Between a Vamp and a Hard Place Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t do anything to me. But all those priceless treasures? They could change our lives. Both Gemma and I had no money, and no family. We had no one to depend on but ourselves. And if those items in that room were legit, it was worth going into a spooky secret room with a dead body.
    Or so I told myself.
    I could bring them out one at a time, I mused. Maybe bring up one crate at a time so we didn’t have to pack things downstairs with the body. Then we could quietly re-close the secret door and never say a peep. Or we could report it to the Venetian authorities. It wasn’t as if they could frame us for murder if the dead guy was two hundred (or more) years old, right?
    So I put the crowbar, some packing materials, a flashlight, and some extra batteries into a shoulder bag. I added my phone so I could take pictures of any of the items if needed.
    Then, taking a deep breath, I shouldered the bag and headed for the secret room.

Three
    U pon return, the secret room wasn’t so frightening. Once I got past the wet stairs and the sensation of descending into a well, the small room at the bottom was mostly clean and neat if you didn’t mind the stacks of crates brimming with priceless things. I certainly didn’t.
    Soon, though, my suspicions got the better of me, and I immediately checked to see if the pried-off wooden lid had moved from where I’d left it. Nope.
    I breathed a sigh of relief and felt a little ridiculous. Of course it hadn’t moved. I was just being silly and paranoid from Gemma’s freak-out. Gemma was scared of mice, heights, communicable diseases, elevators, and wool blends. Of course she was scared of a coffin. And of course I was freaking out along with her. It was a coffin, after all. It wasn’t something one would expect to find in a secret room.
    Feeling a little better about things, I started to pull the lid back over the coffin, then paused. I stared down at the lid thoughtfully, then lit the lantern and set it atop a nearby crate.
    Since I was here, I might as well see what was in the damn thing, right? It was probably nothing, and then Gemma and I would have a good laugh over the fact that we’d freaked out so badly. Then we’d get back to work cataloging the treasures down here, including the anhua jar I was now mentally referring to as My Precious. We need a two-step plan, I imagined Gemma saying. Step one, get shit done. Step two, make all the money.
    But first things first.
    I peered at the coffin lid. It was perfectly smooth, made of a solid sort of wood that had a warm cherry color to it and had been polished to a high sheen. It was also completely without design or ornamentation of any kind, so I couldn’t tell how old it was. It might have been made two years ago, or two hundred. There was no writing on the surface, and the crate itself was empty of anything except the coffin.
    There was no mistaking the shape, though. It was the classic coffin shape—narrower at the feet and broader where the shoulders would be. My heart hammered as I reached out to tentatively touch the wood.
    It felt cool under my fingertips, and I relaxed. Of course it did. Now I was the one being a ninny, wasn’t I? With a small sigh, I put my fingers to the edge of the lid and pried it off.
    As light hit the interior, I gasped.
    It wasn’t empty.
    A man lay inside, a man so stunningly beautiful that he had to be unreal. His mouth was a perfect sculpture of lips, his cheekbones high. His jaw was strong and smooth, his skin pale. Thick, reddish-brown hair tumbled over his brow, and dark brows and thick eyelashes framed his closed eyes. Once I stopped staring at his gorgeous face, I looked at his clothing. It was unfamiliar, a long tunic of a dark shade and equally dark leggings. I did notice that he had one arm at his side, the other over his heart. He gripped a wooden stake.
    My jangling nerves suddenly relaxed, and I just shook my head at the sight of that