“My friend Jiminy needs a new place to hang out.” I gestured toward the front doors with my head.
“Now I’m even more curious.” Hale came around the counter. He was a dark-haired human with bright blue eyes and a pretty face. He wore a blue button-down shirt that made his eyes stand out even more.
“Jiminy is a cricket. I found him in Morgana’s office. I thought the courtyard would be a much better place for him to live.”
Hale smiled. His eyes softened. “Aww, you didn’t smash him.”
I was a little outraged at Hale for thinking I would do such a thing. Just because I didn’t like bugs didn’t mean they deserved to die. “I would never smash it.”
I also didn’t smash the spiders that tried to share my space. I waited until Ossy got his head out of his ass long enough to spend time with me, then made him take it outside. Ossy was fearless. He surfed in the ocean where big sharks lived. One tiny spider didn’t faze him. He didn’t even capture them in a container. He held it in his hand and carried it outside, which was next-level ick, if you asked me.
“Morgana’s not here, right?” Hale whispered, leaning into me.
I shook my head. “Four days in a row.”
“Ezul didn’t come in today.” Hale’s eyebrows knit, and he bit his lip. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” So I wasn’t the only one who noticed. That wasn’t good for Morgana or the rest of the reapers. What role did Ezul play, though? He was head of HR. He should have made an appearance today. Maybe Ezul wanted to keep the sudden disappearance under wraps, so he didn’t come in today.
Something was going on, and I intended to find out what, but HR was staying quiet, and so was upper management. I half expected a memo or some explanation, or at the very least for upper management to contact me. But the crickets were both literal and metaphorical.
It wasn’t like the Bureau not to communicate.
Something was very wrong. I had a feeling my division was at the center of it.
Chapter Three
Ossy
My assignment was to grab Elliot’s pizza friend because he was a beloved. Why me and not one of the other guys? Good question. My guess was that Morgana didn’t want to look at me anymore. Apparently, my face was expressive, and I showed how mad I was getting with each passing minute. She couldn’t handle me.
I huffed on my way out, grabbing a cloak from the hook by the door. I had my hand on the front doorknob when I thought better of leaving without at least some sort of emotional support.
I’d seen Tan with a bottle of whiskey yesterday. I remembered it because I’d thought about how great it would be to stop feeling so hard for just a little while, but that was what Phin did to me. He brought big emotions. Too big. Scary emotions I’d never felt for anyone else. What was even scarier was not being able to see him ever again. There was a high probability of that.
The helplessness sat like lead in my stomach. I sat around doing nothing while Phin walked into danger every day. Leaving him in oblivion was the worst part, but Morgana was the boss.And she had a point. Phin just had to stay under the radar and play dumb until I could reach him.
I wouldn’t wait forever. Morgana had to know that. Maybe that was another reason she sent me to get the pizza beloved. She knew I was five seconds away from heading to headquarters to rescue Phin. She needed to distract me long enough to come up with a plan so I wouldn’t end up in Tech Duinn. All it would take was for Donn to think about sending me there, and I’d be there. So would Phin.
Worst-case scenarios aside, if I were going to rescue someone else’s beloved rather than my own, I needed a way to dull the guilt. Tan’s bottle of whiskey would do.
I searched the kitchen cabinets first, but didn’t find it. Then I remembered how he’d once put a bottle in the freezer during poker night. Sure enough, Tan’s predictability earned me a prize. Tan didn’t drink the cheap stuff either. I took a swig. The whiskey even tasted expensive.
I’d have to replace the bottle. Tan would bitch forever about me stealing it if I didn’t. Either way, I wasn’t putting it back now that I’d found it.
I took another swig. It didn’t burn as much the second time. It warmed my gut as gravity pulled it through my body, and some of my anxiety eased.
This was how a reaper solved problems. Pickle us in expensive alcohol. Tan didn’t have many good ideas, but that one was great. But it made me wonder what Tan was running from. Was his beloved stuck in the Bureau, too, or was it something more?
I couldn’t think about it too hard because I had a pizza guy to save. Well, sort of. He wasn’t in immediate danger, not like Phin.
Stop thinking about Phin.
I pulled my hood up. It couldn’t cover all my long hair, so some spilled out, framing my face.
I wasn’t sure where the pizza guy lived, but I knew he smoked pot regularly and lived near the pizza restaurant, so I started there. The place smelled of tomato sauce and fatty meat. It didn’t matter that the restaurant was closed for the night. The smells were permanent, a testament to the restaurant’s longevity. Even the air couldn’t shake it. The pizza must be great.
There were no cars in the lot so late at night. Just a bike propped against the building. The restaurant was put to bed for the night, quiet inside with the lights off.
