Page 72 of A Murderous Crow
“That,” I said biting my bottom lip.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said and I breathed a little easier.
“Thanks.”
“I wantallthechisme, though – I mean it.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” I said meekly.
“And I meanallthe dirty details,” he sang over his shoulder as he exited my office and I felt myself turn beet red as the door softly thumped closed.
“I don’t know if I want to gothatfar,” I muttered to myself, thinking about this morning and the way he’d held me down with his body and by my hair as he thrust into me with absolutely no mercy.
I was more than a little surprised to find I liked it rough…
I sighed and packed up my briefcase.
I had to go and see what was salvageable out of my place and what was a total goner.
Honestly, I was worried about seeing it in the bright light of day. It was bound to be worse than what I’d glimpsed in the dark the night before.
I pulled into the driveway to a whole circus out front. The county and city inspectors’ vehicles, a box truck, several motorcycles, and my landlord.
I put the Jag into park and got out.
My landlord glared at me, but the inspectors were keeping him so busy he could do no more than that.
I slunk across the yard and to my door to see several bikers taping up boxes of my belongings, the prospect, Spooky, straightening up from one and saying, “Hey, there you are. Corvus called, said you needed some help… so uh, here we are… helping.”
One of the other bikers guffawed and said, “Prospect, shut the fuck up.”
“Rude!” I blurted, and all of them cracked up like I’d said the funniest thing.
I scowled at the one who’d spoken last and he threw up his chin in greeting, “I’m Fear, that’s Requiem, and pretty sure Reaper’s in your bedroom going through your underwear drawer. It’s kind of his thing. Grim ought to be in there with him. Hangman’s the one out in the back of the truck.”
A man with his back to me, stuck up a hand and waved from over by my mock fireplace.
“Oh, I didn’t even see him outside,” I turned around and sure enough, a bearded man was coming in my front door.
“You Savannah?” he asked.
“I am,” I said. “Um, nice to meet you.”
“You, too. We got this handled, if you have shit you have to do,” Fear said and I turned back around.
“Actually, this is all I have to do for the rest of my day… I had no idea you’d be here.”
“Corvus is a control freak like that,” Requiem said, standing up and turning around.
“Oh,” I didn’t say anything beyond the sound of recognition. He’d been the one Corvus had been talking to, at the top of the stairs the night that… well, the night that Hal Lindstrom had been,ah hem, disappeared…
He gave me a silent but intense look and I nodded faintly, my hand on my chest as I glanced toward my bedroom doorway, which had a thick sheet of plastic hanging over it.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“Bad,” Hangman said flatly. “Your bed’s a goner – I wouldn’t trust it after being soaked with whatever toxic mold soup came pouring out of your ceiling. Other than it, everything else seems salvageable. We already got the dresser and nightstands in the truck, Grim and Reap were just finishing up boxing your things from the closet and the dresser. You got a shit ton of shoes.”
“Also, probably Reaper’s thing…” Fear mused out loud and I tried not to snort.
