The Hollow Read Online Free

what you are for a reason.”
    â€œEasy to say when you can put your ancestry back to some bright, shining light, and mine goes back to a demon who raped some poor sixteen-year-old girl.”
    â€œThinking that’s only letting him score points off you. Try again,” Fox insisted, and this time grabbed her hand before she could evade him.
    â€œI don’t—stop pushing it at me,” she snapped. Her free hand pressed against her temple.
    It was a jolt, he knew, to have something pop in there when you weren’t prepared. But it couldn’t be helped. “What am I thinking?”
    â€œI don’t know. I just see a bunch of letters in my head.”
    â€œExactly.” Approval spread in his smile, and reached his eyes. “Because I was thinking of a bunch of letters. You can’t go back.” He spoke gently now. “And you wouldn’t if you could. You wouldn’t just pack up, go back to New York, and beg your boss at the boutique to give you your job back.”
    Layla snatched her hand away as color flooded her cheeks. “I don’t want you prying into my thoughts and feelings.”
    â€œNo, you’re right. And I don’t make a habit of it. But, Layla, if you can’t or won’t trust me with what’s barely under the surface, you and I are going to be next to useless. Cal and Quinn, they flash back to things that happened before, and Gage and Cybil get images, or even just possibilities of what’s coming next. We’re the now, you and me. And the now is pretty damn important. You said we’re stalled. Okay then, let’s get moving.”
    â€œIt’s easier for you, easier for you to accept because you’ve had this thing . . .” She waved a finger beside her temple. “You’ve had this for twenty years.”
    â€œHaven’t you?” he countered. “It’s more likely you’ve had it since you were born.”
    â€œBecause of the demon hanging on my family tree?”
    â€œThat’s right. That’s an established fact. What you do about it’s up to you. You used what you have a couple of weeks ago when we were on our way to the Pagan Stone. You made that choice. I told you once before, Layla, you’ve got to commit.”
    â€œI have. I lost my job over this. I’ve sublet my apartment because I’m not going back to New York until this is over. I’m working here to pay the rent, and spending most of the time I’m not working here working with Cybil and Quinn on background, research, theories, solutions.”
    â€œAnd you’re frustrated because you haven’t found the solution. Commitment’s more than putting the time in. And I don’t have to be a mind reader to know hearing that pisses you off.”
    â€œI was in that clearing, too, Fox. I faced that thing, too.”
    â€œThat’s right. Why is that easier for you than facing what you’ve got inside you? It’s a tool, Layla. If you let tools get dull or rusty, they don’t work. If you don’t pick them up and use them, you forget how.”
    â€œAnd if that tool’s sharp and shiny and you don’t know what the hell to do with it, you can do a lot of damage.”
    â€œI’ll help you.” He held out his hand.
    She hesitated. When the phone in the outer office began to ring, she stepped back.
    â€œLet it go,” he told her. “They’ll call back.”
    But she shook her head and hurried out. “Don’t forget to call Shelley.”
    That went well, he thought in disgust. Opening his briefcase, he pulled out the file on the personal injury case he’d just won. Win some, lose some, Fox decided.
    As he figured it was the way she wanted it, he stayed out of her way for the rest of the afternoon. It was simple enough to instruct her through interoffice e-mail to generate the standard power-of-attorney document with the specific names his client