Page 41 of Insidious Heart
“She canceled?”
“Yeah. Said she was too freaked out over all the bodies and didn’t want anyone she invited to turn up as The Harvester of Bones next victim.”
Considering they found another body yesterday—one that doesn’t belong to the ghost—it was probably a good call.
“Oh!” Ember squeals. “She still placed an order for everyone though and I have that dragon dildo you wanted. Great choice, by the way.”
Dragon dildo?
Well, I definitely called that shit. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Linnie decided to order me a dildo replica of a dragon peen.
“The new supernatural line isn’t doing as well as I’d hoped but I’m going to keep pushing it because I own all of them and the dragon is one of my favorites, coming in at a close second to the wolf dick. But the dragon is a solid choice. I mean, who wouldn’t want to ride something as long as your forearm that’s thick and girthy? Not to mention it was designed so the aesthetically pleasing scales act as an extra stimulant.Sogood.” Ember smiles at me with a wink as my cheeks heat. “I can go grab it if you’re not in a hurry.”
I am going to kill Linnie.
Just as she stands to seemingly retrieve my dragon peen, Cal comes strolling through the door and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see him than I am right now. Hell, I’ve never really been happy to see him, per se, but right now I could hug him for ending this conversation.
“No, that’s ok. I have to get going.” I stand with a small smile. “If you get it to Linnie, she can bring it to me at work.”
“Sure, no problem. And here.” Ember reaches into her pocket and pulls out a card. “It’s for my business, but that’s my personal cell. If you ever need anything else, like lube or whatever, or if you want to hang out with some awesome ladies who love Kermit, feel free to give me a call.”
I nod my thanks and quickly hide the card as Cal stops next to me then watch as Ember shoots him a huge grin before she heads out the door.
“School friend?” He grunts as we follow.
“Yeah.” Becausesex toy sellerorstrip club managerprobably wouldn’t go over too well.
“Cool hair.”
I arch a brow as I look up at Cal but he just shrugs, leads me to his truck, and starts driving as soon as I’m in.
What a weird fucking day.
* * *
And my dayjust got even weirder.
I turn in a circle slowly, my eyes wide and my heart racing as I take in my bedroom.
The blood is gone.
The carpet is new but very similar to what I had before. I can smell chemicals and paint, my walls are the same color but void of any bleached out blood spots, and my furniture is where it’s supposed to be. There’s even a new armchair and ottoman in the corner that is a nearly perfect match to what was originally there.
Aside from my jewelry box, everything is almost exactly as it was.
And the blood is completely gone.
My palms start to sweat as my stomach swirls, my heart beating faster over what this could all mean.
I left the house at 6:30 a.m. and everything was still a bloody mess. Cal picked me up and took me straight to work. All of the prospects left when we did, and no one else was at my house.
My father is still away and will be until sometime during the week, as far as I know, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t come back.
Sabine Woods isn’t that far of a drive, less than an hour, so it’s not a stretch to think that maybe… maybe Beau came home. He knows Joker is missing and he’s not happy about that, so he could have stopped in briefly to look for him, or to question me. It’s possible my father came home, went to my room and saw the mess, then made the prospects fix it. With the right number of men it could have easily happened and if that’s the case, then Beau knows something horrible took place here and he… he…
My stomach twists as I circle the room again and just before I spiral into a full blown panic over that entire scenario and what it means, something on the bed catches my eye.
There, on the foot of my bed sitting in the middle of the purple throw blanket, is a bracelet.
