The Charlatan's Conquest by Vivien Dean

Author:Vivien Dean [Dean, Vivien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-831-7
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

A SUDDEN ring from the phone on his desk caused Brody to jerk his hands away from the keyboard. His nerves raced in the moment it took to snatch up the receiver, but he had it cradled in his neck, his hands back in place to finish up the last of his notes, before he spoke.

“Weber here.”

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

The deep throb of Cruz’s apologetic voice jolted Brody a second time, compelling him to abandon the file for good so he could concentrate on the call. “Never. What’re you doing calling on the lab line?”

“Well, I tried your cell, but it went through straight to voicemail. This was a last-ditch effort to see if I could reach you.”

“I kept getting interrupted, so I turned it off.” Brody glanced at the time on the monitor and blinked. “Shit, when did it get to be eight o’clock?”

Cruz chuckled. “About two minutes ago. Lemme guess. You were knee-deep in slides and you lost track of time.”

“Not slides, but the rest is right on the money.” His stomach growled. He’d skipped lunch too, embroiled in recreating every instance he possibly could. “Is everything all right? How’s your sister?”

“Holding her own.” His tone had sobered. “She slept most of the day, and they’re keeping an eye on her, but her fever is still high enough for her to stay in ICU.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The staff here is great, though. They’re taking excellent care of her.”

“It probably helps having her big brother there too.”

“Hopefully.”

He didn’t sound hopeful. He sounded tired. “Are you still at the hospital?”

“No, my parents’ house. We decided it was pointless for someone to stay all night, so I’m crashing here.”

“Do you need help escaping? Is that why you called?”

“As much as I would love to, I can’t. Mom waited dinner until I got home. I wanted to know how your day went. Did anything else happen with your ghosts?”

“No, but I’ve got some theories I’d love to run by you.”

Because Cruz was on a time crunch, Brody ran through his thought processes from that morning, skipping over the part about wanting to track down Etienne to focus instead on the data collection aspect. Cruz listened without interruption, even when Brody was sure he was babbling.

“That’s why I didn’t notice the time,” Brody finished. “I’ve been charting every detail I can think of.” He paused as he clicked through his file. “I’ve got seventeen pages of data to sort through.”

Cruz whistled. “You have been busy.”

“I’ve got it broken down by location for now, but I’m going to dissect these further so the data’s more meaningful. It’ll be easier to extrapolate then, though I’m worried I might end up cross-contaminating my conclusions.” Brody chewed on the corner of his lower lip as he stared at the final page, the one for the lab. Since he’d detailed the data in chronological order, it was the last place he’d tackled. “Hm. On second thought, there’s going to be at least another two pages I need to add to this.

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.