Requiem (The Penny Dreadfuls Book 1) (18 page)

THREE WEEKS LATER
, Chastity sat beside the fire at Price’s home. He’d made quite a good dinner and was now serving a dessert called Strawberry Corncake. If it was as good as he claimed, it would be quite a treat. In her hand was the report that Herbert and Malachi had filed. It appeared as if Dippel had been doing something he called “trawling”, attempting to find the souls of his wife and daughter. Instead he kept pulling back the souls of the damned and inserting them into others, displacing their own souls to God knew where. Apparently he’d succeeded in finding Marianna on the night of the storm, though they would never know for certain. If it had been recovered, it was lost when the bomb destroyed his lab. Two bodies and a handful of machinery was all that was recovered.

She reread the note and considered whether or not to tell Price that one of the bodies was missing. She could hear him coming and thought better of it. For now, life was good. Whatever was going to happen would happen. With a smile, she tossed the letter on the fire and warmed her hands.

“Here we are,” Price said, entering.

He was holding two plates laden with enough strawberries and cake for an army.

“I can’t eat all that!” Chastity said.

Price smiled and sat next to her. “Have you ever tried over-indulging, Miss MacLeod? You might find you enjoy it.”

Chastity took the offered plate. “Are you ever going to call me by my first name?”

Price smiled around a mouthful of cake and didn’t answer.

SOMEWHERE,
NOT
FAR
away, Adam stirred and closed one massive fist.

“Father?”

My gamers. I love you guys!

My publisher, Sarah, who never gives up on me.

My publicist, Jeannette, who makes sure everyone knows my name.

My stylist Kelly, who makes me look human.

Richard Blue and Brad Burkett at Royal Gate Dodge.

The kind folks at Feather Mountain.

Above all, to my fans, a growing group of people who continue to prove family isn’t just blood.

Thank you all so much,