First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1 by Carey Baldwin Read Free Book Online Page A

your debt, Sky. And I don’t intend to let you down again.”
    “I’m a doctor. I did my job.” Her tone, like her eyes, concealed her reaction to him. If she harbored any resentment against him, she was too kind to show it.
    “But I didn’t do mine.”
    She moved in closer. “If it hadn’t been for you we might all be dead. That man wouldn’t have hesitated to slaughter everyone in the diner. Nevaeh’s going to be okay. My brother, that boy, Cookie…and me. We’re all alive because of you.” Her hand lifted to touch him.
    Despite the layers of clothing concealing his scar, her fingers found and grazed the very spot where the bullet had entered his chest. Warmth radiated across his skin from the point of contact, and he stiffened, fighting back the urge to draw her to him.
    The only comfort he had any right to offer her was justice. “If I’d had my gun on me, I could’ve stopped the robbery before anyone—before Edmond —was shot. I didn’t do my duty that day, but I promise you, I’ll do it now.”
    “Don’t be stupid.” The volume in her voice rose, and its frailness disappeared. “I’ve read the newspapers. The op-ed pieces about police officers carrying off-duty. But you can’t let that get to you. Even if you’d had your gun, the outcome might have been the same, maybe worse. To believe otherwise is a distortion of the truth.”
    He covered his mouth with his palm. She was wrong. In his heart, he knew Edmond would still be alive if he’d been armed. But arguing the point with Sky now was like trawling for absolution. And that was a fish he didn’t deserve to catch in his net. Not until he solved this goddamn case. “You’ve lost weight.”
    “I don’t hold you responsible for Edmond’s death,” she said.
    He used his teeth to scrape away a bitter taste on his tongue. “Thank you for that.”
    “I did wonder though. Why? Why were you unarmed?”
    At last. The sixty-four-thousand dollar question. “That morning, I’d been out shooting the sunrise over the Peaks, with a camera, I mean. I was lugging a tripod, a bunch of lenses. I didn’t think it was necessary to bring a weapon.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Besides, being alone in the wilderness brings me peace, I guess.” He found a nickel and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. “At the risk of sounding like a sap, it brings me a feeling of connection with the universe and…”
    “And a gun would ruin that feeling.”
    He felt a catch in his throat so strong it pissed him off. Sky seemed to understand something about him others didn’t. His body canted forward. “I know how rough this has been on you.”
    “I doubt that.”
    Glancing down at the photograph of Sky and Edmond, he reminded himself to keep the conversation professional. Yet he understood her grief all too well. Their mutual pain bridged the gap of short acquaintance, bonded them together. And she was so vulnerable it felt like he wielded an unfair advantage over her. Maybe if he shared his own private agony it would even the playing field.
    No. He’d have to be an asshole to tell her about Grace. She’d only wind up comforting him when what he meant was to comfort her. He tapped his fingers on the desktop, hesitating, and eventually opted for partial disclosure, “I lost my wife shortly after Katie was born, so yeah, I know a bit of what you’re going through.”
    She touched his wound again, and the room went silent except for the soft sounds of their breathing. At last she said, “You mentioned something about the case?”
    The case . Shit he was an asshole. Drawing his shoulders back, he pulled his hands close to his sides, and his left arm bumped reassuringly against the bulge of his sidearm. He damned sure wouldn’t be caught unprepared again. “I’d like to ask you some questions pertaining to the robbery.”
    “Now?”
    “I don’t think they can wait.”
    “But…I don’t see why. Your colleagues have been investigating