Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Pet fluttered in his face and shook a finger at him. “You. You’re the reason. SBP knows you love Sky.”
“I do not love her,” he scoffed. “Not anymore. But what does that have to do with Amelia and Miguel?”
“Lie to yourself, tailor, but a sex fairy knows what you desire most, and it’s not that frog I just humped in your garden.”
Poor thing. “Just get to the fucking point. Why did SBP take them?”
“SBP thinks you’ll seek revenge for Sky’s murder. When the time is right, they plan to use Amelia and Miguel as leverage to make you back down.”
He had to admit they were clever, but he did not plan to retaliate. Sky was a grown woman and had made her choice. As for rescuing Amelia and Miguel, he could be persuaded to help, but Sky would need to do things his way. Groveling wouldn’t hurt either. Also, it would have to wait until after he tracked down Cimil.
“All right. So what does Sky want to do now?” he asked. Say it, Sky. Admit you need me.
“She needs you to kill yourself,” Pet said.
Damien tilted his head, unsure if he’d heard her correctly. “Kill myself?”
Pet elaborated for Sky, “They’re only holding Amelia and Miguel hostage to prevent you from retaliating against them for murdering Sky. If you’re dead, her sister and nephew will be released.”
“Sky actually wants me to…die?” he asked stiffly. It was a bitter pill to swallow and irrefutable proof that she did not love him. Never had. Never will.
“Eye for an eye, Sky says. You owe her.” Pet snickered.
With a sigh, Damien ran a hand through his thick, brown, manly hair. Sky’s request needed no explanation because the ugly truth was that he’d ended Sky’s first life—a fact he tried not to think about.
And she’s never going to let me forget it. Yes, he’d been on a job, and there had been extenuating circumstances, but at the end of the day, he’d run her over with his SUV. He’d squished her like a little bug right outside her own house.
Meanwhile, he’d been given three lifetimes. Four if you took into account that most men only lived to fifty in the 1800s. It all added up to deep remorse for shortening the life of a woman he’d unexpectedly come to love.
Not that I do any longer, but I still feel like an asshole for killing her that first time. Which was how she’d come to haunt him and why the question before him now had a clear answer.
“No way,” he said.
“No?” Pet arched a little brow.
“Yep. No.”
Suddenly, Sky’s faint form appeared before him. She wore a black suit and had her dark hair in a high ponytail. It must’ve been what she was wearing when SBP offed her. Either way, she looked so sexy that he wanted to take a nap.
A hard, long nap. Dream sex was the easiest way to get it on with a ghost.
Damien swallowed a dry lump in his throat. “Sky, you look lovelier than ever—all steamy and translucent.”
“Cool it, Damien,” she said with a faint but furious voice. “You owe me.”
“Correction: I owed you until you were given a second chance at life. It was your choice to throw it away, along with everything else. So, no, I will not kill myself to save your sister and Miguel.”
“Damien, when I died this second time, I went back to the underworld. And when I sat there trying to decide if I should just move on and rejoin the cosmos or return here, do you know what happened?” Sky asked.
“Obviously you chose to haunt me again because torturing me gives your dead heart deep joy,” he said dryly.
“Wrong. I was determined to let you live your life. I knew how much I hurt you when I left, and I wanted you to be free of that. Then I hit the poker tables, just to have a little fun before signing off, and guess who I ran into: your father.”
“My father?” Damien’s father had died of the plague about one hundred and eighty years ago. He had been a hard man who took his tailoring seriously and taught Damien well.
“Yes, and then we got to talking, and he told me that if I was still feeling a pull to go back to you, it was for a reason. He told me that I had unfinished business, and you were meant to help me with it.”
“Maybe he simply wanted you to fold.” Poker was the only game played in the underworld, and they took it seriously. So he’d heard.
“Damien, I only have a few seconds left, but your father told me what a selfless, loyal, and honorable man you are. He said if anyone could help, it’s you. So help me. Please? Because you know I died trying to stop SBP. You know I gave you up because some things are more important than ourselves, and I know you understand that because you lived alone for nearly two hundred years simply to protect everyone around you from your fake curse. That is the man I fell in love with and will always love.”