Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

DASH

Jonas showedup two minutes after I returned to Dearly & Son. Apparently, we’d had another body snatched from the mortuary. It was getting really fucking tiresome chasing corpses all over town.

“Does this happen to all morticians?” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my voice.

Jonas shrugged. “It’s never happened at the morgue.”

The two of us searched the mortuary while Keir went upstairs to check the funeral home and the apartment, and then we went out to the garage. The garage door was closed, and the hearse was empty. I had no idea where the body could have gone.

“I’ll take to the sky, and you drive around. Call me if you find anything.” With that, Jonas took off his leather jacket and shirt, hanging them from a hook on the garage wall where a rake had hung.

I went out the side door behind him and watched as he spread those huge wings and took off. I was envious of his method of travel. It was seriously cool.

I sent a message to Keir.

I’m going to drive around. Call me if he turns up.

After a lap around the house to be sure Horace wasn’t stashed in the garden or something, I hopped in my SUV and headed out. I had no idea where he might be, but I hoped to hell I could find him. It looked bad on a mortician if he kept losing bodies.

I drovearound the nearby neighborhoods for an hour, not seeing anything to point me to where Green’s body could have gone. With my evolving abilities, I could now see spirits without Keir’s assistance, though I didn’t see his spirit anywhere, so he wasn’t leading me to find his husk. It was a fucking disappearing act if I’d ever seen one.

Completely annoyed, I returned home. I didn’t put my SUV away because Keir might want to go out looking again, so I jogged up the stairs to the apartment and let myself inside. “Dearly? Babe?”

I closed the door and slipped off my boots, hanging my leather jacket in the coat closet before I searched for my guy. He wasn’t in the apartment, so I went downstairs to check if he was in the funeral home or the mortuary.

When I didn’t find him, I assumed he’d gone out in search of Green himself, so I sent him another message.

Babe, I’m home. Call me.

I was exhausted by then, so I sat on the couch in the hospitality room and propped up my sock-covered feet to relax until I heard from Keir. I held my phone against my chest and waited.

“Dash? Man, wake up.”Some asshole was pushing hard on my shoulder, and I didn’t fucking approve. Someone was about to be smacked.

I gripped a strange wrist and held it still. “Stop it. What the fuck?” My eyes flashed open to see Adonis standing over me.

“Oh, it’s you. What do you want?” I sat up and rubbed my eyes, having reclined on the couch at some point.

“Where’s Keir? I wanted to see if he needed help moving Mr. Green’s body around, but he’s not downstairs.” Yeah, no shit.

“Green’s body disappeared. Jonas and I were looking for it, and I think Keir went out to see if he could find it. The man’s spirit was gone too.” I stood and stretched, wishing I could have slept for another hour.

I glanced at the clock on the wall to see it was almost three o’clock. I’d been asleep for almost two hours, which was nuts.

“What are you talking about? Mr. Green’s body is in the walk-in. I didn’t see his spirit anywhere, but the corpse is there. Keir’s not here, but his car’s still in the garage.” Adonis looked a little wild-eyed, which had me on the move.

I ran down the stairs to the mortuary in record time. When I got there, it was empty…completely empty. Where the hell are you, Dearly?

After calling Dearly on his cell without an answer and checking the cooler to see Mr. Green’s body was inside, I hurried upstairs and found Adonis sitting in our kitchen, reading something on his phone.

“Can you find Dearly? Don’t you have some mojo bullshit to reach out to someone in the underworld who can find Keir?”

My gut was churning. Was my guy missing? Why had he taken off without a word to me?

We were going to Monterey for Thanksgiving with Lucy and Lenny as they planned their Christmas wedding. Was something happening with his mother that had caused him to leave unexpectedly? And why hadn’t he told me?

I rushed to find my cell so I could call Lucy. Had she needed Keir, and in his rush to get to her, had he forgotten to leave a note?

“Hello, Dash. How are you, dear?”

Panic. I only felt panic, but if Dearly had just gone for a walk, I couldn’t scare his sweet mother. I took a deep breath.

“I’m fine. How are you? I was just thinking about you and decided to give you a call.” There. That was a decent lie.

“I’m great. I’m planning to go dress shopping later in the week. I left a message with Keir to see if he could come down to go with me, but he hasn’t called back. Just remind him, will you?” Lucy didn’t sound worried, so I guessed Keir wasn’t on his way to Monterey.

We chatted for a few more minutes about Lenny’s daughter, Lindsey, whom Lucy had asked to be her matron of honor. The woman sounded very opinionated, but then again, she’d followed her father into law, so it wasn’t a surprise.

Keir had mentioned something to me about Lenny getting my criminal record sealed, which was something I really needed to consider at some point. “Tell Lenny I’m ready to listen if he wants to explain how to get my record sealed. I think maybe it would be helpful in the future.”

Lucy’s gasp through the phone made me smile. “Does that mean you’re ready to consider adding children to your lives?”

I chuckled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but I’m ready to discuss it. First, I gotta get your son down the aisle. We’re looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. I’ll tell Keir to call you.”

“Thank you, dear. Take care of yourself and my son.”

I called Keir once more. When it went through to voicemail, I left him another message. “Keir, I’m worried. Please call me back.”

I tossed the phone on the counter and sat at the peninsula, lowering my head into my hands. What fucking now?

The door from the funeral home opened, and Jonas stepped inside. He was wearing his T-shirt and jacket, so he’d obviously finished his aerial inspection of the area.

“Anything?” The expression on his face gave me my answer.

Before he could say anything, Adonis stepped in behind him and closed the door. “I reached out to some contacts in Limbo. Nobody has seen Keir, nor have there been any rumors about him.”

There was a pounding on the outside apartment door, so Jonas hurried to it, holding up his hand for me to stay back. Adonis stepped in front of me as Jonas opened the door.

“What took so damn long?” It was Trent Simmons, our resident psychic-medium and friend. He looked damn frazzled.

“What’s wrong?” I stepped around Adonis and in front of Trent.

“Keir. Keir’s missing.” I wasn’t sure if I should be surprised by his announcement or not.

“How did you find out?” The guy had visions that hadn’t been wrong to date.

“I had a vision of someone taking him. He’s in danger, Dash.”

“Who took him?” My heart was in my throat.

“No one I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it was human.”

Son of a… What now?