Accidentaly Divine by Dakota Cassidy (best large ereader .TXT) 📗

Dex. We can’t pull this off without her. She’s gonna find out anyway when she learns the rest of the rules of being a guardian.”

She already knew she couldn’t interfere with fate, she simply hadn’t made the connection that he had interfered with hers.

But she would, and Titus was right. He had to tell her.

“I’d still like to know if I’ve only made her life more difficult, Titus. I owe her the truth. If she wasn’t destined to die, throwing her into this mess against her will makes it that much worse, but she still deserves to know the whole of it. I want to be ready for her anger. Anger I decidedly deserve.”

Titus squeezed his shoulders before he let go. “Maybe that’s true if you look at it in a literal way, bud. But you can’t keep beating yourself up, Dex. You know that, right? We’ve all made mistakes.”

Dex barked a derisive laugh. No one knew mistakes like he did. “Some more than others.”

“I did ask you to hold off for a bit. Put the blame on me. And then as upstairs says, own the mistake. Move on. You didn’t save her out of malice, or greed, or any of the youge, bud.”

Youge was Titus’s infuriating abbreviation for usually and what he’d listed was usually what angels broke the rules for. Greed was high on the list, followed by lust, and revenge wasn’t far off either.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “We’ve been through this before, Titus. I’ve messed up twice now. If not for you, I’d be upstairs cleaning toilets and scooping poop at the Rainbow Bridge. You shouldn’t be attached to this.”

He should have refused Titus’s help. He should have left the moment she landed on the ground, hit the highway to Heaven and talked to their superior, Frank about what he’d done.

“You know, you’d think with all the,” he held up his fingers in quotation marks and swiped the air, “magic we have, they’d have figured out how to take care of the poop so we don’t have to.”

Dex laughed, but he sobered quickly. He knew the answer before he asked the question, but he couldn’t help needing to hear it out loud.

“She was supposed to live, wasn’t she, man?”

Titus peered down at him, his eyes searching Dex’s. “Are you in love, Dex?”

“Love?” he said, trying to keep his tone light as he made shapes in the snow with his feet. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you got the look, Dex. You’ve had it for a long time now. I know you’ve tried to hide it from me, but you can’t keep something so wonderful hidden.”

Dex shook his head. “It’s not wonderful, Titus. It’s shit on toast. I can’t love her. I’m not worthy of her. I don’t deserve her. Not after I did what I did. And then there’s how I lost my permanent wings. I haven’t told her about that yet either.”

“So you do love her.”

“I’m taking the fifth.”

“Can angels take the fifth?”

“Can’t angels be constitutional?”

“Point. But that doesn’t answer my question.”

“And you didn’t answer mine,” Dex reminded him. “Was she supposed to die that night?”

Titus let his chin fall to his chest with a sad sigh. “No. She was supposed to have some horrible injuries, though. Injuries that would have kept her out of work for months, Dex. Injuries that would have kept her from not only being with her seniors, but Gladys, too. Paralysis was a real possibility. She’s doing so much more good for people here as a guardian than she would’ve been laid up after brain surgery and in rehab for eight months. I almost feel like you did her a favor.”

Dex let his head hang low. Damn. Damn. Damn.

No matter how unintentionally, he’d foisted her into a role she didn’t ask for. One she was internally struggling with. All because of his impulsive, reckless nature. And no matter how good she was turning out to be, he hadn’t exactly given her a choice.

“I was wrong to do this to her, Titus. I should have insisted I tell her and we take her to Frank right away to confess.”

Titus slapped him on the back. “But you’d never get your permies if we did that, bud. You’re too good at this not to be a guardian. We need you. I need you. When you start to think about why you didn’t tell her, think about all the good you’ve done instead. You’ve saved a lot of lives.”

He shook his head in disgust, brushing the snow from his face. “But does that mean I have the right to alter someone’s fate, T? I could have appealed my first sentence. I could have done a lot of things, but this wasn’t right. It’s the second time I screwed up. I deserve whatever I get.”

“But first, let me find a place we can squeeze her in on the roster up there, Dex. No one ever has to know how it happened if we never tell.”

“You’re willing to lie for me to what end, Titus? At the risk of losing the job you love? I can’t let you do that. I won’t. I won’t let George lie for me either.”

“Well, it’s too late now, pal. We’re all in, and besides, I wouldn’t stick my neck out if I didn’t think it was for a good cause, and you’re a good cause, Dex. Yes, you should tell George you messed up, but you shouldn’t fall on your sword. I think George will agree—in fact, I’m sure she’s not going to be mad. She wouldn’t want to see you punished. You have to know that. Besides which, I need you in the field, friend.”

Dex swallowed hard. He needed to be in the field, too, for reasons he hadn’t told anyone. In fact, he couldn’t believe no one had found him out by now. Upstairs knew everything.

So far, his cover hadn’t been blown, but if he was shipped back, there’d be no goodbyes, no chance to