The Darkness Gathers Read Online Free PDF Page B

town.
    “I don’t know. We’re just going to check it out. Lydia has the buzz.”
    In response to that, Jacob, who had followed them from the lobby into Jeffrey’s office and was slouching in the chair across from Jeffrey’s desk, had practically snorted. “That’s great,” he said sullenly, with a dramatic throwing up of hands. “Do what you want.”
    “Don’t worry about it, Hanley. It’s more like a vacation than anything.”
    He made that snuffling noise with nose and throat again. “That’s what you said when you went to Santa Fe last year.”
    Lydia had felt her temper flare a little bit at that. But she bit her tongue, which was never easy for her. Jeffrey and Hanley had been friends since West Point. So she had never offered her opinion that Hanley had always seemed like deadweight to her and that Jeffrey and Christian Striker had done most of the work in building the firm to what it was.
    “And?” Jeffrey said, a little more anger in his eyes and tone than Lydia had expected.
    “And you both practically got yourselves killed,” Hanley responded, shifting his manner from that of annoyance to one of concern, a kind of tonal backpedaling. After the awkward pause that passed between them, Jacob raised his hands in a mock gesture of surrender. “I’m just saying, don’t get yourselves into any trouble.”
    “Thanks for the advice,” Jeffrey said. She could see from her position across the large office, sitting on the plush beige couch with the rust chenille pillows that she had picked out at Crate & Barrel, that Jeffrey was really annoyed. His jaw was clenched and he avoided looking at Hanley. “Anything else?”
    “Just stay in touch. Let us know if we can help,” he said, with his verbal tail between his legs.
    Jeffrey didn’t respond, and after a moment, Hanley got up and left. Lydia just sat on the couch as Jeffrey shoved files into the drawers and sifted through a stack of pink phone messages. She didn’t say anything because she knew that his annoyance needed a target. And she didn’t want to be it.
    “And I will be snagging some beach time while we’re in Miami,” he said. “I don’t want to wind up tailing people, sneaking around alleys, getting into shoot-outs, like we usually do.”
    She didn’t argue. “Okay, okay. What’s going on with you two?”
    “Nothing. He’s just … Forget it.”
    She didn’t press it, knowing he’d tell her his thoughts once he’d sorted them out. But the conversation had had an odd effect on her, too. Sitting next to their suitcases, four hours before the quick flight to Miami, she had wanted to go home. For a second, she wished she’d never opened the brown envelope and had never even had the chance to get the buzz.
    The fact was that she didn’t want to be sneaking around alleys and getting into gunfights, either . Two years ago, she wouldn’t have given a little investigational jaunt like this one a second thought. She would have been hoping to crack something big. But these days, she didn’t feel overly inclined to put their lives in danger. Not for the first time since she’d put the serial killer in Santa Fe in a coma that he lay in to this day, she thought, Maybe I’m losing my edge. The things that had always thrilled her, had always driven her were suddenly not as appealing as the thought of being home with Jeffrey by the fire. God, what a girl I am all of a sudden, she had thought, disgusted. Maybe I should take up macramé. Even though she wasn’t even sure what macramé was.
    “Why are you frowning?” Jeffrey had asked.
    “I’m not.”
    “You are. What are you thinking?”
    “I’m thinking, Let’s go. What are you doing?”
    “I’m just sending an E-mail to Christian and Craig, asking them to do some checking around here. One of the articles you found mentioned that someone had seen Tatiana on a bus to New York City.”
    “Cool. Are you ready?”
    “Yep. What’s your hurry? Flight isn’t for another four