The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) Read Online Free Page A

angry or
annoyed. He didn’t find me amusing, and I was pretty sure he
thought I was hopelessly weird. We’d had a few good moments in the
past, but he’d obviously noticed the distance between me and
Angelica. I was pretty sure he blamed me for it, even though he
knew nothing about reapers or my relationship to them. “None of
your business.” He took a bite of his taco that made me feel a bit
sorry for the taco.
    I saw a reaper, a pretty girl with a mop of
messy, blonde curls and bright green eyes, drift down behind him
and smile at me over his shoulder. I blinked and she was gone. I
shivered, and wondered if I’d made a mistake not going straight
home.
    “You really think it would help if I told her
the whole story?” He said, saving me from panic.
    “I don’t know, Bruce. How bad is the whole
story?”
    “Kelsey? Kelsey is that you?” a familiar
voice said behind me. I tried not to groan as I turned and faced
Jed.
    He was standing directly behind me, so I had
to look up to see his face. That he was smiling his usual
room-brightening smile just annoyed me, since he’d had the bad
taste to show up when I was about to get Bruce to talk. “Hey, Jed,
it’s good to see you. Bruce and I are kind of in the middle
of—”
    “Sure,” he said, pulling up a chair from the
empty table next to us and having a seat. “I’d love to join you.”
He stuck a hand out and offered it to Bruce. “I’m Jed.”
    “Bruce.” Bruce looked happier than I’d seen
him all night. “I think Angelica mentioned you.”
    Jed nodded, looking every bit the nice guy
who has no clue he’s just interrupted something. He’s a big guy,
but it looked like he’d lost a bit of the extra weight he’d had on
him the last time I’d seen him and replaced it with muscle. He
still had dark purple eyes, a sporty tan, and the aforementioned
bright smile. I wanted to punch it off his face, but I restrained
myself. Training with Cat had made me more violent than I’d
realized, or maybe Jed just had it coming. “Sweet girl. How’s she
doing?”
    I tried not to roll my eyes as Jed and Bruce
discussed Angelica, the ski season, and the stock market, of all
things. Bruce left as soon as Jed finished eating and Jed got up
with him. I followed them out of the restaurant, and debated
kicking Jed in the shin as soon as we got outside.
    Jed’s smile vanished as soon as we said our
goodbyes to Bruce. His body tensed as he scanned the dark street,
threw me a glare I’d never have expected from him, and started
walking. “Try to keep up,” he growled at me. “I don’t want to deal
with the paperwork if you get reaped on my watch.”
    He was a good six inches taller than me and,
though his walk looked casual and easy, I practically had to jog to
keep up with him. “What are you doing here?” I asked. He ignored me
and kept walking. “Your timing stinks by the way, I was just about
to—.”
    “Stop talking and walk,” he said, his voice
deeper and growlier than I’d ever heard it before. I had plenty of
things I wanted to say to him, but we were alone on a dark street
and he was just a teensy bit scary. I contented myself with fuming
at his back, getting more and more furious with each step.
    We were a block from the condo, when I heard
footsteps behind us. Jed didn’t pause, but he spoke in a voice
almost too low for me to hear, “Stay low.”
    Since I was already looking silly trying to
keep up with him, I muttered a curse, but I wasn’t annoyed enough
to stop and risk facing the strangers behind us. We were away from
the lights and foot traffic of downtown on a dark shortcut that led
to the condo complex. I tried to tamp down my rising panic and
breathe normally. Despite all my bravado, I really didn’t want to
die.
    A shadow loomed in my peripheral vision and
something hit me hard on the shoulder. I tripped over my own feet
and fell gracelessly to the hard concrete with a grunt and a whine.
“Ow! What the hell?”
    Jed stopped and