"Casey Daniels - Pepper Martin 01 - Don of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniels Casey)

I guess I must have made a face.

"What?" Gus stood and cocked his head, the better to see what I was looking at. "That bothers you? All
that blood?"

"I'm surprised it doesn't bother you. I can't believe you're not upset by the fact that you'reтАФ"

"Dead?"

I still wasn't ready to say the word out loud. I slid back in my chair. "Aren't you mad?"

"At whoever did that to me?" He pursed his lips, thinking. "I was," he finally said, tipping his head back
and studying the mottled ceiling panels. "When I first sort ofтАж you knowтАж When I woke up and
realizedтАж well, I suppose I realized I was never really going to wake up."

"And that's when you knew you wereтАж " It wasn't exactly a question but then, I wasn't exactly sure I
wanted an answer.

Gus grunted. "I didn't think dead. Not right away. After all, in my family, we'd been raised to think that
dead meant heaven. Or hell." He looked away. Just long enough for me to wonder if the thought
bothered him.

Not that I was going to ask. It was one thing having a conversation with a dead guy. It was anotherto
question his religious beliefs. Or to ask if he thought he deserved eternal fire and brimstone because of his
life of crime.

"And once you realized you were deтАФ" I caught myself before the word slipped all the way out. Gus
didn't miss a trick. He grinned.

"Glad you're finally getting the picture,chicky ." He winked. "Now if we could just get back to
businessтАж " He glanced at the newspapers we hadn't looked through yet.

My gaze automatically traveled to the clock. Twelve minutes and counting.

"I'd love to." So I lied. I had to believe that Gus had told a lie or two himself in his lifetime. I figured it
was payback. I checked the calendar hanging on the wall to my left. The following afternoon, the Sacred
Heart of Jesus Ladies' Guild was coming for our angel tour. Which meant that the next morning, I'd have
to dig the angel tour script from one of the piles on my desk and actually read it. In the time I'd been here
at Garden View, I hadn't conducted the angel tour yet. I didn't know anything about angels.

And something told me that the Sacred Heart of Jesus Ladies' Guild did.

"I really don't have the time tonight," I told Gus. "And tomorrow isn't looking much better. Maybe next
week orтАФ"

"I am not a man who likes to be jerked around." Gus leaned across my desk, his eyes narrowed and fire
burning in them. "Next week is too damned late. You're wasting my time, little girl. Get busy. Now."

Call me diplomatic. Or maybe I'm just a weenie. I didn't think it was smart to piss off a guy who,