Page 36 of Hell's Claim

“Then we will keep watching and digging. We’ll get him,” Diaz said reassuringly.

“Yeah, and he’ll pay when I find out who,” Sunny promised.

“Amen to that,” Ashford muttered.

Callie

I stared at the huge flower arrangement in bemusement. It was beautiful, and I’d never got one before.

“Who’s it from?” Freddie demanded as she picked up the card.

“Probably one of my sisters, but I don’t know why,” I replied.

“How about Sunny?” Freddie said, and I turned to her in disbelief.

“What?”

“He sent them, and he says, I quote, ‘see you soon.’”

“Pardon?”

Freddie giggled as she repeated it as I opened the gift bag from Heavenly Delights. I pulled out some candles, incense sticks, body lotion, and shampoo.

“Someone has an admirer,” Freddie teased.

“Shut up,” I replied, but there was no bite to it.

Freddie grinned at me and took off, yelling about my secret boyfriend. Wonderful, there’d be no end to the teasing.

???

Next day, I woke up to Harry bouncing on my bed.

“Harry!” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“Get up, Sunny sent another present,” he declared.

“Huh?”

“Callie, get the hell up, we wanna eat and can’t, as it’s your gift.”

“I shall kill you if you don’t disappear,” I warned.

“Is she up?” Freddie screeched, and I sighed. There’d be no going back to sleep now. I glanced at my phone as I tried to wake up and saw it was eight in the morning. Great, no lie in today.

“I’m coming!” I yelled irately as Freddie screamed for me to get up.

“Give me five minutes, and you better have coffee on!” I hissed at Harry, who grinned and disappeared. I stumbled out of bed, hit the toilet, and washed my hands and face before brushing my teeth.

Incredibly grumpy, I headed downstairs and into the kitchen. There, a delightful aroma greeted me.

“Doughnuts?”

“Pastries, I think, but we can’t be sure. None of us wanted to be so rude to open it without you,” Jack said.

“What a load of bull,” I replied and opened the huge box and sniffed at the smell. My stomach growled in rebellion at the scents.

“Wow,” Phil gasped.

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