“Hmm. What if someone that you wronged wishes the same?”
“You really know how to suck the fun out of a game.”
Houdini played with the black stud on his ear. “Merely an observation. I swear. And the third?”
Any wish. The strange part was I couldn’t think of anything I didn’t already have, or anything I couldn’t achieve myself. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how damn lucky I was. I touched the ruby heart pendant and felt Houdini watching me with interest.
“Not to go after Lenore?”
I gave him a sharp look.
“I know you despise her. After all, she betrayed her oath by swearing fealty to an anarchist. And yet… no one seems to know about it. How strange.”
Houdini obviously knew that Lenore had joined forces with Sparrow not long ago since he was flying around the mansion, but he wasn’t the sort who would turn her in. Any hopes that he would were dashed, now that I knew how tight they were.
“I can’t go after her.”
He tipped his head to the side. “Can’t… or won’t?”
Christian had given Lenore his word that he wouldn’t go after her in exchange for the necklace that restored my life, and part of that bargain included me not going after her. Houdini didn’t need to know everything.
I stood up and pushed in my chair. “You know what? Keep the last wish. My life is good.”
“Is it truly?”
“Yeah. It really is. I’ll let you get the tab since you can’t pay with ghost money,” I said with a grin.
Houdini shook his head and flashed a smile. “See you when I see you, Butterfly.”
I turned on my heel before walking off. “Actually, here’s my last wish: I would wish for you to take a long trip to Ecuador. Maybe we can catch up in a couple hundred years, and I won’t have to be constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering what misery you plan to unleash on my life. See you around, Chaos.”
I wasn’t sure how Houdini would take my suggestion, but I realized in that moment that I didn’t have to feel anything for him. Not hate, not love, not fear or pity. I owed him nothing. He owed me something I would never get back, and that was a normal life. But as long as he lurked around every corner, I would never have one.
CHAPTER24
Claude pulled into the empty parking lot of a print shop located in a rural area outside the Breed district. The engine on his red Porsche growled as he rolled into a parking space in front of the one-story building. Not much to look at with the brown brick and black windows.
“Stay alert,” he said to Gem.
After exiting the vehicle, he scanned their surroundings. The field across the street had a few political signs, and in the distance he saw—and smelled—a waste treatment facility. Ronald said he’d purchased this place because it would guarantee privacy. The previous tenants had vacated the building shortly after the city put in the smelly factory across the street.
“Let’s look around back,” Gem said, already turning the corner.
He admired her hair from behind. Gem was the only one in the house who let him do whatever he wanted so long as it was the color she desired. While Gem had let him experiment with other colors in the past, she was always partial to a pale lavender. He liked adding dimension by broadening the color palette. Sometimes he made it gradually darker from the outer layer to the inner, and other times he’d add an ombré effect. It brought him incredible joy to be able to make someone feel beautiful and confident with something as simple as hair. It reminded him of the bond he had with his little sister, and he knew she would have liked seeing him as a hairdresser. While it wasn’t his primary job, it was his passion.
Gem had a spring in her step as she rounded the building in her white platform sneakers, camouflage leggings, and black sweater. She claimed she needed to dress the part, which seemed unnecessary since this wasn’t a covert operation. Their sole purpose was to confirm if Ronald Frazier had given a truthful confession and to document what they found.
“Look! Just like he said.” Gem rapped her knuckles on a large loading dock.
The printing company must have shipped and received lots of items. Claude wondered if that was a ruse.
“Let’s try the door.” He walked up the stairs toward a side door and used a key from Ronald’s set to unlock it. “I don’t see how anything can fit in this small building.”
Gem rubbed her red nose and then warmed her fingers with a breath. “Remember, he said it was downstairs.”
“What printing office has a downstairs?”
“This one?” She hugged his arm. “Isn’t this exciting? I’ve always dreamed of being Indiana Jones.”
