Fallen Angels 03 - Envy Read Online Free PDF

not be moved.”
    “Roger that.”
    In between one blink and the next, that angel was gone. And it was not until silence rang out within the tent that Nigel realized he had not been the one to send Heron on his way. He had done that himself.
    He was becoming stronger, wasn’t he.
    “Do you want me to go down and watch over him,” Colin said.
    “When I agreed to him as the chosen one, I thought there were enough reins to hold him. I truly did.”
    “And so I say, shal I depart and watch o’er him?”
    Nigel turned to his dearest friend, who was so much more than a col eague and a confidant. “That is the purpose of Adrian and Edward.”
    “Stipulated. But I worry where his growing competence wil take him. We are not on a good path with this.”
    Nigel took another sip of his wine and stared at the empty space that Heron had just inhabited. Though he kept silent, he had to agree. The question was, what to do, what to do . . .

CHAPTER 3
    D own below, in the cold woods next to the Monroe Motel & Suites, Veck stood in the direct glare of the ambulance’s headlights, his partner de la Cruz on his right, his buddy Bails on the left. Spotlit as he was, he felt like he was onstage as Kroner was rol ed out from the trees on a gurney.
    Except there was only one person looking at him.
    Internal Affairs officer Sophia Reil y.
    She was standing off to the side, and as their eyes locked, he wished they were getting together under different circumstances—again. The first time he’d been introduced to her had been because he’d corked that paparazzo.
    This shit made one sucker punch look like a day at the beach.
    The thing was, he’d liked her the moment he’d shaken her hand, and that first impression had only been reinforced tonight: The detective in him had so approved of her just now, as wel as the way she’d looked him over, like even if he’d been bul shitting her—and he hadn’t—she would have known.
    But they had to stop meeting like this. Literal y.
    Over at the asphalt lip of the parking lot, there was a thunch as the medics shut the double doors of the ambulance and then the vehicle backed out, taking the il umination with it. As Reil y turned to watch the departure, she was in the shadows—until she clicked on a flashlight.
    Before she came back over, de la Cruz leaned into him and spoke softly: “Do you want a lawyer.”
    “Why would he need a lawyer,” Bails snapped.
    Veck shook his head at his buddy. He understood the guy’s loyalty, but it was a shitload more faith than he had in himself at the moment. “It’s a fair question.”
    “So do you?” de la Cruz whispered.
    Officer Reil y circled around the blood pool, wending in and out of the trunks and branches, smal sticks snapping under her feet, the sounds loud in his ears.
    She stopped in front of him. “I’m going to have fol ow-up questions tomorrow, but you can go home now.”
    Veck narrowed his eyes. “You’re letting me go.”
    “You were never in my custody, Detective.”
    “And that’s it.”
    “No, not at al . But you’re through here tonight.”
    Veck shook his head. “Listen, Officer, that can’t be—”
    “The CSI people are on the way. I don’t want you here when they go through the scene because it represents a potential compromise to their work. That clear enough for you?”
    Ah. And he should have guessed. It was dark here in the woods. He could easily pick up or manipulate evidence from the ground without anyone knowing, and she’d been trying to give him a gracious way out.
    She was smart, he thought.
    She also happened to be beautiful: In the reflected glow of the flashlight, she was stunning in the way that only a natural, healthy woman could be—with no heavy makeup to gunk up her pores or weigh down her lids, and no greasy, slippery gloss on her mouth, she was utterly un-fake.
    And that heavy dark red hair and that deep green stare weren’t exactly hard on the eyes, either.
    Plus there was her take-no-shit