Chapter Thirty-Five
“Taunt - to reproach in a mocking, insulting, or contemptuous manner.”
Charming
I got all of an entire hour of living before I was reminded that I wasn’t allowed to live. That my life was over and technically it belonged to someone else.
Someone who just happened to be Death.
But I was done taking orders from him.
As soon as the coffee began brewing, I took the stairs two at a time, thinking I would slip into the shower with Frankie and have a little fun…
But I never made it that far.
I got close. Close enough that I was able to toss some clothes onto her bed.
But then I was yanked right out of my body. It dropped onto the thick carpeting like a stone and I was left—nothing but a red cloud—hovering above it.
“The state of your undress and the fact there is a woman in the shower makes me think you have other priorities besides your job,” said an all too familiar voice from behind.
How in the hell did he find this place? The one place I thought I was actually free of him.
I turned. “I don’t really think you care about me completing this job.”
“You don’t think I care about thirty million dollars?”
“I think you knew from the very beginning… The only reason you chose the senator’s daughter as a Target was because the only thing you cared about was seeing me fail.”
He smiled. “That’s right. I knew you would fail. Just like I knew you were here. Did you think I didn’t know about this house? Where you spend your time off? You should know by now that I know everything.”
“You don’t know where your secret bodies are.”
That wiped every ounce of smugness right off his boney old face. I resisted the urge to look toward the bathroom, not wanting to show that I was worried for Frankie. If she came out here…
No. I wasn’t going to let her get caught up in this. It was the reason I brought her here in the first place. Yes, I wanted to keep an eye on her, but not for the reasons she thought. I wanted to make sure she was safe from him.
“And what bodies would that be?” he asked like he was bored, but I saw the flicker in his eye… the fear.
“The ones you keep hidden. The ones you didn’t want anyone to know about,” I said casually.
“What do you know about those?” he demanded, his eyes narrowing into barely there slits.
“I know where they are. But otherwise, not as much as I want to. Unfortunately, the soul you have wandering around your house wouldn’t tell me a thing.”
“You little—” He snarled, lunging at me, but his hands went right through, making the red puff out around him.
“Bodily harm requires a body,” I taunted.
And just like that I was back in my body and being dragged up from the floor. “You better hope those bodies are where they’re supposed to be,” he said, jutting his face up close to mine.
The water to the shower shut off.
“Better go see,” I said, injecting a dare behind my words. There was a huge chunk of ice in my gut. Get him the hell out of here! the voice inside me was screaming. I looked at the bathroom door. Stay in there.
With a wave of his hand, a doorway appeared right beside the bed.
The Reaper started forward, grabbing me and pulling me along with him.
I didn’t put up a fight. I wanted him out of here and as far away from Frankie as he could be.
And it seemed the fastest way for that to happen was for me to go with him.
And so I went, the door he created snapping shut behind us like it hadn’t been there at all.