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“All of the above,” he whispered. His breath blew across my neck, giving me goosebumps.

“Then of course I will fix you special treats,” I promised. “I’ll also put a cold compress on your warm brow, and force you to wear an ice pack.”

He didn’t laugh. Instead, his teeth grazed the side of my neck. I looked down in the bowl. Chaos’ food was done. I turned around and put my arms around Kai’s shoulders and lifted my head up for a kiss.

Kai’s head shot up at the sound of the doorbell.

What the hell?

I’d lived here for seven weeks and hardly anybody had come to my house. Why now?

“Stay in the kitchen, Marlowe. Let me see who it is.”

I was shocked to see a gun in his hand.

“Kai, somebody out to kill me isn’t going to knock on the door,” I protested.

“You can never be too careful. Stay where you are, Sweetheart, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I heard Kai answer the door, and there was some conversation. I heard my name mentioned a few times, and I really wanted to go out there, but I didn’t. I’d promised Kai. The deal was, when you made a promise, you kept it. Full stop.

I heard him before I saw him. Kai came storming around the corner.

“Marlowe, this isn’t a big deal, okay?” He had both hands on either side of my neck. He was looking down at me, his eyes were the color of ice.

That meant something was a big deal. A huge deal.

“What?”

“I need you to come out here. Someone wants to give you a letter. That’s all. Just take the letter and he’ll leave.” I could tell he was trying to contain his anger. It felt like anger on my behalf.

“What’s the letter about?”

“Just take the letter, and let’s get him the hell out of here, and then we can talk about it. Okay?”

I tried to think of what this was about, but Kai was on my side, so I just nodded.

“Okay,” I nodded. “Let’s go get this over with.”

When we got to the door, I saw it was shut. “Where is he?”

“I left him outside.”

“Of course you did. Why don’t you open the door?”

Kai scowled, then opened the door. “Here she is.”

“Are you Marlowe Jones?” the skinny young man asked.

I nodded.

“Do you have ID?”

“She’s not getting ID for you. This is the address, she’s the occupant. Give her the letter,” Kai growled.

The man backed up a step, looked at me, and held out his trembling hand with a letter. “This is for you, ma’am. You’ve been served.”