Don’t kill him. I…” Alluna peered at the kneeling reaper. He must have heard her father, and yet he remained on his knees, pledged sword still h...ld out in offering. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a reaper up close. That’s all. Please don’t hurt him.” The king seemed satisfied with her answer, to her relief. He looked back up at the reaper and his two companions. “My daughter will have eight guards watching her all the time. I want them changed every eight hours, a fresh set of eight, rested, well. I’m going to have so much fun this Halloween.”“I’ll bet. Too bad I have to work. Hey, if the party bombs early, come by the bar. I want to see you in public with this.”“Deal!”Tom Burdet excused himself to the young lady he was talking with. The doorbell had gone off again, signaling the arrival of another of his guests. “This theme was a smash,” he thought to himself. “I’ve never seen so much provocative dress in one place before.” People had taken his theme to heart, at least the sex part. His. There were two saunas close to my home. The one was chic and modern, but I practically never went there. To cut a long story short; that sauna was patronized by wealthy older men and infested with rent boys. At thirty-five years old, I didn’t see the need to pay for sex, as of yet.The other sauna, however, was the one I preferred. The patrons were generally an older crowd, and there were no rent boys, only guys looking for a bit of fun without any of the affectations or harassment of the chic. He nodded again and began to speak. ‘Again, Tom is repeating exactly what I say to him. Because I believe you, I am going to be very frank with you. You will understand that this puts you at risk should you betray my trust. I’m afraid you are a rather innocent victim of mistaken identity.’ Tom started. ‘One of my men told me that a man who had stolen from me and then vanished had turned up. I had another man get eyes on you and he confirmed that you were who we were looking for. I was angry.