Page 14
CHAPTER 14
W aking up alone sucked ass .
Which was a weird feeling for Khill, because he’d been waking up alone for thirty-eight years and had never really thought much about it. But now that he’d gone to sleep with Justine at his side (OK, more like on top of him), waking up without her was like a blast of arctic air blowing across his heart.
For the amount of time it took him to get out of bed, brush his teeth, and pull on pants and yesterday’s T-shirt, Khill told himself that Justine leaving without waking him up to say goodbye didn’t mean anything. Hell, married people went out all the time without telling their partner where they were going…right?
Well, there was one way to find out for sure.
Khill grabbed his phone and dialed his married friend, Riordan. He supposed “friend” might be a strong word. More like a semi-friendly acquaintance who also managed his investments. But that wasn’t the point.
Riordan was a giant, red-skinned, horned demon from a dimension worse than any Khill had ever seen. He came to this dimension looking for a mate and found one in Roxie—a woman who was only slightly less terrifying than her husband. Of course, their path to happiness wasn’t smooth. It involved kidnapping, arson, and the murder of Khill’s cousin (long story…and the cousin was a total asshole who deserved what he got. He was not missed). But Khill had helped Riordan track Roxie down when she was in danger (because demons apparently had shit tracking skills), and they’d been friends-adjacent ever since.
He didn’t even wait for Riordan to offer a greeting before he blurted, “Does Roxie ever leave the house without saying goodbye?”
There was a loaded pause on Riordan’s end of the line before he said, “I realize we’re both monsters and not from this dimension, but I believe the customary greeting here is hello .”
Oh, for fuck’s sake . “I don’t have time for customary greetings, you dick. I need to know if human women regularly leave the house without telling their monster husbands goodbye.”
Another pause. “I am, of course, dying to know where this conversation is going, so I’ll humor you. No, Khill, my wife doesn’t usually leave without saying goodbye. Unless I’m asleep, or something.”
Ah ha! He had been asleep. See, there was a perfectly good?—
“In which case she leaves me a note,” Riordan went on.
Khill glanced around frantically. Fuck! There was no note. “Why the fuck did she leave without saying anything?”
He hadn’t really been expecting an answer from Riordan for that one. He’d mostly just been thinking out loud. But Riordan must not have realized that, because he said, “And somehow I have the feeling this isn’t really about me and Roxie. Want to give me a clue about what’s going on? I haven’t talked to you in a while.”
Khill blurted out the entire story without taking so much as a breath. Vegas, the drinking, the wedding, the aborted annulment…he spilled it all. He only spared Riordan details of the previous night. Those belonged to him and Justine alone.
When he was done, Riordan whistled. “Wow. That’s…a lot. But I didn’t hear anything in that story that makes me think something’s wrong. Maybe she just thought you needed your sleep.”
Yeah. That did make sense. Justine was thoughtful like that.
But that didn’t explain the bad feeling he had in his gut. The gnawing ache screaming at him that something was wrong . “Maybe,” he murmured.
“Did you try calling her ?” Riordan asked gently.
The ache intensified. “I can’t explain this, but…she’s not going to answer. I just know it,” he admitted.
Riordan sucked in a sharp breath. “If I’ve learned anything from my relationship with Roxie, it’s that your gut is never wrong. If you think something is going on, then something is going on.”
Khill stifled his fight-or-flight instincts when Riordan appeared out of the fucking ether in front of him.
Oh, yeah. Did he mention that Riordan could teleport?
“What the fuck, man?” he asked.
Riordan shrugged. “You helped me find my wife when she was missing. So, let’s go find your wife.”
Now that was the best idea he’d heard since waking up alone.