Twice Bitten by Lauren Dane

Author:Lauren Dane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

She pulled up to her apartment and sat in the car for long minutes, unable to bring herself to even move.

Back in Portland, she’d stayed at the scene while it had been processed. They canvassed the neighborhood but the houses were very far apart so no one claimed to have seen anything. The place they’d found Allie in was supposed to have been empty, the last tenants having left six months before. No one had noticed anything at all.

She searched for the mage energy all around, driving aimlessly after she’d left the scene but saw nothing.

In the end, nearly on autopilot, she’d gotten on the freeway and headed south. She couldn’t inform Kathy of her child’s death by phone, and she sure as hell didn’t trust Dexter to send anyone over there who’d gently break the news.

So she’d gone straight to Kathy’s once she’d gotten off the freeway. Luckily Allie’s aunt had been there, but still, she’d had to tell a mother that her child was dead. Even with a judicious removal of detail, it was hard to say and even harder for Kathy to hear.

They’d all cried for what seemed like hours, and still, she’d held back a great deal of her grief because she didn’t want any more of a burden on Kathy. Allie’s aunt was able to get Kathy to rest, and though she’d offered a place for Michelle to stay, she’d refused and driven around town for some time before she’d ended up home.

Her phone rang and she saw Josh’s number. Immediately she felt better.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself, beautiful. Where are you?”

She’d called him halfway to Roseburg to let him know what she was doing. He’d been angry that she’d gone without him, but she’d simply explained Kathy had a right to know as soon as possible and she needed to hear it directly from someone who loved Allie too.

And she needed that time in the car, all by herself, to process—or try to process—all she’d been through in the last week. The time to feel whatever the hell she wanted to without worrying over how anyone else would react.

“I’m getting out of my car now. I’m at my apartment. I’ve been at Kathy’s for the last four hours.” Exhaustion dogged her steps as she headed down the path to her place. The air was clean and crisp. She should have been cold but she just didn’t feel much of anything.

“I’ll be back up soon. Kathy has to make funeral arrangements. They’ll release the body in a day or two.” Not like it wasn’t clear Allie had been torn to pieces, but she understood the authorities wanted to get as many details as they could before they let the family have the body for burial.

“I won’t ask how you are. I can hear it. Damn it, Michelle, I wish you hadn’t gone down without me.”

She unlocked her door and turned off her alarm. She might have been tired, but not too tired to use her othersight to be sure no one else had been in her place or was there now.

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.