Who was he talking about? The Grim Reaper?
“Charming, who was that?” I asked. I didn’t actually think he would tell me.
He turned abruptly and stared down into my face. Stark. That’s the only word that came to mind when I looked at him just then. There was no mask of perfection, no look of arrogance, no hint of a lie.
“My sister.” It was a whisper, a barely there confession.
Shock rippled through me. Charming had a sister? A real one?
Before I could say or do anything, he left, making excuses to Rosalyn about something that just couldn’t wait and promising to call her later.
After he had gone, I realized my opportunity to warn her away had presented itself. His odd behavior just now would help back up whatever I said.
I opened my mouth to tell her, to ruin everything for Charming.
Only the words that came out had nothing to do with Charming at all.
The more I talked, the more I realized I wasn’t going to be confessing anything today.
I couldn’t do it.
Chapter Nineteen
“Exhume - to revive or restore after neglect or a period of forgetting; bring to light.”
Charming
I drove straight to his house. That bastard had gone too far this time. I knew he was doing this. He had to be. There was no other explanation.
He opened the front door before I even knocked. He was wearing a long, black trench coat and his hand was clutched around something I couldn’t see.
I didn’t care what it was anyway.
I wasn’t leaving here until I got some answers.
“Charming. How nice of you to come unannounced, but I am on my way out.” He flipped up the collar of his coat and I saw that his hand was full of stones.
“Your killing spree is going to wait. We need to talk.”
“I suppose I have a few minutes.” He dropped the stones back into the bowl sitting on the table near the door.
I had a notion to reach out and shove them all to the ground, just to see his face when I did.
“Come along, then,” he called like I was some sort of dog.
In his office, he took a seat in the black chair he likely thought of as his throne and looked at me expectantly.
“Playing games with me isn’t going to work,” I said, not bothering to veil the anger in my tone.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” he replied, but his eyes shined with glee.
I stepped forward and slammed both my palms onto the surface of his desk. The bowl of stones sitting nearby rattled. “Don’t play stupid with me!” I yelled.
He looked at his disturbed stones and then back at me, anger igniting in his eyes. “I will do whatever I want. I can see that my games are doing exactly what they are meant to.”
So he was admitting it.
I had known it was him. But knowing it didn’t stop the lance of pain that whipped over me. I couldn’t help but hope that maybe he wouldn’t know what I was talking about. That maybe somehow… no. It wasn’t possible without him.
“Where is she?” I demanded, pushing away from his desk to pace the room.
“Who?”
I snapped. I came here for answers and was met with this. With a roar, I lunged forward, sweeping my arm across his desk with only one thing in my aim.
The glass bowl of stones went flying into the air and dropping onto the floor like a lead weight. The bowl shattered into millions of tiny glass shards and the stones went everywhere.
G.R. jumped out of his chair with an enraged cry and rushed to the mess, staring down at it like his children had all been murdered. “How dare you!” he screamed.
“How dare you!” I shot back. “I want to know where she is. I want to know what you’ve been doing with her all this time!”
“I don’t have to tell you a thing.” He snarled, reaching down to pick up the stones. “You answer to me!”
I pounced on him, moving so fast it took him off guard. I wrapped my hand around his neck and lifted, holding him up so his feet dangled in the air. He eyes bulged in surprise. I don’t think he was shocked I was able to lift him like this—he knew I had abilities. I think he was shocked that I would dare touch him this way.
“Where is my sister?” I roared.
His office door flung open and two men rushed in. They grabbed me from behind, hauling me backward, but not before I could toss the Reaper against the wall. I smiled at the sickening thud his body made when it hit.
His minions wrenched me back, shoving me up against the wall and pinning me there. They were stupid if they thought they could pin me down. Using my super strength once again, I brought my arms around with great force and smashed the two men together. They collapsed onto the floor at my feet.
The Reaper was standing amongst his scattered stones, watching me, when I stepped forward.
He began to laugh. A deep laugh that started in his belly and reverberated outward until his entire body was rolling with sick pleasure. “You’re starting to crack,” he goaded. “I barely had to do a thing. A few sightings, the exhuming of the past. Why, Charming, I never knew how easy it would be to take you down.”
“Do I look down to you?” I growled.
“Perhaps not,” he replied. “But soon. It’s going to eat you alive, you know. The wondering. Where is she? How is she? Is she frightened? Does she need me? After all, that is why you took this job in the first place, isn’t it? Because she needed you.”
I ground my teeth together so hard that pain radiated up my behind my eyes. Damn him. How did he even know about her? I never talked about anything personal with him. Not once. Not ever.
He laughed again when I said nothing. Then to the guys who finally picked themselves up off the ground, he ordered, “Get him out of here.”
One of them had the balls to grab my arm. I swung around and decked him, busting open his lip and knocking him to the floor. The other one made a move like he would charge me, and I used the energy welling up inside me and released it from my palm, hitting him in the center of his chest.
He flew back and hit the wall, sliding down until he was nothing but a ragdoll sprawled on the floor.
I turned back to G.R. “This isn’t over.”
“We’ll see,” was all he said.
Yes. Yes, we would.
Chapter Twenty
“Talk - to speak of or discuss (something).”
Frankie
It was late when I heard a single knock on my front door. Late as in the hours that I am no longer decent looking. I wasn’t asleep. I stopped trying to even pretend I was going to about an hour before. I figured Piper was no longer was buying the “I’m sick” story and since my cell phone was still in Charming’s pants, I was guessing I’d missed a couple more texts or calls.