New York

by Tiffany Aaron

  For a long time, Danielle’s biggest problem had been fighting the depression threatening to drag her to the dark. Finally, she had managed to make peace with her circumstances and was living her life as normally as possible.

  “Danielle?”

  Blinking, she focused on Grant’s face. Even though he was still angry, she saw a hint of worry in his eyes.

  “It’s just a hunch.” Her gaze moved to the vault behind Grant. “Did you bring anything else back from Peru?”

  “No,” he said quickly.

  He was lying, but she wasn’t going to push it. “I’ll call a friend of mine in the police department. He can come over to write a report up.”

  “What am I going to tell the Peruvian government? It took a lot of promises for me to get permission to bring the artefacts here.” Grant ran his fingers through his hair.

  Her hands itched to smooth the locks sticking up, but she didn’t think he’d be interested in her touching him. “Put them in some boxes. I’m sure we’ll at least be able to glue them back together.”

  “Glue?” He groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  She was, but she wasn’t going to mention it to him. When everything was settled, she’d put them back together. It wouldn’t use up too much of her power and he wouldn’t get into trouble with any of the governments.

  She got out her phone to call Nevan Largent, a detective in the Chicago police department to ask him to join her at the museum. While they waited, she and Grant stood staring at each other. Danielle wanted to know what was behind the vault doors. Whatever it was made Grant extremely nervous whenever she moved closer.

  * * * *

  Thirty minutes later, the security guard buzzed them. “Dr Carson, there’s a Detective Largent here to see you.”

  “Escort him to the lab, Jeffery.” Grant glanced at Danielle, trying to ignore how his body reacted to her being in the same room as him. “Your friend got here quickly.”

  “Nevan had a feeling something was wrong.”

  “Does he get those kinds of feelings often? Just like you do?”

  He wasn’t sure how he felt about her. Anger still boiled under the surface, but instinct told him Danielle didn’t have anything to do with the destruction, though she might know who did it. And feeling that way made his attraction to her a little easier to take.

  “More than I like,” the detective said as he entered the lab. Nevan stood about six foot with a stocky build. His light green eyes surveyed the room, searching the dark corners.

  “No more of you waiting to pop out?” Nevan asked Danielle as he moved toward them.

  Nevan reminded Grant of a jaguar he had glimpsed in the jungle. The feline had glided across the ground cover without making a noise—Nevan moved with the same grace and stealth.

  “It’s only me right now,” Danielle answered the detective.

  “But there were others here earlier and they left angry. What they were looking for wasn’t here.” He glanced at Grant with eerily intelligent eyes then looked beyond him to the vault. “Or it was here, but they couldn’t get at it. Are you going to tell me what they were looking for or do you want me to guess?”

  Grant didn’t say anything, not trusting the detective simply because Danielle vouched for him.

  “I’m Detective Nevan Largent, Dr Carson. While I’m inclined to trust you, Danielle, I want to know what happened from the doctor’s viewpoint.”

  Danielle ignored the detective’s wish, and said, “I know who left the note, but she didn’t destroy the pots and I had nothing to do with this.”

  Grant was shocked to see the detective nod. “Why do you believe her?”

  “I’ve worked with her enough to trust her when she tells me she knows who did this.” The look Danielle got from Nevan told Grant that the detective wouldn’t take any nonsense from her. “What was she looking for, Danielle?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s nothing here that would set her off.”

  Grant shot a glance at the vault. When he looked back, both of them were watching him.

  “Is there something in that vault we should know about, Carson?” Nevan asked.

  “No, nothing,” he stammered. The looks of disbelief he got said neither of them believed him. I never could lie worth a damn.

  “I don’t have a fingerprint kit on me, but I don’t think we’d get anything off the pottery anyway.” Nevan closed his notebook before turning to Danielle. “Things better not get out of hand.”

  “Why are you telling me? I’ve got nothing to do with any of this.” She seemed defensive.

  “You’re the only one I’ve dealt with and if bad things start happening, I’m going to blame you.”

  “Thanks a lot, Nevan. I’ve never caused you trouble.” Danielle’s face was flushed, anger and disappointment sparked in her blue eyes.

  Stay out of it, man. He fought a strange urge to defend her.

  “You never have, but something’s telling me this is the start of big trouble.” Nevan scowled.

  “I wish I could say you were lying, Nevan, but I’m afraid you’re right. Don’t worry, I’ll bring people in to help.”

  “It’s those people that worry me.” The detective grimaced. “I’ll take the report, but you had better fix this problem before I go over the edge.”

  Largent proceeded to take notes and pictures. An hour later, he was finished. “I’ll file the report in a few days.” He glared at Danielle again. “I meant what I said. Fix this or I will, and no one will like how I take care of it.”

  They were silent for a few minutes after the detective left. Grant looked over at Danielle and asked, “A scorned lover?”

  She laughed bitterly. “On a good day, Nevan can barely tolerate to be around me. I would drive him to murder if we were lovers.”

  “Why did I get the feeling there was more being said than just the words I was hearing?”

  “There was, but it wasn’t anything you’d understand.” She turned to sweep the lab with her gaze, pausing at the vault door before looking back at him. “Do you need me to help clean up?”

  For the first time, he stopped to look at her and he instantly went hard. Her black linen pants hugged her hips and ass with a faithful touch. Her sequined halter-top was ocean blue to match her eyes. When she turned to walk toward the lab door, he spotted the tattoo on her shoulder. A butterfly decorated her pale skin, perched on a flower. Its blue and black wings were unfurled, striking him with the urge to run his fingers over them to see if they were real.

  “No, you go back to whatever you were doing when I called. I hope your date isn’t too mad that you left.” He didn’t like the surge of jealousy rushing through him.

  Danielle smiled at him. “It’s my birthday. I was celebrating with a few friends, and they know I’ll make it up to them.”

  For some reason, Grant felt like a complete heel. It was her birthday and he’d been giving her shit about the note. But she knows who left the note. Don’t get sappy now just because your cock’s interested in her.

  “Happy birthday,” he murmured.

  “Thanks. I’m going to do a little looking around tonight. Can I catch up with you tomorrow and talk about some things?” Her gaze burned into his and a willingness to agree to anything welled up in him.

  “Sure. I’m going to have to talk to the director and the board about the break-in. Can you come later in the afternoon?” He wasn’t looking forward to telling his superiors the Peruvian artifacts on loan had been destroyed.

  “It’d be a good idea since the people who broke the artifacts had to have got into the museum some way and they’ll need to look for a security breach.”

  “Your friend wouldn’t have broken in as well?”

  An odd smile skipped over her mouth. “There isn’t any way you can keep her out and there won’t be any sign of her passing through.” Danielle nodded at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  His gaze followed her out as he told himself he wa
s making sure she was really leaving and that he wasn’t checking her ass out. Grumbling to himself, he went back to sweep up the shards of pottery from the floor.

  * * * *

  Danielle kept a sharp eye out as she walked down the sidewalk in the projects of Chicago. No one would be able to hurt her, even if she wasn’t wary about her surroundings. Being a fallen had its advantages.

  “Danielle, I’m surprised to see an uptown girl like you hanging out with the dregs of society.” Brittany’s sharp laugh brought her to a halt.

  Turning, she saw the tall blonde woman leaning in a doorway. “I was looking for you, Brittany.”

  “Oh, I bet I can guess why. That archaeologist didn’t like the note I left you.” The fallen’s smile was all teeth.

  Danielle looked into the woman’s eyes and saw the darkness encroaching. “No, he didn’t. Why did you have to break those artefacts?”

  Brittany looked confused. “Those artefacts were fine when I left. I couldn’t find what I was looking for.”

  “What were you looking for?”

  A gleam shone in those slightly mad eyes. “The brethren are saying your archaeologist uncovered something that belongs to us. I wanted to see if he really did have it.” Brittany shrugged. “I couldn’t find it, but I’m warning you. Others will be coming, Danielle.”

  She was puzzled and worried. “What’s so important they’d come here and risk revealing themselves?”

  “I don’t know. Some say it’s so important even Lucifer might come looking for it.”

  “Lucifer?” That was a name she never wanted to hear. There was no way she could stop Daystar if he chose to take whatever Grant had uncovered.

  “Yes. The angel we all love to hate.”

  “If you found it, what would you do with it? Currying favor with Lucifer isn’t something I thought you’d be interested in.” She couldn’t understand why Brittany would want to help Lucifer out.

  “I don’t know. Maybe I just want to know what it is.” Brittany scowled. “Just know that this city will be crawling soon, if you don’t discover what your archaeologist brought home and fix the problems it’ll cause.”

  Brittany disappeared, and Danielle frowned. She wasn’t sure how to get Grant to trust her enough to show her what he had discovered, and she didn’t have a good feeling about this whole thing if Lucifer was involved. Shivers danced down her spine. Calling in reinforcements wasn’t something she wanted to do, but she didn’t know if there were any Enforcers in Chicago—it might be easier to ask Dominic to join her for a few days.

  She needed to get home. Since she hadn’t driven down to the projects, she gathered her power. Disappearing from the sidewalk, she reappeared in her town house and Princess meowed at her, probably annoyed that her dinner was late again.

  * * * *

  Mika’il stared out of the window of the John Hancock building from his seat at the bar. He sipped his drink and wondered why he’d chosen whiskey when the alcohol didn’t do anything to him. He must have gotten into the habit from hanging out with William and Dominic. Both Enforcers felt it helped them to feel more normal.

  He didn’t understand that. They would never be normal. Even though they had fallen, they were still angels and there was no such thing as a normal angel. Maybe if there was such a thing, he wouldn’t feel so helpless when the Lord tested them.

  A light streaked across the sky and he found himself wishing on it. Silly angel, he thought. Wishing on a falling star isn’t going to change things. He couldn’t help it. His close association with mortals gave him a mixture of beliefs and a vast understanding of yearning for something out of reach.

  As he looked out over the city, he noticed a darkness spreading over Chicago.

  “So it begins,” he said.

  “Excuse me, sir, did you say something?” the bartender asked.

  “Just talking to myself.” He smiled politely. After paying his tab, he stood and moved out of the bar. Why must we test them?

  A vast silence met his question and he sighed. There were times he hated his job.

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  About the Author

  I’ve been writing for most of my life, but was first published in 2004. I believe everyone deserves love in all its forms. I write about women and men who find strength in loving each other. I live in the Midwest with my two cats, and when I’m not writing (which isn’t very often) I read and watch movies.

  Email: tiffanyaaronbooks@gmail.com

  Tiffany loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.totallybound.com.

  Also by Tiffany Aaron

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  Totally Bound Publishing