Eternal by V. Forrest (primary phonics books .TXT) 📕

Fia frowned, at once defensive. “Did I like him? We weren’t on a date. It was a crime scene.”

“You said he reminded you of the one true love you’ve ever had,” Kettleman said. “Did you work well together? Did you like him? That’s all I wanted to know.”

“We get funny about jurisdiction, the FBI. The case should have been Duncan’s but Senator Malley’s office made a special request that I go to Clare Point. Special Agent Duncan was pretty pissed.”

“You obviously got past that,” Kettleman observed. “You worked on the case together.”

“I don’t know if we got past it, but we did work together for a couple of days. We’re waiting for forensics and the ME’s report right now.”

“So you liked him?” the psychiatrist pushed. “Why do you think that is? Just because he reminded you of Ian?”

Again, emotion caught in Fia’s throat, threatening this time to cut off her ability to breathe. “Yes, I did like him,” she murmured. “Because he reminded me of Ian, but also…. No.” She thought back, trying hard to be objective. “He was different than Ian. Not as volatile. He has a calmer presence.”

“Have you talked to him since you got back?”

Fia shook her head.

Dr. Kettleman glanced at the clock on the end table beside her. “Time’s just about up, Fia. We’ve talked about a lot of things. Anything you think we missed that still needs addressing today?”

“Nah. We pretty much rubbed all the edges raw.”

Dr. Kettleman rose to walk Fia to the door, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Just once I’d like you to give yourself a little credit. You don’t need to come in here to figure out what you want to do about Joseph. You know you can’t risk a relationship with him.” She stopped at the paneled door. “As for Agent Duncan—maybe that’s a risk you are ready to take.”

Fia walked out the door feeling better. Determined to call Joseph and Glen, just not sure what order to do it in.

In the end, she didn’t call either. But she did decide she needed to tackle her demons in order, or in this case, in reverse order. Fia dressed in a short black skirt, killer heels, and a confidence-boosting skin-tight red tank. She added big hoop earrings and slicked her hair back with styling gel before walking out the door.

Her intention had been to cross the river into New Jersey and look for Joseph there, but her instincts told her he was closer to home. He was out there somewhere tonight, somewhere nearby. She found herself going from bar to bar near the apartment they had once shared on the outskirts of Philly.

Of course she had his cell number. She supposed she could have called him, but this needed to be done face-to-face. And she was certain that he knew she was looking for him. He was playing games with her. Toying with her. Joseph had always been all about the hunt, even when she met him.

Tonight, each time she entered a dark, smoky bar, she got the feeling he had just been there. She could almost smell a remnant of his scent in each doorway she entered, as if he had left a trail of bread crumbs for her.

It was last call before Fia dropped down onto a barstool in a place she’d never been. No sign of Joseph, but she knew better than to think he had come and gone from her life that easily. He wanted something from her and if she didn’t find him, he would find her.

The guy on the barstool beside her ordered her a gin and tonic, despite her insistence that she just wanted the tonic. He was wearing a red bandana around his head, a tight black T-shirt and jeans. His wallet was attached to his back pocket with a heavy chain. It wasn’t until she was sipping the tonic she’d ordered herself that she realized she’d walked into a biker bar. She wasn’t even entirely sure what street she was on. She’d become so intent on looking for Joseph that she’d lost track of where she was.

Wandering the streets, barhopping in Philly, probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. What if someone from the Bureau saw her?

Like any of those tight-asses frequented biker bars….

“Hey, babe, you like hogs?” the guy in the red bandana asked.

She glanced at his neck. It was thick. Fleshy. He wasn’t really her type. But he was hitting on her pretty hard. Pushing tonics that he apparently didn’t realize were minus the gin.

Hogs? The Kahill sept kept a wildlife preserve with herds of deer. Over the centuries, they had adapted until they no longer needed human blood; animal would suffice. Blood was routinely harvested from the deer to sustain the family.

It had been a while since she’d tasted pig’s blood. She wondered if the biker would taste like hog.

“You tryin’ to pick me up, sugar?” Fia asked sweetly, turning her full attention to the man she knew would be her next victim.

One hour and three hundred dollars shot in an instant.

The biker led her out a back door into an alleyway that stank of sour milk and rodent droppings. She’d apparently wandered farther afield in her search for Joseph than she realized. It was a seedier part of town than she normally frequented. More dangerous.

The question was, for whom?

As Fia linked her arm through her escort’s, she thought of Glen. Wondered what he was doing. She knew it was absurd, but she had the sudden urge to speak to him…to hear his voice.

The biker beside her made a sound deep in his throat and he clamped his hand around her arm. Lost in her thoughts, Fia responded a split second too late to the sudden danger she smelled as sharply as the gunpowder that had been in the air the night her Ian had come for the Kahills.

The biker shoved her hard against a steel Dumpster and