All I Want For Christmas Is a Reaper

by Liana Brooks

  His smile grew to match mine. “That’s... not the look of a woman who is objecting.”

  “It’s really, really not.” I brushed a thumb along the thin fabric of his shirt.

  “Really?” His hand slid down the wall and landed gently on my waist.

  Did I want him to pin me to the wall like a piece of fine art?

  Yes.

  Definitely yes.

  Please, dear universe, yes. I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted Seth to kiss me. Time had frozen, the world could end, and still all that would matter was us.

  “You’re beautiful.” Seth lips were a breath away.

  My eyes fluttered shut in anticipation.

  My phone rang in my pocket.

  Seth froze because he had good instincts and better self-control than I did.

  The phone rang again, the opening bars of the soundtrack to Black and Blue, the critically acclaimed, award-winning film about the race wars of the early twenty-first century.

  “It’s the police,” I muttered as I reached for my pocket. If it wasn’t urgent, I was going to murder someone; at least then they’d have a reason to talk to me.

  Seth stepped away. “You have a special ring tone for the police?”

  “Yes.” I slid the answer button to green. “They’re frequent clients.” I held the phone to my ear. “This better be good.”

  “Happy holidays to you too, Merri Kriesmas,” said a deep tenor voice with the wisp of sarcasm and a Jersey accent.

  “Dan, why are you calling?”

  There was a snicker on the other end of the line. “Basic courtesy call is all. We’ve had a couple of noise complaints from your apartment. A lot of banging and thumping.” He made it sound dirty.

  I looked up at Seth and then down the hall. “Detective, I’m not home. I’m at the city art festival at the Field Museum.”

  Seth tilted his head.

  I held up a finger and stepped away.

  “You sure?” Dan sounded skeptical.

  “Absolutely positive.” I walked to the entrance of the hall and looked out across the assembly. “Would you like to ask the chief of police or Mayor Adale? I can see them both from where I’m standing.” I could also see my shot to kiss Seth Morana riding off into the sunset. Flirtation was lovely, but the reality was that my work hours were not nine to five. No sane person wanted that schedule.

  Warm air behind me was the first hint Seth had stepped closer. Then his hand stroked my bare arm. “Is everything okay?”

  I nodded tensely. Holding my phone down by my hip I gave him a quick smile. “I’m just going to step out for a minute. Can you grab my purse from the coat check? Ellen has our tickets. I might have to run home real quick.”

  “I’ll go get your purse,” Seth said, his fingers lingering against mine. With a quick squeeze and a sad smile, Seth stepped away.

  Lifting the phone back to my ear, I sighed. “I was in a crowd. Let me get outside while you explain what’s happening.”

  “It’s a noise complaint.” On the other end of the phone, Dan cleared his throat. “Do you have a cat? New puppy?”

  “I don’t keep pets.” My teeth ground together as I took a side exit to the deck overlooking Lake Shore Drive. “Detective, you have my permission to go into my apartment and see what the fuss is about. I’ll let the building security know you’ll be there in under five minutes.” It was an order and we both knew it.

  We also both knew Dan would get someone there in under five minutes because I’d brought the Chicago PD the evidence to close multiple high-profile cases.

  There wasn’t anything in my apartment, but criminals didn’t know that. If they wanted to destroy evidence or get revenge, attacking my apartment made sense. Especially since I was supposed to be home tonight.

  Taking a deep breath, I hung up on Dan and dialed the building security office.

  “This is Vinny at—”

  “Vinny, it’s Merri from apartment eight twenty-nine. The police informed me there was a noise complaint.”

  “Yes, Miss.” Vinny was an older man with wiry gray haircut like an army recruit. He’d been at the building when I moved in and would probably be there when I finally died and they dragged my cold corpse out. “I hate to complain, Miss, but you’re making a racket.”

  “Vinny, I’m not home.” I paused to let that sink in. “Detective Dan Park is on his way to check it out. Lock down the elevators and the fire doors to the stairs.”

  “Yes, Miss.” Vinny coughed. “The cameras on your floor blinked out but they’ze just come back on, Miss. Your door is broken something awful.” Another cough. “The building is locked down now. But I think they might already be out.”

  “Fantastic,” I said sarcastically. “Did any visitors sign in?”

  “Nope. Everyone who came in this evening had a key and headed straight up to their apartments.”

  Not very comforting. “All right.”

  “The police are here,” Vinny reported.

  “Give them full access to my apartment,” I said. “Tell them I want photos. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

  “All rig—No. The uniform is shaking her head no. They say they’ll call,” Vinny said.

  “Fine.” Not fine. I didn’t want to sit here waiting to hear what had happened. I hung up with a scowl. This wasn’t how I’d pictured my evening going.

  Granted, I hadn’t really had a plan other than Support Ellen, and maybe Flirt With Seth. But there was definitely no Get Burgled on the agenda.

  The parking lot was full but there was probably a cab down at the corner. I stepped off the deck down to the curb, trying to get a good view of the street past the maples, wondering if I could walk or if I’d need to call for a ride as a sedan roared past, hitting the one remaining puddle in the street and splashing me with a sluice of dirty water.

  “Mer—” Seth ran up beside me. “—ri. Oh, boy.”

  Gravel and filthy water clung to the white skirt. “Ellen is not going to be happy.”

  “It’s not the worst thing the dress has seen,” Seth said in what he probably thought was a soothing tone. “What was the call about? Or is there an NDA in place?” He tried to pass it off as a joke, but it wasn’t; he was worried.

  I smiled brightly. “Someone broke into my apartment.”

  Seth had never looked terrifying before.

  Cute. Sweet. Hot. Even devilishly handsome in a few of his portraits. Now he looked like the monster he played in movies. “Are you going home?”

  “Not yet. They said they’ll call, so—” I stopped as I opened my purse and looked at my little hot-pink wallet. It wasn’t snapped shut. That was bizarre. Lifting it out of my clutch, I flipped it open.

  My building card and ID were both missing. Along with my bank card.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Grand.” I showed him my wallet. “No ID. No bank card. No way to go home. No way I’m getting out of tonight without hours of teasing and a phone call from both my parents on Sunday when my parents are participating in the twenty-first century.”

  “Teasing?” Seth raised his eyebrows.

  I shrugged. “I have to call my sister? Lucky’s the only one who’s going to come take care of me.” Waking up my phone, I checked the time and groaned. “And she’s at roller derby for another three hours. I guess I’ll go find a washroom and see what I can do to fix this dress with paper towels.”

  “It’s an emergency,” Seth said. “I’m sure your sister will drop everything for you.”

  That made me laugh. “No, she wouldn’t. And regardless, I won’t call her before she’s done.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she’s got another hour until her game down in Champaign, so even if she could drop everything, she drove and would need to take three of the other team members out of the game to go home, because they carpooled, and she wouldn’t be here anytime soon.”

  Seth narrowed his eyes. “But she’d do it. I can’t pict
ure your sister getting upset over a phone call.”

  “But I would be,” I said fixing on my largest smile. “I just—”

  My phone rang again.

  This time, I stayed close to Seth as I answered. “Hello, Dan.”

  “Hey, so, your house looks like it got hit by a tornado. Not what I was expecting. Your TV is missing.”

  “I don’t own a TV.”

  “Computer?”

  “I have a work laptop, nothing else.”

  “Did you have anything of value in this apartment?” Dan asked.

  I thought about it. “My dress collection? My cooking pots are worth a few hundred? I think my sister left some old Scotch in one of the cupboards, but I’m not sure.”

  “Merri,” Dan said with annoyance, “do you actually own anything that a robber would want?”

  “Sure. But I keep it in the company safe, not at my apartment.”

  Seth was watching me curiously.

  I shrugged. “Can I head home now?”

  “You should probably get a hotel room for the night,” Dan said. “The windows are broken and the front lock is busted. Your security guy says they can have it fixed by Monday.”

  “By Monday?” I sighed. “Sure. Fine.”

  “You got a change of clothes somewhere?”

  “A couple of dresses at the dry cleaner.” Clean underthings in my spare gym bag in the trunk of my car, still parked over at Slasher studios. “I’ll be fine. Do you need me for anything tonight?”

  “No. We’ll schedule a walk-through tomorrow. Probably around ten or eleven. Does that work?”

  “Sure.” It wasn’t like I had a choice.

  “Keep your phone on,” Dan said. “Call me right away if anything else happens tonight.”

  I frowned. “Like what?”

  “People following you. Strange cars. You know the drill. We didn’t find anyone here, which means they might go after you.”

  My smile was tight. “Don’t worry. I’m in a very public place with excellent security. I’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t walk to the hotel.” Detective Park knew me a little too well.

  “I’ll take that under advisement.”

  “I’m serious, Merri. You need to be careful until we know what they were looking for.”

  “It’s an apartment on the expensive end of town and they probably saw the lights were off and decided to go grab my jewelry collection,” I said in exasperation. “It’s not like the local burglars know I don’t have anything worth stealing. I’m one of three apartments in the building with no additional digital security.”

  “You should get some,” Dan said.

  “I like my privacy and I’ve seen too many cases of hacked security cameras. Thanks.”

  Dan made a grumbling sound that could have been an insult, but I didn’t catch enough to hear. “Get to the hotel. Lock the door. Stay put until I call you in the morning.”

  “Right. Goodnight.” I hung up. That wasn’t going to happen. “What day is it?” I asked Seth.

  “Still Friday.”

  “I don’t want to deal with this right now.” With another sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to find the layers of armor I needed to deal with the people inside. “I don’t want to deal with family right now. Or nagging. Or people. Or anything else, actually. I want to go home, but I can’t, so I’m going to go fix this dress, go back to the ballroom, and make it through the rest of the night.”

  “Come home with me,” Seth said, holding out his hand. “Clean shower. Your choice of t-shirts that will be too large with you. Whatever I can scrounge from the fridge. No nagging, family, or random people.”

  That was a very tempting offer. My resolve wavered. It would be so easy, so very easy, to throw my problems away for the night and let Seth take care of me. To pretend we were ordinary people for a few hours. To lie and say we weren’t both carrying scars.

  I faked a cheerful smile. “No family drama? Pretty sure this is how Persephone seduced Hades.”

  “Didn’t Hades kidnap Persephone?” Seth took a step closer.

  “Absolutely not. You think the quiet, geek king of the underworld was going to kidnap the OG maiden goddess? His special thing was being invisible, while she was the goddess of renewal, rebirth, and second chances. Poor boy didn’t even know what hit him.”

  Seth licked his lips and curled around me. “Is that how the story goes?”

  “Most certainly.” I could feel his breath on my neck. One little move and his lips... Hmmm. I leaned into him as I looked up at the heavy clouds overhead.

  When I was seven, I’d won the Miss Sunshine contest at the county fair and someone had left a dead snake on my doorstep with the note Your Next. My first death threat, bad spelling and all.

  At seventeen, a boy I thought I loved tried to steal my future. He’d stolen my image, and my name, and my sense of security. He’d taken everything I loved about myself and sold it to the highest bidder.

  I wanted it back.

  I wanted my whole life back. I was done analyzing every show of affection for the hint of deceit. I was done holding everyone at arm’s length because I couldn’t risk being hurt again.

  I genuinely liked Seth. I liked how he treated me, and how he made me laugh. I liked this moment together wrapped in sandalwood and retreating storms.

  “How about these two reapers call it a night and go home?” Seth whispered.

  It was time to move forward with my life, to let my guard down just a little, and try this whole dating thing again. Even if started with a wedding proposal under some mistletoe.

  I snuggled closer to Seth. “A before-breakfast rendezvous, ring shopping after lunch, and an invite home? You need to be careful, Mister Morana, or you’re going to kill your Hollywood Playboy reputation.”

  “Mister Morana?” He chuckled. “I don’t suppose that amazing dress collection of yours includes a pencil skirt.”

  “It might,” I teased.

  It didn’t. Yet. I could fix that.

  With a quick kiss on the cheek, Seth pulled away, taking my hand. “Let’s go home, Killer.”

  Hot, sandalwood-scented steam from the shower curled around my legs and chased me through the chill of Seth’s darkened bedroom. The walk-in closet was next to a vanity with a three-way mirror that fit the neighborhood but not the person living in the house. It was hard to imagine him stopping to check if his uncombed hair was rumbled sexily enough or his over-sized hoodie hung just so before leaving for work each day.

  On the other hand, it was very easy to picture other things someones might do with a mirror like that in the bedroom. I peeked over my shoulder to see where the bed was. Despite expectations, all that could be seen from the alcove of the vanity was the door to the living room and the windows.

  A little bit of oversight on the designer’s part. Someone had lacked imagination.

  I was also fairly certain I’d seen a promo shot of a horror movie with a mirror like this at the studio, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out Seth bought this apartment with set design in mind.

  Seth’s apartment was made of stone and concrete with dark, hardwood floors and views of the Chicago skyline to the south. There were fluted columns and huge, industrial-sized windows that made even Seth look small.

  In the darkness as a storm swirled outside, it was easy to imagine I’d wandered into the Underworld.

  A cozy underworld with a closet filled with black shirts and hoodies, an elusive suit or two, and the occasional white dress shirt. I picked one and shrugged it on.

  “You should wear something else,” Seth said.

  I frowned at the empty room behind me. His voice had the odd quality of an echo off concrete walls, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Do you have a camera?”

  “I have a reflection on the patio glass.” There was a smirk in his voice. “That shirt turns translucent if it gets wet.”

  “Interesting...” I looked back to the mirror and, sure enough, where m
y wet hair had dropped on the shirt, my skin was perfectly visible without even a tint of foggy color from the fabric. “And you don’t want me to wear it?”

  “Not tonight.”

  “If you say so.”

  Nodding at how reasonable—if unfortunately unsexy—it sounded, I dove back into the closet looking for something soft, long, and not see-through.

  At the end of a long row of fading black t-shirts, I found one with the peeling red Slasher™ font spelling out the words ‘Killer Lookz’. It was soft as silk and hung to mid-thigh, covering more skin than most of my swimwear.

  I took the vanishing dress shirt with me.

  Funny, his kiss at the museum had definitely felt like a yes, tonight, sort of kiss. For most other people it would have been more flirtation in the car, fumbling through door as we kissed, and a short-lived fling on the bed. The shower was usually the end of the night, not the first thing my date suggested.

  I walked through the hall between Seth’s bedroom and the kitchen, looking at the pictures on the wall. One by one, people vanished from his life. There were pictures from his teens. A picture cut from a newspaper of him and four other boys standing next to a university sign, holding a trophy. The names Seth, Michael, Liam, and Mason were there, except Michael’s had been crossed off with a red pen and the name Alisson was written in a familiar hand.

  Seth stood at the end of the hall, watching me.

  “Alisson looks good with her hair long,” I said, since he seemed to expect some comment, and then moved on to more pictures of Seth with friends. Seth with co-stars. Seth on the red carpet and caught by paparazzi.

  Very few faces showed up more than once.

  The smell of caramelizing onions overpowered the lingering smell of the shower and Seth’s soap. “You made dinner?” If that wasn’t an opening, I’d turn in my Prada heels.

  “I reheated some risotto,” Seth said, stepping back into the kitchen and pulling a pair of black bowls from the microwave.

  Holding up the magically sexy shirt, I waited until he turned before making it do a little dance in front of me.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  I smiled. “It’s comfy. I might wear it later.”

  “Really?”

  Tossing the shirt on the back of the couch, I nodded. “Invisible shirts have many uses.”