“No, ma’am.”
“Please, come in. It’s freezing.”
“You’re just going to invite her in?” Amador asked. “What if she’s a serial killer? Or a stalker? I have lots of stalkers, you know.”
The woman smiled at me apologetically. “He doesn’t have any stalkers. He just says that to make me jealous.”
I couldn’t help but grin as she led me to a gorgeous living room sprinkled with toys of every color.
“Please excuse the mess,” she said as she began picking up. “We weren’t expecting anyone.”
“Oh, please don’t.” I felt bad enough.
“Of course we weren’t expecting anyone,” Amador said. “It’s three thirty in the freaking morning. Cut that out.”
With a sigh, she sat down beside her husband, and I had to admit, they were as stunning as their house. An absolutely beautiful couple.
“You probably know who Amador is,” she said, “and I’m Bianca.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” It would have been nice of me to introduce myself. “My name is Charlotte Davidson. I need to find Reyes Farrow immediately. I—I…” I stuttered to a stop when I realized they were staring at me with mouths agape.
Bianca recovered first. “I’m sorry, you were saying?” She elbowed her husband.
Okay. “Um, it’s just that…”
Amador was still staring. Bianca reached over and closed his mouth. “We really were raised better,” she said with a nervous giggle.
“Oh, no, that’s okay. Is it my hair?” I smoothed my hair self-consciously.
“No, it’s just that, we’re a little surprised to see you.”
“Right. So, have we met?”
“No,” Amador said. They looked at each other and shook their heads before turning back to me and continuing to shake their heads.
Okeydokey. “Well, I’ll just get down to business, then.” I stabbed Amador with another glare. “Where is Reyes Farrow?” I was serious, damn it. But when the only emotion that came over him was pleasure, I had to admit I was stumped.
“I don’t know where he is. I swear.”
They were both back to shaking their heads in unison. This was getting ridiculous.
“That’s it,” I said, showing my palms, “what is going on?”
Even Bianca was almost giggling now, so much so that I jammed my fists onto my hips. “Did I miss something? I mean, you guys seem really … I don’t know, happy. May I remind you that the hour is much too ungodly to be happy?”
“Oh, we’re not happy,” Bianca said happily.
Then it hit me. Well, punched me in the gut. They knew who I was. “Holy cow, did Reyes tell you about me?”
Their heads almost vibrated, they shook them so fast. And they were lying.
Unable to believe he would do such a thing, I stood and paced their living room, tripping twice on a Transformer. I was a slow learner. “I can’t believe it,” I said through gritted teeth. I turned on them. “Did he tell you what he is? Huh? Huh? Of course he didn’t.” He wouldn’t tell his best friend that he was the stinking, low-life son of Satan. Oh, hell no.
After a moment, I realized they were laughing. I stopped and stared a moment before folding back into the seat. “Okay, no offense—but, like, what?”
The smile that overtook Amador’s face was charming. “It’s just that, we never—” He looked back at his wife. “—we didn’t know if you were real.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re Dutch,” Bianca said.
My heart leapt at the sound of my nickname. Reyes was the only one who’d ever called me that.
“You’re the girl from his dreams.”
“The one made of light,” Amador said.
The girl from his dreams? Did they not know I was the grim reaper? Probably not. I doubted they would be so happy to see me if they’d gotten a hold of that golden nugget.
“Wait,” I said, inching closer, “what dreams? He dreams about me?” This was getting good.
Bianca covered her mouth and laughed as Amador spoke. “You’re all he’s ever talked about. Even in high school, when every girl there wanted him more than air, you were all he talked about.”
“But he said he’d never seen you, not in real life, so we just didn’t know if you really existed or not.”
“I mean, c’mon,” Amador said, “a beautiful girl made of light? Which, by the way, I’m not really getting that part. I mean, you’re white and all.”
Bianca hit him on the shoulder, then turned back to me. “The more Amador and I found out about him, the more we realized you probably did exist.”
“So, he called me beautiful?” I asked, zeroing in on that one word.
Bianca grinned. “All the time.”
Wow. That was about the coolest thing I’d heard all day. Of course, it was still early, but I was there for a reason. After a heavy sigh, I blinked back and said, “I really and truly need to know where he is. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but if I don’t find him soon, he’ll die.”
That brought the festivities to a screeching halt. “What do you mean?” Amador asked.
“Okay, look, exactly how much do you know about him?” I needed a gauge of how much I could and could not tell them.