Page 8 of Cold Sacrifice

“Calm down, Popeye,” Richard said. “I just did what he asked. I let him feel me.”

“He said he just let Max feel him,” I said. “And if he fucks with my people, I’m sure he knows he’ll find himself in a nice little ghost trap, alpha ghost or not.” I narrowed my eyes at Richard. “You understand that, bud?”

He struggled a bit to lose his smile but finally managed. “I understand, Kait,” he said gravely.

I walked to Max. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. That’s my first time feeling a ghost. I think I might not really have believed they were real until that moment. Super weird.” Then he pulled away from Joe and sauntered to the door. “I have some information to find. Gracie will bring in the next client.”

Max was fine.

Joe was still pissed, though, and I was, too. “One more chance,” I told Richard. “That’s all you get.”

And finally, he looked genuinely remorseful. “I apologize. I am slightly giddy with my new freedoms, and I got carried away.”

I frowned. “What new freedoms?”

But then Gracie Dawn rushed through the door, a client at her side, and I sat down behind my desk and focused on the humans that paid for me to help them.

I wouldn’t tolerate a bully, but it felt good having an actual ghost who could help me instead of needing me to help him. The way he’d scared the singers made me wonder what else he could do when I needed to expel an uncooperative ghost.

“Gracie,” I called, before she could exit, “have Max call the Nolans and ask them to come back as soon as they can. No second appointment needed. Richard thinks they have a demon.”

“I’m on it!” She was out of the room for thirty seconds before she stuck her head back inside the doorway, frowning. “Richard?”

I gestured toward him. “Richard Slaymaker. Our new office ghost.”

“Oh,” she said, her face clearing. “Okie dokie!”

I expected Richard to smart off, but he stared after her, his eyes dark. “Watch that one,” he told me. “She’s not as stupid as she pretends.” He looked at me. “You know that, don’t you? Our young Max wouldn’t have taken her on, otherwise.”

I didn’t reply, because it hadn’t occurred to me to believe Gracie Dawn Lockhart was anything other than what she seemed to be. And maybe she wasn’t, but his words made me wonder.

The rest of the work night went fairly smoothly, and Richard stood by my desk the entire time, making what I assumed were mental notes of the clients and their troubles. When at last the waiting room was empty, he gave me a nod and headed for the door.

“Coming?” he asked, when I didn’t move. “You usually follow the interviews with some housecleanings, and you did promise Ms. Greenfield to meet her at exactly three-thirty a.m.” He lifted his arm and looked at a silver watch I hadn’t noticed before. “You have eighteen minutes to get to her apartment.”

But when we got to the exit doors to the building, Richard was the one who stopped. “This is as far as I can go,” he told me. “But I hope that one day you can get me out of the building and into the lovely world waiting outside these walls.”

I didn’t promise him anything. I’d once helped an old ghost out of Jared’s basement by letting him piggyback a ride, but I wasn’t sure of Richard yet.

Joe and I were on our way to Vanessa Greenfield’s apartment five minutes later. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t use Richard to send away reluctant spirits without having to force them into a trap. He could have made that whole process a hell of a lot easier on me.

I was curious about him, and a little bit fascinated.

Joe, however, wanted nothing to do with him. “A ghost is one thing,” he muttered. “But a ghost who gives creepy bear hugs? That shit is just not right, Kait.”

“He’s a little over the top,” I admitted.

He snorted. “He’s creepy is what he is. Creepy.”

“But potentially very helpful,” I said. “Remember the vampire ghost who attached himself to the child?”

He shuddered. “Yeah. You don’t forget something like that.”

“That was creepy,” I told him. “This is just a ghost who’s so powerful you can feel his presence.”

“I guess we can give him a chance,” he said reluctantly. “But I swear, Kait, if he so much as looks at Max again, he’s gone.”