Page 51 of Greed

Penny blinked away a tear and looked away from her.

“Yeah, it was tough. I really went dark for a long time, bitter over what happened.” Penny sighed as she rubbed her face. “Anyway, I will start by saying that I love my job, and I love you, Minny. You really are my best friend and my family now. But…” Penny paused, and her hands rubbed together nervously in her lap.

“But, what?”

“When I first came into your life, I was doing so as a mission and not as your friend. The mission was to keep you away from Riker Rhodes forever.”

“What is it with this guy? I mean, I barely know him, and you and this Skye person are acting like it’s the end of the world if I speak to him. Not that I want to, the guy is a real piece of work.”

“Look, it’s a very long and complicated story that I couldn’t begin to get into right now, but basically, Riker is one of the original archangels that fell with Lucifer from Heaven. He is an original deadly sin. Greed, to be precise. Riker is Mammon.”

Minetta smiled, waiting for the punchline, but Penny’s face remained serious. “You’re not joking, are you?” Penny shook her head no, and suddenly the room felt too small like the walls were closing in.

She stood and paced to the far end and back again, stopping only to look out the window momentarily. From Penny’s window, you could just make out the tall, imposing structure of Avidity Enterprises. His attitude suddenly made sense. How else would someone act whose sole goal was to create greed in the world?

Some of the lights were still on, and she wondered if Riker had gone home after dinner or if he’d gone back to work. And why had he taken an interest in her of all people? I mean, he literally had a line out his office door and down the hall of beautiful women, all of them wanting to have sex with the man.

“So why do I have to stay away from him?” She turned to face Penny.

Penny slowly rose and went to stand behind her lounge chair, her hands resting on the back. “Because…Riker needs to remain as is. He needs to be the sin greed. It is needed on Earth. I know that sounds nonsensical, but there is a balance between good and evil that is always at play.”

“I’m not following.”

“Have you noticed how Riker seems different around you?”

“If you mean an egotistical asshole, then yes, but I assumed that was his normal demeanor.”

Penny smirked. “It would be difficult for you to see the change since you’ve just met him, but anyone that knows him can see the difference. Skye’s reaction should tell you that much. You are a threat to the balance, and because of that, there are things coming after you, demons of all kinds—and they are coming because I failed to keep you away from him to start with.”

“Whoa, you’re saying that thing in my house isn’t the last, that it wasn’t a fluke, or it got hungry and stumbled into my house, but that they are purposely coming for me?”

Penny sighed. “I’m afraid so. I don’t know what type of demon or when, but it’s why I came to see you the night after the race. I was checking to make sure you were okay when I found the ice demon in your home.”

“And that’s why you’re following me around?”

“Yes. Minny, I’m your friend. I promise you I don’t mean you harm. I…I’m just sorry that I didn’t do a better job keeping you two separated. I knew he’d be at the triathlon. He always competes and wins. It’s his thing. I shoulda…I don’t know…pretended I fell and needed to go to the hospital or something.” Penny rubbed her face.

“That’s why you were trying to talk me into doing something else. This…this is...” She couldn’t find the right word and shook her head. The information swirled like a vortex of messed up going around and around. “Tell me, what can I do?” Minetta flopped back down beside Toby.

“They will only leave you alone if you stay far away from Riker. There will be too many demons for me to kill on my own. Hell literally has an endless supply. I hate to say this, but you should consider moving. Like to the other side of the world if possible. Now that he has met you, he will be drawn to you. You’re unique, Minny. I know you don’t think so, but your soul is kind and not filled with greed like everyone else. It was why the prophecy had chosen you, and he will crave to be near you.”

This all seemed impossible. If demons and angels and whatever else weren’t enough, now she had demon assassins after her because of some prophecy she’d never heard of? And all because this man she barely knew acted differently around her? There had to be another way other than moving. Maybe she could just tell the next one that she had no intentions of ever seeing the jerk again. He could happily remain the obnoxious sin, and she could live her life.

She sucked in a sharp breath as something occurred to her. Lifting her head, she stared at Penny. “So if Michael is not a demon…” Penny shook her head no. “And Riker is an archangel that fell, but he called Michael brother… holy shit, he’s Michael, like Michael, Michael. The Michael in the bible, isn’t he? The most powerful archangel, the one that cast Lucifer out?”

Penny nibbled on her bottom lip and nodded. Minetta’s hands flew to her mouth, her head feeling dizzy. She’d had dirty thoughts about a freaking archangel and a Fallen one. Was she going to go to Hell? Would she never get the chance to go to Heaven now that she knew one existed because of her dirty mind? Oh, my, what if she’d slept with him? She sucked in a sharp breath. He looked at her boobs in a wet shirt! She flirted with him. Her heart galloped around in her chest wildly.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to faint,” Penny asked, walking a little closer. “Trust me he’s not as awesome as the books make him out to be.”

“I think I’m going to be ill. I had coffee and flirted with the closest thing that comes to God himself and saw another archangel, an original sin, fucking a girl. I can’t even compute that at the moment. Excuse me.” Minetta stood and made her way to the bathroom. She gripped the sink, and this time as she stared in the mirror, she wanted to run away from herself.

One thing was for certain, she wasn’t seeing either of them ever again, not if she had anything to say about it.

Minetta dropped Toby off at home and got changed before heading to work. She and Penny had talked until she couldn’t handle any more information and passed out on her couch cuddling her dog. He was the one and only thing that seemed to be as she always thought he was.

“Dad, you were right. Life definitely has a way of throwing you a curveball when you least expect it,” she said as she got out of her car. The thing she still couldn’t grasp was why her? Penny tried to explain it a couple of times, but there were so many great and wonderful people in the world that did far more than she ever could to help humanity, so the answer still seemed odd.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, she knew something was up. She couldn’t see her desk, but a number of her co-workers were standing around, and they were all looking at something in her cubicle. Please don’t let Riker or Michael be sitting in her cubicle. She couldn’t handle that and was tempted to go hide in the lady’s bathroom.