The Fire Within Read Online Free

messages .”
    She punched the button and took another sip of coffee, moaning as the dark, bitter flavor exploded over her tongue.
    Beep. “Hi, Beth, it’s Abby. Seth and I wanted to know if you’d like to come and take a look at the nursery. That artist you put us in touch with is a genius. Thanks again. Bye!”
    Beth smiled, some of her foul mood evaporating. Abby and Seth’s marriage had been the best thing to come out of the Marcheson stalking case. And she’d never tell either of them about the nightmares she still suffered from thanks to that night.
    She shuddered at the memory of Diana’s black teeth and green blood. Sometimes, in her nightmares, she missed, and...
    Yeah. Those nightmares were best left buried.
    She took extra precautions now, like questioning Seth on whether or not she needed to carry a squirt gun filled with holy water. When he wouldn’t stop laughing she’d brought out the super-soaker and the rosary beads. That got him to stop and take her seriously.
    Mostly.
    She still didn’t know much about what Seth was. Both Abby and Seth were remarkably tight-lipped about it. She didn’t even know if he was the only one of his kind, or if there were more of them out there. She had her suspicions, but that was all they were.
    There was just something about the way Seth and Dante interacted, the way they glanced at one another, that spoke of a connection deeper than friends. Oh, there was nothing loverlike or anything. Just a hunch, a pinch of something different, yet the same, about the pair that made her instincts twist and shout.
    Beep. “Elizabeth, it’s Mother. Give me a call when you get in. Paul and I want to discuss something with you.”
    Yay. Not. There were no goodbyes from her mother, and Beth had long ago stopped expecting them. Her parents disapproved of her life choices, and she returned the favor. They would have preferred she become a lawyer or a doctor rather than a private investigator. She preferred them to figure out that they were both better off living alone. Both had been divorced...
    God, Beth had lost count of the number of times her parents had been married and divorced. Her mother’s latest, Paul, had lasted three years now, and Beth was willing to bet that he wouldn’t last much longer. Her father, on the other hand, was currently single and living in Florida. They hadn’t spoken in over a year.
    When she did speak with her parents it was, at best, with cool civility. Part of her was certain they blamed her for their fucked up lives. While sometimes she ached for something that had never been, she’d learned early on to make her own family, the family of her heart. As far as she was concerned, she had her friends, her heart sisters, and that was enough.
    Beep. “Ms. Rand? My name is Jonathan Blake. My...my wife was murdered near your office.”
    Beth blinked in shock.
    No. Nothing in her life had ever gone this easily. She must have misheard—
    “I want to hire you to investigate my wife’s death. She was a lawyer working for Todd Blessing’s campaign, and I’m worried that it will somehow get swept under the rug for politics. Please, Ms. Rand. Give me a call.”
    Huh. That was unexpected. Looked like Detective Zucco would have to live with her annoying ass after all.
    Beep. “Beth? This is Lakisha Purvis. Nelson is in the hospital. He’s had a heart attack.”
    Shit. She’d call Jonathan Blake back later.
    Beth quickly tossed her mug in the sink and grabbed her parka.
    She was going to be there for both Lakisha and Nelson, and to hell with anything else.
    The Purvis family had given a damn about her when her own family hadn’t. They’d saved her ass, put her on the right track and led the way to what Beth had become rather than the delinquent she’d been heading toward. If not for Nelson and Lakisha, she’d probably be in jail right now. Nelson had protected her when she’d been a teenager and shown her a better path, Lakisha had talked to her about