Page 57 of Devils Don’t Deal

“No, you can send her in now, if she isn’t otherwise occupied. I’d hate to disrupt your clearly well-organized system.”

“Not at all! Of course not.” He bowed to the devil and to me, without actually looking at me, and then scurried off. Like a rat with quivering wings and nose.

I held very still while the devil studied me.

“You aren’t hungry?”

I sighed then smiled at him. “I used to work here. I should’ve mentioned it, but I feel awkward with all the people I used to know.”

“You worked here? No one seemed to recognize you.”

“They’re very well-trained.”

“Ah. But perhaps not well-trained enough.” He stood and walked around the table, holding out his hand to me. “One more short stop, and we’ll be on our way.”

I let him take my hand and hold it all the way through the restaurant with people staring at us for showing so much PDA in public.

In the hall, I stopped abruptly when I realized all the employees were lined up along the hall, shops closed in the middle of the day, waiting for an examination. This always happened before shift started.

“This won’t take long,” the devil said in a voice that carried so every face snapped toward him. He walked with me along the row then stopped at one man all of us ladies stayed away from as he was prone to be a little too suggestive.

“You,” the devil said, studying his eyes, “are let go for bad conduct.”

I gaped at him. What kind of game was he playing? He could really mess with people this much, get into their heads until they thought he was their boss? How horrifying.

“What bad conduct?” the man blustered. “There’s no proof of such⁠—”

The devil returned his full focus to the man, and he wilted. “I don’t need proof. I have only to look into your eyes and see the vices hidden behind smooth manners. Manners aren’t enough in my store. Virtue must be honed until it is a shining sword to cut through the corruption of our fair Singsong City. Anyone else with corruption in their eyes when I look at them is welcome to leave.”

Many people melted away, each one the kind of person I’d avoided for one reason or another.

He continued walking and stopped at the head of the largest clothing store, a polished and extremely beautiful fairy. “You are fired for stealing other people’s snacks in the break room.”

Everyone gasped. It had been her all along?

She inhaled deeply, turned, and stormed off, chin raised in the air. Her beauty wouldn’t save her.

“She’s also incredibly mean, but I thought we’d stick with the stealing,” he murmured to me under his breath.

“What are you doing?” I whispered back, looking up at him.

He squeezed my hand and continued. He fired a few more people, but most of those he would’ve fired seemed to have left on their own so they wouldn’t be publicly called out. When he got to Mr. Fern, who stood soldier-straight, certain of his virtue, the devil smiled at him in the most terrifying way.

“Mr. Fern. You fired my dear Miss Charles for being part goblin. Isn’t that directly against discrimination laws?”

“The department store has a policy that lying is absolutely cause for termination, and Miss Charles lied about being part goblin in her first interview.”

“Actually, lack of disclosure isn’t the same as lying. It’s simply withholding information that was absolutely none of your or the department store’s business.”

He frowned. “She applied for an apartment given to those with fairy blood.”

“Does she not have fairy blood?”

He finally turned his head to actually look at the devil. “She’s half goblin!”

“And half fairy. How many of your other workers have so much fairy blood? None, I’d say, and yet you used the excuse of goblin blood to overlook the fairy in her. You’re fired.”

He went beet red. “You can’t do that! I have a contract.”