Chapter 14
I’ve got it.
My fingers close around the ring, buried deep in the first body drawer of the cooler. Elation rises in my chest, and I jerk backward, nearly smacking my head on the top of the drawer. Andrew stands silently beside it, but I don’t pay attention to him.
Cecil told me to meet him in the parking lot, which, now that I think about it, is a bit unnerving. He seems to just show up everywhere he’s not wanted. But tonight, I want him here. I want to shove the ring into his hand and tell him to leave me alone once and for all, just like he promised.
Snatching my phone off the desk, I push my way out of the loading bay doors. The motion light flicks on, bathing the semi-dark parking lot outside in white light.
Sure enough, there he is. I have no idea when Amir showed up, but he’s leaning against the door of his very nice Range Rover, hands in his pockets, posed like a model who’s just waiting for the camera.
He doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t tilt his head down from where he’s seemingly studying the sky. My steps across the asphalt are quick. Determined. With the ring heavy in my hand, I can feel the ridges of the old class ring against my skin.
Ten more steps, and I can end this.
Five more.
“Amir.” My voice comes out softer than I intend. And a bit less sure. But he tilts his head down to survey me, his gaze finding mine immediately. “Here.” Stopping, I reach out into the space between us, hand curled around the ring, waiting.
He pulls his hand out of his pocket as if he has all day and extends it, palm upward, until it’s poised directly under mine.
Mechanically, I open my hand, letting the ring fall into his palm. “We’re done,” I say, my heart fluttering in my chest. “I found this for you. I did your scavenger hunt, and now we’re done.”
Amir raises the ring to study it, turning it over in the dying light of the parking lot. “Are we?” he murmurs at last, stopping me just as I take a step back. “And why would you think that, little mortician?”
My heart plummets and I bite my lower lip, glancing up at the sky. “I found the ring before seven, just like you said.”
“And yet…” With a bit of a flourish, Amir lifts his hand to flip it over, glancing down at his smartwatch. Then he shows me the digital face, tapping it so the numbers are illuminated once more.
7:05 PM.
“No,” I snap. “No, I found it before seven.”
“But you didn’t have it in my hand until three minutes after,” Amir disagrees, not at all ruffled even though I’m clearly not thrilled. “You were close. You were so very close.” His eyes gleam when he tilts his head. “Did something delay your search?”
“Yeah. My fucking job—” He steps forward quickly, his fingers gripping my chin as he holds me in place.
“I don’t need you to speak to me like that,” he murmurs, eyes catching mine. “You can bristle and snarl at someone else. But it doesn’t work on me. It’s unnecessary. And more than that, it’s not very attractive.”
“Why?” I snap, though my voice is a hissing whisper now, having lost some of my spark when he grabbed me.
I could step back. I should step back. But I just stand there, feeling his touch on my face like nothing else exists.
“Because I’m a girl? Am I supposed to be pretty all the time, Amir?
” There’s no longer any genuine anger or heat in my words. Only dislike and scorn.
His smile widens. “You think me rather sexist, don’t you?
” Suddenly, he drags his thumb down my lower lip, and my heart stutters in my chest from shock.
But before I can do anything, he drops his hand, stepping back to lean against his vehicle once more.
“Because you don’t mean it. Your bravado is obvious.
It only makes you look weak and more afraid of me, instead of less, little mortician. ”
I stare at him as his words sink into my skin, chilling me like falling rain. That’s definitely not the answer I was expecting. But more than that, he’s right.
He’s right, and I can’t understand how he can so easily see I don’t mean it when I try to show him my metaphorical teeth. Finally, belatedly, I step back. But it doesn’t have any impact, and feels more like a retreat than just creating space between us.
“You don’t know me,” I offer quietly. But some part of me falls in relief at no longer trying to put on a big, brave mask for the scary man. I’m not that person. I don’t yell or threaten. If I ever was that person, she died a long time ago, right along with Elaina. “You don’t know what I am.”
The silence stretches between us for so long that I almost look at him. I can’t help fidgeting, and my hand reaches up to grip my opposite arm as the shadows of the parking lot deepen.
“Then let us remedy that.” My head jerks up at the words, and I try to process them. Try to figure out if there’s some meaning hidden in them apart from what feels, honestly, pretty innocuous, all things considered.
“What?”
“You heard me.” Amir doesn’t repeat himself, and he fixes me with a look that says it’s offensive that I want him to.
“You claim I don’t know you. And you’re right.
You also lost our game, though don’t worry.
” His smile turns slightly sharp at the edges.
“You will have ample opportunity to try again.”
Somehow, that doesn’t comfort me. It sends a shiver up my spine and I glance around, looking for something—anything—to use as an escape. “I don’t want an opportunity to try again,” I murmur. “I sort of want the opposite.”
“Shame, then, that you were not quicker.” There’s no malice in his voice.
Simply fact. “You lost. The price of that loss is that I’m not going anywhere, and you have to spend time with me.
Starting tonight.” Suddenly he pushes off of the Range Rover and opens the passenger door before meeting my gaze. “I’m assuming you haven’t had dinner.”
I just stand there, looking at the open door, the expensive interior, and the lights of the console inside. I can hear the murmur of music that isn’t something I’d normally listen to, but I don’t take a step.
“Why?”
“Because I said so. Because this is how our game works,” Amir replies patiently. Almost as if he saw the question coming. “Get in the car, Nell. I’m only taking you to dinner, not to your demise that you’re so set on conjuring up in your head right now.”
It’s embarrassing that he is not wrong about that.
I duck my head with a frown and walk forward on stiff legs, only to stop.
“Wait. Umm…” When I look at him, Amir doesn’t seem upset.
He only tilts his head curiously. “I have to lock up. I won’t risk Cecil losing something to theft, or me losing my job, or—”
“All right.” He cuts off my explanation smoothly. Almost kindly. “But if you aren’t back out here in five minutes, then this night becomes a lot less pleasant. Do you understand me, Nell?”
I understand, and I nod my head once. Twice.
In jerky, nervous motions as I take a few steps back from him.
“Five minutes,” I agree, turning on my heel to head back inside.
I try not to run, but God, it’s so hard.
Quickly, I turn off the lights and check to make sure nothing is on.
I close Cecil’s poor old laptop and snag my keys from the desk, then I stop to just look around, just like I always do.
This mortuary feels more like home than my parents’ house ever did, though I refuse to linger on how fucked up that fact is. “I don’t want to do this,” I whisper to the empty room. Even Andrew is gone, like he has nothing to say to me in this predicament.
When there’s nothing else for me to hesitate with, and as my five minutes tick to a close, I push open the door of the loading bay one last time, letting it close behind me before I slide my key into the lock.
As usual, I go through the process of checking it, though tonight I’m distracted by the sheer fact Amir is existing out here in the parking lot and that he won’t just leave.
Part of me hoped that maybe, just maybe, he was bluffing. That as soon as I disappeared back into the mortuary, he’d lose your interest and go away.
But the fact he’s still leaning against the Range Rover, this time scrolling his phone like a good friend waiting to pick me up, makes my heart sink.
My steps slow more, my feet dragging across the asphalt.
I don’t know what he wants, or why he won’t leave me alone.
I’m not that interesting. If anything, I’m just fucked up enough to be weird.
Usually people shy away when they find out about the whole ghost situation.
But then again, usually, people aren’t killers. So maybe he’s the problem here, not me.
“I’m ready,” I breathe, keys clenched between my fingers like a weapon. Amir glances up from his phone and once more opens the car door, gesturing for me to get in.
For a moment, I don’t move. My legs lock and I glance back at my car instead, wondering if I could make it. Surely he’s not that fast, and I could—
Before I even notice he’s moved, fingers close around my throat. Not firm. Not choking. Just barely resting against my skin as he caresses the sides of my neck. “No, Nell,” Amir murmurs. “We aren’t playing that game tonight.”
As if my escape attempt is a fucking game.
My eyes flick upward to meet his, only to find that Amir is giving me the most patient stare, like he’s just waiting for me to make the right decision.
The right decision, of course, being the one that ends with me in his fancy Range Rover.
Not the one that ends with me doing literally anything else.
“Fine.” The word is a breath on my lips, and I side-step him, not wanting to seem as weak as I feel. When I slide into the Range Rover, I notice the seat is more comfortable than any car I’ve ever sat in, and before I can reach out to close the door, Amir has done it for me.
Closing me into his perfect car that has no sign of the dogs ever being in here.