“You came to make a deal with me?” he said, interest clouding his eyes.
I nodded.
“Come in.” He held open the door as Piper and I went inside, both of us sticking very close together.
In his office, he sat in a massive black chair behind a desk that was completely bare, and my eye caught a few shards of broken glass lying on the rug beneath it. It made me wonder what happened and if it had anything to do with Olly.
The Reaper steepled his fingers beneath his chin and pinned me with a cold stare. “What’s the deal?”
I swallowed, not really believing what I was about to do. Yet I’d seen too much to simply ignore or deny anything that had happened recently. I could no longer just tell myself there was a way out of this that didn’t require anyone to die. In the world of the Reaper, death was king. Death was the be all and end all of everything.
If there was one thing I learned through all of this, it was that death wasn’t fair. No one wanted to die. No one wanted to simply cease to exist.
Yet there wasn’t a choice.
At least not for me.
“If I kill the Target for Charming, will you consider the job complete?”
Beside me, Piper gasped. “Frankie! Do you know what you’re saying? You want to kill someone?”
No, I didn’t. Killing Rosalyn was the very last thing I wanted to do. But it was her or Olly. I suppose it was selfish to choose Olly because I wasn’t just doing it for him. I was doing it for me too because I couldn’t fathom living in a world that he wasn’t in.
“You—a human—want to take on the duties of a Death Escort?” the Reaper asked.
“Not all the duties. One kill. One Target. I kill her for you, and you agree to let Charming go.”
He sighed. “I really did want to Recall him. However, this is just too fun to pass up.”
So he was going to accept. And I was going to agree to murder.
“But first, let’s see what Charming has to say about this.”
“No!” I said, not wanting him involved. I already knew what he would say to this. But it was too late. He wasn’t going to stop me.
“Send him in!” the Reaper yelled and the door opened and Olly was thrust into the room. He stumbled a bit, like he was out of it, but when he saw me his eyes widened and cleared. He had a gash on his temple, one that was red and swollen.
“Frankie?” He looked at the Reaper. “I told you to stay away from her!”
“Apparently you forgot to tell her the same. She came to me.”
He looked at me like I was insane and rushed across the room to grab me by the shoulders and give me a hard shake. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking it was about time someone fought for you.”
Something behind his eyes shifted. His hard grasp on my arms gentled. “Frankie—”
The Reaper interrupted whatever he was going to say.
“Your lady here has offered me a deal.”
Olly’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “No.”
“She has agreed to kill your Target in exchange for me not Recalling you.”
“No.”
“I was just as shocked as you.” The Reaper went on. He was totally enjoying torturing Olly. “But it made me realize perhaps I was being too harsh. You are, after all, the best Escort I have. I thought maybe you were losing your touch. But this is the first time you’ve ever charmed anyone into killing for you.”
“She’s not killing anyone!” Olly ground out. He grabbed me again. “You are not doing this.”
“Ah, but she’s already agreed.”
I looked at Olly and nodded. Anguish filled his eyes. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Just Recall me!” he burst out, turning toward the Reaper, stepping up in front of me. “Recall me right now.”
“No!” I cried, pulling Olly back.
“As tempting as that offer is, I’m going to have to pass. It’s clear the best way to punish you for everything you’ve done is by letting her sacrifice herself for you.”
His shoulders slumped. That single gesture did more to me than any denial he could have made with his lips. “Frankie,” he whispered, hoarse.
“So, then. We have a deal?” The Reaper looked at me with glee in his eyes. “You will kill the Target and I will agree to let Charming live.”
Olly looked at me, a plea in his eyes. I looked away. “Yes.”
And so it was done.
I just hoped Olly could forgive me for what I was doing.
I also hoped I would be able to forgive myself.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“Hotwire - to start the engine (an automobile, for example) without a key by short-circuiting the ignition system.”
Charming
She made a deal with the Grim Reaper. After everything I’d done to keep her away from this, to keep her safe.
She freaking comes here to his house and makes a deal.
Was it really too much to ask for a guy to be allowed to protect the woman he loves without her going and ruining it all?
When I got out of here, I was going to kill her. G.R. would be the least of her worries.
And I was getting out of here.
All I needed was for the opportunity to present itself.
It took forever. I waited hours, keyed up and pacing the room. The longer I waited the more afraid I became that I was going to be too late to stop her. If she killed someone for me, I would never forgive myself.
I knew what it was like to carry around guilt like that. I carried it around longer than Frankie had been alive. All these years… all these years I thought my sister killed herself because of me. Because I killed the man she loved. But she didn’t kill herself.
She was murdered, by my boss, in an attempt to control me. And then he stuffed her body in a secret closet in case he ever needed to control me again.
The worst part was it worked. He managed to turn me into a cold-hearted killing machine. Whatever he saw in me when I was in that ring, he’d been right because with a little manipulation, I turned into exactly what he wanted.
I was done being manipulated and controlled by him. I wasn’t a puppet whose strings could be pulled for a desired effect. My sister was gone… and while I realized I wasn’t directly responsible for her death, I was still involved. If I hadn’t taken the job as an Escort, the Reaper never would have killed her. There was nothing I could do for my sister now, but Frankie was here. I could actually save her. History didn’t have to repeat itself.
I heard footsteps drawing closer so I put my back up against the wall, the same wall with the door.
Seconds later the door cracked open.
Someone swore. “He’s not in here.”
“What! How the hell did he get out this time? Let me see.” The door swung all the way open and one of the newer Escorts stepped inside.
I rushed him from behind, taking him by surprise and putting him into a headlock and ramming him straight into the wall. He fell out of my grip, unconscious.
“That’s for earlier,” I spat, reaching up to finger the knot where they hit me with the gun and then turned to leave.
Stooge #2 was waiting. I used all the anger and frustration built up inside me to power out a burst of pure energy, which struck the man and sent him back out into the hallway, slamming him into the wall.
I made it through the house in seconds and out into the driveway. I planned on running, but as I passed by his BMW Roadster, I changed my mind. Using the heel of my foot, I kicked out the driver-side window and let myself in.
Hotwiring it didn’t take me very long. Ninety years of practice made a guy pretty good at getting a car to go when you wanted it to.
G.R. rushed out into the driveway as I sped away. In his car. Before I pulled out onto the street, I stuck my hand out the window and gave him the finger.
Chapter Fifty
“Gun - a weapon
consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at high velocity into a relatively flat trajectory.”
Frankie
I called Rosalyn to see if she was back in town, remembering that Olly told me she had to go away on business. She was just arriving back—her trip being cut short by a few cancelled meetings. I told myself her cancellation was good luck for me. Then I told myself it was wrong to have good luck when you were trying to murder someone.
I lied and told her Charming was still out of town and that he felt guilty about leaving her to do all the work and he asked me to step in and help plan the fundraiser. We agreed to meet at her house tomorrow for lunch where we could tackle what remained on her to-do list.
I was basically a basket full of nerves.
The moment I left the Reaper’s house, the reality of what I agreed to do sank in.
How was I going to do this? How was I going to look someone I considered a friend in the eye and then rob them of their future? The weight of it was crippling. How did Olly live with this weight? How did he live knowing he took countless lives?
He turned it off.
He turned off his emotions—his humanity. That’s how he survived all these years. His cold exterior when we first met made so much more sense now.
“What the hell happened in there?” Storm said as we drove toward my apartment.
I didn’t answer. All I could do was stare out the windshield, like I was on autopilot and going through the motions of driving the car.
I heard Piper explaining. I heard him exclaiming about how messed up it was. But I tuned them out. I didn’t need to hear how messed up it was. I already knew.
It’s true I had a choice here.
I could have walked away. I could have let Olly figure this out himself.
But he wouldn’t have walked away from me.
I knew what I was doing was wrong. But I was going to do it anyway.
I didn’t know what time it was when we walked into my apartment. It was very late and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.
But I couldn’t. I lay there and stared at the ceiling, contemplating things I never contemplated before. Like how to execute a murder.
I thought about all the movies I watched where there was a killer on the loose. I thought about all the crime shows on TV I never watched because it was too gruesome to bear. I was no shrinking violet, but there were some things not even the strongest of people should have to endure.
I heard Storm and Piper whispering out in the living room, but I didn’t bother to join their conversation. Piper had been relentless in trying to make me see I couldn’t do this.
I asked her what she would have done if it were Dex.
She didn’t say anything else after that.
It didn’t matter anyway. I made a deal. I made a deal with the Grim Reaper. There was no going back. If I didn’t do this, Olly would get Recalled and I would get killed. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to feel like a victim because the only real victim here was Rosalyn.
After a while I fell asleep, but it was fitful and I woke feeling more tired than when I lay down.
Piper and Storm were already in the kitchen when I surfaced for some coffee. Piper stared at me as I poured a mug full of the stuff, black, and took a big gulp.
I pinned her with a stare over the rim of the mug. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
She nodded.
We didn’t talk after that. I basically stared at the clock and counted the minutes until finally dragging myself off to shower and get dressed.
When it was time to go, I stared down at the gun that Charming had given me. If he had known what I would end up doing with it, he never would have given it to me. But it was the only way I knew to do this. It would be quick and hopefully relatively painless. I didn’t think I had it in me to do it any other way.
I picked up the gun and shoved it into my bag.
Piper was standing beside the couch when I went to the door. She couldn’t come with me. I had to do this alone.
And then I left. I didn’t look back.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Deal - to do business; trade.”
Charming
Please don’t let me be too late.
It was the mantra that repeated over and over again in my head the entire way to Frankie’s apartment. I knew I didn’t have long, that G.R. would be coming for me yet again, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going back into confinement.
Confinement was stupid.
Besides, I tried it twice, all in the name of keeping Frankie out of this mess, and that worked about as well as using leaves for toilet paper.
There was no way in hell I was going to let her kill someone for me. That kind of thing would ruin her life. The guilt would swallow her whole until she was just a mere shell of herself.
I illegally parked the stolen Roadster and ran as fast as I could up to her apartment and flung open the unlocked door. It hit the wall with a bang.
Piper jumped off the couch and Storm shot across the room to put himself in front of her. “Charming! How did you get out?”
“Where’s Frankie?” I demanded.
“She left,” Piper replied.
“The Target is here?” I’d been hoping she was still out of town.
“She got back last night. Frankie’s going over to her house now.”
“How long ago did she leave?”
“There’s still time,” Storm said.
Relief made my limbs weak. “Good, let’s go.”
The entire drive over, Storm argued with Piper about why she should have stayed behind. It annoyed the hell out of me. “Would you two shut up?!” I demanded, pulling up as close to her gated property as I could.
I was nervous because it took so long to get here. I prayed Frankie was having an attack of the nerves and wasn’t able to do what she came here for.
“It doesn’t matter if she came or not. We’re here and I’m sure as hell not driving her home.”
The pair fell silent.
“Piper, sit in the car,” I ordered. “Storm, you’re coming with me.”
Once we were out of earshot from Piper, I said, “This probably isn’t going to end well for me. Will you watch out for Frankie?”
“Yeah, I’ll watch out for her.”
“Thank you.”
He hesitated like he wanted to say more, but there was no time. I had to get inside. Her property was gated, but otherwise, it didn’t have any extra security other than a regular alarm system (this is why learning background information about a Target is crucial. It’s a real timesaver later). So once we got past the gate, it wasn’t any trouble to make it up to the house. I knew the security system was likely off because it was afternoon, so I didn’t hesitate to walk up to the front door and try to open it.
It opened.
I ran into the house, yelling Frankie’s name, praying all over again that I wasn’t too late to stop her from making the biggest mistake of her life.
“Olly?” she called, coming around the corner and stopping in the wide archway that led into the large kitchen.
“Please tell me you didn’t…” I rushed forward.
Her face went pale and the bottom fell out of my stomach. No. Please. No.
Rosalyn walked around the corner behind Frankie. “Who’s this?”
All the air whooshed out of my lungs and I felt myself smiling. I grabbed Frankie and pulled her against me, crushing her into a hard hug. “Thank God I made it in time.”
“How are you here?” she asked me, her voice muffled against my chest.
“It doesn’t matter. We need to leave.”
“What’s going on?” Rosalyn asked. “Frankie, is everything okay?”
I released Frankie so we could make up some lame excuse and get the hell out of there, when a black cloud rose up behind Rosalyn. It looked like one of those heavy rain clouds that blow over entire towns quickly and unexpectedly just before dumping a ton of hard rain over everything.
>
He acted fast, holding out what I assumed was both his arms, and then placed his hands over both her ears. His soul worked fast, funneling itself inside the Target, slipping into her head in seconds before she even knew what was happening.
She lifted a hand to her head to wipe her brow like she had a headache, and when she looked up, Storm had taken over.
“I figured it would be easier this way,” Storm said, his voice now the voice of the Target. “Plus, now you won’t have to hear her ask a bunch of questions.”
“Thanks, man.”
Then I swiftly snapped her neck.
She fell to the floor instantly. Dead.
Yes, it was that quick. I wasn’t about to draw it out and make things harder than they already were.
And this was hard.
This wasn’t something anyone wanted. Least of all me. I was weary of killing. Weary of death.
“Oh,” Frankie gasped. “Is she…?”
I stepped aside so she could look down at the body. So she could fully understand what she was getting into when she said she wanted a life with me.
No, I didn’t want her to change her mind, but I didn’t want her to one day look in the mirror and wonder who the hell she had become. I understood that feeling well.
“She’s dead,” I said, flat. “Give me your cell phone.”
She pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to me. I dialed G.R. and handed the phone back. “Tell him it’s done and then hang up.”
He answered a few seconds later.
Frankie did as I told her and then stared down at the body. So did I, but not because of the incredible guilt I felt (though, I admit I did feel guilt), but because I was wondering where Storm was. Why was he still in that body?
I didn’t try to comfort her because there was no comfort in this and coming from the man who just murdered someone without blinking, the comfort probably wouldn’t be that good anyway.
The Reaper appeared like he always did and Frankie looked at me swiftly, fear in her face.
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