Devil Inside by Brandy Isaacs Read Free Book Online Page A

blankets.  Someone certainly isn’t a morning person .  Harley managed to roll out of the bed and out from under his arm and began searching for her clothes.  While she was relieved he wasn’t making a big deal out of her leaving, she was slightly offended that he couldn’t even be bothered to wake up.  He was the one who had tried to cuddle all night.  She located her shirt next to Levi’s side of the bed and began to pull it on.  Suddenly a hand snaked out from the blankets and grabbed her ankle.  Startled, she nearly fell.
                  “Leave your number this time,” Levi grunted.
                  Harley paused.  Finally, she answered with a quiet, “OK.”  She quickly collected the rest of her things and called for a taxi.  She had left her phone number under a magnet on his (empty) fridge.  Part of her hoped that he wouldn’t call.  Another part of her hoped that he would.  She tried to not think about it too much.  She knew he was leaving and if she did think about it too much, it would only complicate things further.  She ignored her voice of reason and decided to see things through to the end no matter what.  Sometimes it was worth the hurt to live a little.
                  As she was leaving she saw a duffel bag lying near the door that led to the small garage attached to the house.  Normally, she wouldn’t go through Levi’s, or anyone else’s, things.  But the glint of metal caught her attention.  She briefly considered ignoring it, but curiosity got the best of her.  She squatted over the bag and opened it a little further.  In addition to what looked like workout gear she could see the handle of a knife poking out of the side.  Harley raised her eye brows.  She didn’t pull the knife out but she could tell it was a large one.  Um, so I hope that is just a hunting knife.   She figured the most reasonable explanation would be some sort of hunting knife and she refused to let her mind jump to the least logical conclusions— serial killer, ninja assassin ?  Instead, she left the bag as she found it and quietly left the house feeling even more conflicted than she had been already.  If this was a movie, this would be the point that the main character would begin to get suspicious and imagine all the wrong things.  Harley shook her head.  There was always a logical explanation for things like this.  It’s just a hunting knife.

Chapter 3
                  The next several weeks didn’t seem real.   Harley worked, hung out with her friends and met up with Levi several times a week.  He continued to be a mystery.  He was quiet and would often watch her when she wasn’t looking.  She didn’t mind because she did the same thing to him.  Neither shared too much personal information or asked too many personal questions.  It was better that way—not getting too familiar.  She didn’t ask him about the knife, but did find out that the consultation work he did was in security, which offered a logical explanation for the knife as well as his wary, guarded attitude.  Harley was relieved to know that she wasn’t sleeping with a serial killer.
                  Three weeks after meeting Levi, Harley was seeing him out.  It was not long before dawn and it was the first time that he had come to her house.  Jamie was out of town again, but Levi had insisted that he needed to leave—that he had a meeting he had to be ready for in the morning.  They stood on the porch saying their goodbyes.
                  “I should be leaving Lexington soon.”
                  Harley laughed, “You’ve said that for two weeks now.”
                  “I know,” he said with a half smile.  “I really do need to get moving.  The project that I was working on has been done for over a week.”
                  Harley ignored the weight growing in her stomach.  She swallowed and