Charlaine Harris: Dead Ever After

“Putting himself in someone else’s shoes is not the Niall way,” I said. “Apparently, the traitor did break Claude out, and Claude decided vengeance was first on his list. Also, he must have had a bank account that Niall didn’t know about. Claude contacted Johan Glassport, who’d acted as his lawyer before, because Glassport was the most ruthless human he knew. He bribed Glassport to take part in phase one of the ‘get Sookie’ project, which apparently was to ensure I went to jail for my whole life so I’d see just how Claude would have had to live. They needed someone else motivated by Sookie-hate to help them out, someone who would be tempted by the unusual bribe—money and a little telepath. Glassport tracked down Steve Newlin. Then they needed the perfect victim, so Glassport argued Arlene out of prison.”

“That’s pretty convoluted,” Sam said.

“Tell me about it. I mean, when I thought about Claude in fairy jail, I kind of got where he was going with it, but still. He would have been much better off if he’d just stolen a gun and shot me.”

“Sookie!” Sam was genuinely upset. We were parked at my back door. I glanced out the window and thought I saw a flash of white at the edge of the woods. Karin. Or Bill. She and Bill must be seeing a lot of each other during the night.

“I know, I don’t like the mental image, either,” I said. “But it’s true. Going elaborate reduces your chance of success. So remember this for your future vengeance projects. Short, direct.” We sat a moment in silence. “Seriously, Sam, I would have died if I’d been tortured again. I was ready to go.”

“But you got them angry with each other. You started them fighting. And you lived. You never give up, Sook.” He took my hand.

I would have disputed that if I’d cared to speak. I’d given up a lot, so much I couldn’t even begin to evaluate it, but I knew what Sam meant. He meant I’d kept myself and my will to live intact. I didn’t know what to say. And finally, that was exactly what I told Sam. “I’m left with nothing to say.”

“No, never that.” He came around to my side of the truck and helped me slide down in the high heels and snug dress. There might have been a bit more contact than strictly necessary. Even a lot more contact. “You have everything,” Sam said. “Everything.” His arms tightened around me. “I wish you’d reconsider, about me staying the night.”

“I’m tempted,” I confessed. “But this time, we’re going to be slow and sure.”

“I’m sure I want to get in bed with you.” He rested his forehead against mine. Then he laughed, just a little. “You’re right,” he said. “This is the best way to do it. Hard to be patient, though, when we know how good it can be.”

I enjoyed my arms around him, the sense of him next to me. And if you were to ask me, I would confess that I thought Sam and I would be together, maybe by Christmas, maybe for always. I couldn’t imagine a future without him. But I also knew that if he turned away from me at this moment, somehow I would survive that, and I would find a way to flourish like the yard that still bloomed and grew around my family home.

I’m Sookie Stackhouse. I belong here.

Also By Charlaine Harris from Gollancz:

SOOKIE STACKHOUSE

Dead Until Dark

Living Dead in Dallas

Club Dead

Dead to the World

Dead as a Doornail

Definitely Dead

All Together Dead

From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone

Dead in the Family

Dead Reckoning

Deadlocked

A Touch of Dead

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

The Sookie Stackhouse novels are also

available in three omnibus editions

HARPER CONNELLY

Grave Sight

Grave Surprise

An Ice Cold Grave

Grave Secret

The First Aurora Teagarden Omnibus

The Second Aurora Teagarden Omnibus

The Lily Bard Mysteries Omnibus

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe(co-edited with Toni L.P. Kelner)

Many Bloody Returns(co-edited with Toni L.P. Kelner)

Crimes by Moonlight

Death’s Excellent Vacation(co-edited with Toni L.P. Kelner)

Copyright

A Gollancz eBook

Copyright © Charlaine Harris, Inc. 2013

All rights reserved.

The right of Charlaine Harris to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

Gollancz

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Orion House

5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

London, WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK Company

This eBook first published in 2013 by Gollancz.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 575 09664 6

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

www.charlaineharris.com

www.orionbooks.co.uk

www.gollancz.co.uk