Protect Her: Part One

by Ivy Sinclair

  I also wasn’t comfortable leaving her in the middle of nowhere alone. If another Tiphon demon tracked her to the cabin, she’d be a sitting duck.

  All I needed to do was keep Paige out of sight and safe in a public place for a few hours. Again I wrestled with the idea that perhaps I should tell Halpren about Paige. He was the island’s sheriff. That was his job to protect people. But since he was in Benjamin’s pocket, there was no way that I could trust him. If there was something to gain by delivering Paige to the archangel, then I had no doubt that Halpren would. Funny thing was that should have been my plan. Paige upset that one in no time flat, and I still couldn’t quite put my finger on why.

  No. The only thing that I could do was what I was going to do. Settle Paige at the coffee shop and then go take care of the demon interrogation.

  As soon as Paige was ready, I packed up my gear. I waited for her as she locked the door to the cabin.

  “You haven’t told me much about your job,” she said over her shoulder. “Seems like you keep some strange hours.”

  She had no idea.

  “I’ve always been a night owl,” I said. “I’m here on a consulting job.”

  “What kind of consulting?” She moved to my side, and we walked across the clearing to the truck. Now that full twilight had arrived, there was an eerie feel from the trees. The wind whistled through the branches causing the leaves to rustle. Anyone else would dismiss that as simple nature, but I had a long history of living in a world where simple things were harbingers for other, much more dangerous things.

  “I work in information retrieval,” I said. “It’s a freelance kind of gig.”

  We got into the SUV. I could tell that she was turning the information that I had just shared with her over in her mind. I started the SUV. As the headlights flashed over the cabin, it looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie. I wasn’t easily spooked, but I was glad to be getting away from it. Suddenly the air felt stifling.

  “So you’re like a hacker or something like that?” she asked.

  Her curiosity was understandable, but I wasn’t ready to tell her about what I did yet. I wasn’t sure I could make her understand it. No one else I told ever had. “Something like that,” I said, eager for the conversation to be over.

  “Is it illegal?”

  “I do a lot of work for people who are probably involved with less than savory activities,” I said. That was the truth. “I don’t ask questions, and they pay well.”

  “These people are demons then.” There was no mistaking the sound of disapproval in her voice. That didn’t take long, and she didn’t even know the half of it.

  “It’s a long story, but yes, some of them are demons. It’s a lucrative line of work.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve referenced money. I didn’t realize you were that kind of guy.”

  I felt the first shot of anger. “If by ‘that kind of guy’ you mean a guy who has built a successful and thriving business that allows me the freedom to pursue my preferred interests and pursuits, then yes. I’m not going to apologize for that.”

  “So what are those?”

  We were entering the town’s limits. I had memorized the location of the coffee shop while studying my map earlier. “What are those what?”

  “Your preferred interests and pursuits.”

  She had caused me to say more than I wanted to. This was why I tried to keep my human interactions to a minimum. “I enjoy traveling. I plan several trips a year to places where I can get away from all of this and forget that the world around us is infested with true evil. Everyone else gets to walk around in a state of blissful ignorance, but not me. I see them everywhere I go. They hide in plain sight. So I find the few remote places of this earth where they can’t or won’t go, and then I stay there long enough to feel like I am ready to face this world again.”

  Hearing the words in the air made me realize how jaded and bitter I had become in just a few short years.

  I felt her hand on my shoulder, and I glanced in her direction expecting laughter at my sad excuse for a life. Instead, her eyes, backlit by the streetlights we passed under, shimmered with compassion.

  “I’m sorry, Riley. You haven’t been anything but kind to me. I was wrong to intrude or judge your life. You don’t have to explain anything to me. I wouldn’t be here without your intervention. You’re my hero.”

  Instead of making me feel better, her words made me feel worse. I was the furthest thing from a hero that someone could get. I saw the neon sign of the coffee shop ahead. Maybe it was a good thing to have a few hours away from Paige. She was stirring feelings inside of me that I thought I buried along with my family.

  I cleared my throat. “I’ll go in with you. We’ll find a quiet corner for you to settle in. You can take my tablet to pass the time.”

  “Thanks, Riley.”

  I parked the SUV half a block away even though it appeared that the coffee shop was practically empty. I shoved my hands into my pockets as we walked searching for a benign topic to pass the next few minutes.. “I was a bit surprised to find a twenty-four hour coffee shop on the island,” I said. “It’s definitely a city thing that seems odd here.”

  “I think it was to make the tourists happy who aren’t used to everything closing up so early. The Mayor thought an all-night coffee shop was better than a bar.”

  “Guess that makes sense,” I said. There was still something off about it, but my options were severally limited at the moment. Java Joe’s was the best we had.

  We walked inside, and found two bored teenagers on their phones behind the counter. They didn’t even look up when we entered. I wanted to shake my head at them. If this was an example of the work ethic of our future generation, then the paranormal creatures would eventually be able to take over our world with little or no effort, and we probably wouldn’t even notice.

  I did a quick scan of the shop and saw one couple near the window. They looked to be in their early twenties and sat in quiet conversation. Another man, considerably older, was in a corner table on his laptop. He had ear buds in and seemed to be in his own little world. I spotted a table back behind the coffee counter and out of the line of sight of the window and entrance.

  “There,” I said, pointing at the table. “That’s your basecamp for the next couple of hours. Don’t talk to anyone and just blend into the woodwork.” I pulled out my wallet and pressed a twenty into her hand. I handed her my tablet. Then I dug a phone out of my pocket. “This is a burner phone. My number is programmed into the contacts. Please don’t use it to call anyone else.”

  She rolled her eyes as she took the items. “I don’t have anyone else to call.”

  We stood there for a moment in awkward silence. I wanted to reach out and touch her hair and stroke her cheek. I wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay. But I couldn’t guarantee that, could I? That truth felt even more painful than I thought, because my desire to protect this woman and keep her safe grew by the hour. I cleared my throat again. “I’ll make it quick. I promise.”

  Paige nodded. “I’ll be here. Be safe.”

  I exited the shop before I said another stupid word. Paige was a job, and I was treating her like my girlfriend. She was a very nice person, but she was messing with my head. She was a complication that I didn’t need.

  Flipping my phone open, I found Halpren’s number in my contacts. But my thumb paused before hitting the dial button. I didn’t want to make a rash decision. I needed more time to think. I had been distracted all day by the fact that I knew I had another demon to interrogate. The job was clouding my thoughts. But in order to get out and get paid, I had to produce something that would get Halpren off my back.

  What I needed was a distraction and a reason to leave the island before they caught up to Paige. I reviewed the email I received with the details of where to find the demon trap. Hopefully, I’d pull something else out of this demon that would give me just the cover I needed.

&n
bsp; CHAPTER FIFTEEN - PAIGE

  I spent the first thirty minutes examining every app and program on the tablet trying to figure out more about what made Riley Stone tick. There wasn’t much to learn though, as all the apps were business and travel related, which made sense with what he had told me so far. So I opened an internet browser and started a Google search on him. So far it had been pointless. He proved to be as elusive online as he did in person.

  Biting back a yawn, I considered getting another coffee. Riley said he was going to be at least a few hours, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to occupy my time. My nerves were shot, and I couldn’t help but glance toward the window every few minutes.

  “Paige?” The familiar voice brought me out of my hazy focus. I looked up in surprise.

  “Christopher?” I shot out of my chair and gave him a monster hug. Seeing him there in person made me realize how worried I had been that something bad would happen to him because of me. But he was there safe and sound. Which was the point where my thoughts came to an abrupt halt. I pulled away from him. “Why are you here? You don’t like coffee.”

  “I’ve been worried sick about you. Your message made no sense,” he said. He looked around me as if checking to see if there was something he was missing. “It’s not like you not to come home or show up for work.”

  A faint sense of unease settled over me. “How did you know I was here, Christopher?”

  He put his arm around my shoulders. “I think you’re in some real trouble, Paige. I’m just glad that I found you before it was too late.”

  “Too late for what?” He was propelling me toward the door before I could even protest. I planted my feet, bringing our forward momentum to a halt. “What’s going on? How did you find me?”

  Christopher smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He put his hands on my shoulders “Look, I know that something happened that scared you badly enough that you thought it was necessary to hide from everyone. Even me, which hurts a little bit, but I’ll get over it. I need you to know that you don’t need to be afraid of anything. I’ll take care of it.”

  It was as if it were a stranger standing there speaking to me. Something was terribly wrong. I started to back away. “I’m fine. I’m waiting for someone. Go home, Christopher.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

  Christopher took my elbow. I tried to shake his hand loose, but I felt his grip tighten into my skin. “Let me go.”

  “If you make a scene, Paige, then you risk bringing them all down on our heads.”

  I stopped struggling. “Them? What are you talking about?”

  He drew me off to the side. “Let’s cut to the chase. This island is crawling with demons, and we both know that they are all here to find you.”

  I felt a cold chill travel down my spine. “What do you know about that?”

  “I know that you are in danger. You need someone to help you.”

  “I have someone helping me,” I said. “Someone who knows about this stuff.”

  Christopher’s eyes narrowed. “You mean the necromancer.”

  Necromancer? I wasn’t sure exactly what the word meant, but the way he said it made it sound ugly and distasteful.

  “He saved my life,” I sputtered. “He told me about them.”

  “Most of it wrong, no doubt,” Christopher said with a scowl. “He’s nothing but a hired gun, Paige. He’s not someone to trust because he’s a man motivated by money and who has no loyalty to anyone but himself. No doubt the only reason he hasn’t handed you over to the demons already is because he hasn’t had anyone offer up the right bounty yet.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not Riley.”

  “I’ve known you for three years. I helped you get back on your feet. I’ve been there for you every step of the way. I never let you fall.”

  He was right. He had done all of those things.

  “I’ve never led you astray, Paige. Riley Stone is not a good man. He is as dangerous as the demons he associates with.”

  “How do you know all of this?” I whispered. I was so confused.

  “We should talk, but not here,” he said. He touched my arm gently. “I’m sorry that you had to find out about everything like this. That was never my intention. I wanted you to have a normal life free of all that ugliness. I think after everything I’ve done for you, you owe me at least a conversation, right?”

  “Tell me at least how you know about the demons,” I said. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Christopher had known all this time, and he never said anything. I wanted to know why.

  “I know you’re feeling hurt that I didn’t tell you the truth, but would you have believed me? You were so traumatized after the accident, especially with dealing with your amnesia, that I didn’t want to burden you any more than necessary. I care about you, and I wanted to protect you until the time was right.”

  I let his words sink in. “Do you know who I am?”

  He smiled gently. “All in good time, Paige. Come with me.”

  “How do I know you won’t lie to me again?” I didn’t know what or who to believe anymore.

  He looked uncertain for the first time. Then his face lit up and, for a moment, I saw the man who had been my best friend for the last three years.

  “We’ll start at the beginning, okay? No more lies or hidden truths. We’ll start with my true name.” He took my hand and brought it up to his lips. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Paige. You can call me, Benjamin.”

  To Be Continued…

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  About Ivy Sinclair

  Ivy Sinclair cut her romance teeth on classics like Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, An Affair to Remember, and Sabrina. She is a firm believer in true love, a happily ever after ending, and the medicinal use of chocolate to cure any ailment of the heart. Ivy's guilty pleasures include sushi, endless Starbucks lattes, and wine. Readers of Ivy's stories can expect smoldering sweet stories of romance that tug at the heartstrings.

  Connect with Ivy on Facebook by clicking HERE.

  Other titles by Ivy Sinclar:

  Where My Heart Breaks

  Bittersweet Junction

  Grounded By You

  A Heart to Rescue

  Cupid’s Cupcake

  The Sleepover Seduction