by R. L. Naquin
“I know they are.” He was a good guy. I’d seen it in how he talked to his frightened employees. And now that I thought about it, I realized he’d completely turned his fear off as soon as he’d realized there was something going on. “Hey. I have a question.”
“Sure.”
“When I first saw you, you were stomping around with your fear glands running, making everybody afraid. I saw how it affected Jackie. And I felt it, too.”
“Ah. Well, I leak a little fear sometimes when I sense people are slacking off. It keeps them in line.”
“That’s fair, I guess. You are the boss.” I hesitated a moment, not sure how he would take it, then went for it. I threw my arms around him and hugged him hard. “Thanks for everything.” Darius would have given me hell for hugging him, but Brody was more approachable, despite his tendency to scare his employees on purpose.
He returned the hug, squeezing me tightly. “Thank you, too.”
I let him go and grabbed my purse. “We’ll figure this out, Brody. I promise.”
Chapter Ten
We dragged ourselves back to the boarding house and up the stairs to our rooms. I couldn’t gather the energy for a shower, no matter how much it might have revived me. Ash called dibs on it, and Tahm gave her a tired thumbs-up and disappeared into his own room. Snores reverberated from behind his door before Ash and I had managed to open our own doors.
“Damn. That was impressive.” Ash stepped into her room and turned on the light.
“I didn’t know he snored like that.” I made a face and went into my own room.
We had a little over an hour until dinner. All I wanted to do was lie on the bed and regroup. If I dozed a little, great. But all I needed was a little quiet and time for my brain to recharge.
Winky McEyeball had other plans.
He appeared directly over my head, the same way he had the first time I’d seen him.
I groaned. “Oh, come on. Really? I’m so worn out. Can’t we do this another time?”
A second eye appeared beside the first on the other side of the nose. Both cheeks filled in, a second ear and a full head of strawberry-blond hair. His jawline appeared around his mouth and went down as far as his Adam’s apple before it stopped.
“Well, hey, handsome. I can finally see your whole face.”
He smiled at me and blew me a kiss.
I squinted and tilted my head. “You look kind of familiar. Have we met?”
He shook his head no, paused, then winked.
“Okay. Well, do you mind if I take your picture?”
Again, he smiled and shook his head no. He didn’t mind.
I pulled my phone from my purse and brought up the camera. “Say cheese!”
I took several photos, some with the flash on and some with it off. I wasn’t a great photographer, so I wasn’t sure which would be better for taking a picture of someone who was translucent. In the end, the flash pictures were useless, because they washed him out. The best ones went off to Art with a quick text message:
I have a new friend following me around. Any idea who he is?
“So.” I dropped the phone beside me on the bed. “Are you here to warn me of impending doom and gloom?”
He shook his head.
“Someone’s after you and you need a place to hide?”
No.
My chest felt warm, and I rubbed it through my shirt with my palm.
“I’ve won a huge cash prize and you’re here to give me a giant check?”
He rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to answer. My chest burned, and smoke rose from the smoldering fabric of my shirt. It didn’t hurt, since fire was part of my make-up, but the spreading scorch marks on the front of my shirt were alarming.
“What the hell?” I yanked my soul-stone pendant out from under my clothing. It glowed, as if made of molten metal. I worried for the custom scarab beetle that housed it and blew on the stone, as if that might cool it down.
Within seconds, the glow dulled and the heat dissipated. I dropped it on top of the scorch marks it had made and blinked at the floating head above me.
He flashed me a cheesy grin.
“Did you see that?”
He nodded.
“Did you do that?”
Yes.
“Oh my gods.” I knew who he was even as my phone buzzed with Art’s message confirming it. “Poor Dead Pete?”
He frowned, then gave me a slow nod.
I clapped my hands and hopped off the bed. “Fantastic! Now you really are part of the team.”
Pete had been the reaper who’d picked up all the escaped souls we were trying to collect. Or re-collect. Except for Wendy, of course. That one had been ours to collect, and we’d blown it. With Pete on the team, he’d be able to give us valuable information about the souls we needed to catch.
That was, of course, if he managed to fully manifest and gain the ability to talk. I was terrible at twenty questions.
I checked my phone to see what Art had to say. He’d recognized Pete immediately, and asked me to find out if Pete needed a psychic sent down to help him communicate. When I looked up to ask, Pete was gone.
The soul stone was cold to the touch now. I stroked it with one finger and hoped Pete could hear me from inside. “We’re going to do whatever we can to help, buddy.”
A flash of golden light from deep inside the black stone streaked across the surface in response. Pete was listening. And I was pretty sure he wanted to help us as much as I wanted to help him.
* * *
I hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but it had been a long day, and the floating head in my room must have taken the last of my reserves. When I woke, it was dark outside. The lamp beside my bed was on with a cloth draped over it to keep it from being too bright. A tray of food sat beside the lamp with a note from Ash. All she’d written was her name and a smiley face.
Picking that girl up on the side of the road was the best thing I’d ever done. I was starving.
As I wolfed down the ham sandwich and potato salad she’d left for me, I checked the time and the messages on my phone. To my surprise, it was nearly ten o’clock. I flipped through my messages while I chewed. Most of them were from Art wanting updates on the investigation, on the replacement of the OGRE squad, on Poor Dead Pete. While I’d slept, Art had lost a little bit of his mind, apparently.
I texted answers to all his questions and finished my late, late dinner. When I stepped into the hall to cross to the bathroom, voices drifted up the stairs. A lot of voices. I’d forgotten the nightly poker game. Judging by the lack of snoring coming from Tahm’s room, he hadn’t.
After a quick trip into the bathroom to pull myself together and look less like I’d been mostly dead for the last several hours, I grabbed my empty food tray and ventured down the stairs.
To get to the kitchen, I had to go past the dining room. This, it turned out, was where much of the excitement was coming from. I’d been expecting poker, but I was wrong. It was Dungeons & Dragons night.
Miss Angelica sat at the head of the table, wearing a pink plastic tiara. Purple rhinestones jiggled from cheap gold-tone chains each time she moved her head. Which she did a lot. With feeling. From the neck down, she and the items in front of her on the table were hidden behind a piece of cardboard adorned in lace and glitter. The side facing everyone was emblazoned with gold letters that said Dungeon Mistress.
“You enter the Catacombs of Sorrow. You’ve arrived late for your shift. Drones all around you are hard at work. You see a blinking light in an alcove with your name printed above it on a piece of paper. What do you do?” Her eyes were wide and expressive, thoroughly immersed in the part.
The dwarf, Douglas, smoothed his beard and eyed the table. “I sit down in my cubicle and take a call.”
Miss Angelica smirked. “Roll fo
r intelligence.”
Doug frowned. “It’s just a telephone. How hard can it be to take a call?” He threw three six-sided, purple dice. They rolled and came to a stop, showing two ones and a two for a total of four. He looked at the gargoyle hopefully.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. You failed to remember the code to log into your phone. The other drones around you have noticed that you haven’t been working. They’re taking off their headsets. You are no longer wearing pants.”
Doug sucked in a breath. He leaned toward Tahm, and they spoke in whispers before he turned back to the board. “I wake up from the horrible dream and rejoin my party at the DMV.”
“What will you bid for a second roll in the scenario?” Miss Angelica’s face had an eerie, uplit effect to it that I suspected was a candle or a flashlight placed on the table for atmospheric effect.
A pile of cash I hadn’t noticed sat at Doug’s elbow. He flipped through the bills, doing a quick count, then slid a few from the pile to drop on the middle of the table. “Two hundred dollars.”
My stomach did a little flip. They were playing Dungeons & Dragons for money. A lot of money. What the hell was Tahm thinking?
“I see his two and tip the customary fifteen percent.” Tahm tossed a handful of bills into the center.
Across from Tahm, the elf sisters whispered to each other, then each dropped money into the heap.
“I believe a customary tip for good service is twenty percent, though.” Eliza flipped a braid over her shoulder, and she and Nessa each dropped an additional ten into the pot.
Doug grunted. He and Tahm matched the bid.
For some odd reason, no one seemed to care what order they went in. The leprechauns were last to bid. Buzz sat at the end of the table opposite Miss Angelica, and Finn sat across from Doug. They exchanged a glance with each other, shrugged, then met the current bid.
Miss Angelica gathered the bills in a neat pile, counted them, then smiled. “Fourteen hundred and forty is the bid. You may now roll for intelligence to wake and rejoin your party. Eight or less, and the house takes the pot. Nine or greater, the pot remains untouched. Roll a Sweet Sixteen, and the house doubles the bid.”
Tahm patted Doug on the shoulder. “You can do it, buddy. We believe in you.”
Doug clutched the three dice in his chubby hand, rattling them together so long I thought he’d lose his nerve. He glanced up and saw me watching from the doorway and stopped. “Just what we need. Will you be so kind as to blow a little luck our way?” He held his arm out toward me with the dice cupped in his palm.
I’d tried to work as a dealer once in Vegas. They’d said I was too chatty and had fired me. But I’d been there long enough to know what Doug wanted me to do. I crossed to the other side of the table, bent low and blew on the dice for him. When I straightened, my gaze crossed with Tahm’s. I was fairly certain he saw the disapproval I was projecting.
If not, he was an idiot.
Doug shook his fist and sent the dice flying. They spun across the table. Two sixes and a three. Fifteen.
“Oh, so close.” Miss Angelica chuckled. “Well, at least you’re out of the dream. You wake up in a chair at the Department of Motor Vehicles surrounded by your party.”
Doug let out a sigh of relief and sat back in his chair. “Thank the gods. Somebody else is up.”
Miss Angelica raised a giant silver six-sided die with both hands. She tossed it in the air and let it roll. “Three. That’s you, Finn. The tired clerk calls your number to approach the desk.”
I had no idea what the hell kind of Dungeons & Dragons this was, but it was incredibly dull, with the exception of tossing away large chunks of money. “What campaign are you guys playing? I haven’t played a lot, but this isn’t anything like any Dungeons & Dragons game I’ve ever seen.”
Buzz chuckled. “We’re playing Desktops & Dystopia. Care to join us? It’s a little late for you to come in as a new character, but you can be my partner.” He used his foot to drag a nearby chair close to his, practically touching. “Have a seat, sweetness.” His leer was about as off-putting as a lint-covered mint from the bottom of my purse.
“I’ll pass. Thanks.” I lifted the tray I was holding. “I just came through to drop this off in the kitchen.”
He shrugged, as if he didn’t care, then winked and rubbed the seat of the chair. “If you’re sure.”
I tried not to gag. “I’m sure.” I bolted for the kitchen and, once I’d deposited the tray on the counter, flew through the dining room to the stairs without glancing around. I was grumpy. When that happened, I tended to set fire to repulsive men like Buzz. And the only thing I could think of more boring than going to the DMV was watching a table full of people pretend to be at the DMV.
Sometimes people were too weird, even for me.
* * *
Breakfast was another uncomfortable, awkward twenty minutes of rushed bites and a lack of eye contact between people. The leprechauns, especially, kept their heads down and wouldn’t look at either me or Tahm, which I found more disconcerting than the previous night’s leering.
Doug hadn’t come down for breakfast, and I hadn’t seen any of the small people since my first night there. Kelli sat at the end of the table with her fingers sunk into a bowl of dirt and tiny beetles.
The elf sisters were the only ones from the night before who didn’t look uncomfortable. They ate their morning bowls of fruit and smiled at the rest of the table without speaking.
I wiped my mouth and replaced my napkin on my lap. “So, how did the campaign go last night?”
Finn coughed as he took a sip of coffee. “It was...unsuccessful this week.”
My head swung around to glare at Tahm. “You lost?”
He gave a short nod. “I’ll get it back tonight playing poker.”
“The hell you will.” I stopped. It didn’t matter that I was his boss. I didn’t have the authority to tell him what to do with his money.
If I were his future wife, maybe I’d have a little more say in it. But I wasn’t prepared to accept that role quite yet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tahm’s brows drew together and his chest puffed out.
I drained my juice glass and dropped my napkin on the table. “Never mind.” I held my hand up with my palm toward him. “Forget I said anything.”
Ash folded her napkin and set it beside her plate. “Thank you for breakfast, Miss Angelica. The eggs were amazing.” She came around the table and looped her arm through mine. “How about we go to our rooms for a bit?” She tugged me away from the table and up the stairs. We went into my room and she closed the door. “What is your deal?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Why are you so obsessed with Tahm’s spending habits?” She sat on the edge of my bed and drew one leg under her.
I threw my arms up in the air. “I don’t know. I was trying to figure that out myself when you dragged me away from breakfast.”
She grimaced. “You didn’t want to finish anyway. I didn’t tell Miss Angelica the eggs were good. ‘Amazing’ can mean a lot of things.”
She wasn’t lying. Mine had been gritty with what I suspected was bits of eggshell. “Why is a guy so intent on honor and rules gambling away his money? It doesn’t make any damn sense.”
“Everybody has flaws, Kam.”
“He snores. That was supposed to be his flaw. It’s kind of cute and endearing.” I ran my hands through my hair and paced across the wooden floor. I stopped at the dresser and rummaged in the top drawer in my small jewelry box for my gold hairpins. My hair was adding to my irritability and needed to be pinned up. “What if he has a gambling addiction? What if, down the line sometime, I actually do marry the guy? What happens when I can’t buy groceries because he bet on the wrong horse?” My pace picked up. “What if we have kids and he never makes it to their big game bec
ause he’s at another poker tournament? What happens when I come home and the locks on my doors are all changed because the bank foreclosed on it?” I slammed the dresser drawer shut. “And now I can’t find my hairpins.”
Ash’s eyes grew large. “Wow. Kam, you’ve got to chill. You’re blowing this all out of proportion. You don’t even know if he lost very much. Or how much he had in the first place. Plus, you know, I hate to bring it up, but you refused to marry him.”
I dropped into the chair against the wall. “I refused to marry him right now. In the end, I probably won’t have a choice.” I closed my eyes and felt the gritty eggs I’d eaten ball up in my stomach, making me queasy. Marriage was inevitable in the end. I couldn’t run forever.
She snorted. “Then you need to get a grip. If it turns out he’s got a problem, help him with it.” She paused and narrowed her eyes. “And quit acting like you’re not in love with him. Not with me, anyway. I know different.”
I opened my mouth to respond and clamped it shut when my phone rang. I tried not to look relieved while I answered it. “Hello?”
“Kam. It’s Tyrell. I’m at the office. Can you come down here? We may have a break in the case.”
I gave Ash a thumbs-up. “We’re on our way.”
Chapter Eleven
The sushi restaurant was hours from being open, but several cars were already lined up in its parking lot.
“How is this a good cover for the OGRE offices? Don’t people wonder why there’s so much traffic going in and out of the sushi place before nine in the morning?” I asked.
Tahm climbed out of the truck. “Maybe they assume it’s all fish delivery.”
Ash got out behind him. She held the clunky manual from when we’d been in training. “There’s probably an anti-fascinate on it. They do that to make people look away.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “I had no idea there was a name for that. Or that its use was so common.”