Page 60 of Death Trap

I held my hands up to stop her right there. “It’s a long story. Not what you’re thinking.”

But it was, wasn’t it? Eli and I had had sex. More than once, too. In the shower… On my bed…

“I know a guilty face, Jade, and you are guil-ty. Had a late-night visitor yesterday, didn’t you?”

Dammit. I really didn’t want to get into this right now.

She laughed. “Had alovesession last night, didn’t you?”

I paused. “A what now?”

“You know…” She made a ring with the fingers of her one hand and poked another through it to symbolize—very poorly—the act of sex. “You guysmade love.”

Everyone who knew Marla knew she tried very hard to avoid cursing, but I didn’t know that creativity expanded into sexual situations. Making love? A finger inserted in a hole? What was I? A teenager?

Looks like it was time to tease her a bit. “You mean did wefuck?” I said, making sure to emphasize the last word.

On cue, she winced, obviously uncomfortable by my bluntness.

Did that stop me though? Not in the least. “Did I hit it and quit it? A wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am? A good fuck and chuck?”

I didn’t know where that last one came from, but that was probably my favorite of them all.

“Stop it.” She shook her head, her round face scrunched up in disgust. “You’re vile. Why do you have to say it like that?”

“It’s true. Just say it, Marla. It’s not going to kill you.” I kept at it. “How about a smash and dash? Ride and dive? Sex it and exit?”

Oh, I liked that one, too.

It was official. I was having way too much fun with this.

“God, no! Gross, Jade!” She began walking down the sidewalk to get away from me, but I followed.

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”

She halted and gave me a deadpan look. “Don’t make me hex you. I’ll do it.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “No more. Promise.”

“Good. Now what did you want me to do with your lover? Babysit him?”

I almost choked on my tongue at her use of the wordlover.But even though another reign of torment bubbled up in my mind, I held it all back. I had tortured her enough. For now.

“Sort of. I need you to keep him busy.”

While I hesitated, it hit me that I was asking Marla to do the exact same thing Azrael had hired Cole to do with me. Talk about ironic.

I pushed that realization away. I couldn’t afford to unpack that now.

“He’s going to come looking for me, and I can’t have him know my plans,” I continued. “He can’t know I’m going back to Hell, either. He’ll try to stop me.”

“Maybe he should,” she replied.

“No, you don’t understand. If I don’t carry out my end of the deal, there can be major repercussions. And besides, I have to find this reaper Benjamin to get the answers I need about who I am.”

“You need me to give him the runaround, is what you’re saying. I may have a spell for that.”

Did spells even work on angels? It was worth a try.

---