The Devil Among Us by Ramsay Sinclair (easy books to read txt) 📗

keeping her snug. It suited her style, over the top, yet beautifully classic too. She didn’t see me at first, too preoccupied with texting someone. Stalking up behind her quietly, I lifted her up easily.

“Guess who?” Her reaction was utterly hilarious, and she almost flung her phone into the air, flailing against me. Her heels kicked my thighs desperately. “Abbey, it’s me.” I set her down, coiling over with laughter.

“Finlay?” She squinted in the night. “Oh, sometimes I really hate you,” she sulked, recovering from the fright.

“I’m sorry,” I said but couldn’t help laughing still. “But it’s a good lesson to learn. Anyone could do that, not just me. You’re light as a feather. You should pay more attention to your surroundings, especially at this time of night. There are creeps out there.”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop with all the police stuff.” She grinned, finally glad to be reunited. Her body relaxed in my grip, accustomed to who I was and utterly relieved that it wasn’t a random stranger. Abbey still had her work uniform on, dolled up in red lipstick, a frilled blouse, and a matching skirt. I helped her stand up on those precarious heels. I’d thought she looked nice this morning, but after a hard day, she appeared positively angelic.

“You’ve got a set of keys. Or did you forget that you live here now?” I wondered.

“Mr Impatient. I only just got home myself.” Shaking that pretty head firmly, Abbey rested both hands on my jacket and pulled us closer together. We leaned in for a small, greeting peck on the lips, just enough to warm ourselves up.

“I heard about the shootings today.”

“All in a day’s work, and that,” I brushed the concern away. “The papers?” I made a stab in the dark.

“Not yet. One of my work colleagues had been held up on her way in. What happened? I only heard the gossip, and we both know that’s never trustworthy.” Lines of worry etched into her delicate forehead.

Smoothing them out with the pad of my thumb and unlocking the front door, we continued the conversation in the warmth instead. “We had a tip-off for a shipment of drugs passing through the Bay from the borders. Our guess is that this lot was ready to be sold on to the dealers.”

“Wait, these aren’t the people you told me about before, are they?” she checked, stepping out of the heels and instantly becoming inches shorter.

“Yeah,” I was pleasantly surprised that Abbey had remembered. Sometimes it felt that I was boring her with all the work talk. “They came out shooting and putting all of our officers in danger. It was a shot or be shot sort of situation.”

“Blimey,” Abbey whispered, sounding afraid. “I hope you were careful out there. That you didn’t do anything stupid or brave.”

Hmm. Either way to answer this question wouldn’t paint an entirely great image of my detective skills.

“I was a coward,” I sarcastically answered. “I stayed firmly behind for once. But a PC didn’t do the same and ended up getting shot.” I had to raise my voice as I grabbed us some drinks from the fridge.

“Seriously?” Abbey appeared and resurfaced in the kitchen too. “Is he going to be alright?” Passing over the can, she did a jig to celebrate that I’d brought her favourite drink from my last shopping trip.

“Well, he’s in hospital. From what I saw, it wasn’t fatal, he was hit in the shoulder. Still, I can’t imagine it’s a pretty sight.” The chilled larger tasted like heaven. “Anyway,” I changed the subject, longing for a break from work, “I thought we were getting takeaway?”

Hopefully, I hadn’t mixed up my dates accidentally.

“Let me know what happens.” She didn’t push the matter much further. “We are getting takeaway. Why?” Abbey wondered aloud.

“You’re all dressed up.”

“I’ve been at work all day. At our office, we actually dress smart, unlike your team,” she joked and slapped my chest lightly. “I’ve already ordered the food, and it should be delivered in an hour.”

“An hour? That’s ages.” After working all day, my stomach prayed to be saved. It was only then that the messiness of the house irked me. If I’d noticed it, surely Abbey had. “Sorry for leaving the house in a mess.” Rushing around, I tried to pick up whatever was in immediate sight, objects like laundry that still had to be sorted out or unwashed plates. “I rushed out after you this morning and haven’t come back since.”

The more we traipsed through the rooms, the more mess uncovered itself.

“Finlay, it’s fine. I get that you’re a busy man. It’s one of the reasons I love you,” Abbey assured and sat upon the sofa sweetly, for our night together was planned to go down without a hitch.

Recently, every time we tried arranging a date night, something or someone got in the way. At first, McCall’s car broke down, leaving me and her stranded nowhere easily accessible. Secondly, Abbey’s notoriously sinister boss kept her on overnight, for a shift she wasn’t even scheduled in for. It was like a force had kept us apart, for no apparent reason. It was entirely frustrating.

“Right, uh. I’ll grab us a film then,” I proposed awkwardly, and escaped upstairs to clean up. Glimpsing the sight of my worn down figure in a dusty mirror, plunged my self-confidence downhill. Brunette tufts stuck up vertically, defying every law of gravity available. Pinched cheeks and caved in eyes, created a tired appearance that was beyond my years.

Fumbling through a small box of films, I picked out a random one, too preoccupied with my concerns to care. To match Abbey’s smartly dressed self, I rifled in my rackety wardrobe and pulled out a lesser wrinkled shirt as the top choice. It could get away with not being ironed.

The doorbell flared throughout the house, nearly shaking the structure itself. “Blimey,” I mumbled and patted down every pocket in search of my wallet. I’d barely had a chance to open the door properly before a steaming