Page 24 of Devils Don’t Deal

“Or you could make it the goblin king’s problem,” the devil suggested with an innocent smile.

“Or you could track her down and catch her in your watch like you did the first time,” she pointed out with chocolate smeared across her thumb.

“Ah. I could, but no one’s made a deal with me which required me to do so, which makes it unlikely.”

“What would it take to get you to take care of your own mess? Maybe in return I won’t jail your conscience.” Sato gestured at me.

“Threats from Lady Justice? How charming.” The devil smiled at her dangerously. “I’m not interested in threats.”

I cleared my throat. “But we are interested in helping any way we can. But right now, it’s out of our hands. I just thought you should know about the threat. Not that we’re turning it over to you, because we realize it’s still our problem since we caused it. However, we don’t have the resources you have. So, you should be on the lookout for…” I looked pointedly at the devil and his lashing barbed tail.

“Parks,” he finally said, eyes fixed on me in a way that made me feel like I was more delicious than the chocolate cake. “You’ll be looking for parks that become darker, more shadowy even during the brightest hours of the day. She’s weak now, so she’ll be taking the weak, the unknown before moving to more challenging targets. You’ll look for missing transients, dust addicts, that sort of thing. You’ll find shredded clothing in the tops of trees, and nothing else of the victims.”

Sato stared at him, horror growing on her face. “And why would these goblins want to release a psycho killer?”

He raised a brow. “Why? I didn’t ask. That wasn’t part of the deal.”

Sato pressed her hands on the desk and gave a serious nod. “Okay. We’ll be on the lookout for clothing remnants in the tops of trees. And does she stick to one park?”

“Until it thins of prey.”

“And how does one capture her? Other than pocket watches?”

“She’s a spirit wrapped in flesh and blood. So you’ll need a way to contain the spirit or destroy it entirely.”

“And how would you destroy a spirit?”

He gave her a puzzled look. “I wouldn’t. You can’t use a spirit once it’s destroyed. I make deals. I don’t execute.”

“Ah. But you know how to do so?”

He gave her a slight smile. “Naturally. Shall we make a deal?”

I grabbed his arm and hauled him upright. “It’s been so nice to see you, Lieutenant Sato. Enjoy the cake. I’m sure you can figure out how to destroy evil spirits with other sources. We have to go to dinner. We have a reservation.” I hauled him out of her office without giving her the chance to agree to make a deal with the devil.

I smiled at the ogre as I dragged him past her and out the front door. If I was the devil’s conscience, I had my work cut out for me.

But who was going to be my conscience when he felt so incredibly good?

Chapter

Eight

“You’d like to get dinner at The Cat’s Pause?” the devil asked as the spider-mech’s cab rose into the air, taking us with it. “Why?”

“Because it’s close to the shop, and afterward, I need you to try all my desserts and tell me which ones taste best before we open. Can we open tomorrow? I want to, but how would that work? Would it?” I gazed up at him while he wrapped his arm around my waist and the spider-mech leapt into traffic.

“I believe tomorrow might be too soon since your sign isn’t finished.”

My stomach lurched from the movement, but also from the warmth of his hand on my waist.

“My sign?”

“Yes. I ordered it. It’s quite cute, a white rabbit and a donut. You will make donuts, won’t you? Because otherwise, I’m afraid the name won’t quite land the way you intend.”

“Do you date ogres?” I gasped when I realized that I’d said that out loud and clung to Divinity, trying not to notice the way we were careening down the street around and over cars.

His expression was mystified, but not at all bothered by the near-death ride on the spider-mech. “Do I date ogres? No. Do you?”