I folded my arms. “What gives? I’ve been looking for you all week with no success, and then you show up knowing I want this computer and here it is. Here you are.”
Lucky sat on the bed and lit up another smoke. “I’m betting right now you want to push me on to the other side so I won’t make any more waves for you. Your people, they want to silence our voices. They want us to stay quiet.”
Anger built inside me. “You had your chance. You’re dead. Get it? What is it you want? To make mischief or to exist in peace?”
He glared at me. “You don’t understand. The lackeys never do.”
“Lackeys? What are you talking about?”
“I was hired, Blissful Breneaux.”
I eyed the computer. I wanted to snatch it up. “Hired? What are you talking about?”
He chuckled softly. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“I don’t have time for games, Lucky. Just tell me what the heck’s going on.”
He dropped his cigarette to the floor and squashed it under his booted toe. “I was hired to make mayhem and mischief. Hired to keep you”—he pointed at my chest—“in a job.”
“Me?”
He nodded. “You. All of you Ghost Teamers.”
I shook my head. This was ridiculous. “How would you be hired? It’s not as if you need money in your wallet to go buy a new car.”
“The light,” he said. Lucky’s eyes took on a sad, soulful look.
“The light?”
“It’s been kept from me.” He shook a fist. “I’ve been forced. Yes, forced to cause explosions, shut down power, all to keep the precious team alive. All the while I was promised time and time again that the next job would be my last. That the next time I caused mischief, I would be allowed to find the light. Go rest for eternity. Don’t you see? This has all been a game on you, Blissful.”
I frowned. “I still don’t understand. Who would do this? Who would stop you from passing on if that’s all you wanted to do.”
He tipped his head down and glared at me. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know.” I shifted my weight, trying to figure out if I could snatch the computer and lasso Lucky within seconds of each other. My right hand could grab the computer, my left the lasso.
Problem was, I wasn’t left-handed and couldn’t throw worth a darn that way.
I moved a little more. “You’re telling me that you’ve been hired to do all these things, hired to keep the team employed, and all the while all you’ve wanted to do was go to the afterlife. A name. Give me a name. Who did this to you?”
He smacked his lips. “Vince Breneaux.”
It was a punch to the solar plexus. My stomach clenched, and I immediately felt my intestines twist savagely.
“You’re lying,” I said coldly.
“Am I? Why is it I’ve never been captured when the best of the best were always sent after me?”
I cocked my head. “You’re too good.”
“Too good for you? You’re the best, they say. Yet how many times were you ever sent for me and got within distance to catch me?”
I thought about that. I’d seen Lucky one other time, and my father had kept me back.
“And who always came after me?”
“My father,” I whispered. “He always went himself.”
