He looked me up and down and sighed.
“Just stay out here for now,” he said and closed the door behind him.
A bitter wind was blowing—a Chicago evening flurry, frost in the air swirling behind me as I huddled against the doorway, ear planted close to the door. There were voices—four of them in the next chamber, if I was hearing right. If only I’d had time to set up audio capture…
“Ugh, have you been killing rats in here?” I heard from the conference room.
And then a hand snapped around my mouth, and I was dragged backwards, struggling…
Chapter 11
“You dumb bitch,” someone hissed in my ear.
I struggled forward, straining against hands I could not see and swiveled around. There was a woman standing there against the Chicago skyline, staring at me with wild eyes, her mouth open in a snarl. She was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Blonde hair in ringlets, pale skin, green eyes like a monster, and a leather-tight outfit. Long red talons seemed to curve from her graceful artist’s hands.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Oh, don’t even,” the woman said. “You know who I am. You know Eddie. You had him on his knees in that alleyway, you grimy human bitch. And you have the nerve to come here, to Hartshome Cathedral? This isn’t your lane, and you need to stay out of it.”
“It was you,” I said. “You’re the one that sent me that heart.”
“Did you enjoy that? Your coworkers might like the next present I send them even more. Your head in a fucking box.”
“I don’t want any trouble,” I said. “I swear to God.”
“Little too late for that one, bitch. You saw us arguing that day. I know you did. I could smell you from seventy paces. And you still went in that alleyway with him. You smell like rat piss, by the way.”
“I keep hearing that,” I said. “Look. I didn’t know what was going on. Woman to woman, I swear to you. If Eddie had told me you were still together, I wouldn’t have even considered it. I’m new to this city. I honestly don’t know anybody here and was just trying to have a good time.”
“Yeah, well.” The woman’s face was twisting. “I really wish you weren’t being so reasonable.”
“You starting to see me differently?”
“It’s just harder to kill a puppy when you like it,” the woman said.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I do. That’s what you don’t understand. Eddie claimed me. He turned me into one of these things. I was a normal girl before this. A young, fresh, living thing, someone like you, a pretty girl with nothing but a happy future ahead of me. I was going to be a psychologist. Did you know that?”
“How would I?”
“Just shut up,” the woman snapped. “What’s your name?”
“Stacey,” I said.
“Rebecca,” she said.
We shook hands reluctantly, and then withdrew, regarding each other cautiously.
“You don’t have to do this, Rebecca. I’m a person, just like you are. And can I just say? I am absolutely digging this Olivia Newton-John thing you have going on.”
Rebecca broke into a grin.
“Isn’t this outfit awesome? I would have never pulled this off when I was a human.”
“I couldn’t pull it off.”
“Well, you can’t have everything,” Rebecca said.
