The Collector (7 page)

Chapter Twelve

Hide and Go Seek

Everyone gathers around as Taylor explains the game.

“This game is like Hide and Go Seek, but with a dirty little twist.” She sweeps her dark hair off her shoulders and continues, “Guys, you stand near the deck stairs. And girls, when the guys start counting, we’ll run out into the woods and hide.”

A guy who’s way too small to be categorized as male asks, “What do we get if we find you?”

“Exactly,” she says. “That’s the twist. If you find a girl, you get to bring her back to the deck and kiss her.”

The guys cheer their approval, and I look at Charlie. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but maybe it’ll be good. Maybe she and some guy will hook up. From the looks of it, there aren’t a ton of
good influence
dudes here. The right boy toy might push her to sin and make my job easier.

Taylor raises her hand to get the guys to shut up. “The game is over after ten minutes. If there are more girls on the deck than in the woods, the guys win. More girls left in the woods, we win.”

The girls and guys begin to separate. The girls inch toward the woods, ready to run, and the guys linger near the stairs.

“Okay, losers,” Taylor jeers. “Turn around and count to fifty so we can beat your asses.”

Right before I turn around, I steal one last glance at Charlie. She’s set to run like this is the freaking Boston Marathon. The smile on her face sweeps from ear to ear. For some stupid reason, it makes me excited to play Taylor’s dumb game. I’m about to go into counting mode when I catch Taylor eyeing me. She winks and mouths the words,
Find me.

Maybe. Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

I turn around and listen while some douchebag counts and the girls run into the woods like a pack of wild dogs. When Homie finally gets to fifty, I turn around and watch as thirty guys run crotch-first toward the woods.

Me? I’m taking it easy. There’s nothing out there I care about.

A minute later, I hear the first chick squeal echo through the trees. Footsteps fall close by, and I see a guy dragging a girl toward the deck. When he gets to the clearing, he flips her over his shoulder and races up the stairs. Then he presses his lips to her. Or eats her face. I can’t tell from here.

The whole thing has a barbaric, caveman ring to it, but I’ll admit it’s pretty entertaining to watch.

I lean against a tree as more and more girls are pulled out of the woods. Taylor’s waiting for me, no doubt, so there’s no need to rush. Somewhere near the deck, the caveman leader yells, “Five minutes.”

Leaves crunch under my red sneakers as I set out to claim my prize. I wonder if Taylor will let me drag her back by the hair. It’s an enticing thought.

I don’t get ten steps before I see Taylor being pulled toward the clearing by Vince. She spots me and delivers a few friendly death rays.

Right back at ya, babe.

Oh, well. Game’s over for me, but I’m curious how Charlie made out. Or who she made out
with
.

When I get to the clearing, I scan the deck. I don’t see Charlie anywhere. Maybe she’s still hiding. She’s a clever girl. I wouldn’t put it past her to be one of the reigning champs.

Then I freeze. Something horrible occurs to me.

“Taylor,” I ask. “How much time is left?”

She laughs, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Three minutes or so.”

I glance around and notice none of the guys are coming out of the forest. Or going back in.

Oh, fuck.

“There are still girls left out there.” I can hear the pleading in my voice, and it makes me want to kill something. Anything.

“None worth finding,” someone yells.

Everyone laughs at Shithead’s comment, but instead of breaking his jaw, I run.

I’m about to crash into the woods when Taylor yells, “Two minutes, sweetheart.”

Branches whip across my face and snag my Boss shirt, but I don’t care. Charlie can’t be the only girl left.

“Charlie!” I yell. “Where are you?” If I can’t find her in time, I want her to at least know someone was looking. “I’m going to find you!” I try to sound like we’re having fun, but I know it’s not working.

I search behind trees and dig through shrubs, but I can’t find her anywhere. Then I hear a sound that makes my breath catch.

Behind me, I see Charlie curled into a ball. She’s leaning against a massive tree, and her arms are wrapped around her knees.
I can deal with this
, I think. But then she raises her head…and her face is my undoing.

Behind her glasses, her eyes are swollen and red and so filled with hurt that I fear I may actually murder someone. That I will end someone’s life.

Her lips part, and she says only, “They all saw me. But they just kept walking.”

She starts crying again, and I don’t think, I just move. I sweep Charlie into my arms, and I carry her toward the clearing. She lays her head against my chest, and I know I will rip someone’s throat out if they say a single word.

A hush falls over the crowd as I appear with her in my arms. I start to climb the stairs, still carrying her, when I hear Charlie mumble something.

“No,” she says quietly. I try to hold onto her, but she pushes away from me. “No,” she says, louder. “Put me down. Put me down!” Surprised, I place her on her feet. She tugs her dress up and ascends the rest of the stairs, chin held high. I climb behind her, wondering what’s happening. Charlie straightens her back and approaches Taylor. “You knew that would happen.”

Taylor grins.

“Did you tell them to leave me out there?” Charlie continues..

Taylor acts offended. “I would never do that,” she says, shaking her head. “They did that on their own. Such jerks, am I right?”

Charlie flinches. Maybe Taylor
didn’t
ask the guys to ditch her, but I also know that only makes it worse. I slide the glass door open to Taylor’s house. We’re going home. I’m taking Charlie home.

We’re almost inside when I hear Taylor snicker. I turn around. I’m too ready for a fight to ignore the sound. “You have something to say?”

Charlie touches my arm to try and calm me, but it doesn’t work.

“No, nothing,” Taylor says through a laugh. “Just noticing that even you didn’t want to kiss her.”

I cross the deck in three strides and get two inches from her face. “I’d watch what comes out of that fat mouth of yours.”

Taylor leans in even closer and lowers her voice. “I’ll say and do whatever I want, asshole. And another thing, you better watch your step at Centennial, because I could destroy you and your mutt-faced girlfriend.”

I throw my head back and laugh long and hard. Then I lean in and whisper in her ear, “You don’t know who you’re fucking with, princess. Ain’t
no
one
do bad like I do.”

Chapter Thirteen

Innocence

Charlie is silent most of the way home. I try once to get her to talk about what happened, but she just half-smiles and says she’s fine. So I do what most guys do—I shut up and hope things get better on their own.

The thought of Charlie getting left in the woods makes me grip the steering wheel tighter. I have this sudden, crazy urge to smash my windshield out. I’m not sure what good it would do, but I imagine it all the same. If Charlie does have the ability to release
good
seals, no one at that damn party should ever receive one, even if for the rest of their lives they live like saints.

There is nothing I can do to protect her from the pain she feels. What’s more, it’s not my job to protect her. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, and crap like tonight doesn’t make it any easier.

Inside my glove compartment, the soul contract reminds me I have another option. But it’s not that simple. Yes, the contract would speed things along. But a girl like Charlie would never agree to the terms.

Beside me, Charlie’s chin rolls back and forth along her chest. She’s halfway between sleep and consciousness. Every few seconds, she releases these tiny snort-snores. How can someone be cruel to this chick? It’s like picking a fight with a chipmunk.

Her cheeks no longer hold their scarlet shade, and in the dark, her face almost seems pretty. It’s unfair that people like Taylor are born with good looks, while the Charlies of the world spend their lives being bottom-feeders.

For a second, I allow myself to imagine Taylor’s face if Charlie were to become beautiful. The thought is delicious.

Charlie is good and intelligent and should know what it’s like to have true and utter confidence. Not just the kind she has inside her charity, or even the bit she displayed tonight, though that was promising, but the kind that makes people notice when you walk by. Boss Man has targeted her, and nothing will ever stop that agenda. But once I’ve collected her soul, her body and mind will stay on earth for the remainder of her life.

Doesn’t she deserve the best while she’s alive?

It feels like I’m talking myself into using the soul contract. But I can’t decide whether it’s to make this easier for me or better for her. I don’t know.

Charlie does another snort-snore, and I glance over. Her bottom lip hangs open, and she’s breathing long and deep. I’m certain she’s moved from quasi-sleeping to passed the hell out.

When I glance back at the road, I sense someone standing in the middle of the street.
Shit!
My muscles clench, and I jerk the wheel to avoid leaving roadkill in my wake.

Charlie bolts upright, and her hands splay out. I do the thing where I throw my arm over her chest like my mother used to do. Elizabeth Taylor screams to a stop.

“What!” Charlie yells. “What’s going on?”

I whip my head around and search for the person in the street, but they’re nowhere to be seen. My heart pumps so fast, it’s painful. I’m guessing for Charlie, too, because she’s breathing hard.

“Did you see something?” she asks when I don’t say anything.

I run my hands through my hair and breathe out through tight lips. “No. I thought I saw a deer, but it was nothing. I’m just tired.”

Charlie studies me for a long time, then turns back to the road. “I’ll stay awake with you.”

“Cool,” I say. “Thanks.”

She reaches for the stereo. “Music?” I nod, and she flips through the channels until she finds a System of a Down song. “You like this kinda stuff, right?”

“Yeah. That’ll work.”

Charlie and I don’t talk for the remainder of the drive, which is fine with me. I’m too busy having conversations in my own head. I know what I sensed in the street. I just don’t know
who
I sensed. The collector watching me is getting too far up my ass. There was no reason for him to pop out in front of my car like that other than to mess with me. Does he realize what could’ve happened? What if I’d lost control of the car? I may be immortal, but I can still feel physical pain. And what about Charlie? Does he realize hurting her could mean war on earth?

The part that bothers me most is not which of the other five collectors is watching, but what he’s searching for. He must know about the assignment. And maybe he knows about the soul contract, too, and is waiting to see if I’ll use it. But why screw with me in the meantime?

When I pull up in front of Charlie’s house, she’s asleep again. So much for staying awake. I nudge her a few times, and she opens her eyes and wipes drool from her mouth.

Nice.

“Are you going to be okay?” I ask.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Of course.

I smile, and she slides out of her seat, a bit unsteady on her feet. She’s about to close the door but stops. “Hey, Dante?”

“What’s up?”

“Thanks for taking me to the party.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s just…no one’s ever asked me to go before. And the first half was sorta fun.” She sticks her thumb and pinkie out and mimics drinking. I manage a half laugh before she continues, “I know things didn’t go great, but it’s nice to be a part of the fun. It makes me feel like I’m living. Does that make sense?”

My whole body seems to pull into itself. I can’t believe after everyone kicking the crap out of her tonight, she’s
grateful
for the experience. At first, Charlie struck me as being so young. Maybe it’s her naïveté, or the fact that she’s brimming with dorkiness. But as I watch her hand trace light circles over her hip—a small curve in her body I never noticed before—I realize Charlie could be attractive to the right person. It’s in the way she sees the world. Like she’s lived a hundred lives before this, and now she’s got it all figured out. When in fact, she’s just a seventeen-year-old girl.

Charlie Cooper had something terrible happen to her. She watched as her parents burned alive. Anyone would say she has a right to be angry. To be reckless. To weave a string of sins, each one worse than the last. And yet, she somehow manages to have this…this innocence.

She has every reason to be exactly like me.

But she’s not.

For one small moment, I envy her life. I can’t help wondering how things would be different for me if I’d lived the way she does. It’s a thought I typically never allow myself to linger over. But with her, I can’t help it.

I can’t think of the right words to tell her how lucky she is. Or how, now that I think of it, that dress doesn’t look so terrible on her. So I just say, “Good night, Charlie.”

She smiles, and it takes over her entire face. “Night.”

Chapter Fourteen

Decisions

I lay awake in my hotel room. For the past three hours, I’ve been tossing and turning like a druggie in rehab. The soul contract is driving me crazy.

To use, or not to use: that is the question.

I have to forget about the way I saw Charlie tonight, with her innocence all up in my face. And I can’t think about how doing this to her either way makes me feel…off. Boss Man gave me a job to do, and if I don’t do it, someone else will. And that someone else will get my promotion, because sure as shit, Boss Man’s owning her soul in a week. So I have to make a decision. I need to be the collector I was sent here to be, and use the tools at my disposal.

I am Dante Walker.

I am not merciful.

In order for me to use the soul contract, I’d have to be sure she’d trust me completely. Even more, I’d have to be sure I could follow through to the very end, because once a soul contract is signed, it’d be the only thing the Underworld talks about.

My other choice is to collect Charlie’s soul the tried-and-true way. But that has proven to be more than a little difficult.

Either way, something has to happen. I can’t let her walk around destroying our work with her pink seals.

After another half hour of wrestling this issue, I shoot up in bed with my decision made. I will collect Charlie’s soul without the contract. If the collector watching me is waiting to see what I can do, I’m going to give him one hell of a show.

I had the right idea a few days ago, and now is the time to put it into action—when she is at her most vulnerable. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and throw on my clothes. The clock reads 2:30
a.m.
when I shut the hotel door behind me and jog toward my Escalade.

As I drive to her house, I run over the scene in my head. I’ll seduce Charlie tonight. I’ll take every part of her body for my own, and tomorrow she’ll be a doll in my arms. Putty I can twist and mangle.

When I finally arrive, my heart is racing, and I know there’s no turning back. I scale up the lattice to her window and knock quietly. The last thing I need is Grams killing our moment.

After the fourth knock, Charlie slides her window open, and I crawl inside.

“Dante?” she asks, her voice thick with sleep. “What are you doing here? It’s, like…” She glances at her nightstand. “It’s almost three in the morning. Is something wrong?”

I move toward her to do what I came here for. Her lips fall open when I pull her in close to me. My hands wrap around the sides of her face. I stare down at her. The moment hangs between us. She needs to think this is love. There’s no other way she’ll submit.

Her eyes open wide, and I see in them something that makes me sick: trust. She’ll do anything I ask, and I know why. She cares about me. In two days, she’s opened her heart the way I never could. She believes I am her friend. Me.

Dante.

A fraud.

I drop my hands from her face and step back. Charlie releases a quick breath. I wonder if she knew what was about to happen. She has to. I glance at her, barely able to raise my head. She’s dressed in a red silk above-the-knee slip. Something I can’t believe she owns. And even though she’s wearing this thing that says
I’m Down to Mess Around
, she still exudes this
purity
.

I don’t want to hurt her. I really don’t. But I won’t miss my chance to leave hell.

Her hair, her skin…the way she walks. Her appearance prevents people from realizing how amazing she is.

But not anymore.

I step in close and take her hands in mine.

“Charlie,” I say, “I’m going to make you beautiful.”