Phantom Warriors: Riot Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Balance Sheet. If
they didn’t get more business, they’d have to close the office.
There were clinics nearby, but none like theirs, in the heart of
Cherokee. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
    “Hard at work I see.” Kim Watt poked her head
in Nina’s office.
    “What are you doing here?” Nina rose and came
around her desk to hug her friend.
    “I was out shopping for wedding decorations
and thought I’d drop by. How are you doing?” Kim’s sharp gaze took
in the dark circles under Nina’s eyes and her disheveled clothes.
“You aren’t sleeping, are you?”
    Nina sighed.
    “That good, eh?” Kim squeezed her hand. “What
is that on your face?”
    She laughed. “Pig crap most likely.”
    Kim’s face scrunched. “Eww.”
    Nina grabbed a wet towel and dabbed her
cheek. She met her best friend’s caring gaze. “He’s not getting
better,” she said. She didn’t have to say who. Kim already
knew.
    “I’m sorry, hon. I really am,” she said.
    Nina scrubbed harder. The pain on her cheek
distracted her from the pain burning inside of her. “I know. I’ve
been praying for a miracle.”
    Kim hugged her again. “We all have.”
    She blinked back her tears. “Are we still on
for tomorrow night?”
    Kim’s face brightened. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
She grinned.
    “Is Danny okay with you going into the woods
with me?” Nina couldn’t imagine Kim’s fiancé, who also happened to
be a deputy with the Sheriff’s Department, being okay with his
future bride traipsing through the woods destroying poachers’
illegal bear traps.
    Kim blushed and glanced away. “I didn’t
exactly tell him that’s what we were doing. I might’ve said that we
were having a bachelorette night.”
    Which was the truth, and a lie. This was what
they were doing instead of the bachelorette party. “What if
he finds out?” Nina asked. She was happy for her best friend, but
she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy that Kim had
someone to go home to. What would that be like? She couldn’t
imagine. For the last two years, she had been spent all of her time
either working or taking her grandfather to doctor’s visits. Dating
and having a social life were foreign concepts and would remain so
as long as Harold was in the hospital.
    Kim shook her head. “Danny won’t find out,
unless you tell him.” She winked.
    Nina snorted. “You know that’s never going to
happen.” Danny Alberty had never cared for her. Oh, he’d tolerated
Nina because of her close friendship with Kim, but he didn’t really like her. The feeling was mutual. One good thing she could
say about Kim’s fiancé was that he treated her best friend well.
Nina knew Danny was counting the days until the wedding, since it
meant that they’d be moving away. Fresh pain blossomed around
Nina’s heart. Soon everyone she cared about would be gone.
    “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kim nudged her out
of her maudlin thoughts.
    “See you then.” Nina finished the day and
dropped by the hospital once more before returning to her empty
home. Without Harold there, the place seemed so quiet…so very
lonely. There was nothing to do but go to bed and start all over
again tomorrow.
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Nina dressed in black, despite the dangers of
traipsing through the woods near hunting season without reflective
clothing on. It was safer to wear the orange reflectors, but if she
did that, then the poachers might spot her. Or worse yet, a
Sheriff’s Deputy. She didn’t want anyone catching her, or Kim, in
the woods tonight. What they were doing was risky enough. She
glanced at the clock. Her best friend would be here any minute.
    She tugged on her boots and quickly laced
them up. The hiking boots would allow her to move quicker, and
hopefully protect her ankles on the uneven terrain. There was a
full moon scheduled for tonight, but they wouldn’t be able to tell
beneath the canopy of trees. She’d pulled out a map of the Great
Smoky Mountains and the