Caught Forever Between Read Online Free PDF Page A

palm against her skirt. Her heartbeat thudded loudly in her ears. She felt sick.
    “What were you doing?” Raleigh asked, his voice flat. He leaned over her and tipped up her chin with an ink-stained finger. “Were you looking ?” he whispered.
    Beneath Raleigh’s sharp sage cologne, Cass smelled something hot and bitter, like vomit in an alley, like the lingering stench at the shop.
    The blood on Raleigh’s sketch pad was Alex’s. It’d been spattered there when Raleigh had shot him. Had he still been there when she’d come in? Gone out the back? And what — came back in to see his handiwork? her reaction? to savor the moment? all of the above?
    And Devlin — the loup garou — was on his way to deliver cold and brutal justice to the wrong person.
    Or, at least, for the wrong reason. What had she seen within Helena’s heart?
    “What did you see, Cassie?” Raleigh demanded, leaning in close enough for a kiss, his breath hot against her cheek, his sage and bitter-bile scent stealing her breath. One hand closed on her shoulder.
    Forcing a smile onto her lips, Cass met his black-hole gaze. “The sun,” she said. “Only the sun.”
    Raleigh blinked.
    “I’m tired. Would you mind taking me home?” Cass said. “I hate making the trip alone, especially on the bus.”
    “Yeah,” he said, releasing her shoulder. “Sure.”
    “Great. Just let me call Helena and tell her she doesn’t have to meet me.” At Raleigh’s nod, Cass fished her cell out of her purse and speed-dialed her sister. The phone rang twice, then Helena’s voice mail kicked on. Dread snaked through Cass.
    It’s too soon! she thought, glancing at the clock. She left a message for Helena to phone her before coming over, then ended the call.
    Cass glanced at Raleigh. His sardonic expression and tilted smile were back in place. Something cold and dark twisted within her, latched on to her heart. He wouldn’t be wearing that expression much longer.
    “Let’s go,” she said.
    Lights burned inside the shop. Cass’s dread intensified. She climbed out of Raleigh’s pickup and shut the door. The night air felt thick and still, oddly soundless, given that it wasn’t yet midnight. On the sidewalk, people hurried by, shoulders hunched, hands in pockets, like a storm loomed over them or a mugger followed, surefooted and silent.
    He’s here, Cass thought. The loup garou had arrived and, somehow — primal instinct, sixth sense — people felt the danger in their prickling skins, their senses electrified and wary.
    Just like Cass’s.
    “Looks like Helena didn’t get your message,” Raleigh drawled, narrowed gaze on the light seeping around the boarded-up windows. “You still want me to come in?”
    “Just to make sure it’s safe, okay?”
    Raleigh grunted in assent.
    Cass pushed open the unlocked door. The bell above tinkled, the sound loud in the silent shop. She looked around the room; not much to see or hide behind since she’d cleaned it and trashed all the ruined furniture and equipment. Counter. Walls bare of patterns. Fan. Nothing out of place.
    She glanced at the door leading to the back room and the living quarters upstairs. It was open. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she felt cold and fevered at the same time.
    “Helena?” she called.
    Silence.
    Taking in a deep breath, Cass hurried across the stone floor — cleaned of the blood-smeared swirls and designs etched forever onto her heart — and through the door. A thought arrowed through her mind: Maybe she didn’t return my call because she’s already dead.
    “Cass?” Raleigh said. “Something wrong?”
    She didn’t answer him, couldn’t. Her words dried up in her throat when she saw her sister backed up against the kitchen counter, her face white, her gaze locked on something or someone out of Cass’s sight — but she didn’t need to see Devlin to know he was there. A blood-red moon, full and swollen, filled her vision. She stumbled to a halt, her hand groping