Chapter Forty-Five
“Tears - a drop of the clear salty liquid that is secreted by the lachrymal gland of the eye to lubricate the surface between the eyeball and eyelid and to wash away irritants.”
Charming
She was asleep when I slid out from beneath her and went into the bathroom.
I flicked on the light and smiled down at the sink.
There were bottles of product and hairbrushes scattered everywhere.
She was an utter disaster. Clothes all over the floor in her room, her closet looked like it exploded, and her bathroom was clearly no better.
I loved it.
I hoped she never changed.
I looked in the mirror, the first time I actually looked at myself since taking back my body. Frankie never changed, but I sure as hell did.
It was startling to look in the mirror and see someone you didn’t expect to see.
Kind of like being out in public and seeing a person you hadn’t seen in a long time.
At first glance you don’t recognize them so you do a double take.
The second time you look it clicks, and you realize you know who it is.
I knew this face. I knew this body. I was familiar with it.
There was a scar on my knee from when I fell off my bike when I was five.
I got the blond hair from my grandfather who worked in a factory all his life and brought me a lollipop every time he visited.
This was the body I grew up in. I had history here.
And now I had a future here too.
Two arms appeared from behind, wrapping themselves around my waist and hugging tight. Frankie pressed her cheek against my back and let out a small sigh of contentment. “I forgot to mention how much I like that tattoo.”
I turned so I could stare at the black scroll design that stretched across the side of my shoulder. I got it when I turned eighteen.
“I forgot to mention that I like when you don’t wear clothes.”
Her laugh was throaty. “Oh, I think that came up.”
“Want it to come up again?”
“I think you better tell me what’s going on first.”
Reality had a way of getting in the way. “You have any coffee?”
I watched her put on my shirt—and nothing else—and go out to the kitchen to make coffee.
I looked down at the khakis and boxer briefs on the floor. I hated those pants. So I threw on the boxers and went to the living room.
“Do you always hang out in your underwear?” Frankie asked as she was cracking eggs into a large bowl. Coffee was already starting to brew.
“When my only clothes are dorky? Yes.”
She snickered. “I like those suspenders.”
I poured some coffee and sat down at the round table in the small kitchen. “Better than my jeans?”
“I haven’t seen this new body in a pair of jeans.”
I raised an eyebrow over the rim of the mug and looked at her. “Are you saying this body won’t look good in a pair of jeans?”
She smiled slyly. “That remains to be determined.”
I grunted and drank more coffee. She was going to eat those words later.
“So… how bad is it, Olly?” she asked after a few moments of silence.
“Not so bad.”
She gave me a withering look and I shrugged. “He locked me in a room and told me he would let me out the day the time limit on the job runs out. Then he was going to Recall me.”
“How long do you think until he realizes you’re gone?”
“Hopefully a couple months.”
“So what? You’re just going to lurk around Alaska and hope he doesn’t see you?”
“That and kill the Target.”
Her shoulders sagged as she scrambled the eggs over the stove. “You really have to kill her, don’t you?”
“If I want a shot at getting out, yes.”
“Getting out?” She glanced at me. “Like out out?
“Yes.”
She abandoned the spatula to the pan and turned around to look at me. “You’re going to quit being an Escort?”
The look on her face made my insides go hot. “I’m going to try. Don’t get your hopes up. No one’s ever walked away from the Grim Reaper before.”
She squealed and threw herself into my lap and rained kisses over my face. “I can’t believe you’re going to give it all up.”
I caught her chin in my hand. “What I’m walking away from is nothing compared to what I’m walking toward.”
“I love you.”
My heart skipped a beat. Then it skipped some more.
“Say it again.”
“I love you, Oliver.”
If I hadn’t been sure about walking away before, I was now.
“I love you, too.”
Her eyes rounded like she was shocked and then she jumped off my lap. “My eggs!” she cried and ran over to take the pan off the stove.
“That’s what you say to a guy who hasn’t told anyone he loves them in over ninety years? You worry about your eggs?”
She laughed and launched herself at me again. “Well, it’s a good thing you told me before I demonstrated my cooking skills.”
I kissed her nose. “I hear you make some good cupcakes.”
“You don’t eat sugar.”
“Hmmmm. I don’t need sugar. I have you.”
“Olly?” she said. Her smile faded away and she looked at me seriously.
“What?”
“Are you sure? Like, sure about this? You’re going to give up a life of living forever, money, and power.”
“I have enough money to last us both our entire lives and then some. I don’t need power. And living without you isn’t living at all.”
Her eyes softened. “Well, when you put it that way.”
“I need to know what the Reaper said when he came here.”
The softness left her eyes, replaced by wariness.
“It’s okay. I’m going to keep you safe.” I assured her. Even if that was the only thing I did.
“He was looking for the bodies. And a soul?”
I nodded. “I took a soul he had hidden away too.”
“I told him I didn’t know where they were.” She bit her lip and looked at me. “Then he said he was going to start adding women to his collection and he tried to touch me.”
My arms encircled her waist and I pulled her tighter against me.
The pain of being touched by him still lingered in my memory, and while he said it wasn’t like that for a person who wasn’t an Escort, I didn’t tend to believe everything he said.
If he touched her, if he even so much as thought about killing her again, I was going to find a way to make his life a living hell.
“But Piper grabbed him.” Her eyes filled with unexpected tears. I wasn’t prepared for tears. “I thought she was going to die.”
I pressed her head against my shoulder and brushed my lips over the top of her head. “It’s okay. Piper’s fine.” Which truthfully shocked the shit out of me. She had to be the first person ever that didn’t keel over from coming into contact with G.R.
“She’s the only family I have.” She glanced up. “Well, I guess I have you now too.”
Warmth spread throughout my chest. “Yeah. Yeah, you have me now too.”
“My parents live on the other side of the state. We don’t talk. I wasn’t the kind of daughter they wanted and they weren’t happy when I refused to change. Piper doesn’t have any family either. It’s just us.”
“Shhh,” I told her, wanting the tears to stop. I could feel them falling onto my chest and sliding down my skin.
“You should have seen the Reaper’s face, Olly. He was shocked. Just as shocked as we were. I don’t think something like that ever happened to him before.” She sniffled. “He looked at Piper… like she was some kind of miracle.”
A shiver ran up her spine and she shook in my lap. I stroked her hair and made her a promise. “I won’t let anything happen to Piper, either.”
She nodded against me, the words actually seeming to make her feel better.
It amazed me how just months ago I was completely alone and now here I was vowing to take care of these women.
It didn’t work out so well the first time I tried to take responsibility for two women.
My sister paid the ultimate price. And the guilt from that would haunt me for the rest of my life.
I wasn’t going to make those mistakes again.
This time was going to be different. This time we were all going to walk away with our lives.
Frankie’s tears turned to hiccups as I held her, rubbing her back while all the coffee went cold before we could drink it.
And as she quieted, I began to plan.