Page 98 of Suck This

“What makes you think this place is safe?” I asked him. “If it was safe, that woman you’re so obviously freaking out silently about is…” His face went blank. “Yeah, I know you’re freaking out. I deduced that it wasn’t a good thing. You don’t have to hide stuff like this from me. I’m not a child. I’m a grown adult that’s been making decisions for herself for years.”

“And how did that work out for you?” he hissed.

My eyebrows rose.

He cursed.

“I’m sorry.” He exhaled. “There’s a connection I’m missing,” he said, sitting down facing me on the coffee table next to the couch. “I haven’t seen her since the night of the house fire. Then, all of a sudden, my baby is ready to move on to the afterlife, and she’s here to help her along? No, it doesn’t make sense. There’s something more at play here, and I haven’t figured it out yet.”

I nodded, happy that he was actually discussing this with me.

“And have you gone to the grave yet?” I asked. “You told me that she never left her grave. How was she able to do that this time?” My brain spun wildly. “And how did that woman know where to come? Has she ever been here before?” I let my feet fall to the ground and leaned forward. “Fox told me this place was a fairly new development for you. That it was built to protect those of your family that needed protection. A safe house of sorts.”

He nodded grimly. “I thought it was a safe house. And it might still be one. Ghosts have no rules or regulations that they live by. If they want to go somewhere, there’s nothing to stop them from doing so.”

“So, where has this wife of yours been hiding all of these years?” I tilted my head sideways. “And who was to say that she actually died in that house fire?”

He opened his mouth to answer me and then snapped it back shut.

“I don’t…” He paused. “I don’t know.”

I nodded grimly.

“It was obvious that your daughter died due to her being incorporeal,” I said. “She also hasn’t aged. Has your wife aged?”

“She’s not my wife anymore,” he muttered. “And I didn’t see her, you did.”

I thought back to what went through my mind when it came to the woman.

“She was young. She didn’t look like she was much over the age of twenty-two or three,” I told him.

“She was twenty when she died.” He stopped, licked his lips, and then cursed. “She could be a vampire. That would explain her not aging.”

I frowned.

“What does a vampire feel like?”

He brought my hand up to his chest, and I pinched him.

He cursed and stepped away.

However, I was delighted to see he had a smile on his face. Although small, it was there.

“There are two ways to check,” he said, his grin becoming wider and wider. “But first, I need to speak to the men.”

“Con?”

I stopped him when he went to step back inside.

“Yeah?”

I bit my lip.

“I lost a baby.”

His head tilted.

“I know.”

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