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“Who’s Penthesilea?” Giulia exclaimed.
“Jungle woman. You didn’t name her, so I did. She was the greatest warrior woman among the Amazons.”
Giulia’s nostrils flared and she shot me again, but Rob brought me back to life.
“Can someone please decide if I’m coming or going?” I groaned. “How many times do I have to die?”
“Shut up,” they both shouted at me. Then they started all over again. I died and was brought back to life multiple times over the next half hour. And the whole time, I wished I had just stayed home with Freckles. Then none of this would have happened.
I spotted a grenade attached to Giulia’s hip and snagged it, pulling the pin. “This ends now!”
I released the striker lever and felt heat rush over me as the plane went up in flames.
Jerking upright in bed, I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked over at Maggie sleeping peacefully. Pulling back the covers, I placed my hand on her round belly and smiled. “I’m not going anywhere.” Then I jerked my head up as I considered the craziest fucking dream I’d ever had. “But I do need to make some alterations to Operation: Freckles’ Delivery.”
41
GIULIA
My lips moved along with my fingers as I put the finishing touches on my latest Reed Security book. I was pretty happy with the way it all turned out, and that I hadn’t been sent to an asylum. That was an added bonus. The characters would continue to rebel in my head, but at least we’d reached an accord.
“So, all finished?” Oci asked from the doorway.
“Yep.” I turned to him and smiled. “Thank God this one’s in the bag. I didn’t think it was ever going to end.”
“Just do me a favor. The next time you feel like the characters are starting to take over, tell yourself it’s not real and walk away.”
He bent over and kissed me before reading through the ending. I turned back to the document and hit the compile button. My husband thought he’d won this round, but he would never know the truth. The life of an author was complicated and lonely at times when all you had to rely on were the characters rummaging through your brain.
I may have lost the battle, but I would win the war. I still had a Christmas book in the works. I grinned as I thought of all the potential storylines. Then I remembered Axel’s series that was coming after I finished my cowboy series in Montana. Yes, there were plenty of opportunities for danger and death.
“So, after this, do you have any plans to kill off any more characters?” he teased.
“Not yet. But who knows what the future holds?”
