Styx & Stoned (The Grim Reality Series Book 2) (9 page)

I marched over to him and stopped.
“What?”

He jerked around and clicked off
his phone. “I’ve been texting you all day. Why didn’t you answer?”

“Because you’re not the boss of me,
nor are you my husband or father.” I propped my hand on my hip. “Besides, I did
answer. I just texted you that I was on my way down.”

“Yeah, five hours after I first
messaged you.” He threaded his fingers through his hair and gave me his
familiar scowl. “I was concerned something had happened.”

“Like what? I was off gambling
instead of learning ten ways to deal with a difficult client?”

His frown deepened. “No, about what
Tabris wanted.”

Crap, I’d forgotten the last time
Nate had seen me was just before our meeting with the GRS board of directors
and Tabris. I took for granted Nate usually knew more about any given situation
than I did. Him being in the dark about me ferrying the souls hadn’t
registered. Plus, Mara and I had already put in a full day, but to him the
night was still early. Time ran together and keeping straight the physical
plane hours and time spent at the ferry might be more complicated than I
originally thought.

“Oh, Tabris, right.” Luckily, Mara
and I had come up with an explanation while shopping. “He wanted to get things
settled with Hal.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.” I fidgeted with the strap of
my purse. “The GRS board of directors were there to make sure he complied.”

Nate eyed me. I could tell his keen
powers of deduction smelled a lie, or more like a half-truth. “Hal agreed? Just
like that?”

If I said yes he’d know I was lying
or keeping something from him. “Not exactly.” I glanced around, making sure we
weren’t overheard. “Nyx was there.”

Though only for a few seconds, I’d
rendered Nate Cramer speechless. His eyes rounded to the size of Chucky Cheese
tokens, narrowed, and then widened again. “What did she… How… You actually saw
her?”

“And held her hand.” I regretted
the comment immediately. There was a thin line between sounding believable and
revealing too much. “She forced Hal into agreeing and made him promise not to
hurt me.”

Again, Nate didn’t speak, taking in
the information. “Wow, Carron, that’s…” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what
that is.”

“Tell me about it.” Some of the
tension eased from my shoulder. As a person Nate could be a bit of a dickwad,
but as a partner he was solid. It felt good, and right, to tell him as much as
I could about our meeting. “I will say, I’m pretty sure Hal will keep his word.
Nyx is one scary lady.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.” He
reached out and gently gripped my shoulder, his gaze locking with mine. “Are
you sure you’re all right? Nothing else happened?”

Whenever Nate showed genuine
concern it knocked me off balance. Sarcasm and bantering were much easier to
deal with. I mustered my most reassuring smile. “I’m fine. The whole meeting
took about fifteen minutes.”

His hand slid from me. “Then what
did you do?”

I held out my arms and performed my
dressing room turn. “Mara and I went shopping. Do you like?”

His eyes tracked down my body,
lingered on my breasts a few seconds longer than was polite, then widened when
he realized the pattern on my pants were skulls, dipped to my feet, and jumped
back to my face. “It very reaperesque.” He gave a single nod. “You clean up
real nice, Carron.”

“I told her the same thing,” Mara
said, sauntering toward us, her spiked heels clicking against the polished
floor. “Worth every penny.”

She’d created an intricate twist
with her hair that was pinned high at the back of her head, leaving the ends to
form a messy, but stylish spray of shiny red strands. Her makeup was sultry but
not slutty. The woman—demon—was physical perfection, and I had to wonder if
this human body was her original form. I’d already insulted her with my
succubus question. No way was I asking if she had a tail and horns.

“You look beautiful, too,” I said.
“Love those pants—on you.”

“Hey, guys,” Cam said, stopping
next to Nate.

Wow, he was hot. It was probably
blasphemy to entertain naughty notions about him, but
I couldn’t help it. He was
everything I’d imagine an archangel to be, golden and gorgeous. I bet he was
smooth and muscular all over. No back hair. He probably never farted or
scratched his junk. At least not in public, or in my fantasy, around me. I
smiled—and maybe gave a dreamy sigh—because Mara arched a questioning, and
rather sarcastic brow at me.

“Is it just me,” Cam continued, “or
are there a lot more spirits now than there was this afternoon?”

We all turned and surveyed the casino.
They were everywhere, meandering along the walkway, playing the slots, even a
couple sitting on the edge of a chandelier.

“Whoa, that’s a lot of ghosts.” I
pointed to a group of people walking behind the strolling ghosts. “Reapers.”

“I wonder if they’re going to try
and reap them,” Mara said.

“They might get them in the
elevator.” Nate shook his head. “But they’ll pop right back up here.”

“We need to find Charon.” Cam
placed his hand against Nate and my back, as if rallying the troops. Tingles
and warmth spread across my skin where he touched. I could have stood like that
all night. “As quickly as possible.”

“Yeah we do.” I smiled up at him.

Nate reached across Cam and grabbed
my wrist. “Lisa and I will check out the high roller area.” He tugged me to his
side. “It’s better if we act like couples. Two beautiful women might draw too
much unwanted attention.”

My irritation at being led around
like a dog vanished with his compliment. He might have been right, but
seriously, like Cam and Mara together wouldn’t draw too much attention. I
rolled my eyes and pulled my arm out of his grasp. “I’ve got my phone. Text me
if you find anything.”

“Sounds good,” Cam said.

Mara gave me a pointed stare and a
knowing smile before following Cam. On this trip I had two partners: Nate for
reaping and Mara for the covert operations—and shopping. We wound our way
through the casino, heading toward the high-stakes table. Twice, ghosts
suddenly appeared in our path, at first confused by their surroundings, and
then floated away.

“We need to find Charon.” Nate
reached for my hand again and guided me around the spirit. “I doubt Vegas is
the only city getting an influx of ghosts.”

“For sure.” My answer made me sound
like a valley girl, but his need to keep touching me made it difficult to
concentrate. By nature, he was a protector, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t had my
share of encounters with the supernatural. Sometimes it seemed he still didn’t
think I could do the job. “Let’s head over there.” Again, I pulled my hand from
his and moved in front of him. “There’s a crowd at that far table.”

Cheers exploded from the group as
we approached the roulette wheel. I instantly recognized the man with the pile
of chips in front of him. He’d been in the elevator with me on the first day I
arrived. Several living humans flanked the guy, and even more spirits crowded
around, floating in and out of the table. One particular ghost I knew very
well.

“Tandy.” I pointed at her. “The
bouncing blond spirit.” That seemed to be her natural waking state. The girl
never stood still. “She’s the one sharing my room.”

Nate’s eyes widened. “Wow, she’s
got really big—”

I glared at him.

“Energy.”

I harrumphed. Energy my ass. “I’ve
seen that guy before. He was on the elevator with me the first time I went to
my room. He called me Lisa, but I thought it was because I was wearing my name
badge.”

“Could be a coincidence, but my gut
is telling me we found our man.” Nate pulled out his phone and texted Cam.
“They’ll be able to tell us if that’s Charon.”

The group around the roulette table
cheered again. Tandy threw her translucent arms around the guy. “You’re the
luckiest man I know, Big C.”

“Big C?” I made the connection
instantly and looked at Nate. “I can’t believe it took me so long.”

“What?”

“Tandy told me about this high-roller,
staying in the penthouse suite. She called him Big C.”

“C, short for Charon,” Nate said,
putting the pieces together.

“Right. It didn’t register until I
saw the two of them together.”

Mara and Cam pulled up next to us.
“Oh yeah,” Mara said. “That’s Charon.”

“Definitely,” Cam confirmed. He
lowered his voice. “So, how should we approach this?”

“We could politely ask him to have
a word with us, present our demands, and negotiate with him,” Nate said.

“Or better,” Mara chimed in, “I
could threaten an eternity of torment in the fiery pits of Hell.”

My head snapped to face her, my
brows lifting as high as they could go. “Can you actually do that?”

“No.” She gave me a satisfied
smile. “But I’d be willing to try.”

“Lisa!” My name cut through the
din. Tandy continued to bounce and wave. “Look, it’s my friend Lisa,”

All eyes turned toward us,
including Charon’s. His gaze skated over the four of us and a slow smile
stretched his mouth. “Ah, the pretty lady from the elevator.” He continued to
stare at us and said, “Scoot over and make room for my new friends. Lisa—” He
patted the chair next to him. “—you sit here.”

“Or,” I whispered, “We could do it
like that.”

“Be careful,” Nate said in a soft
voice. His concern would’ve been endearing, but then he added, “Don’t blow it.”

I glared at him. “One of these
days…” Nate gave me a tiny shove forward before I could finish my threat.

“Come on.” Tandy held onto the back
of the chair. “Right here, Lisa.”

I circumvented the table and pulled
the chair a few inches toward me, not wanting to rub thighs with Charon. Mara,
Nate, and Cam moved to the far end of the table, watching us.

“Do you gamble, Lisa?” Charon
asked.

“Sometimes, when I’m in the mood.”
I was willing to bet Charon’s friendly demeanor was pure show, and that he knew
exactly why we were there. “But I rarely win.”

“You never know.” He smiled but
still didn’t look at me. Instead he placed numerous stacks of chips on
different numbered squares. “Maybe your luck will change tonight.”

“I highly doubt that.”

The dealer made his announcements
for final bets, and then flicked the ball into the wheel. The ball circled a
kagillion times before dropping into red thirty-six. I’d never played roulette
before, but from the explosion of cheers, and the heaping stack of chips the dealer
shoved at Charon, I figured he’d won.

He scooped the piles toward him and
then plucked several from the stack and tossed them to the dealer.

“Thank you, sir,” the dealer said,
dropping the tip into a pile.

“I’ll be back.” Charon stood. “But
right now I need a drink.” He looked at me. “Why don’t you and your friends
join me?”

I stood and smiled. “We’d love to.”

A young woman dressed in the casino
uniform moved forward. “We’ll hold your winnings at the cashier cage, Mr.
Charon.”

“Thank you, Amanda.” He turned to
Tandy. “Sweetheart, why don’t you get the suite ready for tonight’s party?”

“Okay, Big C.” She leaned in and
kissed him on the cheek. A second before she evaporated, he smacked her on the
rear end, making her squeal with delight.

“You do know Tandy has a major
crush on you.” I sent a pointed stare at the three and flicked my head for them
to follow, begging them to follow. They squeezed through the living and dead,
finally falling in behind us. “Right?”

“She’s sweet,” Charon said. “Likes
to do things for me.”

“I bet.” That drew a chuckle from
Charon, but he didn’t reply. “So…” I tugged nervously at the edges of my
sweater. “Do you
actually
win, or do you give the roulette wheel a
helpful nudge?” The question was my attempt at facilitating dialogue, a term
our family counselor used when the kids and I were in therapy. I thought it had
a nice ring to it. “I promise I won’t tell.”

“Let’s just say I lose sometimes.”
He drew a gold coin from his pocket and flipped it in the air, then caught it.
“But I win a lot more.”

I’d seen a whole mess of those
coins earlier that day at the arch leading into the River Styx. If I’d had any
doubts this was our man, I didn’t now. “Aren’t you afraid of karma? Like cheat
and you will be cheated?”

“I believe we make our own fates,
Lisa.”

Karma usually found me, and she
wasn’t all that friendly. I went out of my way to never walk under a ladder and
occasionally threw salt over my shoulder—just in case there was any truth to
superstition. However, Charon had been around a long time, and probably had a
firm grasp on the rules and nuances of the paranormal world. Like each entity’s
responsibility, or which deities never to seat next to each other at a dinner
party because an eon ago one of them turned into a salamander and slept with
the other’s mother.