Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

dusty ivy-covered school. Instead, I wound up caretaking a campground in the OBX. I can show you my collections after dinner if you would like.”

“Sure.” I push some pasta around on my plate. “I’m mostly interested in Norse mythology. Know anything about that?”

Garret strokes his goatee. “Not as much as some of the others. The Nordic names always put me off, extra j’s all over the place. I always did find that Loki character fascinating though.”

“Funny, me too,” says Angrboda, who’d born Loki three illegitimate children.

Chloe raises an eyebrow and the giantess shrugs. “You live, you learn, am I right?”

The rest of the meal is just as stilted. A good Christian family breaking bread with a heathen giantess, a Norn and a teenage serial killer.

Stranger things have happened.

As soon as the last plate has been scraped clean, Chloe jumps up. “Nic, you look a little flushed. How about a walk?” I can tell by the light in her eyes that she’s discovered something.

I look to Garret, who shrugs. “The library will still be here in the morning.”

“Bring a coat. It’s cold out.” Sophie calls from her stooped position over the dishwasher. It’s such a mom thing to say.

“I don’t have one.” Only the one Chloe had lent me in the car.

Sophie waves to the nook by the door. “My heaviest is in the hall closet.”

Angrboda follows us out onto the deck and down the steps that lead to the secluded beach. The sand is wet from the snow which melted on contact but the wind is icy.

When we are a good distance from the house, I turn to face them. “What did you find out?”

Chloe gestures to Angrboda. “You better tell her.”

“Tell me what?” I wrap my arms around myself as a sudden gust makes me shiver.

“I found out something, something about Agent Hanson.” Angrboda looks at me thoughtfully. “She’s gone rogue.”

I frown. “Why would she do that?”

Chloe shakes her head. “No, you don’t understand, Nic. She’s been rogue ever since she took you. It wasn’t just a job to her.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

Angrboda shakes her head. “You killed her husband.”

Guilt is the New Black

Sleep eludes me.

I’m not sure if it’s because of my earlier nap, the nightmare about Underhill, Astrid’s death or what Chloe and Angrboda had discovered about Agent Hanson.

Tim Hanson. I remember him. He was one of my early victims, before I’d refined my process. A good-looking man, dirty blond hair neatly combed with a trim physique. Nice clothes, reflective sunglasses. Not your stereotypical pedophile.

He’d come after me when I was ten.

Or rather, I’d gone after him.

Children had disappeared from a park in Tennessee. The aunts had positioned me there, to see if anyone approached. I’d been wearing a little cotton sundress and Mary Janes, the picture of innocence.

At first, he’d looked like just another dad sitting on one of the benches around the play area. But unlike the other parents who’d been on their phones or chatting, he just sat and watched.

It had taken three trips to the park before he approached me. He was careful, probably trying to assess who’d dropped me off. I sat on a swing, idly twirling.

“You here all alone, angel?”

His voice made all the small hairs rise up on the back of my neck. Some instinct long-dormant deep inside me whispered one of mine.

When I nodded, he held out a hand. As instructed, I took it. To anyone else watching, we would look like a father and daughter heading home for dinner. Chloe and Addy had been parked in Addy’s Subaru across the street. I knew they would follow.

He’d driven me to a foreclosed house. Perfect for his purposes. When the door shut, my heart raced. Remembered flashes of the man who’d accosted me in the Black Forest surfaced.

I had a script I was supposed to follow. I was supposed to wait for proof of his intentions.

“If he drives you to the police station, don’t attack him.” Addy had reminded me. “And don’t strike in public. Wait until he takes you somewhere secluded and makes a move.”

I didn’t want him to make a move. My stomach was filled with knots of anxiety and I thought I might throw up.

“Come here, angel.” He removed his sunglasses and I saw the intention in his eyes.

I struck. My lips to the exposed skin of his hand.

He hadn’t attacked me, not like some of the others. But I’d known he was evil. And I hadn’t wanted more memories to haunt me. The ghosts of his hands on my body, like I could sometimes feel that other man’s.

But I’d miscalculated. The memories that haunted me were of the light leaving his eyes, his body tumbling forward, crashing to the ground.

Of my stomach emptying itself while Chloe and Addy rushed through the door.

Of the house burning down around him.

The sound of raised voices pulls me from my reverie.

“Garret, please. She just got here,” It’s Sophie’s voice.

I get out of bed and press my ear to the vent by the floor. Their bedroom must be right below mine.

“What if she’s on drugs?” It’s Garret, obviously talking about me. “What if she’s some sort of criminal?”

I stuff a hand in my mouth so I don’t laugh aloud. If only you knew, Garret.

“Keep your voice down,” Sophie hisses.

“I’m telling you something isn’t right with her.”

No, it isn’t. I finally see what I inherited from Garret—instincts.

“Her eyes are so cold. And at dinner? She barely held my gaze. And the others…. Soph, I don’t want them here around you and our son.”

“She’s my daughter,” Sophie snaps. “Our daughter. I won’t turn her away when she’s in need. If you’re so worried, take Tate and go to your mama’s house.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” It’s a growl of protectiveness, one I am all too familiar with.

I wonder if Garret would like Aiden. If they will ever get the chance to meet.

Sophie’s tone changes and I hear the steel as her words continue. “Nic is my daughter. If things