Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Clearly, they were on the lookout for something. Or someone.
Like the knife-wielding monster who’d mercilessly murdered someone in the woods.
I knew it was wrong to eavesdrop. But I found myself leaning closer to the closed window, glad that the men had deep voices that carried.
“Nope. Just told me it was until further notice. Fucking sick of it already. No action around here.”
Action?
What kind of action could they be talking about?
“I don’t mind getting paid to stand around and do nothing.”
“Not me. I’m losing my fucking mind. Wanna get back to the street. Fuck, I’d take the docks over this shit.”
The… docks?
Was he a dockworker?
Hadn’t Dante mentioned something about imports once? And goods were imported through ships at the docks.
It seemed like he’d just taken these guys off their normal jobs—maybe doing security work at the docks—to stand around here, doing nothing.
The streets didn’t make any sense to me, though. What street? What did they do to the street? Did someone in the Grassi family run some sort of paving company?
“It’s not so bad. Free coffee. Free food. Plus, got that hot chick in the sweater to look at.”
Well, that was kind of nice.
“Just look, though. You heard the boss,” the other guy said.
What’d Dante say? Or did they mean Domenico?
“Dunno. Might be worth the ass-kicking to get her under me.”
Okay.
That was more than enough.
Granted, all the guys Dante employed were attractive. But I didn’t want strangers thinking about me that way.
The men’s voices drifted as they moved further away.
I got back to my cleaning, wondering if the docks angle was something I could look into more.
I’d wrapped up my research into the dummies, concluding that if such a realistic, large-sized one existed, it cost a fortune and was sold only to people in the know.
Was it possible one of the Grassis was in the movie industry? Sure. Especially since I heard that a local military base had just been turned into a movie studio.
But still.
It wasn’t sitting right with me.
I wanted to look deeper into the Grassi family as a whole. And Dante in particular.
“Hello?” a voice called, making me jump so hard that I knocked over the creepiest of all the creepy dolls. Not one of the ones bought at the Halloween supply store. Oh, no. This was a vintage creepy doll that was likely some little kid’s toy at one point, before they realized it wanted their soul.
Its face was already cracked and glued back together, but I held my breath as I glanced down at it, hoping I hadn’t done any lasting damage.
“Hazel, what are you doing?” Dante asked as he made his way through the maze of creepy decor to reach me.
“Oh, uh, hey. What are you doing here?” I asked, shoving the creepy doll back into her spot, no worse for the wear.
“I was looking for Dom.”
“He’s not here.”
“Noticed that. What are you doing? Cleaning isn’t in your job description.”
“Not normally, no. But we’ve had four employees get the flu recently. I was just going around spraying everything—in case you didn’t smell the disinfectant.”
“Smells like home.”
“What?”
“My ma, when she used to change our beds when we were growing up, would spray the mattress with the yellow disinfectant before she put the fresh bedding on.”
“My grandmother did that too, but with lavender spray. She used to tell me it keeps the bugs away so we don’t swallow spiders in our sleep.”
“Great way to make sure a kid never sleeps again.”
“I know, right? I went through a phase where I slept with a cut-off leg of pantyhose over my face to prevent them from getting in my mouth or up my nose.”
“Gotta love that mild childhood trauma,” he said, shaking his head. “You know, I haven’t been through this.”
“The haunted house? Really?”
“I figured it wouldn’t be spooky now that I’ve seen it in the daytime.”
“It is. I mean, it’s scarier with the performers in here. But it’s definitely creepy even without them. Want to see?” I asked, bringing my cleaning supplies over toward the cleaning cart by the door and then pulling off my gloves.
“Sure, why not?” he replied.
“Go back to the entrance,” I said as I started flicking on the sounds and turning off the lights. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I turned off the last of the lights.
There was an eerie red glow up-lighting near the walls and some dim lights on the floor to prevent people from tripping. But as a whole, it was pretty dark inside.
Dante wasn’t even that far away, but I completely lost sight of him in the dark.
He also had the footsteps of a cat. I couldn’t hear him move around even with the creepy laughter and scream tracks coming from the hidden speakers.
So when hands grabbed my hips, a small shriek escaped me for just a second before Dante’s lips were on mine, silencing my surprise.