On A White Horse (2 page)

“So I wait a couple of years before I visit
my girls.”

“Right, you wait a couple of years to visit
them or send them money, because you better believe the corporation
will check the money trail. But according to you, the girls need
the money yesterday, right?”

Tyler nods and swallows hard. “So Mrs. Hunt
has to die today.”

Ice fills my chest and I find it suddenly
hard to breathe. “I need a drink. Where does she keep the
liquor?”

He points wordlessly to the next room, and I
stand and go in. There’s a cabinet with every type of liquor a girl
might need and glasses to hold it. “You want anything?” I call to
him. I know he will. No reaper can resist tasting every drop of
life when they return to a physical body, and Tyler is accepting
the end of his existence in a very short time. I have already
filled two glasses with expensive Scotch when he answers in the
affirmative. I take the drinks back into the room, hand one to
Tyler, and sit on the couch next to him.

He takes a long drink and nods
appreciatively. “Promise me you’ll take care of my girls.”

“I’ll send them what money I can, Tyler, and
I’ll look out for them.” I take a drink and let it burn all the way
down. I don’t bother to fight the tears it brings to my eyes. The
small pain feels good. “I’m going to call the corporation now, and
you need to undo the changes you made to Mrs. Hunt’s will.”

His mouth drops open and he shakes his head.
“Holly, please, all of this will have been for nothing.”

“All of it will be worth less than nothing if
you don’t change the will. The corporation isn’t going to let your
girls have that money. They don’t want anyone else trying to pull
the same scam. If you’re lucky, that’s all they’ll do.”

He shakes, and I don’t think it’s because of
Mrs. Hunt’s advanced age. “You think they would hurt my girls?”

“They are going to do whatever will draw the
least attention to the corporation. Getting entangled in a legal
battle over money draws a lot more attention than two girls dying
in a car crash. That or they offer them to the highest bidder and
let some reaper benefit from the cash.”

“I’ll call the lawyer.” He stands. “How much
time do I have?”

I dial. “It’ll take the corporation
executioners at least two hours to get all the way out here. Do
whatever it takes to get an appointment.”

He nods and walks out of the room, shoulders
down. A wave of misery shivers down my spine. The corporate
headquarters receptionist answers the phone. “Hey, Macy,” I say.
“Tyler’s reaped our mark and I need a team of executioners out
here.”

“Shit, Holly,” Macy breathes. Macy is all of
nineteen and barely professional. She’s the niece of one of the
executives. “Tyler seems so nice.”

“Too nice,” I say. “I’ll tell you about it
when I see you.” I hang up and follow Tyler into the hallway, where
he’s just finishing up with the lawyer’s office.

He hangs up the phone and turns to look at
me. “He’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

“Who?”

“The lawyer. It’s a slow day and I told him
I’m not feeling well, so he’s coming here.” Tyler stands a bit
straighter now. “I also told him I’d pay triple his usual fee.”

“Great. Keep the meeting short. Do you have
your story straight?”

“Yeah, yeah. I told him the girls were
distant relations on my husband’s brother’s wife’s side and I
wanted to help them. I’ll just tell him they pissed me off. Asked
me for money or something.”

“Good enough. I’ll go hide out upstairs until
you’re done.”

“You don’t have to stay,” he says, as if he’s
doing me a favor. “I can handle it from here.”

“It’s my job to stay. I made the call, so I
have to make sure you’re still here when the executioners show
up.”

“It would be easier for me if you’d go. The
way you’re looking at me, like I’ve killed your best friend, is
breaking my heart.”

“Why worry about me, right?” I snort. “I’m
just the one cleaning up your mess and promising to look after your
kids. Don’t go doing me any favors.”

He doesn’t meet my eyes. “You should go.”

“I’m gone.” I’m already screwed as far as my
job goes; I know that. Leaving might make my suspension longer, but
they won’t fire me. People with my abilities and company loyalty
are rare. In that moment, I just want to be the hell out of that
house and away from Tyler. I head out the door, back down the
walkway, and into my car.

I drive two blocks before I pull into the
parking lot of an abandoned Tastee Freez and loosen my control.
There’s an ache in my chest as if I’ve been punched and I know the
only way to feel better is to cry, but I can’t make the tears
come.

My phone rings and I recognize my father’s
number. He’s the VP of marketing at Harvest One. I almost ignore
his call, but he’s pretty good at making me cry. “Hey, Daddy.”

“What the hell happened?” he screams in my
ear. Daddy pretty much only has one volume and this is it.

“Tyler decided he was tired of being dead, I
guess.”

“You guess? He’s your motherfucking partner,
Holly. How the hell do you not know what’s going on with him? You
should have never let it get this far.”

No tears, just a warm glow of anger. My
father is usually excellent at making me feel idiotic and
insignificant, but today he just makes me want to beat the shit out
of someone. He’s made me feel that way once before, when I told him
my sister, his other daughter, was dead, and he said her death was
a loss to the corporation because she’d have made a terrific
marketing exec.

“He’s my partner, not my friend, Daddy. He
has a life all his own that I know nothing about.” I do consider
Tyler a friend, but if he really was one, he’d have come to me with
his problems.

“Your life is the job, Holly. You spend more
time with Tyler than you do with anyone else. How did you not see
this coming?”

The answer to that question makes tears well
up. I hadn’t let Tyler get close or open up to me, even when he’d
tried. And he had tried. I remember now, him trying to talk to me
about his family, but I didn’t let him. He needed to forget his
family, and I thought if I didn’t talk to him about them, he’d let
them go. At least, that’s what I told myself. “I screwed up, Daddy,
but this was his decision and I can’t help him now.”

“Help him? No one is going to help him. You
just let the executioners do their job. Have they arrived yet?”

“I don’t know. I’ve already left.” I am
perfectly aware that I’ve broken a corporation rule.

“You’ve left? What if he’s run off? Or caused
some sort of incident? Get back there immediately,” Daddy
shouts.

“Yes, Daddy,” I say, feeling lethargic.

“And don’t think you won’t get written up for
this, Holly. Daughter or not, you have to follow the rules. I’d say
you can expect a suspension.”

I hang up the phone without another word. Let
him add insubordination to the charges against me. It won’t
lengthen my suspension enough to matter. I know him well enough to
know that pleading or crying or begging won’t do anything to
convince him to let me slide. I’ll have to suffer through the loss
of Tyler without the distraction of the job—alone, in my silent,
empty apartment.

I start the car and drive back to Mrs. Hunt’s
house. I watch the lawyer arrive and, when he leaves, I go
inside.

Tyler sits on the couch and stares straight
ahead.

“Is it done?” I ask.

He jumps and starts to smile at himself, but
stops. “Yeah, it’s done.”

“I’m sorry, Tyler. You tried to talk to me,
and I wouldn’t let you. I feel like this is my fault.”

“No. This was my choice.” He pats the couch.
“Will you sit with me until…?”

I walk over and sit down. I want to touch
him, but I don’t know how to initiate the contact. He takes my hand
and squeezes it. “You’ve been a good partner, Holly. The last thing
you need is more guilt. Don’t blame yourself for this.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You blame yourself for everything. Your
sister leaving, your mom committing suicide, that man who died of
fright during the job we pulled last April. None of it is your
fault.”

I feel the tears threatening and I don’t want
to cry. He shouldn’t be comforting me. “Tell me about your
girls.”

“Ariel is nine and pure tomboy. She loves
building forts and playing in the woods. Juniper is six and she is
a girly girl to the core. They are so different, but they have
really been there for each other since I left them.”

He talks to me about his daughters until I
feel I would recognize them if I passed them on the street. He
gives me all of their contact information and I promise him I’ll
take care of them.

“There is another option,” I say. “You could
cross over before the executioners arrive.” I hold a pill out to
him: a cyanide capsule he will recognize from his training
seminars. All of the executioners carry them in case they’re in
danger of being reaped. I’ve only ever heard of it happening once,
but that’s enough for the corporation. Executioners are the only
ones who carry them, but I got my hands on one and I held on to it.
One of my biggest fears is being reaped. There are some really
nasty reapers out there who would be happy to use my body to commit
unspeakable violence and harm.

Tyler stares at the pill and his eyes widen
in a mixture of sorrow and fear. “Holly, promise me that you won’t
ever use that on yourself. I know you’re unhappy, but I didn’t
think you wanted to die.”

My gut goes cold. I take a moment to process
his unexpected remark. “I would never…I just have it in case…” I
say with a forced smile. I really don’t want to die. Most days I
don’t want to die, but the way Tyler just assumes I have the pill
because I…he’s wrong.

He takes my hand. “You should get out, Holly.
Figure out what you need to be happy and go get it.”

“I’m fine. I’m happy,” I say.

“Don’t lie to me. I know you too well.”

I swallow back tears and push the pill toward
him. “Take it before the team arrives.”

He shakes his head. “I killed her. I should
pay.”

“Whoever is waiting for you on the other side
will determine that. Don’t let the corporation decide for you.”

He looks past me, as if he can see something
beyond, something that makes the corners of his mouth turn up. “For
the first time, I actually feel like I could leave. I trust you to
take care of my girls.”

That trust settles on my shoulders like a
mantle of lead.

Tyler smiles at me and takes the pill. He
swallows it without water. It only takes a few minutes. I hold his
hand while the poison acts and then he’s gone and standing before
me as the man I remember. The ghost I know.

“Some reapers have told me they’ve felt the
pull to cross over. They say if you start to walk, you will be
drawn in one direction and, if you go that way, you’ll see the path
to follow,” I say.

He takes two steps away from me. “I don’t
feel it.”

“Keep trying.”

He takes three more steps, turns sharp left
and takes ten more steps. With each step, his back straightens a
little more and his gait gets a bit lighter. He looks back at me,
smiles and nods, and is gone. Relief washes over me and it almost
feels like joy, except that it’s tinged by a feeling of regret and
envy. I got to know Tyler right before he left me forever.

I want to get up and leave without looking at
Mrs. Hunt, but I force myself to turn and look. I close her open
eyes, and cross her arms over her chest. She deserves at least as
much respect as I’ve given Tyler. I know the executioners will undo
everything I’ve done and arrange her in the way that makes her
death look like an accident or a suicide or whatever they figure
will be most convincing to police and coroners, but that has
nothing to do with me. I bow my head over her body and take a few
moments to be sad for this woman whose life was ended by murder. A
few moments is all I manage before thoughts of Tyler push their way
back in, so I stand and leave Mrs. Hunt to her house and the
executioners.

I get in my car and head east, toward Tyler’s
kids. Maybe I can be a real hero for a change.

Other Works by Katharine Sadler:

The Reaping (Reapers #1)

The Revolt (Reapers #2) – August 2014

The Intervention (Reapers #3) – November
2014

Dying Dreams (Dying Dreams #1) – February
2015