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Chapter One

Jonah

“Not afraid of ghosts, are ya?” My boss, Alden, asked me, with a sparkle of amusement in his eye. We were sitting across from each other at Equinox Protective Group HQ. I was here for my next assignment and did not like the look on his face.

“Not last time I checked.”

He nodded. “You’ll need that for this.” He tapped the folder in front of him with his finger but made no move to hand it to me.

“What is it?” I wasn’t a patient man and normally Alden was all business.

He sighed and ran a hand over his beard. “It’s a weird one. There’s a historic cemetery that was rediscovered in the woods outside of town. And when I say rediscovered, I mean by social media.”

“Okay…”

“There’s a paranormal influencer by the name of Paxton Mercer, aka Midnight Mercer, who has been making content about the site. One of the gravestones has no name on it. He is spinning it as a conflict from beyond the grave.” He waved his fingers around as he said the last part.

I cocked an eyebrow. “Seriously? Wait, don’t tell me I have to guard this guy?” I hated social media at the best of times, or anything social, really.

Alden shook his head. “The county has barred Mr. Mercer from accessing the site, but that doesn’t mean he or some of his followers won’t try. So you aren’t guarding him, you’re guarding the cemetery from him and anyone else planning to exploit the place.”

I huffed out a breath. “I have years of training, martial arts, weapons, disaster response, cyber security, all that so I can do the job of a decent security camera?”

“A descendant of the people buried there has deep pockets and wants a person on site to guard the place for the two weeks until Halloween. We’re not in a position to turn down work, Jonah. Woodbridge Falls is only so big, not sure if you noticed.”

I had noticed.

It was one of the reasons I lived here. After growing up in a place where people assumed I was trouble just because I was a Wilder, I’d moved here so I could make a name for myself from scratch. Even so, I lived in a cabin in the mountains rather than near all the shops downtown.

“Fine, whatever. I’ll do it.” I snatched the file from the table and pushed out of my seat.

“Grab Scooby and the gang, the job starts tonight,” he called after me and I gave him the finger over my shoulder.

“Cemetery guard duty,” I mumbled as I left HQ and headed to my truck.

Brown and orange leaves swirled around my boots as I climbed inside. I cracked open the file as the engine warmed. Normally there were pages of names, places, details, and things to research.

This file was only two pages.

Two.

Page one had dates and hours of the assignment, a satellite image of the area and the name of the guy paying the bill. Page two was a picture, name, DOB and social media handle of the guy who wasn’t welcome.

That was it.

Should be an easy job if nothing else.

No ulterior motives or unexpected dangers. Just me freezing my ass off in New York in October staring at a row of gravestones.

I didn’t have to start my shift of doing fuck all for another hour so I headed to my cabin to gather everything I’d need.

Bullet-proof vest? Nope.

Gun? Doubt it.

Sanity? Definitely not.

Instead, I made a stack of sandwiches and shoved them into a bag along with gloves, a toque, and my biggest thermos of coffee. I grabbed my warmest flannel and then I was out the door.