. Cool?”
    She nodded but didn’t answer; that’s as much as she could commit to right now. The full moon was a few days away, and she wanted closure. But her money was only going to hold out long enough to keep her around for the balance of the weekend. Tuesday night was when she’d predicted to Sheriff Moore that all hell would break loose . . . and now the last person she wanted caught up in that madness was Justin.
    “You be careful, too,” she finally said over a sip of coffee.
    “I’m cool,” he said, then chugged his orange juice.
    “I want you to be more than cool. I want you to be safe, Justin.”
    Her voice had come out soft like a tender brush against his cheek. He stared at her for a moment and then reached across the table to take up her hand. Sure, he’d had a lot of girls, mostly booty calls—nothing serious. But he was so tired of hiding, tired of the double life he was leading. Tired of not being able to share his heart and soul.
    “Tell me what she did to you,” Jessica said quietly. “That witch. Did she make a spell against you that closed you off from the spirit realm?”
    Justin looked down and studied Jessica’s hands. How did one even begin to describe what she’d done to him, in terms that wouldn’t make her run?
    “You’ve lost so much . . .” Jessica whispered, shaking her head. “Even your dog; how could she attack an innocent animal?”
    Justin pulled away and sat back, then raked his fingers through his locks.
    “What’s wrong?” Confused, Jessica sat forward.
    “Nothing . . . It’s just a real raw subject, is all.” He looked out the window, hoping she’d believe him.
    “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried . . . It’s just that I get the sense that this woman really damaged you—taking everything from you. It had to be a joy-stealing spell.”
    His shoulders slumped two inches from relief. “Yeah . . . it was something like that.”
     
     
    SAYING good-bye got harder and harder to do. All day Saturday he’d taken her around town and then got her to relent and hang out at the movies. Sunday morning he skipped church, instead going to breakfast with her and trying to get her to come back to Grand’s for dinner, but wisely she said no. He knew the inevitable was near—sooner or later Jessica had to go back to Port Arthur. But he’d made her a bag of protection and had