Already Gone (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) by Blake Pierce (notion reading list .txt) 📗

There was no way he could be in danger.No way. And yet…

Laura swallowed a gulp of coffee pastthe lump in her throat and looked down, focusing her eyes on the paper. Some ofit she could fill in by automatic habit, not needing to think. Her name, herID, the date. That left her mind free to reel, to try to cope with what she’djust felt.

When she saw that shadow of death overher dad, it had been long before his diagnosis. Maybe before he’d even beensick—she had no way of knowing. But she’d felt that sick kind of resonance inthe air around him whenever they touched. It had gotten so she shied away fromhim, shutting herself up in her room so she didn’t have to see it.

Then she had touched him one day andseen him lying in a bed hooked up to a drip on a cancer ward, and she’d known.

She’d been so terrified of what she’dseen that she’d never said a word. How could she? She couldn’t tell her parentsthat she’d had a vision of her father dying from cancer. Not after all thetherapy they’d made her go through to stop her “hallucinations.”

But now she was faced with the sameproblem. Something was going to happen to Nate, and it was going to kill her,too, because how could it not? They had been partners for so long, and he wasthe only person she really trusted. The only person who really seemed to trusther. The only one she could rely on. She needed him. More than that, she wantedhim to be around. He was strong, capable, reassuring. The one constant thatnever changed.

And he was going to die. Maybe not rightaway. But sooner or later, he was going to die, and she was going to know how.Unless she avoided touching him for the entire rest of their career together,which seemed unlikely.

So, could she keep it from him? Right upuntil the moment he died?

Or would she be able to intervene?

Laura drained the rest of her coffee inone go and set about attacking the rest of the paperwork. She couldn’t dealwith this right now. She had things to do. Responsibilities. If she didn’t getthis done, people were going to ask why. She could digest this later, when shewas back at home on her own. She could grieve for him then, and figure out whatshe was going to do. Not now. Not in the middle of the office.

“Hey, heroes!” That was Jones, a shortand squat agent with dark hair, walking by them to reach his desk at the very backof the room. “Come down from cloud nine yet?”

“This paperwork brought me down to earthlike an anvil,” Nate joked, turning to look over his shoulder as Jones passedthrough.

“That was good work, though,” Jonessaid, raising his coffee to his lips and sipping before lifting it in Laura’sdirection. His heavy brows jumped up and down at the same time. “You too,Frost. Pretty glad you were there, to be honest. I couldn’t stand the thoughtof that kid dying out there in that box.”

“Oh, you’ve got a son around that age,haven’t you?” Nate said. “Yeah, that must have been tough. It was bad enoughfor me to think about it, and I don’t have kids.”

“Believe me, whole world changes whenyou’ve got ’em,” Jones said, shaking his head, one hand on his hip. “Ain’t thatright, Laura?”

Laura stiffened even more than she alreadywas. “Sure,” she said, her tone flat and brittle.

“Jones,” Nate hissed, making a flappingmotion at him.

“Oh, sorry,” Jones said, wincing as hesat down. He wasn’t the most socially adept agent in the room, even when he wasthe only one in the room. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Laura sighed. There was so much on hershoulders. It felt like the weight of the whole world. Her daughter. The governorand what he was going to do to Amy. And now Nate. At least she didn’t haveanother case to work on just yet. A little break might help her to get her mindaround a few things.

The phone on Nate’s desk burst intolife, emitting a shrill ring before he snatched up the receiver. “Agent Lavoie,”he said, his expression going serious as he listened.

Laura watched him with concern. The callhe was on right now—was that what led to the end of his life?

Every little thing, she realized. Shewas going to be analyzing every little thing now. Every sign that somethingmight not be right. Every call was going to make her jump out of her skin.Every case would be a potential danger. She didn’t want to lose Nate. He was agood partner. A good friend.

Well, as good a friend as someone couldbe when you only saw each other on the job. She’d never been to his home, andhe’d never visited her apartment. They didn’t meet elsewhere for coffee. Theydidn’t gossip about their family lives, at least beyond the greater sketch ofthe need-to-know. They didn’t share feelings.

But, after three years of workingtogether, he was still the closest friend she had. And what did that say abouther life?

Either way, he was a good person. One ofthe best. The thought of him no longer being in the world made her feel sick.

“That was the chief,” Nate said,pointing a finger up to heaven. To the floors above them, where senior agentshad their offices. “Wants to see us in the sky.”

Laura nodded, tossing her empty coffeecup into the trash as she stood. “He say what it’s about?”

“Time off for our efforts?” Nate said,and grinned as he shook his head. “No idea. But I’d bet he has a job for us.”

“Great,” Laura said, following himthrough the bullpen and out into the hall beyond again, trying not to sound asirritated as she felt. She couldn’t deal with something else right now, not ontop of all the rest. And it wasn’t as though she could tell them why she neededtime out. She’d hoped for a lull, for paperwork and maybe some mandatedcounseling that she could space out for.

The muscles of Nate’s back moved visiblyunder his shirt as he led the way. Normally, Laura found it reassuring