Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) by Shayne Silvers Read Free Book Online

open and the drunken girl came stumbling out, yelling angrily over her shoulder as she struggled to toss her coat back on. Only one of the straps on her shirt was attached correctly, and it seemed to be tangled up with her arm because she was having a hell of a time putting the coat on. Her bra was also openly on display, and it too wasn’t completely attached, flashing a pale expanse of skin to the peeping toms in our car. Indie slapped my arm with an anxious laugh, one of the guys, making sure I zeroed in on the almost escaped boob.
    I grinned.
    A half naked man appeared in the doorway to the building, pleading with her to come back so he could explain. We could hear it through the windows, so he had to be shouting. But she shambled on down the street, storming off into the night and forcefully flipping the man the middle finger. His bare chest didn’t seem to register the cold.
    Then again, with what he had planned for the night so suddenly imploding on him, I could understand his mindset with the no doubt near superhuman spike of adrenaline and testosterone blocking his cold receptors.
    I watched as his face slowly began to darken in anger, his eyes scanning the street like only an assassin could. His eyes landed on our car for a second, but then flicked past. I called him on my new phone – one that managed to encrypt calls, texts, and emails – from both ends of the line. Only retailed for $17,000. A steal. I had gotten one for all my friends earlier this year. With us occasionally taking on questionable jobs – legally, that is – I wanted as much security and deniability as possible. It was also designed and built by my own company, Temple Industries, so R&D took on the expense for it.
    I spoke casually, bubbling with enthusiasm. “Hey, man. I was driving in your neighborhood and wanted to see if your plans had chang-”
    “You miserable son of a bitch.” He growled. “That was low. Even for you.”
    “If I don’t ruin someone’s day I don’t sleep very well. It’s one of my gifts.”
    He grunted, still scanning the street. Gunnar rolled his eyes and finally flashed his lights once. The man acknowledged us with a fiery glare. He flipped us off, and then motioned for us to come inside before doing so himself, deciding not to wait at the door.
    “See you in a minute, bastard. Keep a low profile on your way in.” He said cryptically before he hung up.
    Gunnar merely shook his head at me. “You are a real piece of work. How did you manage to get the girl to leave so fast?”
    “Oh, you’ll see.” Indie burst out laughing as we opened the car doors to follow my friend, the dragon hunter, inside his apartment.

Chapter 5

    I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but as we stood in the dingy hallway outside the apartment door, I guessed I could have summed it up in one word. More . Tomas was a dragon hunter, a hit man. Surely he made better money than the building led me to believe.
    Tomas opened the door, scowled at me for good measure, and then while leaning out of the doorway to glance both ways behind us, he swiftly darted in to plant a quick wet smooch on Indie’s cheek. I instinctively tensed up, my inner alpha male growling at the challenge, but Indie burst out laughing, calming my beast. She jabbed him playfully in the ribs as she forced her way past him and inside the apartment, darting immediately to the back room to inspect the masterpiece we had recently erected. Well, if that hadn’t given us away I didn’t know what would.
    He quickly let Gunnar and I in the door, grimacing at our stench before locking and dead bolting the door behind us. But he didn’t question our smell, just accepted it. I wasn’t sure what that said about me. Or him.
    Tomas seemed nervous underneath his calm demeanor. Perhaps I thought so because he had asked us to be discreet upon entering the building, or because he had scanned the hallway before letting us in. Or maybe it was because he was now hurriedly dashing to