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Maddox remained calm. “What do you need to help you adjust?”
I lifted a shoulder and let it drop, feeling like I was a teenager again. “Why does it matter?”
Maddox sat back and studied me. “Let me guess? You’re feeling powerless.”
“Damn right I am,” I muttered.
“You haven’t had much say in all this. Where you live. Who you live with. What you look like. You’ve had to hit the ground running while also mourning your old life.”
“I know I’m dead,” I countered. “I know I can’t go back.”
Maddox reached up and straightened the silverware on the table before turning back to me. “Do you know why people are chosen as Reapers?” Maddox asked delicately.
I didn’t say anything and waited for him to speak.
“No one knows.” He continued. “Not really. Some say that a portion of souls has been touched by the universe. Tailored for their duty. Stronger and more durable than the others.”
“Is this your way of saying that I was made for this?” I gave him a look that implied that I thought he was crazy. “Because newsflash, I don’t think I’m meant to be here. The only reason that I was made a Reaper was because my soul was sold to the devil by my ownfather.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Maddox replied, waving away my distress. Understandably, that rubbed me the wrong way.
“Why don’t you like me?” I asked, bothered.
He started to speak, but I held out my hand for him to stop. “You can say that I’m immature, and I have anger issues. I readily admit I’m selfish, and my lifestyle and career basically showcased that. I’m so vain that I fully expected to be stuck in the Pride section of Hell,” I rambled. “But you don’t know me. You hadn’t spoken to me beyond a simple greeting. So, I want to know. What is your problem with me?”
Maddox’s nostrils flared. He retracted his hands from the table and placed them on his lap. Before he could speak, the waitress came and took our order. Maddox ordered eggs, sausage, and bacon. I ordered pancakes.
“There was someone. Another Reaper. You’re in their old room.” Maddox stated slowly as he reached up and brushed the palm of his hands down his lips. He took a deep, steadying breath. “He’s not around anymore.”
My brow creased. “Did he get promoted? Get his angel wings or something?”
Maddox closed his eyes. It looked like he was holding his breath. Steeling himself. “No.”
I licked my bottom lip, but my mouth was so dry I found it difficult to speak. “Where did he go?”
Maddox shrugged without moving a muscle. His head shook minutely as if he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. It was unnerving—seeing such a stalwart asshole brought to his knees.
“Were you two friends?” I asked delicately.
“I died in the Vietnam war.” He declared quietly. Ignoring my question. “But, there are some Reapers that have been around since Feudal Japan. The black plague. Some remember the birth of America. They could tell you stories about things that no history book has ever written. Little things that bigwigs in museums don’t care a lick about.”
“Like what?” I whispered.
Maddox sniffed and glanced away. “Soup recipes. Songs people sang on birthdays or when someone died. The perfect blend of herbs to stuff in the nose of a plague doctor’s mask. Or what kind of underwear prostitutes in Paris used to wear during World War One.”
I wrinkled my nose and made a face.
“We called him Richard.” Maddox continued. “Fletcher used to call himDick,but it royally pissed him off at every turn. You’d never know it. He was a gentleman. He was one of those stuffy types, but he switched on a dime. One minute, Richard spoke like an English gentleman, and the next, he spoke fluent Mandarin like someone who ran a market stall in Beijing. He was the one that bought the suite at the Bellagio. His suits are in your closet. Something killed him. No idea what.”
“How do youknowhe’s not an angel?” I wondered.
“I know.”
“So, you’re pissed because I’m here, and he’s not,” I surmised. The waitress drifted over to our table and deposited our food in front of us both.
I stared down at it for a moment.
“You think that if you got a new body for him, you could find Richard’s soul and bring him back,” I said slowly, as the idea dawned on me. My eyes rose to meet Maddox’s. “That’s why you’re so pissed that I got a body likethat,” I snapped my fingers.
