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and right? The fact that I might have to have him arrested and sent back to the same prison in which he’d spent ten years doing time for a crime he didn’t commit? The fact that arsonists have a unique psyche that leans toward either extreme arrogance or extreme sexual deviance? Reyes had neither as far as I knew, but did the idea of finding out otherwise scare me?
    “Hey, Ch-Charley.”
    I looked over my shoulder and saw my new dead friend Duff standing beside me, shifting his weight from side to side with nervous energy. “Hey, you,” I said, unlocking my door.
    “I – I thought m-maybe you might need someone to talk to after wh-what happened.”
    And there went my heart. Damn it. Time to see the cardiologist again.
    “I’m okay, but thank you.”
    “Oh, g-good. I’m glad.”
    Part of my job was to help people cross over when they were ready. Sometimes that included the role of shoulder. As in to cry on. I held the door ajar and offered him my full attention. “Do you know what I am, Duff?”
    He stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked a nonexistent rock at his feet. “Y-yes.”
    “You know you can cross through me when you’re ready.”
    “Y-yes, I know. I just thought m-maybe I’d keep an eye on you for a while.”
    I straightened. “An eye on me?”
    He did it fast, but I saw it anyway. He glanced toward Reyes’s apartment. “Y-yes, you know, in case y-you need help or s-something.”
    “Duff, I appreciate the offer, but —”
    “I m-moved in down the hall if you n-need anything.”
    I followed his gesture toward Mrs. Allen’s apartment. “Oh, okay. So, you’re living with Mrs. Allen?”
    A shy smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Y-yes. She has a dog.”
    I put a hand on his frigid shoulder. “That’s not a dog, Duff. That’s a demon named PP. I’m about ninety percent certain he’s possessed.”
    Duff chuckled. “At least he doesn’t have any teeth.”
    “Just be careful. I think he has one fang left and he knows how to use it.”
    After another quick glance toward the dragon’s lair, Duff lifted a hand. “S-see you later, then.”
    “Sounds like a plan,” I said with a wink. “Just remember, steer clear of that fang.”
    The smile that commandeered his features was contagious and charming. He took another step back, gave me a shy wave, then disappeared.
    I started inside my apartment, then rethought that decision. If anyone would know what Garrett went through, what he had to endure in the fiery pits, Reyes would. He’d grown up in hell, after all, and then suffered a whole new version of the word here on Earth at the hands of Earl Walker, who had ended up with Reyes through nefarious means when he was very young, abused him mercilessly, then framed Reyes for his murder and had him sent to prison despite the fact that Earl Walker was alive and kicking.
    Well, not kicking anymore, thanks to an expertly placed blade that Reyes himself had swung, but alive anyway.
    I walked to his apartment and knocked. The fact that my hand shook a bit surprised me. It wasn’t like I’d never been in his company. Lots. And in various states of undress. But I’d never been to his humble abode, to his lair. He’d never had the home court advantage, and the realization that the minute I stepped through that threshold we would be on his turf gave me butterflies. That and the fact that I owed him. Again. He had saved my life tonight. Not from Tidwell but from Cookie. That woman was a menace.
    He cracked the door open just enough to give me a partial view of him, and the butterflies swarmed. Especially when he cocked a brow in question.
    “I thought we could talk,” I said, keeping my exterior calm. Unassuming.
    For a moment I thought he was going to brush me off, tell me he was tired or he had work to do, he hesitated so long. But he turned and busied himself while I tried to peek over his shoulders into his apartment. Then he faced me again. A wicked grin crinkled one corner of his