Page 101 of Greed

Minny walked behind the pair, and her heart felt like it was going to burst right out of her chest. If nothing else, he’d just earned himself a conversation. It was the least she could do for this gift.

I didn’t have the heart to tell Minny that her mother didn’t have much longer. It was the reason that she was able to see me for what I was. As a human, she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference that I was a fallen angel. Mind you, angel was not the word I expected her to use. A number of people close to death had called me the reaper or worse.

Once situated in the garden, I let the women have their space and sat on a bench nearby. I could just make out Shilo leaning against the car in the parking lot. He’d been the closest thing that I’d had to a Father since being kicked out of Heaven. In this quiet moment of self-reflection, I watched those that lived and worked here. Most of those that were residents had some sort of strange illness.

I never had to worry about illnesses, but the thought that Minetta could get one of them and cause her frail human body to perish was terrifying. Was this what his Father had seen in the humans all along? Was this what Michael had meant when he said, “we as angels didn’t understand the meaning of the word gratitude.” I’d been grateful for many things and never thought of his message as anything more than Father’s whispering nonsense.

It was like there was something in the air that was giving me clarity. I blinked and looked over my shoulder as Minetta laughed with her mother. There was this glow about her, a happiness in her eyes that spoke to how much having this time with her mother meant. Her eyes found mine, and she still appeared hurt when she looked at me, but the coldness was gone. This time was a gift, a gift I’d never needed and therefore never understood.

I had to wonder if there was a clarifying remedy to help me find a way to convince her that I hadn’t betrayed her.

Mrs. Johnson yawned, and Minny signaled that they were going inside. I stood, but she shook her head no, and I sat back down to wait. There was a storm on the horizon. I could smell the rain in the air and feel the slight electrical charge that accompanied the lightning riding the clouds.

Minetta rounded the corner of the bench and sat down beside me. I was tempted to grab her hand and pull her close. I wanted so badly to make things right between us.

“Thank you. Whatever you did, to give me that time with my mom.” She looked up at me. “I will always be grateful.”

“You’re welcome, Minetta.”

She took a deep breath and slumped against the bench. “Okay, why was Skye at your house dressed like that?”

“First, I will tell you that she did have sex, just not with me. She did have a shower, as you’ve seen I have over a dozen showers in the place, and again it was not with me. I’d specifically told her that nothing was going to happen between us anymore, and she agreed, but when you showed up, she took advantage of the situation. I didn’t sleep with her, Minny.”

“How am I supposed to believe you? You said you wanted to try a relationship, but you openly admitted you didn’t know how long it would last.”

I turned and laid my knee on the bench and rested my arm across the back of the stone structure. “Look into my eyes. You’ve grown to know me well enough to know when I’m lying to you.” I reached out, feeling compelled to touch her skin, and ran my thumb across her cheek. “You mean more to me than I can put into words, Minetta.”

“Shit!” Minetta stood and walked away toward the small decorative pond. I wasn’t sure what to make out of her sudden outburst.

“I can’t do this.” She turned to look at me, and I swallowed the massive lump in my throat as I waited on her next words. “I can’t continue to have a relationship with you, and you not be completely honest. I need to get this off my chest.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. It was obvious she was nervous. She was nibbling on her nail, and she seemed jittery. “Just tell me, whatever it is, we will get through it.”

“Do you remember when I told you that Penny already explained to me who you are, and that is why I wasn’t scared?”

“Yes, what of it?” I stood and took a step in her direction.

“I wasn’t a hundred percent truthful, and I hate myself for it.” She walked in a small circle and then stopped as she seemed to prepare herself to say what had her so tied up in knots.

I couldn’t imagine what would be so terrible. “What you don’t know is that I had no intention of dating you. Penny said that demons would continue to come after me if I did, so I had full intentions of never going near you again.”

“Continue to come after you?”

“I had one attack me in my house and then again when Jared had me arrested by the police or the fake police. What I didn’t say that night when I came to your office was that I got injured by a group of demons. They had me in the back of a cruiser, and I couldn’t escape and….” She stopped talking and rubbed at her arms. “They took me out to the woods to meet up with other demons to play this crazy game of ‘chase the human’ through the woods as they tried to kill me.”

“Minny, what the? Why wouldn’t you tell me that?” I put my hands on her shoulders and could feel the tension in her body. Her eyes showed how torn up she was about telling me any of this.

“Because Penny and Michael showed up and saved me. They told me that I had two choices. The first was that I could try running for my life and stay far, far away from you, but it would mean that there was a good chance some apocalypse would happen. Or I could give you a chance, and there was the possibility that we would work, and it would help save everyone.”

My hands dropped from her shoulders. “So, Michael tells you that you should date me to save the world, and that is the reason you came to my office?” I walked away from her and thought this through. Anger burned in the pit of my stomach. Michael had been orchestrating all of this the whole time. He’d danced around the question like he always did, but I knew he was up to something.

He’d manipulated me, and here I thought I’d actually fallen for a human? None of this was real. She’d never been interested. I shouldn’t have been so blinded by my desire and listened to the warning bell that told me her attitude change was unusual.

“Was this all an act? Your feelings? The pretending to not want anything from me? All the while, you were secretly trying to make me…what? Become a different person, a better person? Or at least a better person in your mind. Minny to the rescue to save all the human souls,” my anger bubbling over into my voice.

“No, I haven’t been faking anything, Riker. I didn’t tell you why I changed my mind, but that was it. I’d already been hunted twice by demons. I couldn’t imagine the entire world being taken over by more with the sole purpose of killing everyone.”

“You wanted to save all the pathetic human lives, and it didn’t matter that you were screwing with my feelings, as long as you got what you wanted.”