Dead People Read Free Page B

former band mate roared inside him. Luke didn’t give a fuck that Danny had been screwing Vanessa while he was married to her. By that time, he’d realized what a bad choice he’d made. But to claim Luke’s daughter, then walk away when Vanessa reeled out of control...and to never call Luke and say, “Hey, Erin’s not my daughter after all. She’s yours.”
    For that, Luke wanted to see Danny in hell. He wanted Danny to lose everything he and Vanessa cared about—fame, adulation, money. But mostly, Luke wanted to put his hands around Danny’s thick neck and squeeze and squeeze and—
    A hiss pierced his wall of rage. He blinked, coming back to the present, to the library, to Erin. She was staring at him, sitting too stiff and too still, her skin pulled tight over her cheekbones, fear dilating her pupils.
    He stepped back, and the roar inside his mind lowered to a whisper. “I’m taking care of you from now on,” he said, his voice like sandpaper. “I’ll be there for you. Danny isn’t your father. I am.”
    Her lower lip trembled. “Then I don’t want anything.”
    Without a word, he snapped around and strode out of the library.
    A cold draft chilled him in the hall. The ghost?
    “You were watching us.” His voice came out in a harsh whisper and every word punched the air. “Did you enjoy your eavesdropping? Do you have any words of advice? Bring ‘em on.”
    Silence answered him, and he crossed to the stairway, intent on going to his studio and working on his music, the only thing that fulfilled him. Women and wine were fine, but there was nothing as good as putting together words and music, creating a song from air and a few brain cells. Nothing. Not sex, not fame, not feel-good drugs. And sure the hell not love.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    Erin waited until Luke was in the hall, and then looked at the phone on the library table for a long moment, her palm itching to lift it and call her mom. But hewould see it on the phone bill, and if he complained to the police, her mom would go to jail and it would be her fault.
    She got up instead and folded down a page of the book, a good one about kids abducted by aliens and given super powers. She’d finish reading it upstairs, where no one would interrupt her. Where he wouldn’t come and talk to her.
    She didn’t know why he bothered. He didn’t do it well, not like Danny who bounded in with a smile and a present, even after he and her mom broke up. Her dad was the anti-Danny.
    In the hall, she listened for her dad but didn’t hear him. Dad. It still felt weird calling him that. When she was about three, she asked her mom if Danny was her dad, and Vanessa said no, that her real father never wanted her.
    A tightness pinched Erin’s chest like two giant fingers. She ran up the stairs to her room. In her puke yellow room with the stupid white furniture, she hurried to her stupid white desk with painted on gold stars. Yuck. A little girl’s room.
    At least the laptop was a big girl’s.  
    The pinching stopped, her breathing easier. She dropped the book on the desktop, then sat and opened her laptop, going straight to her email. Fifty-one messages waited for her.
    The “From” name on every one was the same.
    Vantastic .  
    She scrolled down. Vantastic, Vantastic, Vantastic, Vantastic, Vantastic...
    Tears nuked the back of Erin’s eyes. Her dad wasn’t so smart, never checking her email. If her throat didn’t hurt from looking at all the emails, she’d laugh.
    She clicked open the first message. Call me, baby. I need you. Love, Mom.
    A tear straggled down Erin’s cheek, though she tried to blink it back. She heard her mom’s voice in her head, what she’d said the day after Erin’s tenth birthday, after she remembered she’d missed it.
    You know I love you, baby. Good thing you’re so strong. Cuz I’m weak and need you to take care of me. Without you, I don’t know what I’d do.
    Erin hit reply.
    Mom, I want to come back to you, but he won’t let