Page 3 of Dropping Like Flies

I narrowed my eyes at his attempt at flirtation. “I’ve been a dick to you all night.”

He nodded slowly. “You have. You won’t get any argument from me on that score. But… lucky for you, that’s my type.”

He shoved an empty glass my way, and I obligingly filled it with whiskey from my bottle. When he lifted it, I lifted mine as well and we clinked glasses. “You go for bastards?” I asked. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”

Flynn took a sip of his whiskey. He swallowed, the contraction of his tanned throat proving mesmerizing. “Neither is sitting in a corner drinking whiskey and eating olives like some modern interpretation of Gollum.” Despite the misery that had hung over me like a blanket all night, I laughed. I held my glass up again. “Touche.”

“Besides,” he said. “I don’t go for all the bastards in the world.”

“No?”

He smirked. “No. Only the hot ones get a look in. Especially the ones that won’t tell me their name.”

“Griffin,” I said.

“Grif-fin.” He elongated the syllables. “Unusual name, but then I can already tell you’re an unusual guy. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t be talking to you.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the bar. “What do you do, Griffin? When you’re not making my life a misery, that is.”

I grimaced. The flirtation had been nice while it lasted, but if experience had taught me anything, it was that it was about to come to a crashing end. Unless I lied. It wouldn’t be the first time, but I didn’t care enough about Flynn to go to that much trouble. “I’m a necromancer,” I said, watching him closely. The first reaction was always the most telling. Usually people masked it after a few seconds, pretending a coolness they were a long way from feeling. All I got from Flynn, though, was a slight raise of his eyebrows.

“Interesting!”

I refilled both of our glasses. “You know what one is, right?” There were a few people who didn’t, the existence of the Paranormal Problems Bureau seeming to have passed them by since its inception a good few years ago.

“You bring people back from the dead.”

I nodded. “I do. Temporarily, anyway.”

Flynn paused with the glass to his lips. “That’s…” When he fell silent, I waited him out. Eventually, he laughed. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t know whether it’s cool or extremely freaky.”

At least he was honest. And I appreciated that more than I could say, my shoulders relaxing.

He regarded me steadily as he took another drink. “So people hire you, right?”

“They do. Me or one of the other necromancers that work for the PPB. Mostly rich people because it’s not cheap.”

“And what do they want, exactly?”

“Usually one last conversation with a loved one. Something they wished they’d said to them when they’d been alive. Occasionally, it’s something they need to know. Like a pin number or bank account details. I don’t hang around once the deed is done, so I’m sure there are other reasons. My job is just to do as I’m told. Cade says jump and I ask how high? My boss,” I explained when Flynn stared at me blankly.

Flynn smiled. “I bet it’s a lot more interesting than this.” A sweep of his hand showed the this in question as being the bar. “Speaking of which…” He dipped his chin to where the lid of the olive jar still sat on the bar. “Have you finished with your snack? I can honestly say I’ve never known anyone to eat those things. Especially not as many as that in one go. It was like you were on some sort of mission.”

“I was.” Flynn cocked his head to one side in the universal sign for being all ears. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Fair enough.”

I studied him for a moment. He was hot, and he was interested. And what was the alternative? Going home to an empty house and thinking about what Ben had been doing? Maybe the olives hadn’t been enough of a fuck you. Not when I could give him a taste of his own medicine and let him see how it felt to be on the other side of it.

I leaned forward slightly, my heart beating faster. Christ! Could I even remember how to flirt? It had been a while, and I was rusty. “Listen,” I said as Flynn obligingly leaned closer, his tongue darting out to moisten his lips. “I thought once your shift ended we could go somewhere quieter? Like my place?”

Palms slightly sweaty, I sat back and awaited his verdict. Either he’d say yes, or he’d turn me down. Either way, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t like I was proposing marriage.

Flynn smiled, giving me another flash of those perfect teeth. “Only if you promise to use me mercilessly and then never call me again.”

I laughed again, surprised to find I liked Flynn, and there were few people these days that I could say that about. Not since I’d gotten rid of the best thing that had ever happened to me and built my barriers so high that there wasn’t a big enough wrecking ball in the world to break them down. “Deal,” I said, and stuck out my hand.

When Flynn’s palm met mine, it was less of a shake and more of a caress, a promise that his invitation to use him would be far from one-sided. I could live with that, especially when it came with no strings attached. And of course it came with the bonus of sending Ben a message. Payback was a bitch.

Chapter Two

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