I did. We had some things to discuss. I folded my arms and glowered.
“Okay, so I’m gonna go ahead and admit that when you came to me, I was so overwhelmed by the idea that I would be able to see my father again, that I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“Blissful,” he cooed. “How could you not have been? I thought you were always in your right mind.”
“Well, that time I wasn’t.”
“Hard to believe.” He pulled out a cigarette and started to smoke. “So tell me—what’s crawled up your panties and died?”
“That’s disgusting. Nothing. But I know there’s more to this story than what you’re telling. How’d my father wind up with your soul, and what’s he want with it?” I jammed my finger near his face. “I know that you know, but what I can’t figure out is why you’re not telling me.”
“Because it’s none of your business,” he said sternly.
“It is if you want it back.”
How could I have been so stupid as to blindly believe Lucky? Yes, he’d helped me in the past, but I should’ve known there was more to it than my dad simply walking up to him and yanking his soul from his chest. This sort of thing didn’t happen without a good reason for it.
He studied me with suspicious eyes. And then suddenly he sighed as if annoyed that he had to reveal his secret, while at the same time accepting that he had to.
I smiled. Yes, often a spirit’s frustration made me joyful. Not something that I’m proud to admit, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
“We were gambling.”
“You lied to me.”
“You wouldn’t have taken this job if you had known that I was as much a culprit in this as your father. Who wants to help a gambler? No one. What I lost, I lost fair and square.”
Roan appeared and leaned against the doorframe, a triumphant smile on his face. “A man doesn’t give his soul up easily. He either sells it or loses it.”
Lucky laughed bitterly. “You’ve caught me. I lost my soul, and now I want it back.”
Roan crossed to me and draped a hand over my shoulder. “Care to tell us the whole story?”
Lucky shot fire from his eyes at Roan. “I don’t, but I will anyway. We were playing poker.”
Apparently not too much was different in the afterlife than it was here. There were still card games. I was shocked that Lucky hadn’t said they were playing Phase Ten.
That was a joke. Of course they were playing poker. I mean, just look at Lucky. He looked like he belonged in a place that served whiskey and cheap women, and not necessarily in that order.
“I was down and had nothing left to gamble, so I put my soul on the line. At first Vince didn’t want it.”
I quirked a brow. “But then you convinced him otherwise.”
He nodded. “Told him the extra power would make it so that he could do things that he wanted.”
“Like what?” Roan asked when Lucky took a moment to quietly reflect.
“Like see his daughter again,” Lucky replied.
Roan’s grip on my shoulder tightened. “Is that what he wanted it for?”
“What do I know why he wanted it? All I know is that he won the bet and took my soul.”
“If he won fair and square, why did you come to me looking to get it back? It’s your own fault that you lost it.”
“Because he figured you would have seen your dad,” Roan said.
Lucky’s head snapped up and down, confirming Roan’s theory. “I thought you’d be able to find him for me so that I can get back what’s mine.”
