mission magic 01 - the incubus job Read Online Free Page B

between us. “I left because I needed to. I didn’t say anything because you would have talked me out of it. I’m here on a job. If I were responsible for the poltergeist in the lobby, I would tell you that she panicked and it won’t happen again. I got the scar on a job.”
    He waited for me to say more, and when I didn’t, he shook his head, fury making the grooves around his nose and mouth deepen. “All those answers and yet not one of them tells me a damned thing. You’re going to have to do better. Start with why you left without a word.”
    I caught my upper lip in my teeth then shrugged inwardly. He was going to be pissed, but he already was, and it didn’t matter anymore. It was over. All the same, when I opened my mouth to tell him, the words wouldn’t come. The truth was that day wasn’t over, not for me. It never would be. It played on constant rewind in my nightmares. You’d think the repetition would make it easier, let me get used to it. But every time was like cutting the wound open fresh.
    “I—” Words stuck sideways in my throat. I shook my head. “I just had enough. I had to get out.”
    Law seemed to see my struggle because he set aside his anger, his expression turning gentle. God. How the hell was I supposed to fight that?
    “What happened, Mallory? You were fine when we went into the compound that day—”
    “I wasn’t,” I said quickly.
    He blinked at me.
    “I wasn’t fine. I hadn’t been fine for a while,” I said, the words tumbling out. The dam had broken at last, and I found that I wanted him to know; I needed him to know.
    “The truth was I was tired of the job, of doing shitty things for so-called good reasons. I was tired of killing things—people, demons, ghosts . . . everything. Most of all I was tired of you not being tired of it all.”
    “You were . . . tired,” he repeated slowly. “So you ran out on the job, on our partnership, and on us. All because you were tired?” Acid dripped from his tongue. He shook his head. “I don’t buy it. There’s more to it. There has to be because that’s the most chicken-shit thing I’ve heard in my life, and I know you’re not a coward.”
    “See what I mean? You haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about. Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.”
    “Make me understand,” he said, glowering. “Try harder. You were an exterminator. That was the job.”
    “I didn’t like the job. I quit. What’s so hard to understand about that?”
    He grabbed my shoulders like he wanted to shake me. Instead he pushed me away and strode to the other side of the room. He crossed his arms over his chest.
    “You didn’t just quit the job; you quit me. I was your partner. We were lovers. I deserved a hell of a lot more than waking up alone in that hotel room. You didn’t even leave a fucking note.”
    “I know,” I said softly. “But you’d have tried to stop me, and I would have let you. If I had, I’d have slit my own throat within a week. As for a note, I didn’t know what to say. Nothing seemed enough.”
    He could only stare, baffled. Emotions flickered over his expression. Finally anger and impatience won out.
    “Explain,” he said. “Something else happened that day. Tell me.”
    I sat down on the edge of a chair and rested my elbows on my knees. “You were there,” I said. “You know exactly what happened.”
    That was the worst of it. That’s why I hadn’t told him. He seen it all and just didn’t care, but it had been the last straw for me.
    He frowned. “I’ve played every damned moment of that raid over and over in my head, trying to figure out what sent you running. Everything went according to book. We took down Ritter, got his victims out, and exterminated everything else. We left the site clean. Nobody got hurt.”
    “People died,” I corrected.
    “All three of those women made it. We saved their lives.”
    “I’m not talking about them.”
    He was back to looking baffled.