Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2) Read Free Page A

The faded black letters made with a felt tipped pen long ago were barely legible. He picked up the file with his right hand and held it above his head, showing it to the small audience that sat before him on newly purchased metal chairs. Peter had gotten rid of the padded chairs along with the old carved wooden desk filled with candy wrappers, soda cans, and porno magazines, all which reflected how seriously the previous director had taken his job. But all that was in the past. Every one of those things had been permanently discarded and would never be seen again. Including the former director.
    “It took all six of you nearly an hour to find this file,” Peter said.
    The staffers nodded their heads in the affirmative.
    Sunlight leaked through the tall windows banking the right side of Peter’s office. Bookshelves surrounded the office interior, stuffed with binders and ancient black tomes with golden spines. The wall behind Peter was in perfect order, dusted and categorized by size, even color. The adjoining wall was a work in process, with papers and books rammed into places at odd angles, folded, bent, and ignored. The chairs squeaked, protesting the weight of the male dark angels occupying them. Yesterday had been a difficult day for them, Peter mused, and their rebellious streak was, for now, completely extinguished. There used to be seven staffers, but Peter had to vaporize one of them for answering a question wrong. The dark angel technically hadn’t answered it wrong, he just happened to answer first, and so that had earned him a charred oily spot on the black granite floor. The rest of his buddies had to clean him up. At least, what was left of him. Peter was giving them a lesson in control and in the randomness of his fairness. He expected many of them to want to resign soon. The first one to voice a request to get out of serving him would of course earn a death sentence, and then that would be the end to that rebellion.
    So easy to do this if one has the vision, the need. The chaos of the Underworld had been Peter’s particular pet peeve since becoming a dark angel only a year ago. He had quickly learned how things worked, who was paying attention, and who was not.
    “So, you want to tell me what I find most important about this file?” Peter flicked it back and forth, as if fanning himself. The pectoral bulges of his packed chest thrilled him, demonstrating the discipline his body had adopted as a human. Now he would be eternally frozen in perfect shape. He liked showing off his masculine physique, trying to impress the others as he waited for an answer.
    Of course they were afraid to respond. Even trained rats could grasp the concept of pain and death. Their faces were long and full of practiced dullness, but he smelled their fear just the same.
    “No one? Hmmm?” He didn’t really expect them to say a word. “I can tell you what’s in it, or, more specifically, what’s not in it, just by looking at the outside.” He watched them search their memories, their eyes roving around the room and at each other, looking for a tiny morsel of relief. Someone unbuttoned his collar. Someone else coughed. Several changed leg positions. Peter noticed they sat with their left knees folded over their right, like a string of clowns at the pitch and toss booth. Apparently no one wanted to appear not to know what he was talking about.
    That was smart.
    “Well, gents, look at this file.”
    All six of them did.
    “Notice the edges, here? The stain of a beverage? What this folder tells me is that no one has looked at it for a long, long time. Do you think I was very surprised to open it, and, voila!” Peter popped it open like a can of nuts. “There’s one sheet of paper in it.” He held up the paper on which was a picture of Joshua Brandon, the dark angel.
    Peter inhaled deeply before adding the next part, which made the windows rattle, “ And nothing else!”
    The men jumped but didn’t look him in the eyes.