whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick by s m blooding Read Free Book Online Page B

skinny raspberry latte, quad shot, no foam, and was back in her illegally parked car before she received more than a few dirty looks and a couple car honks. She pulled up to the non-descript concrete building that housed the city morgue, and breezed through the front door.
    Down in the basement, she swept through the double doors of Barn’s office and perched on his desk.
    He didn’t even look up from his scope.
    She waited.
    He held out his hand beside and behind him.
    She pressed the paper cup into his waiting fingers. “What do you got for me, Barn?”
    He didn’t answer. He held onto the latte suspended in air, and peered through the scope. Finally, he pulled away. He twirled his chair around, tucking the latte to his chest. “Oh! Tony.” Barn’s black-rimmed glasses fell down his reddish bald forehead and onto his nose.
    Tony gave the coroner a tight smile. “Hey.”
    Barn pushed his glasses back into place and sipped his latte. “Ah, well, found some interesting stuff on our victim, but nothing too major.”
    Paige narrowed her gaze. What was going on between her partner and their coroner?
    “Really, I just wanted a latte.” Barn’s chuckle was uneasy.
    Hmm. Interesting. Was Barn terrified of Tony? And if so, what had that “this is why I keep a lid on things” vampire done to make Barn so scared?
    “I believe,” Tony said, “that I ordered the body taken to Nederland.”
    “Right. Right. You sure did.”
    “Wait.” Paige turned to Tony, understanding dawning. “He has rules he has to follow.”
    Tony nodded, his gaze focused on Barn. Then, he blinked and centered that dark gaze on her. The weight of his expression reminded her that she was dealing with the paranormal.
    She raised her eyebrow, dropped her jaw, and sucked in her cheeks. If he thought this was her first rodeo, he was wrong. Dead wrong. “You know what? I think I forgot the case file on the desk. How about you go retrieve that so we can be on our way?”
    He narrowed his eyes.
    She smiled. “You’re the one who said we had somewhere to go.”
    Finally, Tony straightened. He pointed his finger at her in warning, tapped his ear with it, and left.
    Barn expelled a breath of relief. “That man gives me the creeps.”
    His eyes lit up with intrigue. “All of his cases to go to Nederland. All the bodies of his victims? All the murderers he catches?”
    “What are you hinting at, Barn?” He didn’t beat around the bush well.
    He clamped his lips shut for a long moment, then said, “I have rules I have to follow, is all I’m saying. Sending all these bodies to Nederland before they’re processed sends up red flags I’m tired of covering for.”
    That was something she’d have to work out with Tony. Barn had a point. They either brought him in on everything, or Tony did a better job of covering. “What do you got?”
    “Well, we could start with this.” He turned back to his scope and slid his office chair away. “Take a look.”
    “You realize I’m not going to know what I’m looking at, right?”
    He shrugged.
    Except, when she peered through the scope, she did understand what she saw. Sulfur in the blood. The crystals were hard to ignore.
    His gaze was expectant. “You know what that is, don’t you?”
    She straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you hedging at, Barn?”
    He mimicked her stance from his seated position. “I’m not stupid, Paige. I watched your files in Texas because I helped Ethel process some of your evidence.”
    Paige’s heart slammed. Ethel had been the only normal human in Texas she’d trusted to process the evidence. The woman had sworn to tell no one. Paige was going to wring her neck the next time she saw her.
    “I was hoping something would show up when you transferred up here, but nothing ever did. Everything was clean for five years. Then, last night, you just happened to know how that woman died?”
    “Keen observation.”
    “That’s what I initially thought,