The Belial Library (The Belial Series) Read Online Free PDF

take a break, he’d given in. It had been stupid.
    And the month afterwards had been even stupider. He’d thought he could forget Laney by losing himself in someone else.  It had only made him miss her more.  He finally realized he wasn’t being fair to Chelsea.  He’d broken it off before he left for Israel. But she hadn’t seemed to understand what he’d been saying, and the month of silence hadn’t clued her in either.
    “Well?"  Chelsea said.
    He glanced over at her, tamping down his annoyance. “Look, Chelsea, we’ve had this conversation. We had fun, but now it’s over. I don’t know what it is you want from me."
    She reached over and ran a hand up his arm. “You know we’re good together. It doesn’t have to be over.”
    Jake reached over and removed her hand. Her well-made up face now seemed garish to him, her clothes too tight. “Stop it, Chelsea. It’s over.  I’d like if we could stay civil, but this has to stop.”
    She tugged her hand away and flounced back in the seat, another pout on her red lips, this one real. “You don’t know what you’re missing, Jake.”
    Laney’s face flashed across his mind. “Yeah.  Actually, I do.”
     

    CHAPTER 4
     
    Fifteen Miles West of Cuenca, Ecuador
     
    Laney leaned back from the long table in the community house, patting her stomach. "Thank you for dinner, Nana. It was wonderful."
    The community house was a large pavilion with a roof covering a wood floor that was filled with long tables in the center of the village. The Shuar tribe met there for all meals. It was always loud and rambunctious.  Laney loved every minute of it.
    Lucia Nunink, known as Nana to all, sat at the head of the table.  Laney wasn't sure of her age. Her hair was long and streaked with white but her face was unlined. Laney guessed maybe her mid to late forties, as women in the tribe tended to have children young.
    Nana bowed her head, her brown eyes shining. "We’re always happy to feed our friends." Her eyes drifted to the one uninvited member of their group. "And others."
    Although Nana preferred to speak in her native language of Shuar, she always spoke Spanish with Laney and Jen.  Laney was thankful for the consideration.  Both she and Jen understood enough of the Shuar language to get by, but the hard consonants and nasal vowels had proven very difficult to pronounce.
    Most of the tribe had drifted off to finish their nightly activities, so now it was just Nana, Jen, Laney, and Warren Steadglow, their intern.
    "Yeah, thanks," Warren pushed his food around and grimaced before finally shoving the plate away with his short, pudgy arms. Blond with pale blue eyes, his doughy body screamed spoiled and soft.
    Laney struggled to keep from whacking him on the back of the head.  He was the personification of the overindulged American: a twenty-six year old graduate student who’d had everything in his life handed to him, including this internship.  He'd been added to their research as part of the funding agreement.
    Neither Jen nor Laney could stand him. They hadn't told him about their trip to the village, but he’d shown up, uninvited and unwanted.
    Jen stood, gathering the coffee mugs on the table. "Nana, let me help clean up."
    Nana nodded and turned towards the kitchen, a small building at the back of the dining hall.
    Jen fixed her eyes on Laney, nodding her head towards Warren.  Laney understood the message loud and clear. Handle him .
    Laney stifled a sigh. Warren was the one part of this experience that was less than ideal. Or, put another way, a complete pain in the ass. She turned towards him. "Warren, why are you here?"
    "What? I heard you say you were heading to the village. I'm part of this project, so I came."
    "We're not here about the project. We're here for dinner. You weren’t invited."
    Warren didn't have the common sense to be embarrassed. He waved her words away. "I don't know why you're treating them with kid gloves. We should just demand they