Of course, that future would be dimmer if she couldn't have all of her men.
Eric had left a while back. Perhaps he would find Kellan and bring him home. Then they could talk everything out. Or maybe she would just make love to the man until he couldn't walk. She could completely exhaust him so he couldn't run. That would be one way to keep him close.
"Annabelle Wright?" The woman was younger than she'd seemed on the phone. Somehow, Belle had thought she would be more like her mother's age. The face that stared back was perhaps a year or two older than her own. She was dressed in a business suit and carried a briefcase. Her blonde hair was in a careful bun.
All in all, not what she'd thought a medium would look like.
"Yes. Won't you please come in?" The faster she got this started, the quicker she could set the scene for Kellan. Seduction might be the best way to go. She'd been honest with him about what she wanted. He knew the score. She could see if an enormous amount of really filthy sex would help him see that she could be his kind of woman. Now that she knew exactly what she wanted, she found herself eager to start making a home with her men.
The medium stepped through, her nose wrinkling delicately. "I'm Helena Rhodes. So you've been having issues with the house. I'm really not surprised. It's a bit infamous. Rumor is, there've been several suicides here, and some people who owned the house afterward complained of disturbances and unexplained activity."
Belle was fairly certain some of her issues were entirely human, but she couldn't ignore the feelings she got in the house. There was no way the shadow that had passed through her the night before had been human. There was definitely a presence or two in the house. Hopefully between the nanny cam Tate had set up to catch whoever was trying to scare her away and Helena, she could finally get some help on the ghost front. "Yes, we've had several incidents. There are cold spots all over the house and I can hear whispering at night when I sleep in the master bedroom. It always stops the minute I get out of bed. Did Tate explain what happened last night?"
Helena looked around the foyer, one brow elegantly arched. "I was told you were visited by an entity. It doesn't surprise me. I can feel it from here. There's a lot of darkness in this house. Do you know the full history of the house?"
Belle nodded as the medium walked into the hallway. "I've done some research. I know two young women supposedly killed themselves here. Two sisters."
Helena turned back, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Supposedly? You think you know something different?"
"I think they were murdered by their father." She'd seen it over and over again in her dreams. She'd even read some reporter's theories on the incidents. Her grandmother had also written about the house being haunted in her journals. She had never had the place cleansed because she'd attempted to communicate with the entities. Her grandmother had believed that all the women in her family had a touch of psychic power and owed it to the world to help the dead to move on.
Of course, her grandmother had also said that the ghosts of this house were terrifically stubborn.
Belle really hoped the medium knew what she was doing.
Sir scampered into the room, giving a little yip at her feet.
Helena stared down, then lifted her nose in the air. "No one mentioned an animal."
Belle frowned. Apparently, Helena wasn't a dog person. "He's actually been really helpful since we moved in. I'm pretty sure he knows when the entities are around. I think there are a couple of ghosts here. One is really nasty and likes to hang around the library. Sir won't go in there. He just stands outside the door growling sometimes. Sir here seems to like the one who drifts around. That one he follows around most of the day. It concerned me at first, but he's happy enough. There's a place upstairs he doesn't like, right in front of the master bedroom. He'll bark at it from time to time. I think it might be the spot where the girls were murdered. They were found hanging from the third floor staircase."
"Well, he's a dog. I think I should be the one to decide how many entities and what they're like. I'm the one with experience." With a sigh, she set her case down and pulled out her cell phone. She flicked her hand across the screen, either texting someone or writing an e-mail. "I have an associate coming with the rest of my equipment. I wanted to get a feel for the place before I set up. Is everyone gone? I was told you live with several men."
Belle was starting to think she should handle this herself since the medium seemed awfully judgmental for someone who talked to the dead. "It's just me, Tate, and Sir tonight. The others are out for the evening."