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I lean toward Jane. “How much are you in for?”
The whites of her eyes flit my way. “A cool million.”
“A million dollars?” I marvel. “Exactly how much does it take to manufacture lipstick?”
She laughs and her voice spirals up to the stars. “Let’s just say we went into this knowing we wanted nothing but the best. Best ingredients, a lab with the best reputation, and the best PR firm already syphoning funds from our shared bank account. It’s been crazy how fast the dollars have flown away from us. Anyway, we need to peddle these products regardless of the fact Julia had the audacity to bite the big one.”
Audacity? Are those the words of a killer?
“But on the bright side”—her eyes widen a notch as a flicker of hope rides through them—“death tends to polish people as far as the public goes. Rumors of her death have prompted the followers on all of her social media platforms to double overnight. Isn’t that insane? Julia Edwards might just be worth more dead than she was alive.”
Ransom’s chest expands at the thought. “That’s a cold observation.”
But a true one, nevertheless.
“I heard she had a secret,” I say. “Several of them perhaps. Would you happen to know what those were?”
She turns her face toward the open ocean. “I don’t know. As far as Julia is concerned, she was a pretty open book. But you know, we all have our secrets. Don’t we?” She cuts a glance my way, and her gaze needles into mine as if calling me out on my own supernatural secret.
“Yes.” I clear my throat. “I guess we do.”
“Oh”—she lifts a hand—“I actually do know something that might have been considered a secret. Julia was an enormous tattletale. If anyone around her had a secret of their own—well, let’s just say, you had a secret no more. Not many people knew that about her. That’s something someone would have to learn the hard way.” Her gaze shifts to the open waters once again as she settles her silent rage upon it. “Some people are so very good at making you believe they only have the purest intentions with you—with your darkest secrets. And Julia was one of them.”
Now more than ever I’m hungry to know exactly what secret of Jane’s Julia exposed—or in the least, was about to.
“I’ve been betrayed before,” I tell her. “I can imagine how painful that would be.”
Her expression darkens, and her face glows red as sin.
“I have to go.” She sloshes out of the water in haste and grabs her towels and shoes before darting off into the night.
“That ended well,” I say.
“I’m just glad it ended,” Ransom says, pulling me effortlessly onto his lap and sealing the deal with a heated kiss.
I can’t get over how real this feels, how very mortal he feels.
My goodness, I never thought a man like Ransom would want anything to do with someone like me. But a dead man like Ransom? It makes me question my sanity altogether.
“Ransom, wait.” I pull back a notch. “There is obviously so much more we don’t know about one another.”
“Like?” He shrugs as if I could ask him anything.
“Like the little fact you’re not breathing. Why are you acting as if this isn’t a big deal? I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but death is a very big deal—maybe even a deal-breaker.”
“Come on, honey. You don’t mean that.” His lips find mine once again and his hands quickly sink into the back of my underpants.
“Whoa,” I say. “You can’t just do that. Not here. Maybe not anywhere. You need to tell me a few key plot points about yourself first. Let’s start with how you died.”
“You women are all the same,” he grouses. “All talk and no action.”
“What?” I squawk, pushing at his chest. “You men are all the same. All action and no talk.”
“Trixie?” My name comes at me heated from behind and I turn to see a familiar lethally handsome man, dark suit, with his cobalt blue eyes trained on me.
“Ransom?” I hiss before practically snapping my neck to look at the man whose lap I’m currently nestled in.
His expression grows fierce as he growls at the look-alike before him, and just as his voice threatens to pierce my eardrums, he evaporates in a vat of miniature blue stars—and he takes that bad denim suit right along with him.
