The Demon Trappers: Foretold by Jana Oliver Read Free Book Online Page A

was trouble then.’
    ‘You left him . . .’ Riley’s fingers tightened on the bed frame. ‘How could you do that? He’s your child.’
    ‘Because ya gotta cut ’em loose.’ She waved Riley off. ‘Now get the hell outta here and let me die in peace.’
    Shocked, Riley hurried out of the room.
It’s the pain medication. Has to be.
    Riley found Beck at the nurse’s station where he was giving a registered nurse his contact information. He looked wiped, like the few minutes he’d spent in his mother’s
presence had drained him of life force. Riley felt the same way.
    With a mumbled apology, she hurried past him and headed towards the front of the building, desperate to breathe fresh air. Maybe then she could sort out her impressions of the dying woman.
    Beck caught up with her as she exited the building. ‘Riley? What happened?’
    She kept walking. Sadie was just being mean, trying to psych her out.
    ‘What did she say?’ Beck asked, catching her arm. He sounded panicky.
    Riley turned to him, gazing up into the face of the man she thought she loved. What did she really know about him other than he’d grown up down here, been to the war and come back a hero?
That he didn’t like commitment and he owned a rabbit. But what else? He’d hidden so much of his past from her. From everyone. Was there a side to him that she hadn’t seen yet, one
that his mother knew so well?
    ‘Riley?’ he urged. ‘Talk to me.’
    She shook her head, trying to clear it of all the conflicting thoughts. ‘Your mother said she left you in the swamp, tried to get rid of you. Is that true, Beck? Did she do
that?’
    He lowered his eyes to the ground.
    ‘Beck?’
    He stepped back, his expression blank. ‘Just one of her crazy stories,’ he said.
    He’s lying.
It was just like his mom had said. But why would he deny it?
    As Riley waited for him to unlock the truck doors, some part of her was frozen inside. Sadie’s poisonous words had wormed their way into her mind.
    What if she’s right and I really don’t know the real Beck?

Chapter Six

    Beck took the side streets to Sadie’s house, concerned about Riley’s silence since they’d left the hospital. That was Sadie’s trick: she’d get in
your head and you’d find it hard to separate truth from lies. No matter what you said to the old lady, she sucked it up and spat it back at you as verbal acid. She was better at it than some
of Lucifer’s demons.
    Why does she try to destroy everythin’ good in my life?
    He’d never hurt her. All he’d tried to do was to love her, and she’d had none of it since the moment he’d been born.
    As he pulled up to the kerb in front of his childhood home, he felt his tension slowly uncoil. To him it was just a white house with faded black shutters that held few good memories. The
shutters needed to be painted again, but he’d leave that to the new owner. It was small by most standards, dwarfed by the scraggly yard that surrounded it. An old well sat on one side of the
house, topped by warped boards, and on the other side an aged magnolia tree dangled its massive branches on to the roof. There were no flowers or shrubs, nothing that indicated Sadie considered
this her home.
    Beck produced a key and opened the front door. The moment Riley stepped inside she began to cough. Now she knew why they weren’t staying here: the lingering reek of cigarette smoke coated
your throat with every breath.
    ‘Better than it used to be. She quit smokin’ over a year ago,’ he said.
    As Riley inched further into the front room he tried to see it through her eyes: a worn couch, a matching chair, an end table. The floors were wood with an occasional throw rug, and an old
television sat on a stand in the corner. There were pictures on the wall, but they weren’t of family.
    This was Sadie’s self-imposed exile. If she’d been decent to him, he’d have come to see her more often. Family meant everything to him.
    Even when they hate