Page 23 of Wicked Little Tricks

“Good.” I sipped my coffee. A devil popping up in my bedroom was bad enough.

I thought about calling Dawn, then remembered about my watch. Great, I needed to get it fixed as soon as possible. Or maybe with a good charge, it would power back up on its own.

But considering my luck lately, I wasn’t betting on it.

I droppedoff my watch for repair, then headed toward my old employer’s office. Ringo was once again hidden in my messenger bag, along with Sebastian’s calling card. I had almost left it behind, but him finding me out in the city was better than him appearing in my bedroom again.

I’d offered to let Ringo stay home and rest, but itseemed he’d had enough. Plus, he might prove useful. If I happened to leave my bag for a few minutes in a room where Iwasn’t, I just might hear things that Ishouldn’t.

I learned that Dawn was actually in her office when I arrived, and the receptionist sent me right back. The space was just as I remembered it. Pristine white walls, plush green carpeting, and a large wooden desk fit for a queen.

The queen herself sat behind it, her hair cut into a severe bob, every hint of gray dyed to black. Her sapphire blue pantsuit probably cost what I made in a month. She wasn’t a night runner. She was barely magical at all, though a hint of troll ancestry made her the tallest woman I’d ever met. It made the expensive suits even more expensive. She got them custom-made.

She steepled her fingers and curled her red lips at me. “Am I to believe you’ve decided to come back to us?”

“Hardly.” I pulled out the chair across from her desk and sat. “But my watch is broken and I wanted to know more about your dead messenger. Wouldn’t want to take thewrongjob,” I said pointedly.

Her smile wilted. “You know we screen everyone here. He didn’t take the wrong job either.”

I crossed my legs, settling my messenger bag with Ringo in it more securely on my lap. “Cut the crap, Dawn. If he was killed on the job, then it was thewrongjob.”

“He wasn’t killed by those who hired us,” she clarified. “They never received their package.”

“Maybe it was the package that got him killed. Maybe someone else wanted it. Was it ever recovered?”

Dawn’s mouth sealed into a grim line, giving me my answer.

It was exactly as I had expected. She would never admit she was at fault, and in reality, she probably wasn’t. I suspected those two angelics were the ones at fault. They were looking for something, hiring different night runners, and when we weren’t what they wanted, they killed us. “Just tell me who hired him. Unless you really don’t care if I live or die.”

Dawn dropped her head to one side, cracking her neck, then rolled her broad shoulders. “Very well. The package was to be delivered to the Silver Quarter. The sender was human, as far as I could tell.”

I already knew about the Silver Quarter, but the sender being human was interesting. “Did the human use a gargoyle as an intermediary?”

“Not that I know of, though I obviously wasn’t there for the pickup.”

“What was the recipient’s name?” I pressed. I didn’t know the name of the two angelics who had tried to kill me, but it was too big of a coincidence. They had something to do with this. At least I knew what they looked like, and that they hung out in that back room at the Circus. I could figure out theirnames.

I was sure Sebastian knew, but I wasn’t keen on asking him for a favor.

Dawn had swiveled her chair to start clicking away at her keyboard. After a few silent moments, her printer whirred. She pulled out the sheet and slid it across the desk to me.

I read the name and the address. Alan Goodman, and the address was in the Silver Quarter. The name was clearly fake—angelics always had fancy names—but the address might be worth checking out.

Of course, I’d have to risk traveling to the Silver Quarter without a delivery. They barely tolerated mewitha delivery.

“Thanks.” I folded up the paper. Ringo shifted slightly in my messenger bag as I stuffed it inside.

The movement drew Dawn’s eye. She might have been mostly human, but her senses were still heightened.

I swung the bag over my shoulder as I stood. Dawn might not have much of her troll heritage within her, but trolls did eat other goblins. I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Thanks for the info. Good luck finding another replacement.”

Her eyes flew wide. “Eva don’t you walk out of this room!”

But the door was already swinging shut behind me.

I didn’t need to listen to Dawn trying to get me to come back anymore. She had plenty of other nightrunners, but not all of them could go everywhere I could. It was all based on the amount of celestial blood within us. And my mom had been full celestial. My human half muted a lot of that, but I could still cross almost any boundary.

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