Page 83 of Death Deals

Nope, I refused to think about it. REFUSED.

It was too nauseating.

“Just get out of Cole already so we can get going,” I said.

He smiled. “Absolutely.” Stepping back, he held out his arms and threw his head back.

Cole’s skin rippled all over, and when Monnie swung his hands over his head, his body jerked violently. More bones shifted and cracked as if he’d been hit from all angles by an invisible force.

He crumbled, landing on the dock like a sack of potatoes.

“Cole!” I ran over and dropped at his side. My erratic heartbeat drummed against my eardrums as I shook his shoulder roughly and searched for any signs of life. Like before, he was breathing but barely, and when I pressed my fingers against his throat, his pulse was almost too faint to feel.

I shook him again. “Cole! Cole, wake up.”

Mother f-er. Monnie had said he’d be okay. Had our attempts of exorcising him hurt him that much? His face was still covered in sores and badly burned. Had we gone too far?

When I rolled him onto his back, a soft groan escaped his lips, and hope swelled at the sound. “Cole, is it you?”

When his eyelids fluttered open, he stared up at me with his normal cool-blue eyes and his stupid side-smile appeared. The one I thought I’d never see again.

Yep. That was Cole alright.

“Jade.” It was his voice. Just his but still scratchy with pain. Monnie’s accent no longer mingled with it.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said.

“Of course it is.”

I huffed a laugh.

His gaze swung left and then right, taking in the scene around us. “Where are we now?”

“The docks,” I replied.

“Fairport?”

“No, still in Michigan.”

He grimaced. When his gaze came back to me, he said, “The details are still foggy.”

“You were possessed,” I explained. “By Monnie.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“I know,” I said.

He shifted to sit up, grunting in pain as he moved. “I don’t remember. If that bastard possessed me, then how…?”

“I-I made a deal.”

His eyes widened. “No, Jade, you didn’t.”

“I had to.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“You were going to die.”

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