Page 16 of Hot Ghoul Summer

“Oh no.”

“And you love me.”

“Ugh.”

“And you know that I wouldn’t do this if I could think of any other way. Even if Molly believed me and locked herself in her house with a team of bodyguards for the next three weeks, what happens in six months? A year? Her stepfather can keep using her as bait or barter until he dies.”

“You need to talk to Garmin. Reach out to one of the guys upstairs. Have them send an archangel-gram or something to scare him straight. You know the ink on those scrolls is erasable. He could change.”

“Come to the house. Please. Just stand in front of it for ten minutes. I want to see where Garmin is.”

“If I come over now, I’m bringing your puppy. He keeps sleeping in coffins and about gave my dad a heart attack.”

“Bring the dog, but just come, please? Pleeeease?”

“You owe me,” Sera sighs and ends the call.

In a few minutes, I see a soft blue orb floating outside with a smaller, fluffier, three-head ball bouncing beside her. That’s all I need.

“Be back in a few minutes! Don’t worry, the house is safe, Moll!” I shout and vanish.

IT’S A TRAP. THEY MAKE you think they’ve left, and then you run, then they catch you. It’s a game of cat and mouse. Only sick bastards play it.

Still...

I race to the window to see if a car leaves. Nope.

A woman in a long blue dress is walking around the house. A neighbor! I pound on the window and then almost pee my pants when the lady turns.

She has a skull face—but not like a yucky skull. It’s like one of those Dia De Los Muertos skulls, only different. This looks alive and too ornate to be painted on, like it moves with her surprised facial expression that quickly softens into a smile.

I think this must be what lady reapers look like.

“Can I help you?”

I shriek and have a sudden bladder failure—minor, but still gross. “Who are you?” I whimper.

“I’m Sera. Toby’s just running an errand, and he’ll be right back,” she smiles and speaks in a sweet, reassuring voice.

“Can you let me out of here?”

“Um. I can, but I don’t think I should. Toby’s really worried about you.”

“Well, he shouldn’t be. Should he?”

The lady has human eyes, deep blue-black eyes that haunt your soul with a single glance. Those eyes dart guiltily away.

My stomach pinches me. “Hey, do you know something about this? Is he telling the truth? Someone’s hunting me?”

“Someone could be. He’s checking.”

“He’s kidnapping.”

“I know, I told him to stop this, but he won’t. I’ve known him for years, and my dad has known him for even longer. Toby’s a good guy, a straight shooter, as my dad likes to say. He’s risking his own soul to save yours, okay?”

“He is?” Don’t buy it. She could be lying, too.

“Yap!”

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