Davy wiped a bit of beetroot off his lip, his thumb smudged purple-red where it smeared.
“Why does he need an accountant?” he asked. “Have you gone over-budget on the party by that much?”
“If I’d gone over-budget, he’d be calling a divorce lawyer,” Trudy said dryly. She buttoned up her coat and came around to drop a quick eggy kiss on his cheek. “No, it’s something about taxes? A friend of his gave him a heads-up about an audit or something? Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s something and nothing. And our accountant is just day-drinking at his in-laws’.”
Huh. Davy’s money would have bet the Mafia would have been the first to respond to him chumming the water. He supposed it wasn’t surprising that an organization with that much Catholicism baked in lagged on the holidays.
“I hope so,” Davy said. “With everything that’s been going on at work, I’m not surprised he’s worried, though.”
He really was good at being an asshole.
Trudy caught the inference enough to look worried, but she didn’t ask. At a guess, after ten years of being a military contractor’s wife, she’d learned ignorance helped her sleep at night.
“Anyhow,” she said, changing the subject awkwardly. “I’m still going to see you at the party?”
Davy nodded and…well, why the hell not. It was worth a shot.
“If there is going to be an audit, maybe you should get the wheels on that divorce lawyer moving,” he said, with a smile to make it obvious it was a joke. “How much would it cost to make it into a costume party, do you think?”
Trudy rolled her eyes. “The only one who’d hate that more than Fraser is you,” she pointed out. “You don’t even like wearing a suit.”
Davy shrugged. “Tell you what,” he said. “Make it a masked ball and I’ll wear a costume. If I’m lyin’, I’m—”
Trudy shushed him quickly. “No,” she said and pointed a finger at him. “Not even as a joke. Not during Solstice.”
She left, coat billowing behind her. Davy watched her go and then reached over the table to swap their plates. One of the other diners gave him a disapproving look. He ignored them as he tucked into the leftover muffin.
Social engineering had always been Fraser’s side of things, not his. But he thought the little bit of poison he’d dripped could bear some fruit.
He probably wasn’t going to get his masked ball, but there was a good chance Fraser would end up sleeping alone tonight.
Which could be useful…ifDavy used Hill.
Davy sopped up some hollandaise and egg with the muffin and took a bite. He still wasn’t sure it was worth the risk, although he refused to think it further through than that.
“Three dollars,” the cheerful, sweaty man behind the kiosk counter said as he held the Baby Ruth chocolate bar out. A battery-powered Santa jiggled merrily on a bench behind him.
He waited, blissfully unaware of the tentacles trying to shoplift their own treats off the counter. It wasn’t even candy. They poked at a chewed pen and dipped into the change jar to try and stir the pennies.
Davy stared at him. Then he shook his head, gave up on the “in my day” rant that was welling up, and handed over the well-washed five he’d found in a pocket. He got less change back than he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t like it was his money.
He tore the end of the wrapper open with his teeth as he walked away. The first bite was gooey, sticky, satisfying non-caroby goodness, but it turned to dirt and worms on his tongue. It was stupid, but for the first time since he’d crawled into Hill he felt …out of place.
Not his time.
Not his life.
Not his fucking candy.
Davy grimaced to himself and stashed the half-eaten confection in his pocket. It was stupid. He knew he was dead, long dead. Time passed differently, or at leastfeltdifferently, in the Beyond. The dead still saw the living world move and change without them.
Hell, Davy was wearing the very attractive body of a man who’d been an egg in someone’s ovary the last time Davy had taken a breath. It was what it was.
But the price of aBaby Ruththrew him for a loop? Davy took a deep breath that didn’t help as he fell into step with the rest of the seasonal shoppers. Make it make sense.
The uneasy feeling crawled down his spine and got into his tentacles. They hackled up around him, restless and insistent as they lashed out at the empty air. Davy assumed therewassomething there, in the Beyond, but since he couldn’t see whose space the tentacles had decided to invade, it wasn’t his problem.It was a refreshing break from any accountability for their behavior…not that he’d ever taken much of that.
Then something grabbed hold of one andyankedhard enough that Davy felt it. Not Hill’s skin and bones,Davyhimself. He was crushed against the inside of Hill’s body, suddenly aware of the sharp edges of bone and tangles of nerves.
