by Camilla Monk
His tired sigh breezed against my forehead. “Two days ago.”
I placed the book on the nightstand and nuzzled his neck, all the while pulling him toward the inviting heap of pillows. “Come here; you’re the one who needs to convalesce.”
•••
March slept at my side, a gun under his pillow, and his arm flung across my belly as if to make sure I wouldn’t vanish again. Once in a while, he’d shift or make a little snoring sound from the back of his throat, perhaps riding his ostrich through the wild immensity of Kawaii Farm’s plains . . . Propped against my pillows, I couldn’t stop thinking, tugging at strings everywhere in my brain, unraveling them one after another. My mother’s smile, Dries sharing ice cream with me in Tokyo after he’d tried to kill March, because that’s what supervillain dads do. And normal dads too.
It was 7:00 a.m. in New York, and Simon Halder was probably putting on his tie and watching CNN in the mirror. Then he’d have a cup of black and a bagel with organic soy spread instead of cream cheese and chive like he wanted, because Janice, his wife, was trying to turn him vegan. I crept out of bed carefully and padded down the hallway.
I found a phone in the living room, sitting on the birch sideboard by the window, bathed in the gray light of winter noon. I didn’t remember the number; when I tried to visualize it in my mind, I couldn’t. But my fingers still knew it; they hadn’t forgotten.
It rang. Once, twice, over and over.
Until a grunt at the other end of the line answered me. “Simon Halder speaking, and it’d better be important, because you’re calling from a goddamn hidden number before I’ve had my coffee.”
The tears started rolling before he was even done ranting, and my throat was too tight for any words to come out.
“Who is this?”
I got scared he would hang up before I could produce any sound. I sniffed hard and tried again. “Dad . . .”
The silence that followed shattered me a thousand times. I tried to breathe through the sobs shaking my frame.
But then . . . he spoke. “Island?”
I didn’t think I’d manage, but at last, the words I needed so desperately erupted. “Dad, I want to come home for Christmas!”
BY POPULAR DEMAND,
ISLAND AND MARCH WILL RETURN
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A billion thanks to Tiffany Yates Martin, Lindsey Nelson and Regina Dowling, who work on the Spotless series a lot more than I do, to Jovon Sotak, without whom this adventure would have never happened, to Benoît, for putting up with me, and to every single one of my readers. You guys are the reason I write those books, and going through your desperate messages on Facebook fills me with malevolent glee. Maybe for my next series, it'll take even more books for the characters to sleep together... Who knows? Have you read The Emperor's Edge series, by Lindsay Buroker? Muahahaha!
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SPOTLESS SERIES:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Camilla Monk is a French native who grew up in a Franco-American family. After finishing her studies, she taught English and French in Tokyo before returning to France to work in advertising. Today, she builds rickety websites for financial companies and lives in Montreal, where she keeps a close watch on the squirrels and complains on a daily basis about the egregious number of Tim Hortons.
Her writing credits include the English resumes and cover letters of a great many French friends, and some essays as well. She’s also the critically acclaimed author of a few passive-aggressive notes pasted in her building’s elevator.
www.camillamonk.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Table of Contents
Title
Butterfly in Hell
The Glass Doll
The Knife
The Green Fairy
Perilinen
Sprinkles on Top
Beyond The Great Wall
Fallen Awake
Fear of Heights
Hard Serve
The Spider
The Tan
Stolen
Winter Sports
High Five
Survival of the Fittest
A e i o u
Doctor Who?
Brace Yourself
Harmless Fun
The Baptism
Story of My Life
Home
Alesia
The Blue Danube
The Sea Monster
The Mermaid
The Mark
The T-Rex
Angel Eyes
Icarus
The Cross
The Rabbit Hole
The Last Supper
The Ring
XX121
Black Pearls
Stars and Satellites
The Temple
The Phone Call
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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About the author
