“Oh, have you heard about the new bakery that opened up near us a while back? Don’t worry about any of this crap.” Sophie waved her hand dismissively at the Help Board. “You should apply there. I stopped in this morning and the guy was the only person working there, said he hadn’t had time to hire anyone. He had a line backed up around the building. He could definitely use your particular skill set.”
I raised my eyebrow at her odd emphasis on a certain word. “He?”
She waggled hers back at me. “A verysexyhe.”
“Sophie, I’m not getting a job so I can date my boss. In fact, I think I’m giving my love life a rest for a while.” I ran my fingers through my hair, eyeing the lackluster prospects on the board as my bracelets jangled down my arms. “I suppose it might be worth checking out, though.”
Chapter 3
Sam
Twenty minutes!
I’d been on the phone with these soon-to-be eternally damned people for twenty fucking minutes! And that didn’t even include the half-hour phone call I’d made yesterday when I realized what they’d done.
Elevator music played through my earpiece as they put me on hold for the fifth time. What in the Nine Hells was so hard about finding my fucking missing eggs? I took a deep breath as another customer walked in, and I took care of her while the smooth jazz version ofBeat Itblared in my skull. Several people sat around the tables in the front, enjoying the ambiance of the space I’d created. It was not the time to lose my shit.
Though if I had anything to say about it, their punishment would be to endlessly be rerouted and put on hold every five minutes for eternity. Simple, but highly effective.
When I’d unloaded my truck the previous morning, I’d been in a rush since they’d shown up later than normal. Being the only one working, I’d signed and paid without double-checking the quantities, and now I was short. They couldn’t find the issue on their end.
I didn’t know how humans kept from killing each other regularly if this was the kind of shit they had to put up with. After only five minutes, I’d been ready to smite the entire organization, down to the lowly foreign temps who were probably working for pennies. Obviously, a bad decision. A display like that would be a signal flare for anyone and everyone who was looking for me, and it was a bit early for those kinds of fireworks.
The music clicked off and a bored voice replaced it. “Mr. Rivers?”
“Still here,” I said impatiently.
“We do apologize, sir. We found the mistake and are working to correct it. We can have another truck for you by five o’clock this evening.”
I gritted my teeth and shuddered against the urge to flatten him through the phone line. Luckily, the Saturday lunch rush was already over, and I wouldn’t be in dire straits for a while yet. “And how does your company intend to compensate me? I’ll have to close my shop early to oversee this shipment.”
Typing sounds clicked in the background, and I sighed heavily. A couple of the nearby customers glanced over, finding some small entertainment in my suffering as they eavesdropped on my half of the conversation. Maybe they’d go on my list as well. This kind of carelessness was far from amusing.
“My supervisor has authorized half off your next order. Is that sufficient, Mr. Rivers?”
I would take that discount and then find a new supplier afterwards. These people could shove it up their—I took another deep breath. “Yes, that is sufficient. Thank you.”
Tapping the earpiece, I hung up. I didn’t normally close until six, then I typically spent a couple of hours cleaning and doing some prep for the next day. Since I was closed on Sundays, it wouldn’t hurt to close an hour early to unload the truck. If it showed up on time, that was.
Slipping into the kitchen, I snagged a small piece of cardboard by the back door and scribbled the adjustment on it, then stalked out to the front and stuck it on the glass door.
One of the college guys nodded at me. “Customer service can be a pain in the ass to deal with, am I right?”
Jason, in his last year at the university, didn’t know how to cook, came in twice, sometimes three times a day. He was a political science major who was in a long-distance engagement, but also sleeping his way through half the female population at UMass for bragging rights. There would be a special corner in Hell waiting for him in just a few short years. I gave myself a mental shake. That information was not pertinent to the conversation.
“Pain in the ass is putting it lightly,” I replied with an effortless smile.
I was grateful for the lull after the rush. The customers chatted easily with me, some sympathizing with my vendor issues, one guy trying to flirt. My most flirtatious customers were my morning and near-closing regulars. For the most part, I could breathe easy in the afternoons. I cleaned, wiped down tables and counters, and prepped smaller batches of the desserts I offered in the evenings in lieu of a dinner menu.
The timer for the cookies had just been set when electricity crackled over my skin, and I froze. Something large and potentially dangerous was nearby. I pushed my senses out to get an idea of what was coming, but the aura I found was unknown to me.
Shit. It wasn’t just dangerous. The thing was incredibly powerful, like a greater demon or a lesser fallen—it’d have to be at least that strong to be out in the daylight—and it was closing in fast. I couldn’t have a showdown in my shop, not in front of customers. Not with all of these people in harm’s way. I walked to the front, prepared to ask everyone to leave when the breath knocked from my lungs.
Shock drove the words from my mouth as the front door swung open to reveal skin as deathly pale as snow, hair various shades of orange and red like liquid flame spilling from her head, and amber brown eyes like glowing carnelian stones in the afternoon light. She was dressed in shades of black and dark grey, had a plethora of necklaces and bracelets on both arms, and black combat boots. It was a good thing I technically didn’t need to breathe air because, for a moment, I’d forgotten how.
The girl strode into my shop, a nervous smile on her luscious lips as she approached. She wasn’t human. The closer she got, the stronger her power. She wasn’t even trying to hide it, so either she was young and inexperienced, or it was an open challenge. An image flashed across my mind of what a fight with her would entail, and I kept coming up with her pinned under me, my tongue tracing her jawline, my—
She cleared her throat.
