Deep Within The Shadows (The Superstition Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

deal herself? “Yes, I’m ready.” She really wanted to be. She grasped the keys and swung her purse strap over her shoulder. “Before we leave, we’ll make sure you get to your car safely, Vivian.”
    “Thanks, but I’ll be fine. My car’s just outside the back door. It isn’t like the big city of Superstition, Kentucky is a hotbed of crime or anything.”
    “You can’t ever be too careful,” Miranda said. A brief flash of memory made her flinch. To hide her reaction, she bent to gather the two books she’d reserved for herself from beneath the counter.
    She moved around the checkout desk and went to the front door to flip the lock. The three of them ambled toward the back entrance. Along the way, she hit the wall switches, turning off the lights. Dim nightlights flared on, and shadows settled between the rows of shelves. A florescent bulb hummed overhead as they ambled past the back conference and rest rooms.
    “Darn, the streetlight’s out again,” Miranda said as they walked out the back door. “I’ll have to call the city utility company tomorrow and get them to repair it.”
    “We’re safe with Caleb here,” Vivian said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” She strolled away from the awning-covered back stoop and across the dark parking lot to her car.
    “Good night,” Miranda called, and Caleb’s voice blended with hers on the word night. She turned to lock the door, conscious of his warm, waiting presence beside her.
    Vivian’s headlights flashed on, leaving blue-white spots dancing in Miranda’s vision before the car pulled away.
    Her small Honda, parked beneath the dead streetlight, sat alone in the lot. “I’ll put these in the trunk,” she said, shifting her books.
    As Miranda approached the car, she paused at the leap of anxiety jangling her nerves. Every night it was the same. And every night she forced herself to face it.
    Caleb was waiting for her, protective, strong. He wouldn’t allow anything to leap out of the night to hurt her. She hit the keypad, and the locking mechanism released. The back panel rose an inch. She caught the rough edge of the trunk with her fingertips and flipped it up. Light spilled out.
    A gray mass rose from the opening, its maw wide open, hurtling at her face.

Chapter 3

    D etective Chase Robinson paused by the back door of the police station and watched as two patrolmen, Williams and Carmichael, wrestled a handcuffed Gerald Abbott from the back seat of their unmarked police car. Once outside the vehicle the man’s struggles increased, panic edging his features with white. Chase hit the button to automatically open the door just as the officers staggered through the back entrance with Abbott. The creative line of expletives that spewed from Abbott’s mouth questioned the two officers’ heritage and sexual orientation, and offered explicit instructions on how they could pleasure themselves.
    “Thanks for the advice, but I’m a happily married man,” Williams said through gritted teeth while dragging the guy forward.
    Chase grinned and stood back to let them pass.
    Why wouldn’t Abbott give it a rest? He’d been caught.
    “Where do you want this?” Carmichael panted.
    “Interview room two,” Chase said.
    The men manhandled Abbott down the hall and through a narrow doorway to the right. Chase paused at his desk in the open-floored squad room and secured his gun in his desk drawer, then collected a file.
    When he entered the interrogation room, Carmichael was holding Abbott’s head pressed to the top of the metal table bolted to the floor, and his arms pinned behind him.
    Chase tossed the folder on the table. He unlocked one of Abbott’s handcuffs and quickly fed it through a ring in the center of the tabletop and snapped it closed around his wrist again. Bright red burn scars discolored the man’s hands and wrists.
    The moment Carmichael and Williams released him, Abbott lunged forward.
    Chase jerked back, and missed being head-butted