Breathless by Kelly Martin Read Free Book Online Page B

brother, I didn’t kill him. I kept him alive. Sometimes I sent him back to Heaven. Most of the time he sent me back to Hell. And all the while I kept saying it was because I didn’t want to hurt the mission. I didn’t want to cause too much attention to myself. I wanted to be the model demon citizen. I wanted to cause havoc, but only enough so Heaven didn’t majorly notice me.
    I told myself then it was because I knew Gracen Sullivan was coming along and I’d have to keep watch over her for Seth.
    That’s why I told myself I couldn’t hurt Lucien, because I didn’t want to hurt the mission.
    It wasn’t completely true.
    I knew it then.
    I know it now.
    The reason I didn’t kill Lucien is because I didn’t want to hurt him, not really. No matter how much I thought I did, how much I told myself I did. It was never about hurting him. It was always about why. Why had he killed me?
    And the rub is that he hadn’t.
    He didn’t shoot me.
    He came to warn me.
    And I shot him for his efforts.
    Because I couldn’t believe my brother would be running to save me.
    Because I believed that he’d kill me.
    That I deserved it.
    And I did.
    I do.
    “The Sioux Falls Incident.” I hold up my finger. “Nashville, 1981. World’s Fair—don’t remember the year. Los Angeles, 1994.”
    Those were the ones I remembered.
    He holds up his own index finger. “Crimson Ridge, 1998”
    “Oh, yeah.” Okay, I’d forgotten that one. To be fair, that girl wasn’t my fault. She was really sad, I was really upset over something else, my brain just went weird, and her brain connected… it was a whole thing. “I let you send me back that time. I didn’t even put up a fight.”
    “Sure.” He scoffs and leans back in his chair. He puts his hands behind his head. Loser. “I’m sure you didn’t try to fight at all. You just let me send you back.”
    I shrug. “Why would I fight?”
    He doesn’t seem convinced.
    “Fine. I was having a blue period. You didn’t remember me. Seth hadn’t done his master plan or whatever, and I was getting impatient. I figured what the hell, literally.”
    And we are back to uncomfortable silence.
    Perfect.
    Speaking of… “Seth, where did he go?”
    Lucien looks away. His tell. His number one tell. This can’t be good.
    “Lucien. What is Seth doing?”
    “How should I know? I’m not his keeper.” He stands and takes the plates to the sink. He starts to scrap the few morsels we didn’t eat into the slightly small white bin.
    Uh-huh. I knew something was going on earlier, and I just sort of ignored it. Now, I don’t have to ignore it. “Lucien. What’s going on?”
    “Paranoid much?” He plops the dish into the sink, which already has sudsy water. Bubbles float up and around the room. Interesting.
    “Evasive much?” I counter coolly. “You know something.”
    “I don’t.”
    He won’t look at me.
    Another plate goes plop in the sink, and he comes back to the table to get another two. I jerk what was once the sausage plate away from him and take it for ransom. Information for the plate.
    Fair trade.
    “You know where he is, don’t you?”
    His reluctance to answer tells me everything I need to know. “Damn it, Lucien! You know he’s not the good guy. You know he’s the enemy. Shit, four days ago you tried to kill him.”
    “Things change.” He shrugs and must decide my sausage plate isn’t of importance, because he grabs the one with the biscuits.
    Of all the… “Things… for the love of Pete, Seth doesn’t change. He has a plan. He always has a plan and that plan generally isn’t good for anybody. Remember that time when he planned on, oh I don’t know, opening the Hell gate and allowing every evil thing in the world to have free reign.”
    “I remember,” he says simply. I hate simply. I hate how Lucien’s posture has changed. I hate how his shoulders have rounded again. I hate everything. I hate it all.
    “Yeah, well remember when he blackmailed me. Remember when