Page 16 of Death Match

He half snorted a laugh at that, and I celebrated internally. I was totally counting that. Made him laughthreetimes now.

As we approached Maryanne’s desk, I spotted the old toad of a woman flipping through the stack of papers quickly and murmuring directions to Kyle, who stared at each page with dazed eyes.

The image brought back memories of my own first days at Styx and how Maryanne and I had gotten off on the wrong foot right off the bat. Instead of showing me my introduction papers, she had pushed them off the desk so they could scatter everywhere across the floor. Even though she’d tell you it was an accident, I’d swear on my afterlife the crone had done it on purpose. Just to see a very flustered me scramble to pick them all up as she chuckled from behind the desk.

That moment, I noticed her moving her elbow just enough to nudge the papers off the side, about to do to Kyle what she’d done to me.

Bitch. I fucking knew it.

I hurried over and slapped my hand on the stack before they could fall and gave Maryanne a deadly glare. She leapt back, startled by the loud noise and my sudden presence there.

“Blackwell,” she crowed, fixing her glasses on her face. “What are you doing here? Heaven kick you out already?” She laughed, snorting like a hog with each intake of breath.

I grinned slowly, making sure to show her that she still didn’t intimidate me. “Not yet.”

Her eyebrow rose in mock interest. “There’s still time.”

“Maryanne.” Simon came up behind me and glanced between us. “Have you given Kyle all his instructions and paperwork?” he asked.

When she saw him, she snatched the papers from underneath my hand and began adjusting them into a neat pile.

“Yes, I have.” She pushed them a little too aggressively into Kyle’s chest, and he struggled to hold the heavy load with both his hands. “Just finished actually.”

I rolled my eyes at her poor excuse for a cover up.

Simon walked over to the teen and helped him by taking half of his stack. When he smiled down at the boy, my heart squeezed with jealousy again. The two definitely had some kind of instant connection Simon and I hadn’t had when we started the job together.

“We have to go get all this settled, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon,” Simon said to me as they began to walk towards Styx’s main doors.

Kyle threw a wave and a quick grin over his shoulder. “See you around, Jade! Good luck with that angel stuff!”

Guess Simon had told him I’d been upgraded to the penthouse.

As I watched them leave, a sharp pain shot through my temple, and I realized I was clenching my jaw. Rubbing my cheeks to release the tension, I peered over to see Maryanne staring at me with a smug look on her wrinkled face.

“Green isn’t a good color on you, Jade,” she said with another one of her piggish laughs.

I opened my mouth to retort but then snapped it closed again. She was right. I didn’t understand why I was feeling this way at all, honestly. I liked Kyle. And Simon was one of my closest friends. I should be happy for them working together.

And I was.

Maybe I just missed them, missed this. Styx Corp., jabbing back and forth with Maryanne, my half-empty apartment that always smelled like pizza, Wyatt’s bar… Let’s not forget that I had finally been getting used to my job as a reaper. Well, sort of. Things had felt like they were starting to get less monotonous around here. And then, I had to leave it behind.

I wasn’t a reaper anymore. I was something else. An Archangel.

But I didn’t feel like one.

The sound of a throat clearing brought my attention back to the crone behind the desk. She was waiting for my rebuttal, too.

I drew in a deep breath and wiped my feelings clean off my face.

“Hey, Maryanne, do me a favor, will you? If that sexy-looking angel guy comes around here, tell him you didn't see me, okay?”

“Trouble in paradise?” She snickered.

“Quite the opposite actually. Can't keep his hands off me.” I put my hands on my hips, bent forward then back, pretending to be stretching out tight muscles. “I mean, the sex is mind-blowing and all, but sometimes, a girl just needs a break. Gotta recoup for the next round.”

“You're disgusting.”

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