shoulder, and Grace was sure she was going down, but something—or someone—caught her and settled her on her feet.
“You bitch!” James turned his ire on Grace as he reached for her, his eyes red and wild with anger. “No one interferes with me and my wife. No one. Got it?”
Fear and sheer determination coiled in her gut, and before she even knew what she was doing, Grace launched herself at him, her hands outstretched. But before she could grasp onto him, the spirits of the house picked him up and threw him across the room. Grace stumbled and fell to one knee while the man hit the wall, hung there for a few seconds and then slid to the floor. He fell in a heap, knocked out cold.
Silence filled the space, and all Grace heard was the rush of blood in her ears. Had she really gone after Gigi’s husband? What had she been planning to do, scratch his eyes out? Hex him with an STD? Cause an acne breakout all over his body? She had no idea, but one thing was for sure; she wasn’t going to stand around and let him abuse his wife. Not on her watch.
“Thank you, ladies,” Gigi said, sounding a lot less shaken than Grace felt.
Grace got to her feet and cleared her throat. “Are you all right?” she asked Gigi.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “Thanks for that. I was just so stunned my fight or flight reflex got stuck and turned me into a deer in the headlights.”
“You’re welcome, but I think it’s the Hannigan sisters you should be thanking,” Grace said, annoyed that her voice was shaking.
The two ghosts appeared briefly and then vanished again. Likely they’d used up most of their energy and were running on fumes.
Grace fished her phone out of her pocket and called 911. Once the first responders were on their way, she slipped her hand into Gigi’s. “Come on. Let’s get Vince and get out of here before he wakes up.”
Gigi glanced at Vince and winced. He was sitting upright now, holding his head in his hands. “Vince, are you okay to stand up?”
“I think so.” The pair of them helped the other Realtor to his feet, and then the three of them left the house to wait outside.
Gigi sat next to Vince on the porch steps. No one said anything for a few moments. Then Gigi turned to Vince and said, “I’m gonna need you to print that contract again.”
He blinked at her. “Are you sure? What about James? If he’s going to make trouble for you, it might be in your best interest to wait a bit.”
As much as Grace wanted Gigi to have the house, she had to agree with Vince. If Gigi ended up pressing charges against her husband or filing for divorce, a new real estate purchase was just a complication she didn’t need.
“He doesn’t have any say in this,” Gigi said, her expression made of steel. “My family trust is purchasing this place. James doesn’t have any rights to that money or any of its holdings. I want this house, Vince. It doesn’t matter what he wants. Besides, after that nightmare in there, once our family lawyer gets ahold of him, what property I purchase will be the least of his worries.”
“All right,” Vince said quietly. “I can email you the electronic forms if you want.”
“Now that the jackass ruined my signing ritual, I think that’s fine. I don’t want to wait.”
So while they sat on the porch and waited for the police to arrive, Vince pulled out his phone and send her e-docs to sign. A few minutes later, Grace had the offer in her inbox.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Lex?” Grace called from the kitchen. She stared at the turnovers her niece had prepared for her and frowned. They hadn’t been baked yet, and Grace didn’t have the first clue what temperature to use or how long they needed to be in the oven. “What am I supposed to do with these pastries?”
“I left the instructions on the note on the fridge,” she called back.
“Right.” Grace walked over to the refrigerator and scanned the directions. Twenty-five minutes at four hundred degrees. She could handle that. “What about the glaze?”
Footsteps sounded on the tiled kitchen floor, announcing Lex’s arrival. “No glaze, remember? I already brushed them with egg and sprinkled the powdered sugar on them, so you won’t have to worry about that. Just put them in the oven when you sit down to eat,