I shrugged. “Who knows? But it’s on that paper, and Davin wanted it. Derek wanted it. Maybe Derek thought the vampires would help him? Or that they’d be forced to help if he brought them back to life? I don’t know.”

I gathered up the papers from Eric and stuffed them into the manila envelope. “Everyone pick a room. We’ve got this place until the end of the month when his rental is up.”

Alan stomped around the table toward me. “I will not let you live here!”

Corb cleared his throat. “I’ve been doing some digging, Bree. I do have some good news for you.”

I slumped into a chair and he pulled up one beside me. “Fire away.”

He grinned and glanced at Alan. “It really is good news.”

I didn’t trust it, but his smile was contagious. “You know, you have the slightest dimple on that side.” I poked at his cheek, and he caught my hand.

“You know that Alan moved all his debt onto you, and really seemed to cross all of his T’s and dot his I’s,” Corb said. I nodded, wondering how this could lead to good news.

“Yes, I do seem to recall that he did that,” I said.

“Did you know that he forgot to cross one very important T?” Corb was full-on grinning as he pulled a single piece of paper from his back pocket and smoothed it on the table. “Alan, you recognize this?”

Alan pushed between us, making my skin crawl with a cold breeze. “No, oh shit, no!”

Anything that would make Alan curse had to be good. I leaned forward and stared at the paper.

“It’s a life insurance policy?” I scanned the page quickly, shock settling in, and then scanned it again. “Alan’s life insurance policy. Is it really correct? Is that what I think it is?” I jabbed my finger at the beneficiary named on the policy. Which happened to be me.

Alan all but threw himself around the room, cursing and yelling that it wasn’t fair. That his secretary was supposed to have made those changes. That he hadn’t meant to forget.

“He probably thought he had years, that it would be the last thing he needed to change,” Corb said. “The policy is enough to cover all the debt and leave you with a good nest egg.”

I squeezed Corb’s hand. “This . . . this is good. Thank you.”

His smile faded. “But?”

“Gran is missing. I have to go after her, Corb. I know that some people would say she is just a ghost, but she isn’t. Her soul is missing,” I said, the words choking me. “I have to bring her home.”

Corb stood and pulled me to my feet, green eyes steady on mine. “Then we go get her.”

“We?”

He grinned. “I’m officially out of work. I broke ties with the SCE. Actually, I was hoping you’d give me a job. I think Sarge will be asking soon too. The Hollows won’t take him back. And after the stunt Tom pulled, I’m not sure . . .”

“Tom, what does he have to do with this?” I asked.

Corb grimaced. “There was no spell on you from your gran’s paperwork. I overheard him and Eammon talking this morning. They put a simple spell on the paperwork to make you need their help, nothing heinous, just . . . a pain in the ass.” He rubbed a hand over his hair, messing it all up. “They always intended to take it off so they could have a favor to call in. Only you didn’t have a spell on you when Tom found you.” He reached over and touched the talisman I wore around my neck. “Your gran’s talisman protected you from it, probably felt strange when the two collided, I’d bet?”

The feeling of ants crawling all over my skin when I first opened the envelope came back to me. “Yeah, it did.”

“I didn’t know,” Corb said.

I looked him in the eyes, wanting to believe him. “For now, I’ll take that.”

Corb leaned in to kiss me and Alan shot between us, so I’m not sure if I would have let him put his lips on mine or not.

“Don’t you dare,” Alan snapped. “I hate you both.”

I cleared my throat. “So. New Orleans then? You think Sarge will come?”

Corb nodded. “Yeah, he saw Jinx back to Factors Row. Apparently she’s taken a liking to him and she tried to entice him, turned into a wolf and everything. He turned her down, so he’s going to need a few weeks out of town.”

I grimaced, wondering what kind of trouble a lovestruck trickster could cause and decided I really didn’t want to know.

He took my hand. “What do you say?”

There was really no other answer than . . . “Okay, let’s go. But you realize that until I find a way to remove my ghostly attachment, Alan will be with us?”

Corb grimaced. “Yeah. No fun, but let’s go anyway.”

Suzy stepped into the doorway and I smiled. “You coming too?”

She shook her head. “I can’t go, I’m not . . . my powers are still not under any sort of control. And I need Eric to stay with me. He’s becoming my touchstone, a place of calm when the emotions and power begin to swirl out of control.”

Corb nodded. “That’s good. He’ll ground you.”

Feish bobbled forward. “I am coming. No more do I have a boss, and he can’t be ordering me about. Also know New Orleans good.” She gave us a wide grin showing off her gills.

Her words made me realize—or maybe realize wasn’t the right word, maybe forced me to remember was more accurate—that I hadn’t had any sort of wrap-up with Crash.

There had been no goodbye. Not even a thanks for saving my ass, Bree, appreciate that. Twice. I’d saved his ass twice. Not even a note. No kind of explanation for his abrupt turnabout. Even Grimm had sent me payment for everything I’d done.

“Then we go. We’ll save Gran, and when we get back here, we can go house hunting.” I forced another smile, because inside my heart was breaking more than a little. Because I knew that something had happened, something I didn’t understand, and whatever was between Crash and me was not as it seemed. Gran’s soul was missing, and the home that I loved was never going to be mine.

I drew in a big breath, pulled on my proverbial bigger girl panties, and tipped my chin up.

“Look out, New Orleans, we’re coming for you.”

A knock on the door turned us all around, and a booming voice echoed through with the use of a megaphone.

“Bree O’Rylee?”

“Who’s asking?” Corb shouted back.

“We have a warrant for her arrest for the murder of Alan Walker.”

Well, shit.