Seven Graves

The Mortician

I’ve always known I was different.

My name is Seven Grey, and I hang out with dead people. Yes, Seven like the number, and yes… literal dead people. I’m the only mortician in a small town tucked away in backwoods Maine, and I’ve known this was my dream job since the day they asked us on our first day of Kindergarten. I know who I am, and I don’t apologize for it. Death is just different for me, which is why my second job works even better than my first.

They call me « The Cleaning Lady ».

People die. It’s just a part of life. How certain ones die is none of my business, and I don’t ask questions when I work for bad people for ludicrous price tags, making their dirty deeds disappear like they never happened. They call, I clean, I leave.

So how did I end up being the center of attention for the heir to the Irish mob with the threat of accessory to murder charges hanging over my head? Well, that’s a story worthy of small-town gossip.

Malek Byrne is the most deranged, annoying, ridiculous… beautiful… persistent… pain in my ass. I rue the day that he inserted himself into my life. But he’s just about impossible to resist, not just because he forces a smile that hasn’t been part of my dark wardrobe in years… but because he refuses to leave me the hell alone.

He drops bodies… I clean them. It should be that simple.

It’s not.

He’s got a list as long as my name, and I’ve saddled up for a ride I can’t get off of…

Even if I wanted to…

Tropes: morally gray FMC and MMC; forced proximity; deranged golden retriever and black cat; he falls first; frenemies to lovers; touch her and die; stalker romance; ridiculously dark humor.