The fact that Lucky was willing to offer one meant that this job was a big deal to him.
“Blissful, you okay?”
Roan entered the kitchen and stopped when he caught sight of Susan and Lucky Strike.
He took a protective stance in front of me. “I see we have company.”
“Roan, I don’t recall if you’ve met before. This is Lucky Strike.”
“I can’t say that we have.”
Out of instinct, Roan stretched out a hand but stopped when he realized that Lucky was nothing more than a plume of smoke.
“Can’t get a handle on me,” Lucky said with a smirk.
“So I see.” Roan’s gaze flickered to mine. “Everything okay here?”
“Well, actually,” I said, tossing my hair over one shoulder, “Lucky here has come down from the light because he needs me to find my father.”
Roan scowled. “Andyouneed to do that, why?”
“Because she’s the best person to do so,” Lucky explained as he tapped ashes from his cigarette. “Blissful Breneaux is the best hunter around, and I need her to find him.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m not sure that I like the idea of working for a spirit.”
“I knew you would say that,” Lucky said. “It doesn’t even tempt you to see your father again?”
My stomach lurched. There were so many things that I had never said to Dad, told him how influential he had been to me, let him know exactly how much I loved him. Oh, and I also needed to kick him between the legs for what he had done to Lucky.
You know, regular daughter/father stuff.
My dad, bless his departed soul, had used Lucky, promising the spirit that he would help him cross into the afterlife if he made chaos when my dad needed it. Unfortunately my dad had done that in order to keep the covert government Ghost Team alive and viable. You know the saying, make work for yourself because nobody else is going to do it for you—well, that was my dad’s motto.
Okay, so it wasn’t a saying, but it should have been.
My dad had conned Lucky and the federal government. My father, with his lies, had taken a perfectly reputable government agency and ruined it because of his own ego.
So you see why I wanted to kick him.
“Let me get this straight,” Roan said. “You’re a spirit who could easily track another spirit, and yet you need Blissful to do that for you.”
“You catch on fast,” Lucky said in his gravelly voice. “I’ve come back from the light to track him.”
“Dad escaped heaven,” I informed Roan as if that made all the sense in the world.
Roan rubbed his chin. “Your dad escaped heaven, Lucky here has come over from the light to find him and now you’re wrapped up in this.”
“I’m not wrapped up in anything.”
“Nobody looks wrapped,” Susan said. “But I bet that would be a killer party. Let’s wrap each other up in Christmas paper, tape ourselves together and see who can get out first.”
“Not my idea of a good time,” Roan said smartly.
“I’ll keep my hands to myself,” Susan promised.
“Not helping,” he told her.
I flared out my arms. “Can we please just get back to the matter at hand? Lucky?”
