“As in that pretty purple spirit of yours gets sucked out of that body and you get sent into a fate I hear is worse than hell. An endless world of emptiness, caught between places, still thinking and feeling but being completely lost in a void of nothing.”
Hell actually sounded preferable. I shrugged. “I’m not worried about being recalled,” I said, the word sounding weird on my tongue. “I’ll get the job done.”
“You better. I’m very invested in this assignment. I’m going to be watching you.”
“Why would you care?”
“Let’s just say there’s something in it for me when she dies.”
Something inside me wanted to tell him to stay far away from Piper. The thought of him near her made my skin crawl. But I didn’t let it show. It would reveal more than I wanted to. And I didn’t really understand what those feelings meant anyway.
“What do you get out of this?” I pressed.
“Did G.R. tell you nothing?”
I shrugged. I was beginning to wonder that myself.
“Sometimes the Escorts get more than payment after eliminating a Target. Sometimes we get powers.”
“Powers.” I scoffed.
“It’s the reason we just don’t go around killing anyone. It’s the reason we have Targets.”
“So some lives are more valuable than others.”
“Exactly. Some of them have tons of money—those are mostly my Targets.” He flashed a grin and I got a glimpse of the charm he bragged about. It dawned on me he was used to charming people out of their money and then killing them. “And some,” he continued, “have abilities that are beneficial to us.”
Well, I knew Piper didn’t have any money. That meant she must have some sort of ability. What could it be?
I pushed that thought away because another was forming. “How could someone take another person’s ability? How would you even know who had one?”
“You don’t know?” Charming said, grinning like he had a secret no one else knew.
“Know what?” I growled. He was an irritating ass.
“Who you—whowe—work for.”
“Yes, I do. You know I’ve met him.”
“But he didn’t tell you who he was, why he has the power he does.”
“Just spit it out already.”
“Well, maybe knowing who you’re dealing with will speed up the job completion.”
I gave him ajust spit it outlook and he grinned wider.
“Your new employer is none other than the Grim Reaper. The ultimate dealer of death.”
“The Grim Reaper,” I echoed, disbelief in my voice.
Charming spread his hands wide. “Who better to run a death ring? With a single touch he can claim a life. No one has the power to stop him and no one would even believe it to try.”
I sat there, partially stunned. I never in a million years imagined this. I knew he had to be powerful. I had known there was something I was missing… but this. This was not what I expected.
Yet I believed it. He went by G.R., mere initials for his full title. He kept bodies in his closet and radiated power, yet he seemed almost jolly. Of course he would be. Because he knew he’d never be stopped. He didn’t have to be mean and vile. If he wanted someone dead all he had to do was touch them.
And now I worked for him.
