I twisted the throttle and leaned into the curve on the coastal road. Rikki tightened her arms around me. And didn't she just feel fucking right sitting behind me. I wasn't exactly sure when it happened, but something had taken hold of me. It might just have been the first time I saw her looking so perfectly out of place standing on that damn ferry. Or it might have happened when I saw her stand up on the deck of her father's boat, looking so worried and unsure and in desperate need of a reliable friend. Or it might have been when I saw her stretched out between three banshees being dragged through the Wynter sludge. Then all I could think was that I was going to obliterate those screaming fuckers. Not much alarmed me, but in that moment, I was sure my heart would pound its way right out of my fucking chest. It still made my stomach knot when I thought about what might have happened if I hadn't found her. And then there was tonight in the Seven Sins. When I saw Rikki standing up at the bar, oblivious to all the attention she was getting from the men, I knew something was up because I wanted badly to drag my fucking knuckles across all their leering stares. I was even ready to give Flint a taste of my fist.

I pulled off onto the dirt road that led to the beach. The fog had rolled in but it was sitting high enough off the sand to allow a view of the ocean. And when the thick mist hovered over the sand like tonight, the warm air from the day stayed trapped beneath it like a blanket.

I parked the motorcycle and held it steady while Rikki climbed off. She curled her arms around herself as she headed toward the sand. I stayed behind for a second to watch her. She had just enough sway in her hips to keep my attention like a hypnotist's watch.

Rikki stopped and looked back. "Aren't you coming?"

"Yep, just admiring the view." I swung my leg over the seat and caught up to her.

"I love this view too. When the ocean is sandwiched between the fog and the sand."

"Yeah. That view too." She seemed to have no idea that she was sexy as fucking hell.

We reached the picnic benches on the sand and sat down next to each other facing out toward the water. The evening offshore breeze had died completely, and the tide rolled in like gentle ripples.

"Please, Max, tell me. Is my dad all right?"

"I wish I knew, Rikki. What I do know is that Catch got the coin from one of Vapour's ghouls. It was a payoff so that Catch wouldn't let on that he saw the ghoul walking out of the cave where Vapour keeps the flesh for his army."

She turned slightly to face me. "I don't understand. How did a ghoul manage to get my dad's lucky coin? They rarely come near the river."

"Yep. Doesn't make sense. Oh, and in case they do come near the ferry, ghouls don't like fire. Just learned that a few months ago when we were fighting Paygon and . . ." My voice trailed off as the fight came back to me. "We were trying to rescue Willow, and Vapour's ghoul army had marched down to help Feenix's brother fight us. Ghouls are virtually indestructible but then Trex told us that they hated fire." I stopped and looked at her. There was a hint of a smile on her face. "Only it wasn't Trex. That was you. You told us about the fire."

"Yes but technically it came by way of Trex. My great-grandfather discovered the ghouls' aversion to flames in one of his first unfortunate encounters with them. Apparently a couple of them decided there was something extra delicious under the ferryman's cloak, and they jumped on board to take a bite. My great-grandfather just happened to be lighting up his pipe when he heard the clamor on deck. He turned around and the ghouls jumped back at the sight of the lit match. That pipe might have eventually ruined his lungs, but that day it saved his life."

"I'll bet you have hundreds of stories to tell about your family."

"Bedtime stories were definitely different in my house." She put her hand on mine. The earlier tension between us had evaporated. "So tell me, Max, do you think the ghouls have my dad? And why? I can't even think—" Some of the color drained from her face. "You don't think they—Like they tried with my great-grandfather?" Her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my gosh, all this time I've been thinking he's alive somewhere and that I just have to find him, but—"

I reached up and took hold of her face and looked straight into her eyes. "We're going to find him." As badly as I wanted to kiss her, I resisted. I lowered my hands. "Come on, let's take a walk."

We stood up from the bench and walked toward the water. I took hold of Rikki's hand for no other reason except I'd discovered that I liked touching her.

As much time as I spent on my board in the waves, the ocean looked like an entirely different entity at night. Under the night sky it looked bottomless and dark and uninviting, sort of like Wynter.

I sensed that Rikki was still fretting about the possibility that the ghouls had eaten her father. "I know it's hard, but try not to think the worst, Rikki. Feenix is pretty much an asshole, but he does some things right. He has put severe punishments in place for ghouls who are caught eating human flesh. Those iron gibbets that hang over the stone path leading to Feenix's lair are for ghouls who break the law. I've seen a few ghouls rot away in those cages. Feenix leaves them up there for a long time as a stark reminder. I'm going to find time to get over to Vapour's cave. I'll have a look inside. Not sure what I'll find but it's a start."

Rikki turned and moved closer, close enough for me to wrap my arms around her and haul her against me for a kiss. Instead I kept my arms to my sides.

"I want to come with you."

I laughed. "No, too dangerous. You don't belong in a place like that."

She crossed her arms and looked up at me. "Maybe I should remind you that I don't exactly spend my day working in a national park telling campers where to picnic. I shuffle the souls of society's least desirables across the river to their ugly eternity. And stop treating me like a kid. It's irritating. I might be small, but I'm big inside."

I gazed down at her and couldn't help thinking how much I wanted to kiss her. So fucking adorable. "If I don't take you, you're just going to go by yourself, aren't you?"

"Damn right."

"Fine but we'll go together. Don't get it in that pretty, impatient head of yours to do it alone. Vapour's realm makes Feenix's end of the underworld look like paradise.”

"Please, how bad could it be?"

I had a good laugh as I took hold of her hand and led her back to the motorcycle. Of course the real joke was on me. I was Maximus, the asshole the Wynter Fare had nicknamed Ironheart because I rarely woke up without at least two women naked in my bed. Only now I'd found a woman I couldn't even work up the courage to kiss from fear that it would break my iron heart into a million pieces.