Falling Darkness--A Novel of Romantic Suspense by Karen Harper

Author:Karen Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

20

Claire was still trembling when she collapsed into a chair between Nick and Jace at the dining room table late that night. She glanced at her watch: nearly eleven. She hadn’t been to bed yet, but she felt as if she’d just had a narcoleptic nightmare. Even Nick’s presence, his holding her, had not helped. Horror clung to her like a cold, wet sheet.

Julia dead. Liz hysterical. Officer McCallum had to handcuff Hunter Logan to take him away, for now back to a friend’s house where Liz had managed to arrange for someone to stay with him. Mr. Logan had shouted at Sheriff Archer that he was not really “the law” and the posse was coming “to hang him high.”

When they had all finally got back to Widow’s Watch and told Jace, he’d been stunned and furious.

Though at first, Nick had wanted to make this a strategy meeting with just the three of them, he’d also asked Heck to sit in. Bronco was upstairs, back from the medical center, trying to sleep with a raging headache from his concussion. Nita kept running between tending the ice pack on his head and making sure that Lexi, whom they hadn’t told about Julia’s death yet, was asleep.

Gina, who was the one really overseeing Bronco’s concussion, came into the dining room with a pot of cocoa and four cups.

“Anything else I can do?” she asked. She didn’t go across the table to Heck but put her hands on Claire’s shoulders. “I know you’re still in shock, all of you, yes?” she asked, kneading Claire’s tense muscles.

“Yes, but you’ve been great,” Claire told her. “Sorry I was too upset to eat the quesadillas you fixed when we got back.”

“Even though I had to use ketchup for salsa, yes?”

“Meggie said she loved them, called them ‘Cuban grilled cheese sandwiches.’”

“You plan to tell her tomorrow? She knew everyone was upset about something.”

“She will be too, big-time. But I needed her at least to get a good night’s sleep before we try to explain it to her. I’m scared it’s going to set her back—set all of us back.”

“So,” Gina said, still hovering, “like I said, I brought you cocoa, but you just remember, it has some caffeine, so you should eat something too. You need to sleep.”

“Yes, Dr. Hermez,” Claire said, reaching back to clasp her hand. “But after today, I don’t think I could sleep anyway.”

“Any of us,” Nick put in with a sigh. Claire saw he’d been twisting his watch around his wrist, again and again.

Jace sat stoic and stone-faced but still seething. And fidgeting, as if something else was eating at him and he wanted to say something but was holding back—so unlike him.

When Gina went out, sliding the pocket door to the kitchen closed behind her, Nick said, “I know we’re all distraught and exhausted, but we need to decide how to handle this, since Julia was our contact and handler.”

“Damn FBI job of hers,” Jace muttered. “Who knows who she had to deal with before us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.