Page 52 of Cheater Slicks

Just as I began kicking myself for not making a move on Matty, since I couldn’t spot Vi, I saw the same pair of men as before. Their grip had eased on Vi, and she no longer fought them. That wasn’t good. I preferred it when she was spitting in their faces.

“Vi.” I strained for confirmation she was still in there. “Can you hear me?”

Her dull eyes lifted to mine, and my heart dropped into my toes.

“Oh, Vi.” I focused on solidifying her, but it was like trying to catch smoke. “I’m so sorry.”

“Frankie,” she mumbled, her eyes widening in understanding I was really here.“Frankie.”

“Vi.” I reached for her again, but my hand swept through her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Hope gave her the strength to lash out at the men to either side of her. Her sudden violence after her docile walk allowed her to take them off-guard. She sank her elbows into their guts then stomped their insteps as she grasped for me. Our hands slid through one another, and her frustration threatened tears.

“Kierce.” I’d had Anunit’s help in anchoring Rollo before Kierce arrived. I wasn’t sure he and I could do it without her help, but we had to try. “It’s now or never.”

He stepped up behind me, and as I mimed clasping on to Vi’s wrist, he covered our hands with his.

Lightning crackled above us, streaking through the dark sky, and the hairs lifted down my arms.

“I feel you,” Vi sobbed with relief. “I can feel you both.”

“I have this little thing calledworkI like to do,” a multilayered voice boomed from behind us. “It’s how I make money. You’ve seen my house. Mortgages don’t pay themselves. Yet here I am, on this dirty little street, instead of home in front of my laptop, becausesomeoneis kinking my energy supply.”

The storm overhead gained momentum, the forks of electricity striking nearby lampposts, shattering the bulbs in a shower of sparks.

Brilliant light washed over me, but I wasn’t as blind to Dis Pater’s form as I had been the last time he up and appeared before me, and my skin didn’t so much as sunburn. Godburn? Whatever.

“Let Matty and Vi go,” I barked without turning, afraid of taking my eyes off Vi. “Then you can zip right back where you came from. Otherwise, you leave me no choice but to break them out myself.”

“Relic enchantments are fragile. You can’t just go around ripping out their parts.”

“Parts?” I gritted my teeth until my jaw popped, determined to hold on to Vi. “These arepeople.”

“They’re souls.”

“Their bodies are still alive, which means their souls can be returned to them.”

“Huh.” He scratched his chin. “That wasn’t in the fine print, but I sourced that bone ages ago. Maybe I just forgot.” He spread his hands. “I can see how that looks bad, but hear me out…” His expression thundered with animosity.“I don’t care.”

Here was the proof I had been right to lean into my suspicion this was all him. Not that the validation did me any good. Unable to risk keeping my back turned a moment longer, I pivoted toward the threat, forced to let Vi go.

“Then why do this? Why go after my family?” I spread my arms wide. “From where I’m standing, it sure as hell looks like you care if you’re wasting your precious writing time on targeting me.”

“That’s enough.” He snapped his fingers. “Kierce, I order you not to help her.”

“Leave him out of this.” Whipping my head around, I bared my teeth at the god. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“The list of wrongs he’s committed could wrap around the world twice.” Dis Pater scoffed at my defense of his vassal. “He deserves everything he gets and then some.” His voice turned pitying. “Why do you think I’ve loaned Kierce out to you? You’re a punishment. That’s it. That’s all.”

Pressure built behind my breastbone. Fear of how much Kierce knew, and how much he didn’t recall. His god might have let Kierce think he was free to make his own choices, and that he had chosen me. But he just as easily could have been told to infiltrate my life the same way Ankou had with Josie.

The thought of what we had being an act or a mission, and Kierce not knowing either way, wrenched my heart out of alignment. He knew pieces of him were missing, but Dis Pater had torn him apart and stuck him back together so many times, he couldn’t find the seams to begin lining them up again.

“You can’t loan him out. He’s not a library book.”

“You’re adorable, but that’s exactly how it works, mouthy girl.”

“You’re in no position to judge him, especially since every wrong he’s committed lies at your feet.”

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