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1
ADDIE
Looking in the mirror, I asked myself if Maddox’s jaw would drop if he saw me. This bodycon dress had been hidden in the back of my closet until now. It hugged my lean hiker curves and highlighted my broad shoulders.
I thought of the tall, blonde detective that’d been turned into a ghostly wolf shifter recently. Today wasn’t about him. I should have been excited for brunch with the girls. We were going to hit up a local place with funky murals and fair-trade coffee. This dress was too much for an outing like that.
Yet, I still yearned to know what Maddox would think of my legs in this dress. Would his gaze linger on the minimal cleavage revealed by the low neckline?
“Oh, girl!” Perse whistled as she phased through the wall—people forgot all about the notion of privacy once they became ghosts. “Do you have a hot date?”
I scowled. My heart sank at the reminder.
I should have been excited for brunch. Instead, my mind wandered back to the detective that hadn’t called me in weeks. The case had been closed, the killer caught and handled. Maybe it hadn’t worked out the way Maddox wanted, but things were back to normal again.
There was no reason for Maddox to stay in my life.
Though, I wished he would find a reason to come back. The last time we’d seen each other, he’d been furious with me. He thought that I’d forced him to kill someone. There hadn’t been time to explain to him that Bastien had been dead from the start. To Maddox, I’d violated his moral code, the law that he stuck to when everything else had been turned upside down.
I needed to explain what really happened back there with Bastien. Maybe then, Maddox wouldn’t hate me. The thought that he loathed me nearly broke my heart. The damn thing was held together with duct tape and patience, which I was running out of lately.
“No,” I grumbled to Perse as I pulled a cropped sweater over my head. “Just brunch.”
Perse’s lip curled at the sight of my sweater. It was an old oversized thrifted piece that I’d cut short for dramatic effect. It hid my shoulders while showing off my hips, which I liked. Of course, my old neighbor hated it.
“Why don’t you pair that sweet dress with a cardigan? Or a cute jacket?” Perse asked softly.
“I’m not trying to attract a man. I just want to be comfortable while I get day-drunk on grapefruit mimosas.”
The dead cat on my bed meowed in agreement, as if it understood anything I said. The cat had come from one of the other Reapers, one who’d been killed by Bastien before we caught him. Because the cat’s soul willingly came back to inhabit its body, the cat could use my arcana to stay “alive”. Honestly, it was nice having a pet that I didn’t have to worry about hurting by accident. My arcana could be…dangerous.
Perse laughed. “You never know when you’re going to run into the man of your dreams, darling!”
She followed me as I stomped downstairs to find my boots. I wasn’t in the mood for false hope. Like Bastien said, our kind died young. Reapers had a job in the afterlife, and there was always room for more employees.
I didn’t have time for romance, especially with men who were all too ready to blame me for things that weren’t my fault.
A knock at the door caught me off guard. I glanced at the time on my phone. Ness had offered to come pick me up because she was pregnant and couldn’t drink—making for the perfect designated driver.
“What are you doing here this early?” I asked as I threw the door open.
I half-turned to grab my boots when I realized the person on my doorstep wasn’t Ness. His platinum blond hair hung over his eyes, hiding the shadows that I would inevitably find in them. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, giving away just how much he didn’t want to be here, before speaking.
“Adeline,” Maddox said.
I lifted my chin defiantly. For a moment, I wished that I were Ness or Vi. Ness would firmly tell him to leave, while Vi would give him a piece of her mind. Instead, my anger was stuck in my throat. It formed a lump that I couldn’t swallow.
“I’m afraid that I need your help again.” He tilted his head so that his hair fell out of his eyes.
I stared him down without flinching. For most shifters, that would be an open challenge. However, Maddox was new to the world of shifters. He didn’t understand shifter body language, so I could stare him down with the full force of my fury.
Now, if only I could get the damn words out.
How dare you blame me!
You could have stuck around and heard me out.
Selfish prick, your morals won’t keep people truly safe.
