Hear No (Hidden Evil, #1) (16 page)

“Wait until we’re home,” he said.

She did, content with her milkshake, at least until they reached his house. Amira grabbed the bags and hopped out, excited to sit in a real dining room after years in a tiny apartment.

“Troy! Go to the table!” she said and walked in the front door he’d left unlocked.

She didn’t check to see if he’d obey or not but went to the kitchen and opened cabinets until she found what looked like a new set of pretty plates. She grabbed a few and set them on the counter then opened all the bags. Cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, a Big Mac, nuggets, even chicken wings. He’d gotten them a feast, and she focused on the food instead of her worry.

After a few minutes, she took the plates into the dining room.

Troy was there, leaning against the back of one chair. He watched her place a plate down. It contained a Big Mac at its center on an artistically arranged set of fries. She’d put nuggets into berry dishes and stood chicken wings up on end in a small bowl.

She returned to the kitchen for her food and her milkshake then went back to the table.

Troy hadn’t sat. He seemed to be studying the food before he looked up at her. His dark gaze was intense, as if he was debating whether or not to sit down and eat with her.

“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.

“Starving.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Are those bowls for nuggets? I never knew what to do with them.”

She smiled and sat down. Amira started out with nuggets then moved onto a cheeseburger, mixing fries in as she ate. She tried everything before glancing up to see what Troy was doing.

He was toying with his fries, not eating.

Amira paused, studying him. There was a sadness about him she sensed but couldn’t identify. It was in the distracted looks he cast out the window, the hollows beneath his eyes.

“The nuggets are good,” she told him, uncertain what else to say.

His gaze flickered to her. “Yeah, I know.”

“Why are you trying to kill yourself?”

“Why are you lying about who’s chasing you?”

She flushed and dropped her gaze.

Troy shook his head. He picked up the Big Mac and took a huge bite.

Amira didn’t try to ask him more. She ate her dinner then cleared their plates and went to her room. She didn’t know why his words hurt, but they did. Maybe it was the idea of lying, another sin, but her secrets were dangerous. To her, to Troy, to everyone in the world.

She leaned against her door for a moment, gazing at the trees swaying outside the window across the room. An autumn breeze was making the bright leaves dance and pushing fluffy clouds across the blue expanse above.

It was a very serene setting. Troy had been seeking peace when he bought the out-of-the-way home. Why hadn’t he found it?

Was he lost, like she was? She never thought a spirit guide was able to lose his way, until a few of them shot hers. Troy may have lost his way, but he wasn’t hurting people like they did.

She sat down on the bed, sneezing at the dust that flew up. Waving it away, she pulled out her velvet pouch and dumped the stones onto the bed. Amira picked up hers and started to set it aside then gripped it in her hand.

She saw herself, seated on the bed, but this time, she saw something more. She saw Troy standing outside her door, staring at it, torn.

Opening her eyes, she gazed at her door.

What’re you trying to tell me?
She asked the stone silently, not understanding why it would show her Troy, someone she’d just met.

Soul agreement.
It was a feeling more than a whisper.

Amira gasped and dropped it.

She was meant to be here, but not for the reason she first thought. Helping Troy was an understatement. A rare few humans had a soul agreement – a promise between two souls to share their lives together. The souls were chosen and put together by Pedro and the guardian angel corps, sometimes as a reward for some great deed. The romantic, sweet angels had another term for them, one that had driven her jaded spirit guide, Scott, crazy. They called them OTLs – one true loves.

She had an OTL, no doubt her reward for carrying the stones.

Pure joy went through her, for angels couldn’t have soul agreements the way humans could. What better indication of her newfound status as a human than to be granted the ultimate blessing? Her initial emotion was followed by a much more somber one.

Troy was broken. Humans had free will, and he was choosing to try to die. Would it matter to him that she and he were destined to be together?

Her gaze went to the red stone, and she grew even more troubled.  

There was one way to keep Troy focused. He had agreed to help her, because deep down, he was good. If she gave him another cause, she’d buy him time and maybe, find a way to keep him from succeeding at his death wish. She didn’t want to lose her OTL before she had a chance to experience what she’d left the angel corps to learn.

Replacing all the stones but the red one, she tucked the velvet pouch under her pillow and then rose, red one in hand.

Amira crossed to the door and opened it, momentarily speechless as she gazed at Troy, who stood outside her door the way she’d seen in her vision. Her body’s response to him made sense now.

Soul agreement. A destined, one true love. Her reward for millennia of service as an angel. Handsome, rough, muscular Troy was hers. He just didn’t know it yet.

“If I tell you what I’m hiding, will you tell me why you’re sad?” she asked.

He shifted his weight to the other foot, thumbs hooked through the loops of his jeans.

“I’ll go first,” she said and held out her hand.

He gazed at it for a moment then held out his. She dropped the red stone into his palm. Troy held it up.

“It tells me the location of a portal to Hell,” she told him. “If opened, a very strong demon will come out.”

He lowered it, staring at her.

“It’s what Shadowman wants from me.” She offered a sad smile. “Your turn.”

“Wait. Go back. Why do
you
have this?”

She shrugged. “I was chosen. There is one of me every generation who must safeguard this. It cannot go to the Other Side, because it’s evil. Neither can it go to Hell, or the demons will be able to get free. So someone must protect it here.”

He handed it back. “Does Nathan know?”

“Yes. He and Maggy know. But no one else does. Except Shadowman.”
And the spirit guides who killed Scott.

“Why tell me? There’s a reason – actually more than one – Pedro stripped me of all my cases.”

“Because you’re a good man. I can see that.” Amira almost smiled. “Scott was all I had. He was … killed. I saw it.” She cleared her throat, mourning the loss of life and her friend. “I don’t know what to do, and Nathan trusts you. It’s not fair for me to ask for your help, if you don’t know how important it is.”

Troy said nothing for a moment. His sharp features were unreadable, his eyes riveted to her.

Amira waited, clenching and releasing the red stone, uncertain what he was thinking. Was he trying to decide if he wanted to send her back to Nathan to deal with?

Or did he suspect there was more she wasn’t telling him?

“I lost my daughter ten years ago and tried to quit. Pedro wouldn’t let me, so I fucked up so bad, he had to take my cases away. Won’t let me die, won’t let me work. I’m just … stuck.”

His story stunned her, first with the pain she imagined he went through and second, knowing he was stuck in a stage of mourning the loss of someone he loved. He was a spirit guide who understood that death was nothing but a stage and that no soul was truly lost. But he had human emotions and intuition, which meant he hurt, even knowing what he did about the Other Side.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, her throat tight. The angel in her wanted to comfort him, and she reached out to take his face.

Troy stepped back, wary in the way many of the spirit guides were. Accustomed to dealing with evil to protect humans and incarnated angels, they were generally distrusting. Scott had been the same with anyone who wasn’t one of his to advise and protect.

She withdrew her outstretched arms and hugged herself, feeling his pain and hating that she couldn’t prevent it.

“Thanks,” Troy said. “Don’t leave the house. I’m going for groceries.” He turned away.

She watched his muscular frame retreat down the hallway and disappear down the stairs.

That didn’t go the way I expected.
She stood in the doorway, trying to figure him out.

Returning to the bed, she checked the locations of Shadowman and his host. Lately, whenever she touched it, her instincts wriggled a little more insistently. It had something to do with the woman anchoring Shadowman, except she didn’t understand what.

Amira waited a short time then ventured from her room into the house once more. She walked to the main floor, paused, then went to the kitchen.

For a man who wanted to kill himself, Troy had a lot of knives. She gazed at the three blocks of knives on one counter, struck by an idea. Unable to figure out what the two-toned stone was trying to tell her, she could at least help Troy.

Amira set to work hiding all his knives, scissors and anything else sharp she could find. She searched the bottom floor of his house for more and went to the full bar off the living room. The cabinet behind the bar was full of expensive bottles of liquor, and there were more beneath the double sink.

She began dumping them out one-by-one, her nose wrinkling at the strong scent of liquor. Engaged physically in the movements of emptying the liquor bottles, she allowed her mind to wander.

If Shadowman could read the stones, could his anchor?

The thought struck her hard. What if the stones led her to his host so the innocent woman could help find the other two?

The universe, God and Pedro all had a reason for having an innocent woman involved. What if this was truly what Amira should do, instead of trying to send Shadowman back?

Chapter Fourteen

Kaylee changed clothes as fast as possible and went to her office, afraid of being home with Shadowman. Nathan had texted but she refused to answer it, not wanting anything to do with the strange man.

Shadowman backed off when she left her apartment and went to her workplace, and she paused when she walked in the door of the law offices.

When he was around, she hated his oppressiveness. When he wasn’t …

She felt like someone was watching her. Instead of standing over her, he was keeping his distance. Waiting for something. Like some sort of predator in the forest, watching its prey.

“Hi, Kaylee. Any word from Mike?” Linda called from the reception desk.

“Um, no. Not yet.” Kaylee shook off the feeling and smiled at Linda, continuing to her small office. She checked Mike’s office for signs he’d been there at all and grew more frustrated.

Where was he?

Returning to her office, she sat and stared at the computer screen. There were days when she didn’t mind being in her office and days she couldn’t stand it. Today was one of the latter. There were folders of cases requiring research on her desk and a dozen unopened emails, and all she could think about was Nathan.

Why hadn’t she called the police? Because she found him attractive? Because he spoke complete nonsense about being a psychic?

Because he proved he had some unique gift and pulled a memory from her mind?

She covered her face with her hands, exhausted from the night before and stressed about the Shadowman. Whatever was going on, there was some supernatural influence. It was impossible for her to ignore.

It centered on a fallen guardian angel that happened to be assigned to her. The only person who might help was Nathan, a man who made her pulse soar and who scared her with his intensity.

The phone on her desk rang, jarring her from her thoughts. One button was lit up, indicating it was Linda. She pushed the speakerphone button.

“Kaylee,” Linda said. “Your eight o’clock is here.”

“Send them back,” she replied blandly. She tucked a curl behind her ear then glanced at her calendar.

She didn’t have an eight o’clock today.

Kaylee stood, dread in her stomach. She didn’t know who was going to walk through her door, but she wasn’t expecting the tall, attractive brunette. Was she slipping? Should she know she had an appointment this morning?

Game face, Kaylee.
She circled the desk and offered her hand.

“I’m Kaylee, Mr. Harrison’s assistant,” she said.

“Maggy,” said the brunette, shaking her hand. “I’m a colleague of Nathan Smith.”

Kaylee froze for a split second but managed to keep the forced smile on her face. She motioned to the chair in front of her desk. Nathan didn’t seem like someone who sent a messenger or someone else to do his job. Her gaze lingered on the door for a moment before she crossed to it. Leaning out, Kaylee spotted Nathan a few feet away.

He stood in the hallway, facing her door. If he was surprised she thought to look for him, he didn’t show it. His steady gaze made her stomach flutter before a familiar streak of fear replaced it.

“You might as well come in,” she told him in a clipped tone then spun and returned to her desk. “What do you want?” This she addressed at Maggy while Nathan walked in and sat.

“I think Nathan briefed you on who … what we are,” Maggy started.

“Supernatural caseworkers,” Kaylee replied. “Like I believe that.”

“Whatever you believe, you are no doubt aware of Shadowman,” Maggy said smoothly. “You probably sense that he’s evil, and he’s probably following you everywhere you go.”

“Something like that.”

“Look, believe it or not, we’re here to help.”

“How?”

“We know Shadowman is anchored by you, and we want to get rid of him.”

“Sounds good. How do you plan to do that?”

Maggy glanced at Nathan, who was silent.

Kaylee waited, the knot in her stomach twisting harder.

“It’s difficult. When a guardian angel is assigned to a human, he stays with the human until death, upon which he’s released to return to the Other Side,” Maggy explained. “We have a risky proposal for you.”