Counterfeit Cupid (Mt. Olympus Employment Agency: Cupid #2)(16)

“Thanks.” He gave me a broad smile. “You know, there is something. The woman I was talking to yesterday, from the restaurant. Is she in today?”

I smelled a trap and smiled as broadly in return. “I wasn’t here yesterday. Can you describe her?”

“Long dark hair? Blue eyes?”

“Michelle?”

He snapped his fingers. “Yes! Michelle. That’s it.”

My face grew hot in irritation. What about her? Why was he so damn interested in Michelle all the time? “You know I can’t give you her phone number, if that’s what you’re after.” The words came out a bit more terse than I’d intended.

“Oh, that’s not…I didn’t…” Josh continued to sputter for a moment before regaining his composure. “She was telling me about a Thai place I should try, but I forgot where she said it was.”

“Over on Throckmorton.”

His eyes lit up like he thought he’d caught me out. “Oh?”

“I assume she was talking about Opal Garden. We have it delivered here sometimes.” I resisted the urge to flutter my eyelashes at him.

He sighed again. “Yeah. I think that was it. She’s not here, is she?”

I shook my head. “I believe she called in sick.”

“This isn’t your regular shift, is it? Where’s that sweater-vest guy? Stuart?”

“He also called in sick.”

He nodded as if he’d expected it. “I suppose they caught the same bug. There’s something going around.” He shrugged and looked me square in the eye. “If they just let nature takes its course, it’ll go away naturally, I’m sure.”

“I’m certain they’ll be perfectly fine.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed for the front door. “Have a good morning. If my stuff turns up, just put it in my room. You know where it is.”

I watched him go and snorted once the door shut behind him. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

What was it about that guy that got under my skin so much?

I spent the rest of the morning wondering what would happen if I darted Josh Flynn, then turned the dart around and darted myself.

Probably nothing good. Or maybe something fantastic.





7. Josh


That woman was infuriating. She looked at me with those big, gorgeous green eyes and flat out lied about taking my stuff. Unless it was all in my head, and it wasn’t her who’d done it. But I knew it was her. I so knew it.

I almost caught her when I asked about Michelle and the Thai restaurant. I knew damn well Annie had been standing there in my wings listening to the conversation. I’d felt her. Or rather, I’d felt the Cupid magic. And I knew it the second she’d darted poor Stuart. All beginning Cupids tried too hard in the beginning and blew harder than they should. Then Michelle had rubbed her arm and the two of them got all twitterpated.

Total amateur Cupid.

Short of kidnapping Annie and demanding my stuff back, I didn’t know what to do. Plus, there was that tiny, tiny chance that it wasn’t Annie. Kidnapping an innocent woman wasn’t the best way to keep the police out of all this.

That left me with one course of action. I’d have to go back to the office and admit what had happened.

I’d been walking at a brisk pace out of anger, but once I arrived at the most logical solution, my steps slowed. There was no telling what Ellen would say. She might call Aphrodite herself and who knows what she’d want to do about it.

I might as well get used to the idea of the Underworld.

But it was my own damn fault. I knew not to leave my equipment out in the open. I may not like my job, but I shouldn’t have been so careless. It was a wonder something like this hadn’t happened sooner. It was time to stop acting like a kid and take some responsibility for a change, no matter what the consequences were.

I’d screwed up, and I needed help.

My feet dragged the rest of the way to the car. Might as well get it over with as soon as possible. I wasn’t going to relax until my sentence was passed.

The car ride was depressingly short. Twenty minutes to the other side of the city to an abandoned church. I parked the car and climbed in through a window. When I straightened, I was in the vast, domed lobby of the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency.

No one paid attention to a Cupid on death row. I was nobody special. I trudged across the lobby and into the elevator, rode it to my floor, then exited into the hallway.

At the door to my office, I realized I needed to pull myself together. I’d given up before I’d even started. With my chin up and my shoulders back, I went in, passed the busy Cupids at their desks, and knocked on Ellen’s door.

“It’s open.”

The door swung open with a touch of my fingers.

Ellen sat behind her desk studying paperwork. She saw me standing in her doorway and held up her hand. “No. Uh uh. You are not finished with your job. I have not received confirmation that true love has been saved.”

I folded my hands in front of me and waited for her to finish. When she ran out of steam, I took a deep breath and let it out. “I made a mistake.”

She pointed to the seat across her desk. “Sit. What did you do?”

I folded myself into the uncomfortable chair, feeling like a delinquent in the principal’s office. I’d have gladly taken a whole week of detention rather than face whatever was about to happen to me.