Free Fall by Carolyn Jewel Read Free Book Online Page B

inside her purse. She grabbed it and stared at the screen. “Michael.”

CHAPTER 5
    Telos reached over and took the phone away from her. He considered crushing it to bits of plastic, silicon, and metal.
    She snatched it back. He couldn’t help but catch the ragged emotions leaking from her. He was getting even more turned on. Nothing he couldn’t control, though. Fensic pressed against the back of the seat and went completely still. After a bit more silence, she dropped the phone onto her lap.
    The phone rang again. She picked it up and stared at the display.
    “Don’t engage.” He rubbed a finger along the steering wheel.
    “You know what?” she said over the ringtone.
    “What?”
    “You’re right.” Phone in her hand, she pushed the button to roll down her window. Wind whipped through the car. Some of her hair came loose from the roll at the back of her head. She stuck her arm out the window and spread her fingers wide. He heard plastic shatter. She raised the window. “I think we can call that refusing to engage.” Her smile was cold as ice. “Don’t you?”
    He looked at her and then out the side window. “It’s a start.”
    She looked out the window, too. “I probably shouldn’t have done that. I have a year left on my contract.”
    “You can get a new phone.”
    She slumped on her seat, unaware, or uncaring, of the way her skirt stayed where it was. He was beyond feeling guilty for looking. “I’d rather have a puppy.”
    Telos laughed. “A new phone would be less work and less expensive.”
    “True.” Fensic tapped her finger on the top rim of the door. “I can expense a new phone.” She let out a brittle laugh. “Well, I could if I still had a job.”
    They didn’t say anything more for the twenty minutes it took to reach his house at the far edge of Presidio Heights. He pulled into his garage, punched the button to close the garage door, and shut off the engine.
    She looked around his garage. “Where are we?”
    “Home.”
    She ran her hands over her head, smoothing her hair. He wondered what she looked like with it down. Hot, probably. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
    “Probably not.” He shrugged and juggled the car keys on his palm. “I’d take you to your place if there wasn’t a homicidal mage waiting there for you.”
    She stretched out her legs and leaned an elbow on the rim of the car door. “A hotel then.”
    “Do you have enough cash on you not to use your credit card?”
    “No, but—” She looked at him sideways. “You already did me my favor and look how that turned out.”
    ”You’ll be dead twenty minutes after your card swipe.” He shifted on the seat. “Look, you’re safer here than anywhere else. They’re going to find you no matter where you go. With me you have a shot at living to see another sunrise.”
    She let out a breath. “I was wrong about you. You aren’t like Michael.”
    Telos fisted his keys. “Pretty much the opposite, I’d say.”
    “A demon.”
    He shrugged. He did like the smart chicks. “If you want me to take you to a hotel or someplace else, I will, but then it’s your funeral. I’m offering to help you stay alive.” From what he’d heard, a lot of survivors like her were intensely self-sufficient. They had to be. They tended to have abandonment issues, too. “It’ll probably take him at least until tomorrow sometime to find us, and that’s if he’s got a good tracker. In the meantime, I’ll put in a call to Nikodemus and let him know what’s up.”
    His car felt uncomfortably enclosed right now because he was aware she was all legs. She drew in a breath, but didn’t look at him. Good thing. She had a more than decent rack, too. She shook her head. “You don’t owe me anything, Khunbish.”
    “Saying that doesn’t change the truth. I owe you. That’s just a fact.” This time she did meet his gaze. Her pupils were huge. More than anything, he wanted to reach over and unbutton the top button of her