On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 Read Online Free PDF

gripped him tightly. Judging by the way he was looking at me, I was either hurting or pissing him off to the point of aggravation. I dropped his hand. He was all that stood between Ebony and me, and if I pushed too much he could make it even harder for me to see her.
    “I just want to know that she’s all right—”
    “Sierra, she’s okay.” He met my gaze, his blue eyes sharp. “But she’s going to need a lot more than a couple of weeks to deal with everything.”
    I stood in the open corridor of his apartment block with the wind swaying strands of my hair into my face and the cold seeping into my skin. My jacket and jeans weren’t enough to keep the chill of guilt and frustration from piercing deep inside my soul. I didn’t know what else to say, so I wrapped my arms around my midsection and squinted under the bright glare of the overcast sky.  
    The rain would start soon, but I wasn’t ready to leave. Not until I at least caught a glimpse of her. She’d had her spirit torn away from her body and I didn’t want her to suffer through this alone.
    “Conrad, it’s okay. I’ve got this.” Ebony stepped up beside him and wrapped a skinny arm around his naked torso. Her face had a hint of gray, just like Roe and the other three spook catchers who’d been through the same ordeal. She was wearing a long-sleeved oversized shirt with only the top buttoned. It highlighted just how pale and thin her legs had gotten, and when the breeze lifted the hem it showed off some bruising on her thighs. “What do you want, Sierra?”
    I stepped forward. “I just… I just want to make sure you’re all right. You haven’t answered my calls—”
    She recoiled closer to Conrad. “I’m busy.”
    Conrad kissed the top of her head and moved back—as if he wanted to retreat into the darkness of his apartment and give us some privacy—but Ebony refused to let him go. He looked as uncomfortable as I felt.
    “Okay.” I licked my lips. “When can I expect you back at the office? I’m going back today for a bit.”
    She snorted. “So you haven’t been back since all that shit went down at the Council?”
    I shook my head and noticed she was staring at the left side of my face, where the bruises were pretty much gone. The last time I checked, bad lighting revealed the barely-there yellowish stain on my skin.
    “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
    “Eb, you can’t just cut me off—”
    “Yeah, actually I can.” Her usually familiar blue-gray eyes narrowed as she glared at me, looking cold and distant. Without an ounce of makeup she seemed young and innocent, but the icy edge hardened the effect. “I’m taking two weeks off. No, make that four! I’m taking all of my annual leave at once, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
    I counted to ten, trying to calm down. As much as I understood why she was having a hard time recovering from her ordeal, I didn’t understand why she wanted to make me suffer. If she wanted some time off work, all she had to do was answer my calls and let me know. I wasn’t going to deny her what was rightfully hers. Even if I desperately wanted her to go with me next Tuesday, when I was due to meet with Roe. He’d warned me about how fragile her condition was because he’d lived it, and I was pretty sure he was the only one who could help her out of this.
    But I couldn’t make her do anything.
    I took a quick shallow breath and released it. “Fine, take a month off. I can cover the office on my own. It’ll do me some good to get my hands dirty.” I depended on her organizational skills too much. It was time to take the reins of my business and get my ass back into the office. I’d stepped back in a few times during the last week for quick stops, but hadn’t been able to spend too many hours there since our office neighbor Benita Sorrenti was killed by the black dog. The Perro Negro hunting me down.
    “You go and do that, and leave me alone for a while.” Ebony pressed her