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Hell.”
    Leo pressed the hot iron to my bicep and then I was screaming, so loud I felt it tear out of my throat.
    He stopped as abruptly as he’d hurt me in the first place. “I’m not joking, Ava. Your reaper sent you here with no clue about what you’d be facing. Alexi almost killed you, and if I’d wanted ten more deadheads to rip you apart, you’d be pieces in black plastic bags by now. He doesn’t give a shit about what happens to a creature like you, Ava, so why would you not jump at the chance to get rid of him?”
    Shaking, I worked on not tossing my last meal all over my boots. I forced myself to meet Leo’s eyes. “Because it’s impossible.”
    â€œIt’s not impossible.” Leo’s snarl came close to mine. I could see I’d hit a nerve, so I flinched back.
    â€œMaybe not for you, but I can’t help you,” I said. “Gary is my boss. He owns me. I’m not going to flip on him for some psychopath human that already tried to kill me once tonight.”
    The iron hit me again, on the collarbone, but this time I was prepared for it, and my scream came through gritted teeth.
    â€œDon’t be stupid,” Leo snapped. “You’re disposable to a reaper. There’s always more where you came from. He doesn’t care about you, Ava. How can you not see that?”
    I breathed in, out. Slow and soft, feeling my heart beat and my blood pump. Reminding myself that I was alive. “I do see it,” I whispered. “What you don’t see is that I don’t have a choice.” I squeezed my eyes shut. Sweat and stress tears flooded down my cheeks. “You think this is bad? Even if I get out of here, what Gary does as punishment for not putting you down will be so much worse. It’s not a matter of whether or not we have warm fuzzy feelings for each other.”
    The shaking now wasn’t entirely from what Leo had done to me. I hated it when I had to think about this, about what I really was and how tight Gary’s hold was. “It’s about who I’m afraid of. And that’s Gary.”
    It would always be Gary.
    I watched Leo pick up a knife, and sighed. “Now, I was already tortured to death once, so if you’re going to do it, just get it over with.”
    Leo stopped in midmotion, went completely still as if all his joints had locked up. “You remember dying?”
    â€œYeah,” I said. “I mean, it’s sort of hard to forget.”
    Leo set down the knife. Something had changed in his eyes. I didn’t know what I’d said, but this was more like I’d imagined—­hard and empty, the cruelty that I expected from warlocks with as much power as Leo had.
    â€œThat isn’t right,” he said. “Hellhounds have no memory of their human lives.”
    â€œI’m a hellhound,” I said. “And I remember a lot more than I want to.”
    Leo narrowed his eyes. “The other two—­in Brooklyn and St. Louis—­remembered nothing of their human existence,” he said. “Sure, they knew they’d died and made contracts with reapers to save themselves, but they had no memory of dying or anything leading up to it.”
    â€œI don’t remember everything,” I mumbled. I was oddly embarrassed. I’d never even thought to wonder if Gary’s other hounds were like me. I thought for sure that Wilson at least had to be a miserable asshole in life to be such a jackass when I met him.
    â€œThat you remember anything at all is troubling,” Leo said. I felt my lip twitch back over my teeth.
    â€œI’m so sorry that the information you tortured out of me troubles you,” I said.
    â€œNot me,” Leo said. “But if you do help me, I wouldn’t let your boss know that you recall being a human.”
    I stayed still and tense as he reached for me, but there was no pain this time. Leo touched my uninjured arm.