I was still half asleep and I didn’t feel like trying to figure out who it was. “Who is this?” I demanded.
“Storm.”
“How’d you get this number?” I said, falling back into the bed face first.
“I’m a Ghost Escort. Finding things out is what I do.”
“I thought spying on people is what you do,” I said, rolling over and pulling the covers up to block out the morning cold.
“Well, my spying saved your ass.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I took care of the problem you had with the Target.”
“What did you do?” I said, sitting up and throwing off the covers. My fingers tightened around the phone and my palms became slick with sweat. I sat there frozen while images of Piper lying dead inside her apartment tormented my brain.
“I fixed it up so the hospital found your body. They called her and told her it was all a mix-up.”
“Oh. How did you pull that off?” I asked, relief turning my spine to jelly as I slumped backwards into the headboard.
“Don’t sound too grateful.” Storm snorted.
“Tell me what you want for this favor; then I’ll decide if I’m grateful.” People don’t do things just to help out other people.
“I don’t want anything other than for you to finish this job so we can go chill on a beach somewhere.”
A beach.
His words brought to mind the perfect image of the faded card I used to carry in my pocket. I snatched it years ago from some store. I never took things I couldn’t use (like clothes), eat, or trade for money or other stuff I wanted. But this… this was different. It had been one of the coldest days of the year that day. The ice was inches thick on the sidewalks and the snow banks were so high I thought they would never melt. It was impossible to stay warm no matter how many blankets I stole, where I huddled, or how much coffee I drank. Then I saw the image of the crystal-clear water, the sun, and the warm, welcoming sand, and I knew that was the place I wanted to be. That was the place I was going to leave this arctic prison for. And once I got there, I would never leave.
I took the little card and slid it into my jacket, and all winter long I would look at it every day and plan how I’d get there.Some day,I used to tell myself.Some day I’ll make it there.
I never did.
And now Piper had my card.
I told myself I didn’t need that card anymore. Now I had the money and resources to go to that place in the flesh. Maybe I’d buy a house and live there. Maybe I’d never come back to this frozen berg again.
“Dex, you still there?” Storm asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” I replied, shaking away the memory.
“Now that she isn’t too suspicious about you being a body stealer, I figured it’d be easier for you to get closer to her.”
“Why was she so suspicious of me in the first place?” I wondered out loud.
“I can’t tell you all her secrets!” Storm laughed.
“I don’t want to know them. I don’t care where she hides the key to her diary or what color her underwear are.”
Storm laughed again. “You so want to know what color they are.”
I grinned. Maybe I did.
“Well, duty calls. She’s up and moving around.”
“Hey, ah, how does she look this morning?”
