My Stepbrother Is a Demon novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: The Pantry

The broker tipped his hat again and walked down to the road.

He didn't get into a car.

He just wasn't there anymore, between one step and the next.

I turned around.

Ivo was already walking back to the house.

"Don't you dare," I said.

He kept walking.

I caught him in the front hall and grabbed his sleeve.

"Did you ask him the price?"

"Not here."

"Did you?"

The housekeeper came out of the dining room with a tray, took one look at us, and went back in.

Ivo took my wrist and pulled me down the hall, through the kitchen and into the pantry.

He shut the door behind us.

It was narrow and dim and smelled like coffee beans and onions.

"Yes," he said.

"When?"

"The night you signed my contract."

I stared at him.

"The first night? You'd known me for twelve hours."

"I went to his office at four in the morning. I asked what it would cost to put my name where yours is."

"And?"

"And it costs what you'd think. He said he'd hold the offer open. That he'd take it if I came back and signed."

My hands were shaking again.

"You were going to die for me. And not tell me."

"I was going to do it if nothing else worked."

"Without telling me!"

"You never asked."

I shoved him.

He went back one step into the shelves, and a jar of something rattled.

"That's not an answer. That's a lawyer."

"It's the truth."

"I know it's the truth, you can't say anything else! That's what makes it worse!"

My voice cracked on the last word.

"I wrote that clause so nobody in this house could handle me. And you went to a man in a gray hat and signed up to handle me to death."

"I didn't sign."

"You would have."

He didn't say anything.

He couldn't say no.

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