After breakfast, Claire made the suggestion we visit her father. I wasn’t sure what good could come from bringing her father into our mess, but she was adamant it was time he knew what was going on.

I didn’t argue.

As I climbed into the passenger seat of her car, I realized Claire was the polar opposite when it came to neatness than Danny had been. Her car was loaded with crap. If I hadn’t seen her staying at her brother’s place the last few nights, I would’ve thought she lived out of her car.

“Sorry about the mess. Shove whatever you need to out of your way,” Claire said as she cranked the engine. “I do all the time.”

“I can see that.”

“Are you saying I’m a slob?”

A grin quirked at my lips. “I’m not saying anything.”

“Right. Anyway, like I said, I think it’s a good idea to explain everything to my dad. He might know something we don’t about the guide. He might even know something about the vampire hunter who wrote it.”

“Was he close to the guy? The one who left him the collection?”

“Yeah, that’s why the guy left it to him in the first place. He wasn’t his best friend or anything, but they were close. I think I met him once or twice. He was older than my dad. Sort of like a father figure to him.”

“Then don’t you think he would’ve known a guide in the collection he’d inherited was so dangerous and rare?”

Claire glanced at me while pausing at a stop sign. “What are you trying to say? That my dad knew the book was there and purposely didn’t say anything to Danny about it?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m just trying to figure out how he didn’t know it was there to begin with.”

“Maybe it was safer not to mention at all.” Claire gassed it, sending my head jerking back against the seat. “Also, my dad hasn’t handled anything at the bookstore the last couple years. He went into retirement after Danny and I graduated high school. I left for college and all my brother wanted to do was take over the store. Dad might not have known what was in the books he inherited. Danny could have easily kept this one for himself.”

It was possible.

The road we were on turned to gravel. Tall grass surrounded us on either side with a few palm trees sprinkled here and there. A house with green siding and windows trimmed in pale yellow came into view once we reached the end. A black truck sat parked in the driveway. Her father was home.

“And, we’re here.” Claire shifted into park. She pulled in a deep breath as she cut the engine and reached for the door handle.

Her display of nerves didn’t make me feel any better, even though I knew we were both nervous for different reasons. All I could think about was how I was meeting Claire’s dad in a different form than I had before. Today, I was showing up at his house unannounced with his daughter. It was completely different from seeing him in town and saying hello with a nod. Maybe it was stupid to worry about, but I couldn’t deny that I worried he might not like seeing a vampire with his daughter. Hell, I should probably be worried about what his reaction would be to what we were here to fill him in on instead.

“Let me do the talking,” Claire insisted.

“No argument there.” I preferred she do all the talking anyway.

I slid out of the passenger seat and followed Claire up the sandy walkway that led to the front porch. My biker boots made too much noise as I climbed the wooden steps behind her.

Claire barely knocked before twisting the knob and stepping inside. Stale air hit my nose the instant the door opened. It had me second-guessing if I wanted to follow her inside. The house reeked of sorrow and loneliness.

It hit me then. Claire’s dad wasn’t going to give a damn I was here with his daughter. He probably wouldn’t notice me. He might not even notice Claire. Not at first anyway.

He was in mourning.

“Daddy? It’s me, Claire,” she called as she stepped farther inside.

I hung back. Claire must have sensed my hesitation. She glanced over her shoulder and motioned for me to come in. I did as I was told and closed the door behind me. The sadness stemming from her father saturated the air. I could almost taste it.

“Hello? Daddy?” Claire called out as we moved through the mudroom and into the living room.

Her dad was asleep on the couch. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a dingy T-shirt. There was an open bag of chips, piles of used tissues, and an empty bottle of Jack Daniels on the coffee table in front of him. My heart ached for the man, but it also hurt for Claire. I hated she had to see her father like this.

“Dad,” Claire whispered as she crept to him. She shook his shoulder once she reached him. He stirred, but it took her a few more tries before he fully committed to waking.

“Claire? What are you doing here?” he grumbled as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

“I wanted to check on you, but I also want to tell you something important that’s been going on.”

Claire’s father’s eyes drifted from her to me. “What’s he doing here?”

“Moral support. Another witness,” Claire said. “The list goes on.”

“Is baby daddy on that list, because I swear to God, I can’t handle anything else right now, Claire. I just can’t.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger as though the thought of adding anything else to his plate was already giving him a headache.

My eyes bugged out of my head. “No, sir. I promise that’s not the case.”

I wasn’t sure if it would ever be. I didn’t think vampires could reproduce, not the way other supernaturals and humans did.

“Then why do you need moral support or a witness for anything?” he questioned Claire.

“Because I have something to tell you about Danny, and I don’t think you’ll believe me,” Claire said as she situated herself on the couch beside her father.

I crossed the room to sit in the recliner, giving them space.

“What about Danny?”

“I know how hard this is going to be to hear, but I need you to listen to everything I have to say without interrupting. Okay?” Claire insisted.

Her dad yawned before leaning back against the couch. His eyes fixated on her, giving her his undivided attention. “I guess I can agree to that.”

“I’m just going to come out and say it,” Claire said. “Dad, I know Danny didn’t kill himself.”

At first, her dad didn’t say anything. He only stared at her. After a little while, he opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, but then closed it again before words could come out.

“I know you don’t believe me. You’ve said so before, but I have proof Danny was attacked by something. Something that has everything to do with a book.”

“Attacked?” Claire’s dad shook his head. “No. It was a gunshot wound. A self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

“Was it? Did you see the scene for yourself? Did you see where the bullet entered?” Claire asked. Her voice had risen an octave or two. I knew she was trying to debunk what her father believed, but I didn’t think she was going about it the right way.

“What a sick question to ask, Claire.” Her father shook his head. He stood and paced in front of the couch.

“I’m sorry, but Danny didn’t kill himself. I know he didn’t. It was all because of a book.”

“What book? How could a book have killed your brother? You’re not making sense.” Her father’s eyes shifted to me. They were hard, raw, and filled with emotion. “Why on earth are you encouraging this? My daughter is obviously in a mentally fragile state. I don’t like the idea of you taking advantage of that.”

“I’m not, sir. I assure you I’m not. What she’s saying is true. The death of your son does involve a book.”

Claire reached into her purse and retrieved it. She held it out to her father. “This guide. It came from your collector friend. I spotted it listed as a journal on Danny’s log. He sent me a text the night he died, saying he’d found a book that was either going to kill him or make us a shit ton of money. This is the book, and it’s because of it he’s dead. Do you recognize it?”

Claire’s dad took the book from her and opened it to scan its pages. “No, I don’t. You’re saying this was one of Jimmy’s donations to us when he passed?”

“Yeah. It was also guarded…by a hellhound,” Claire said. “That’s what attacked Danny. It wasn’t a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Danny was ripped to shreds by a hellhound, Dad. I don’t know if the police conjured up some magic to cover it up or what, but that’s what happened.”

Claire’s father’s face paled. He slumped onto the couch with the guide gripped tightly in his hands. He shook his head, but the glassy look in his eyes never vanished.

“No,” he muttered with a trembling voice. Tears built in his eyes. “I was there. I saw Danny. I found him. If a hellhound had been there, things would’ve been worse than what I saw. Danny shot himself. He placed a gun to his chin and pulled the damn trigger. I don’t know why. I don’t know how I missed the signs, but your brother was suicidal, Claire.”

Silence fell between the three of us. It was only interrupted when Claire’s dad tossed the guide on the coffee table as though he wanted nothing to do with it.

“Danny wouldn’t kill himself, Dad. You know him as well as I did. He wasn’t the suicidal type,” Claire sputtered. “Danny was happy. He loved his life.”

“Sometimes we don’t know a person as well as we thought we did. It wasn’t healthy for him to spend as much time as he did at the bookstore. Maybe he was escaping reality. I don’t know. All I know is that Danny is no longer here, and it’s not because of a damned hellhound attacking him.”

Claire’s face reddened. Things were about to get heated real quickly. I needed to think of something that would diffuse the situation and fast. These two had already been through so much, they didn’t need to hurt each other with words too.

“Would you believe us if we showed you surveillance footage from the night your son passed away? A clip that shows a hellhound entering the shop?” I asked.

Claire glanced at me. Her eyes softened as tension appeared to roll off her shoulders.

“If there was a hellhound on video, the cops would’ve mentioned something to me. I was the one who turned over the tape to them,” her father insisted.

“They wouldn’t have mentioned it if they couldn’t make sense of what they were seeing,” Claire said. “Come to the shop. Let me show you so you can see it with your own eyes. It’s the only way you’re going to believe me.”

He seemed to mull around in his head for a good reason not to come. When he smoothed his hands over his face and released a long sigh, I thought we’d won.

“Fine. I’ll come, but it doesn’t mean I believe what you’re saying. I just know you well enough to know that you won’t let this go until you show me what you want to show me.” Her dad stood and headed toward the back of the house. “Let me grab some damn socks.”