What Hides Inside: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 2

severe schizophrenic who refused to take his medications, rendering his entire story suspect.
    “Go with your gut, Sam,” he advised himself, ignoring the trickle of doubt seeping through the morning’s excess of self-confidence. “You sent that thing in Oleander House back to its world and closed the gate without having any idea what you were doing. You can do it again, as long as you don’t overthink it.”
    The squeal of rusting hinges drew Sam’s attention to the front door. David made a face as he and Cecile entered, closing the door behind him. “That thing needs oiling. Hi, Sam, what’re you doing here this early?”
    “Talking to myself.” Sam gave his friends a wide smile. “How was your Thanksgiving?”
“Filling,” Cecile answered, patting her stomach. “Andre’s sister invited us to spend the day with them. She made enough food for ten armies.”
“Hey, a week’s worth of turkey sandwiches is a Thanksgiving tradition.” Plopping into the nearest chair, David slung his feet onto Cecile’s desk and grinned. “What’d you do, Sam? I know you didn’t go all the way to Marietta to see your mom.”
The mental picture of himself, legs in the air and Bo’s cock buried in his ass, sprang unbidden to Sam’s mind. Heat rose in his cheeks. “I stayed at home and ordered pizza,” he answered, truthfully enough.
“You at least called your mom though, right?” David asked, picking a piece of lint off his sweater.
“Um. No,” Sam mumbled.
David shook his head. “Bad form, man. Very bad form, ignoring the parental units.”
“Mom was spending the day with some friends from her church,” Sam protested. “And I think my sister and her family were going to her in-laws house. I doubt they missed me much.”
“You must be kidding.” Cecile stared at him with such horror on her face Sam had to laugh. “It’s not funny. I bet your mother’s feelings were hurt.”
That just made Sam laugh harder. His relationship with his family had been distinctly cool ever since that Easter Sunday nearly twenty years ago when he told them he was gay. That had been a turning point. They’d never openly excluded him afterward, but he knew they preferred his absence to his presence. The day he’d packed up to leave Marietta was the first time his mother had smiled at him in years.
Wiping his streaming eyes, Sam slouched in his chair and lifted an eyebrow at Cecile. “Trust me, her feelings were not hurt.”
Cecile gave him a sharp look, but before she could say anything the door swung open again. Dean bounded in with Andre hot on his heels. Bo trailed behind them.
When Bo’s gaze met his, Sam’s stomach gave a funny little lurch. He smiled, knowing it looked goofy as hell and not caring. Bo grinned back, eyes shining.
“Good morning,” Dean lilted. “Did y’all have a good holiday?”
As everyone else began talking at once, Bo shot Sam a furtive sidelong look. The heat in his gaze burned into Sam’s skin, and it was all Sam could do to resist the urge to leap from his chair and cover the man with kisses.
“So who else saw the news last night?”
Andre’s question silenced the chatter immediately. “We saw it,” David spoke up, reaching out to take Cecile’s hand. “Are they still gonna let us in today, after that?”
“What exactly happened?” Sam asked. “I only saw the crawl, I didn’t stay up for the news.”
“Neither did I.” Darting a swift, wicked grin at Sam, Bo leaned against Cecile’s desk. “The school’s closed, did someone break in?”
“A group of boys snuck onto the grounds about one in the morning yesterday,” Dean explained. “They aren’t students there, but they’d heard the rumors and decided it would be fun to spend the night there, kind of like it was a haunted house or something.”
“Crazy,” Andre muttered, shaking his head.
Perching on the edge of Sam’s desk, Dean continued the story. “One of the kids went missing sometime during the night. The others didn’t see anything, but they couldn’t find him anywhere when they were ready to leave, and he never showed up at his house for Thanksgiving dinner. His friends finally went to the police yesterday afternoon and told them what they knew.”
Bo’s expression gave nothing away, but Sam saw the fear in his eyes. The need to hold Bo right then was nearly irresistible. I’ll be okay, he thought, wishing he could send his thoughts directly to Bo’s mind.
“I don’t think I need to tell you how