“Oh no, I think I’m blind,” Alice whimpered. “That’s not something that anybody is supposed to see. It’s horrible.”
Ruth clamped a hand over Alice’s eyes. “Then stop looking. Who would’ve thought that seeing a spirit without its soul would be so grotesque?”
Not me, that was for sure. Before Ruth and Alice made more of a mess of this situation than it already was, I shooed them out. “Give us a few minutes, will y’all?”
“Lawd yes,” Alice declared. “I don’t ever want to witness that again. I thought the good Lord was taking me to heaven. We were skipping the whole death thing altogether, and he was just whisking me away.”
“Okay, well, not today,” I murmured.
“Come on, Alice.” Ruth tugged her through the swinging door. “We’ll see Jesus and all the angels another time.”
“Thank goodness! I still have so much work to do on earth.”
When their voices had faded, Roan spoke. “You know, for some reason I have a hard time believing that another spirit stole a soul. Sounds like that’s the devil’s territory.”
I placed a gentle hand on his stony bicep. “Lucky has helped me in the past. We came to an agreement before. He can be trusted.”
At least I thought so. There was a tickle in the back of my mind that suggested perhaps I should grill Lucky more, but seeing the empty spot in his body had convinced me to proceed with his request.
No one deserved to be without their soul.
A dark shadow crossed Roan’s face. He was skeptical. But instead of voicing that, he only said, “If you say so.”
Lucky buttoned his vest. “You don’t have to believe me. I can walk out this door right now. But Blissful”—I blinked and he was standing in front of me, inches from my face—“I’m not lying. You know the sort of man your father was. Stealing my soul for his own purposes isn’t beyond him.”
Dad had screwed Lucky over once. Why wouldn’t he do it again?
“Why does he need your soul?” I asked.
Lucky floated back to the stool, but instead of sitting, he rested his foot on one of the rungs and leaned both elbows on his knee. “You’d have to ask him that. I don’t know why one spirit would need another’s soul.”
Hmmm. He knew more, he just wasn’t saying it.
A spark flared in Lucky’s eyes. “Well, Blissful, is this a case that you want? One ghostly gift in exchange for returning your father and my soul to me?”
One ghostly gift. I wanted to see my father again and could use the gift to have him come to mine and Roan’s wedding—once we set a date, that was.
Not having a date was a bit of a sore spot with my fiancé, but it would all work itself out. I knew it would.
But I also had to think—how would I hold my dad and keep him for Lucky? If Lucky stayed nearby, all I would need to do was talk to my dad, convince him to hand the soul over. Maybe he wanted to and he just hadn’t figure out how.
And maybe I was being blinded by my own love for him.
“Will you harm Dad?” I asked.
“All I want is what’s rightfully mine.” Lucky pushed off from the stool and drifted to the back door. “Do you have an answer?”
Susan crossed her fingers. “Oh, please let it be the right one.”
“Hate to break it to you, but there isn’t a right or wrong answer here. There just is what there is.” To Lucky, I said, “I’ll do it. I’ll find my father. For one gift,” I reminded him sternly.
He plucked his top hat from his head and bowed. “Whatever your heart desires.”
I smiled. “Good.”
“Name your price at the time services are rendered.” He slipped partway through the door, leaving only his head visible. “I’ll be checking in on you, Blissful Breneaux.”
I wove my hand through Roan’s arm. “I’ll be counting on it.”
