Lover Eternal: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Read Online Free PDF Page A

Okay . Nerves were back.
    Mary heard a shuffle over to the left and caught a flash of movement, as if someone had ducked out of sight behind the building. Snapping to attention, she punched a code into a lock, went inside, and climbed the stairs. When she got to the second floor, she buzzed the intercom for entrance into the hotline's offices.
    As she walked past the reception desk, she waved to the executive director, Rhonda Knute, who was on the phone. Then she nodded toNan , Stuart, and Lola, who were on deck tonight, and settled into a vacant cubicle. After making sure she had plenty of intake forms, a couple of pens, and the hotline's intervention reference book, she took a bottle of water out of her purse.
Almost immediately one of her phone lines rang, and she checked the screen for caller ID. She knew the number. And the police had told her it was a pay phone. Downtown.
     
It was her caller.
     
The phone rang a second time and she picked up, following the hotline's script "Suicide Prevention Hotline, this is Mary. How may I help you?"
     
Silence. Not even breathing.
    Dimly, she heard the hum of a car engine flare and then fade in the background. According to the police's audit of incoming calls, the person always phoned from the street and varied his location so he couldn't be traced.
"This is Mary. How may I help you?" She dropped her voice and broke protocol. "I know it's you, and I'm glad you're reaching out tonight again. But please, can't you tell me your name or what's wrong?"
     
She waited. The phone went dead.
     
"Another one of yours?" Rhonda asked, taking a sip from a mug of herbal tea.
     
Mary hung up. "How did you know?"
     
The woman nodded across her shoulder. "I heard a lot of rings out there, but no one got farther than the greeting. Then all of a sudden you were hunched over your phone."
     
'yeah, well—"
     
"Listen, the cops got back to me today. There's nothing they can do short of assigning details to every pay phone in town, and they're not willing to go that far at this point."
     
"I told you. I don't feel like I'm in danger."
     
"You don't know that you're not."
    "Come on, Rhonda, this has been going on for nine months now, right? If they were going to jump me, they would have already. And I really want to help—"
"That's another thing I'm concerned about. You clearly feel like protecting whoever the caller is. You're getting too personal."
"No, I'm not They're calling here for a reason, and I know I can take care of them."
     
"Mary, stop. Listen to yourself." Rhonda pulled a chair over and lowered her voice as she sat down. "This is… hard for me to say. But I think you need a break."
     
Mary recoiled. "From what?"
     
"You're here too much."
     
"I work the same number of days as everyone else."
    "But you stay here for hours after your shift is through, and you cover for people all the time. You're too involved. I know you're substituting for Bill right now, but when he comes I want you to leave. And I don't want you back here for a couple of weeks. You need some perspective. This is hard, draining work, and you have to have a proper distance from it."
"Not now, Rhonda. Please, not now. I need to be here now more than ever."
    Rhonda gently squeezed Mary's tense hand. "This isn't an appropriate place for you to work out your own issues, and you know that. You're one of the best volunteers I've got, and I want you to come back. But only after you've had some time to clear your head."
"I may not have that kind of time," Mary whispered under her breath.
     
"What?"
     
Mary shook herself and forced a smile. "Nothing. Of course, you're right. I'll leave as soon as Bill comes in."
    Bill arrived about an hour later, and Mary was out of the building in two minutes. When she got home, she shut her door and leaned back against the wood panels, listening to all the silence. The horrible, crushing silence.
God, she wanted to go back to the hotline's offices. She needed to hear the soft