Page 33 of Hell’s Half Acre

Sorcha passed a gentle look to him that did the strangest things to his stomach. “I heard on the scanner that the business was vandalized…and paid for. You?”

He didn’t really want to answer that. Acts of kindness were still new and different for him.

While Helly often said that wasn’t true, he knew his past and refuted that he’d ever done a good deed for anyone.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to answer as Envee made a loud sound of distress.

Dropping the bucket, Envee held her head as she wailed in pain. “It’s the devil! Why is he tormenting me? Dominus, make it go away!”

Luke bit back a smile. “Now there’s something we never get in Hell. It’s a brain freeze, Envee. Stop eating so fast and it won’t do that.”

Patting her head, she scowled at him. “Really?”

“Really. Right, Sorcha?”

She nodded. “Right. You get that anytime you eat or drink a lot of something really cold. Once your stomach warms up the food, the pain stops.”

“Oh.” Envee let out a belch before she returned to eating her ice cream at a much more reasonable pace.

Luke took his keys back from Sorcha and returned them to the bowl by the door where he kept them. “One demon down…”

“Does she know where the others are?”

“Envee?” he asked to get her attention.

She looked up with an arch stare. “Dominus?”

“Where did the others go?”

She gave an adorable shrug. “No idea. Maybe they were hungry, too.”

That wasn’t the answer he wanted.

“How did you get out?”

Again, she shrugged. “We were minding our own business. Watching K-Pop Demon Hunters. Next thing we knew, the door opened. Dohlar let out a whoop and ran for it. The others ran past me so fast, they knocked me down. I sat on the floor and let them go. Once they stopped bumping me, I got up and looked around for Helly. No one was here, so I decided to get some ice cream. I was going to come back. I just had to try the ice cream first and see why you like it so much.” She licked at the chocolate ring around her mouth with her forked tongue. “I now know why you eat so much of it. We need to find a way to get this in Hell.” She studied the remnants at the bottom. “Don’t they make fried ice cream? If they fry it here, could we fry it in Hell?”

Luke had no idea what to say to any of that. While demons lived to tell lies, he believed her story. Unlike the others of her ilk, Envee had never much caused him trouble. All in all, she’d been among his favorites in Hell. Especially since she often told on the others and helped them keep the FCDs in check.

Sorcha went to the kitchen to get a paper towel for Envee. “What would anyone have to gain from releasing your demons?”

He arched both brows at those words. His real, internal demons were intense and needed anger management. They were not something anyone wanted to unleash carelessly.

Sorcha laughed as she must have caught on to his thoughts. “Okay, I get if you released your inner demons, that would be terrifying. But why release your closet demons?”

“’Cause, Fuck you, Ken.” Someone was screwing with him. He could feel it in his bones. Why else would they let them out?

The closet demons served no real purpose. As gifts from his father, they were vicious by nature. They reveled in pain. But without a target, they would just cause general mayhem among the humans. The only reason to let them out would be to irritate him or get him in trouble at work.

But that wasn’t his biggest concern. “We need to start thinking a little closer to home.”

“What do you mean?”

He jerked his chin toward the closet. “Who knew they were here? It’s not like I’ve sent out greeting cards to let my Hell buddies know where I live.”

“Which sibling did you tell?”

That was the problem. “I didn’t. I know better.” ’Cause, Fuck you, Ken. They’d screw with him just to do it. They were assholes that way.