The Undead Uproar Read online

  The Undead Uproar

  A Charlie Rhodes Cozy Mystery Book Five

  Amanda M Lee

  WinchesterShaw Publications

  Copyright © 2019 by Amanda M. Lee

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. One

  2. Two

  3. Three

  4. Four

  5. Five

  6. Six

  7. Seven

  8. Eight

  9. Nine

  10. Ten

  11. Eleven

  12. Twelve

  13. Thirteen

  14. Fourteen

  15. Fifteen

  16. Sixteen

  17. Seventeen

  18. Eighteen

  19. Nineteen

  20. Twenty

  21. Twenty-One

  22. Twenty-Two

  23. Twenty-Three

  24. Twenty-Four

  25. Twenty-Five

  26. Twenty-Six

  27. Twenty-Seven

  28. Twenty-Eight

  29. Twenty-Nine

  Mailing List

  About the Author

  Books by Amanda M. Lee

  One

  “Lift that end.”

  “I am lifting.”

  “Lift it higher.”

  “With what muscles?” I leaned against the wall, not letting go of my end of the couch, and fixed my boyfriend Jack Hanson with a dark look. “I’m doing the best I can.”

  Jack, his dark hair pulled back in a short ponytail at the nape of his neck, smirked. He looked serene, patient even. When he spoke, however, I knew that wasn’t the case. “Get a move on, Charlie. We need to get your stuff completely transferred before we get a call that there’s another case. We’re so close.”

  I huffed and cleared my throat. “It’s a good thing you’re cute,” I muttered, readjusting my grip as I strained to hold up my end of the couch. It didn’t look heavy until I tried to carry it up a flight of stairs. “Otherwise I would totally dump you.”

  Jack merely smiled. He was used to my griping. He didn’t appear worried in the least that I meant what I said. That’s because I, Charlie Rhodes, was smitten with him. Yeah, I said it. Smitten. I never knew what that word meant until Jack and I started dating.

  We met as co-workers. I always believed that saying about not defecating where you eat and never intended to date someone I worked with. From the first day I met him, though, Jack called to me … even as he irritated me. I’m still not sure why.

  On paper, he should’ve been the last person I wanted to spend time with. He was former military, a rule-follower. He liked things regimented and neat. Me? I’m messy. My apartment is messy. My personal life is messy. Heck, my head is messy. Jack doesn’t appear to care about any of that. He’s pretty easygoing — at least when he’s not in charge of my security — and he seems fine with the fact that I live a messy life.

  Of course, he doesn’t know all the facts. He’s missing one vital piece of the puzzle. That’s what bugged me as he helped me move from a first-floor apartment that he deemed unsafe to a second-floor apartment that he’d picked out.

  Yeah, I still wasn’t sure how it happened.

  “We’re almost there, Charlie,” he prodded. His grip on the other end of the couch never faltered. He was strong, although the T-shirt he wore hid his bulging muscles. I’d seen him shirtless before. In fact, I was trying to figure out a way to see him shirtless again once we got the couch to my new apartment. I was thinking that offering to wash his shirt while he waited was the best way to go. It might come across as awkward — especially because we hadn’t stripped and spent the night together yet — but I was ready to put in the effort and try. I didn’t care how goofy I looked.

  “Okay.” I heaved out a sigh at his patient expression. He didn’t offer a lick of complaint as he waited for me to ready myself. “Let’s do it quick. I’m going to count to three and then we’re going to run to the new apartment. How does that sound?”

  His smile widened. “Sure. Let’s do it.”

  “Here we go.” I blew out a big breath, sucked in another, and bobbed my head.

  Jack pushed with everything he had and, before I knew it, we were up the stairs and heading straight into my new living room. He didn’t stop even when I faltered, pushing until the couch landed in the middle of the open space.

  I fell on the couch and looked at the ceiling when he stopped shoving. “Wow. I did it.”

  He cast me a sidelong look before rolling onto the couch next to me. “Yes. You did it.”

  His tone made me smile. “Okay, maybe you did it.”

  “We both did it,” he corrected, grabbing my hand and flipping it over to examine my palm. Several blisters were appearing and my heart actually stuttered when he pressed a quick kiss to each one. It was a simple and achingly romantic gesture ... and it made me feel giddy.

  “Um ... .” I could feel my cheeks burning as he smiled.

  “Get over it, Charlie.” He pressed one more kiss to the palm of my hand and then released me. “There’s no reason to get all worked up. I was simply ... kissing your boo-boo.”

  “Yes, and I’m not supposed to get worked up about that apparently.” I shook my head. “Good grief.”

  He laughed at my reaction and briefly closed his eyes. We’d been working the entire day. He showed up before the sun to help me move, something I wasn’t all that keen about but he insisted was necessary. When I first moved into the building I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal to live on the main floor. It was the East Coast, after all. What could possibly happen? Jack started making noise about it before we enjoyed our first date. He didn’t think it was safe for a single woman. I was fairly certain I should be offended by his antiquated outlook, but I was so certain the landlord would shoot me down if I asked to move that I did it out of deference to him. To my utter surprise, the landlord initially said no and then came back with a yes. He wasn’t even raising my rent, which made zero sense, so now we were moving all my stuff up one floor so I was no longer vulnerable on the main floor.

  I never felt vulnerable. I didn’t fear that someone would show up at my window or try to enter through my patio door. I knew things Jack didn’t. He had no idea I was telekinetic and psychic, that I could fight an enemy on more than one level. He had no idea that he was a member of a group looking for paranormal beings – and that he just happened to be dating one.

  I felt like a coward for not telling him. Part of me wanted to spill the beans, but I was afraid. It wasn’t that I feared he would tell our boss, Chris Biggs, what I was. That’s not how Jack rolled. He would never share my secret. He would, however, look at me differently. Of that I had no doubt.

  I didn’t want to change the way he looked at me. His gaze often made me go weak in the knees ... as did his smile. He might never smile at me again in that manner if I told him. And yet, I knew it was a necessity. There was no moving forward unless he knew about my past.

  When I first joined the Legacy Foundation, I didn’t think I wanted any attachments. I volunteered to join the group for very little money because I was curious about myself. My parents disappeared when I was a kid. I had only vague memories of them — and even those were shrouded in doubt because I didn’t know if they were true or fragments of dreams — and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember why they’d abandoned me the way they did. I had a lot of questions and almost no answers. That’s why I joined the Legacy Foundation.

/>   The plan was to learn what I could and then disappear without anyone being the wiser. I thought there was a possibility I could’ve hidden among them forever without them figuring out what I was. That idea fell by the wayside when we were looking for the Chupacabra in Texas. I saw it — although almost nobody believed me — and I had to use my magic to save two of my co-workers. One of those individuals was my boss. He was out cold at the time and remembered nothing of my display. The woman, though, was a different story.

  Millie Watson, Chris’s aunt, was a mix between Lucy Ricardo and Rambo. She was tough as nails and loyal to a fault. She also wasn’t an idiot, which is something she repeatedly told me when I tried to deny what she saw. Two killers gave chase that night and I managed to take both of them out. I needed help, though, which is where my magic came in.

  Millie promised not to share my secret. I believed her. She was cool that way. She would never blab secrets out of class. Still, the fact that she knew made me vulnerable. There was every chance she might accidentally say something that could be overheard by others. Or, worse. Millie liked to visit bars on every outing. I lived in constant fear that she might one night drink too much and not realize what she was saying.

  The fact that Millie knew and Jack didn’t wasn’t another worry. Jack would have to find out, and not simply because he was also technically my boss and head of security. I cared about him a great deal. He made my heart flutter as if I was a silly school girl and he’d offered to carry my books. We would be stuck in a holding pattern if I didn’t tell him, never moving forward because I was holding back. I recognized that. It was another fear I lived with daily. I had to tell him. I couldn’t fight the urge much longer.

  After that, things might be worse. How would he look at me once he knew I was a freak of nature? Jack tended to land on the side of pragmatism when we worked a case. He always looked for the real-world explanation. When we were looking for Bigfoot, he was convinced it was a human in the woods. When we were looking for the Chupacabra, he was convinced it was a human in the woods. Hmm, now that I think about it, when we were looking for a werewolf, he also thought it was a human in the woods. All those times, the murderer turned out to be a human in the woods. I really had seen the Chupacabra, though. Right before I passed out after falling down the stairs, I saw it. I also saw witches cast spells and a man shift into a wolf. The others in my group weren’t that lucky. They didn’t know what I knew ... another doubt plaguing me.

  I often felt as if I was treading shark-infested waters, no boat in sight. Was there a way out of this? Could I figure out a way to tell Jack and not lose him? The notion of the stalwart security guru walking away right after I made myself vulnerable was the stuff of nightmares.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Jack murmured as he slipped his arm around my waist and drew me to him, his lips busy on my forehead as he brushed a series of kisses against my furrowed brow.

  “Nothing is wrong.” I forced myself to be bright and happy. “I’m just thinking about how sore I’ll be later from moving that couch.”

  “I’ll give you a massage.” There was nothing sexy about the way he said the words and yet we both blushed when meeting the other’s steady gaze. We were at that weird part of the relationship where we were spending tons of time together — almost every moment we could when not at work — and yet we hadn’t rolled into bed together.

  Oh, we’d shared a bed multiple times. We’d even done it while on cases. We’d just never shared everything else. At first, I didn’t think much of it because I figured it would happen at the exact right moment. The more things dragged out, though, it became apparent that we were going to have to create the moment. Jack was too much of a gentleman to make a move. That left me, and I was dead clumsy when it came to taking the first step on the romantic front.

  “I still don’t know how I ended up with a second-floor apartment without having to pay more,” I mused, opting to focus on safer conversation. “When I first looked at renting here, second-floor apartments were two-hundred dollars more a month.”

  “Maybe the landlord likes you.”

  “Maybe.” I didn’t believe that for a second. “Or maybe something else is going on.”

  “Like what?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe he heard I work for an important monster-hunting group and he’s an elf or something. He might want to get on my good side so I don’t start digging into his background.”

  Jack let loose a snort. “He’s got a beer belly big enough to balance a pizza box on. I very much doubt he’s an elf.”

  “You don’t know. Just because Lord of the Rings told us elves look like Orlando Bloom that doesn’t mean that Danny DeVito isn’t the real deal.”

  “Oh, what a picture you draw in my head.” He snuffled as he moved his nose to my neck. “You smell good. What is that?”

  “Sweat. We just moved a couch up the stairs.”

  “No. There’s something else. You smell like clementines or something.”

  “Oh. I got a new perfume.”

  “I like it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He moved his mouth to mine and gave me a soft kiss. We were getting more and more comfortable around one another. That was a good thing. Unfortunately, every outing hit a wall. We made out until our lips were ready to bleed, but neither of us was brave enough to take things one step further. I had no doubt today would end the same way. I had every intention of enjoying it until that happened, though.

  “Did we get everything out of the apartment?” I asked on a gasp as we separated for air.

  “We did.” He kissed me again. “The couch was the last thing. We double-checked because we were looking for an excuse to put off moving the couch.”

  I vaguely remembered that. “Right.”

  He pulled back and stared into my eyes, something unsaid flitting through his inquisitive blue orbs. “What are you thinking, Charlie?”

  The question caught me off guard even though he often asked it. I thought questions like that were supposed to be asked by women. That’s what pop culture and movies taught me anyway. He always seemed to be searching for an answer, as if he wanted to crawl inside my head and look around.

  “I’m thinking that ... we should get pizza.”

  He made a face. “That’s not what you were thinking.”

  He wasn’t wrong. That didn’t mean I could tell him what I was thinking. It would ruin our day, and I had no intention of doing that. It had been perfect from start to finish.

  “I was thinking that you’re really pretty.” I uttered it on a sigh as I touched his silky hair. “You’re so pretty it makes my heart skip a beat sometimes.”

  He arched an eyebrow, surprised. “That is a very ... weird thing to say.”

  I laughed. “I can’t help it. Have you looked at yourself? You could be an elf. One of the Orlando Bloom ones.”

  “Ah, well, at least I’m getting thrown in with the higher order of elves.” His smile was mischievous. “You could be an elf, too. One of those in the Will Ferrell movie. They’re my favorite.”

  I snickered as I elbowed him. “Why does that feel like an insult?”

  “It shouldn’t. They really are my favorite.” He playfully wrestled with me, laughing when I squirmed. “I want to put you in one of those hats ... and the curved shoes. Oh, I wonder if they make a little outfit we can buy. How awesome would that be?”

  “You’re such a pervert. I’m not wearing one of those outfits. You’ll just have to get used to me naked.”

  The sexual tension hung heavy over the room and it was far too late to take it back when I realized what I said.

  “Oh, um ... .”

  “Shh.” Jack pursed his lips and leaned closer, his breath hot on my mouth as he stopped his lips from touching mine.

  I felt ridiculous. He was close enough to kiss and yet we weren’t kissing. We also weren’t talking. We were simply staring.

  “What are you doing?” I was breathless.

&nb
sp; “Shh,” he repeated.

  “Jack ... .”

  “You just can’t stay quiet for five minutes, can you?” His lips curved up as he shook his head. “I think it might be physically impossible for you to be quiet for more than five minutes.”

  “That shows what you know. I’m quiet for hours on end every night when I sleep.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He frowned when his phone started dinging in his pocket. “Oh, man.” He was rueful when he pulled away from me. “This had better be good. Hanson.” He barked out his name when he answered, his fingers automatically going to mine so they could dance as we waited for the conversation to end. The look on Jack’s face as he straightened on the couch told me that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’ve got it,” Jack said after a few minutes of listening. “No, you don’t have to call Charlie. She’s with me. We’ll meet you at the plane in an hour.”

  He sighed as he disconnected and looked at me. “I guess that’s an end to our day. We have an assignment.”

  “At least we managed to move everything before the call came in.”

  “Yeah.” He leaned over and gave me another kiss, this one short and sweet. “Pack your bags for a warm climate. It’s hot where we’re going.”

  “Oh, yeah?” My mind was already on the trip. “Where is that?”

  “New Orleans.”

  “I’ve always wanted to go there. How cool. What creature are we chasing? Please tell me it’s a vampire.”

  Jack smirked. “It’s not a vampire. But you’re close.”

  “What’s close to a vampire?”