Читать книгу Rock Me All Night - Katherine Garbera - Страница 8

This afterlife gig kept getting crazier.

I’d been a capo in the mob. Actually the boss of bosses, Il Re. That’s Italian for The King, and believe me I acted as if I owned the world. Five shots to the chest and I ended up here in that gray area Father Dom called Purgatory. It’s not quite how I’d always pictured it, but then little in my experience ever was.

I’d cut a deal with one of God’s emissaries, one of the seraphim with a name that was a mouthful. I’d shortened it to Didi. She had an attitude and awful taste in clothing, but something about her got to me.

“Welcome back, Pasquale.”

My given name is Pasquale Mandetti, and no one but this angel broad ever got away with calling me it. “Babe, I’ve asked you to call me Ray.”

“And I’ve asked you not to call me babe.”

“Bad habit.”

She watched me carefully. I leaned back in the leather chair that I knew was just here for show and waited. Didi played the same kind of games I used to when I’d been the boss. But she was my boss now. The deal I’d cut was to unite in love as many couples as enemies I’d murdered in hate.

Madon’, do you have any idea how long I’m going to be working this matchmaking gig!

A large stack of file folders appeared on her desk. The folders were different colored, and I’d learned from experience that none of the couples were easy to get together. There was a reason why they were in a file on Didi’s desk, and usually that reason was they needed more than a nudge at a willing person of the opposite sex.

“Pick a color,” she said.

“Just give me the one on top,” I said. I hated it when she got cute with me.

She handed me the file, and I flipped it open. Not a bad gig. I was going to be a DJ at a top-100 radio station in Detroit…in February. “I’m going to freeze my butt off.”

“Probably. I’ll be going with you this time.”

“Why?”

“You’ll need a producer. Besides, this one needs careful handling.”

I skimmed the descriptions. Lauren Belchoir and Jack Montrose. They lived on opposite ends of town and had totally different lives. Jack owned a record company and Lauren worked the midnight shift at the radio station. It seemed pretty straightforward to me.

“Why do I need you along again?”

“Because you’re doing the new morning drive show and you’ll be in charge of the first annual Mile of Men promotion.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a Valentine’s Day promotion where single men line up and then women drive by and pick a guy.”

“And Lauren’s going to pick Jack?”

“If I gave you all the answers, you wouldn’t have a job to do,” she said with that tricky smile of hers that I didn’t trust.

I felt my body dissolve. Soon I was standing on the street looking up at a tall mirrored building. The radio call letters were plastered to the side—WCPD. Madon’, what had I gotten myself into?