The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) Read Online Free PDF

had been dating for a tad
over four months. Ella had taken to her pretty quickly, and now
Lana gave my mother a break every now and then and watched Ella for
me when I had to go out at night. Most nights she was happy to do
so. She had been tonight. Until she realized why I was so late.
    “You smell like beer,” she said as her eyes
narrowed and her lips drew tight. I’d ignited her Cuban temper.
    “It was a rough night, Lana.” I reached for
her hand. She pulled away and stepped behind the door, pulling it
open a few feet. I stepped inside, and said, “Sam and I hit up
Schmitty’s on the way over for a couple beers. I needed an alcohol
laden detox.”
    “What happened?” she asked as she walked past
me, avoiding contact at all costs.
    We stopped in the great room and I said, “I
stopped by the house from the day before—”
    “The woman who fell or something like that?”
The anger eased from her face.
    I nodded. She knew all the details. I’d
stayed up half the night telling her about it. “And on my way out
tonight, I spotted something. When I turned to say something to her
husband, he took off like a bat out of hell. I chased after him. He
led me up inside the water tower, out onto the ledge.”
    “You went out there?” She slipped into the
kitchen and disappeared behind the refrigerator door.
    “Yup.”
    “What about your fear of heights?”
    I shrugged and then fell back into my
recliner. “We have the power to overrule our minds, especially when
the situation dictates our beliefs to be something other than what
they truly are. Truly, as defined by ourselves, for those of us who
want to hang onto old habits, whether good or bad.”
    “That’s deep, Mitch.” She twisted the top off
a Bud Light and handed it to me.
    I grabbed the cold bottle and took a deep
long pull. “I know. I’ve been taking guru classes online.”
    She rolled her eyes and then pointed at my
bottle of Bud. “You’re almost forty, you should upgrade from that
swill you like to drink.”
    “I’m in my late mid-thirties, and I enjoy
this swill just fine, thank you.” I took another pull and held the
bottle up to the light. Half-full, at least tonight. Any other day
it’d be half-empty.
    I watched her as she retreated into the
kitchen area and pulled the cork out of a bottle of red wine. She
reached up for a wine glass. The shirt lifted as she did so, but
not far enough so that I could catch a glimpse of what she had on
underneath.
    “You sure you want to do that this late?” I
asked.
    “Tomorrow’s Sunday. No school. Might not have
school on Monday. Principal Bennett said it depends on what kind of
damage this tropical storm does.” She came back into the room and
stopped in front of me. I noticed her shirt had loosened around her
chest by a couple of buttons. A tiny drop of wine had slid along
the curved glass and dripped from the glass’s stem onto the
cream-colored carpet. She followed my eyes and saw the red spot on
the floor. “Shit, I’m sorry, Mitch.”
    “It’s no problem.”
    She set her glass down on the table next to
me and went back to the kitchen to grab a towel, which she ran
under the faucet. “I’m so careless,” she said when she
returned.
    “It’s no biggie,” I said. “Like I told
Marissa when she chose this color, we got little kids, it’s bound
to get dirty and stained.”
    Lana looked up at me, eyes big and brown. I
knew why she watched me. I’d said Marissa and kids in the same
sentence. That never led to a happy moment.
    “I’m OK,” I said, taking another drink from
the bottle. I set it down next to her wine glass and slid out of
the chair and onto my knees on the floor. The plush carpet felt
like a foam mattress. I grabbed her hand and stopped her from
wiping the floor. She rose up on her knees and pushed her breasts
into my chest. I wrapped my arm around the back of her waist and
pulled her in even tighter. Our lips met. I rose and pulled her up
to her feet.
    “You want