Page 2 of Hellbound

Marian doesn’t even know where she’s going with this anymore; she just needed a curveball to throw. This time, it’s the stupid website she stumbled upon while investigating one of the wealthy men in Daniel Eaves’s orbit. A restaurateur some guy on the internet insists is a demon. Ridiculous.

There’s no such thing as demons.

Marian doesn’t even believe in Hell; she has no faith, despite years of Daniel forcing her to attend services. She almost recalls a time before his Christian cult, of traditions she associates with warmth. But the memories are so faded and frayed, she’s not sure they’re real anymore.

It doesn’t matter; Marian wants nothing to do with a god who condemns her to Hell for being true to herself, or the people she takes to bed. She says the only other thing she can think of to the mother who believes her daughter is damned.

“Cool, thanks.”

A long silence passes between them before Deborah Eaves looks at her daughter again.

“I know what you’re doing.”

Marian glances sideways.

“What are you talking about?”

“The piece you’re working on. About Daniel. I saw the notes on your phone.”

Marian tries to ignore the feeling of the world crashing down around her. Of course this is happening. Deborah Eaves is wife to Daniel Eaves first and mother to Marian Meyer last.

It doesn’t even feel like betrayal; betrayal implies the existence of trust. Marian hasn’t trusted her mother since the summer she was lured into a car with the promise of her first trip to Disneyland and was delivered to a fat camp in Bakersfield instead.

Marian’s voice shakes with bridled rage. “When did you go through my phone?”

“That’s not important. You’re going to stop. The snooping, the article, all of it.”

Daniel’s going to kill her. But it’s as if her mother can read her mind.

“I won’t tell him about it if you promise me right now you’ll stop.”

The words Marian needs won’t come. Maybe she’s forgotten every word she knows; she’s struggling to process what her mother’s told her. The anger and dread turn to confusion and disbelief.

It must be a trick. She forces herself to keep her eyes on the road; a light drizzle speckles the windshield. Her mother never conceals anything from Daniel.

“Why?” is all Marian can manage. The taillights in front of her bloom large and blinding red. “What would Daniel do?”

“For once in your life, just do as I say.”

Her mother shifts in her seat. Marian has studied this woman’s body language her whole life, learning to decode every hitch of breath, every subtle shift in posture for her own protection. But Marian is caught off-guard by Deborah Eaves telegraphing a feeling she so rarely sees in this woman.

Fear.

Seconds, or maybe minutes later, when Deborah Eaves looks at her, Marian meets her gaze. She wants answers to questions she hasn’t even cobbled together yet. What’s made her so afraid that she’d deign to warn the daughter she resents?

Could some part of her care after all?

Hope kindles in Marian’s chest. Heavenly light fills the cabin, as if God himself has blessed this moment. Her hands shake and slip, and the wheel of fortune turns sharply left. Gabriel blows a horn that sounds like a semitruck.

Metal and glass fold around her as Marian falls ever further from grace.

WELCOME TO HELL > INTRO Help

M.M.Diver—N. HollywoodI went into cardiac arrest two months ago. A doctor said I was dead for seven minutes.I think I went to Hell.But I didn’t come back empty-handed.

CHAPTER ONE

Two years later