Page 73 of A Murderous Crow
“Is it safe to go in there?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t,” Requiem said. “The boys have respirators on just in case. Handy things you find in a funeral home.”
“I’m sorry?” I said confused.
The plastic sheet was pulled aside and the other two men from the Lindstrom showing stepped out. I recognized the one by his round blue hippy glasses and the other by his dark hair.
“Grim, Reaper, meet Savannah,” Fear said.
“Yeah, we heard,” the one with the dark hair said from behind his mask, “and fuck you, for the panty and shoe comments.”
Frear laughed and gave Grim the finger, and Grim gave it right back. Reaper was holding a couple of boxes and staring at me rather pointedly, so I suddenly had doubts about whether Fear had actually been joking about the whole panty-sniffing, shoe-obsession thing. Reaper just gave off a creepy, intense vibe. The one that would make a woman suddenly cross the street if she saw him coming down the sidewalk at her.
I swallowed hard and asked, “So what can I do?”
“Nothing,” almost all of them chorused at once. Spooky had moved into my kitchen and was boxing up my things.
“That hardly seems alright,” I said and couldn’t help but blush.
“You want to do something, take some of these boxes in your car and head on over to the fuck studio – er, I mean your new place,” Fear said.
“Smooth, real smooth,” Grim said and he sounded genuinely irritated with him. I mean, if looks could kill. I swallowed uncomfortably and said, “It’s alright… I uh… I kind of already knew that part of the apartment’s history. Corvus already told me.”
The guys all exchanged a look at that, and all I could really do was stand there and flame with the awkwardness of the moment.
“Why don’t Reap and I carry some of these out to your car for you and you can, uh, head on over,” Grim suggested. I nodded quickly and couldn’t make eye contact and said, “Um, sure.”
I went back out, Grim and Reaper in tow, each carrying boxes from my bedroom to the back seat of the Jag.
“You’re in heels,” Grim observed.
“What?” I looked down. “Oh, yeah… I came straight from work.”
“One of us should go with you,” he looked to Reaper who nodded.
“Oh, no, that’s okay, really,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“I insist,” Reaper said, his voice quiet, reserved, and sort of unexpected. I gathered he didn’t talk much and that Grim did most of the talking for him.
“Cool, you go, I’ll stay, we’ll be there with the truck and the rest of this… stuff, as soon as we can.”
“It’s okay,” I said with a little laugh. “Most of itischeap shit that I rescued off the curb and re-did myself or bought from a bargain basement website or whatever. Plus swearing never did bother me much.”
“Well alright then,” Grim said. “For curb rescues, you did a great job.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Reap’s going with you to unload for you, and help with whatever you need. He doesn’t talk much, but he’s a good guy. Loyal like a motherfucker.”
Reaper and I exchanged a look and he gave a slight nod.
“Okay,” I said with an uneasy laugh.
My final thought as we both climbed into the Jag was,what was I getting myself into?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Corvus…
