From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(48)

She picked at her fingernails. “Perry and I got in a fight.”

“I heard.”

Two words, and she knew he knew everything.

“I figured.” Dita couldn’t meet his eyes. “I just…she destroyed it. It was like I’d gotten a second chance, and she smashed it, and I’m not okay.”

“I know.”

She looked up at him and smiled, though her brows were drawn, her cheeks tight. “I haven’t been upstairs, not since Perry and I fought, and I haven’t been sleeping. Every time I fall asleep, the dreams…” She zoned out for a second and gave her head a shake. “I was so hungry, so I went upstairs. He was there.”

Heff took a breath, and his eyes glinted. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing. He wanted to talk.”

Heff didn’t look convinced, and she laid her hand on his knee.

“Really. I’m sorry to worry you. This is why I didn’t want to say anything. This is why I haven’t…”

“I knew you weren’t all right, but I was waiting on you to come to me. You always do, when you’re ready.”

Of course he knew. Of course he gave me space.

“You know me just about better than anyone.”

“I’ve had a long time to learn. I’m glad he didn’t hurt you, for his sake.”

“I’m just…” She dropped her head to her hands, still shaking. “I don’t want to feel like this. I don’t want to be afraid of him.”

He moved his hand to her back, his touch soft, his words softer. “He has no power over you.”

“But he does, and I don’t know how to break it. I have to, Heff. I have to.” Her voice cracked, her heart broken.

“Shh,” he whispered. He pulled her into his chest as his heart pumped for her and raged at Ares, the pain of one indistinguishable from the other as she lay broken in his arms. “We’ll find a way. I promise.”





Day 5





A BLANKET OF FOG hung over the city early that morning, low and wet and oppressive. Josie pulled to a stop just down from the home of Renata Boyles, a seventy-year-old hooker who had jumped bail.

Josie’s limbs weighed a hundred pounds as she walked up the sidewalk.

After Jon had taken off the night before, she’d sped home, fighting back tears and her temper. When she’d gotten home, she’d stripped off her jacket and kicked off her shoes, her eyes never leaving the crime shrine, trying to focus, trying to get a grip, but it had been a lost cause.

Jon had broken in and violated her trust and privacy. But, as furious as she had been, she’d found herself wondering what he’d seen when he looked at the wall.

The fact that she cared what he thought had nearly pushed her over the edge, and she’d resisted the temptation to break something, something that would shatter and explode and make that destructive sound as it busted against a wall. Josie thought that sound would somehow make her feel better.

But instead, she’d stared at the board all night, dragging herself to bed just as the sun began to rise. She’d slept for only a few hours before the call from Jerry J’s came in.

So, there she was, heading up the sidewalk in the hopes Renata was still sleeping. And as adrenaline began to zip through her, alertness overrode her exhaustion.

And then she came to a dead fucking halt.

Jon was crouching down by the crawl space lattice next to Renata’s front porch.

Motherfucker.

It took nearly all her willpower not to scream the word at him. He glanced over at her, his eyes bugging for a second before jerking his chin, motioning for her to get down.

Twice in one week, Jerry J’s had fucked up. This alone was rare, but the odds that she’d get crossed with him were astronomical.

She ducked, trotting through the gate to kneel next to him. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she hissed.

“Good morning to you, too, Josie.” He smiled like they’d run into each other at the grocery store instead of hiding outside an old lady hooker’s house, and he joked like he hadn’t broken into her fucking house the night before. “You look like you got a terrible night’s sleep.”

“Funny.”

“Sarah at Jerry’s sent me.”

She looked out into the street and tried to control herself. “Goddammit. Elaine sent me.”

“I guess we’re together on this one then. Unless you want to give it up?” He rested his elbow on his knee, and his apparent comfort gave her all the resolve she needed.

How he could be so fucking cool, she had no idea. It made her daydream about pistol-whipping him.

“Nice try,” she shot, not willing to give him the satisfaction of letting him win. Just get it done, and get the fuck away from him. “How do you want to play this?”

“I saw her through the open window, watching the Home Shopping Network. We’ve gotta figure out how to get her out of the house.”

“You need to honeytrap her. Just act like you’re a client.”

Jon shook his head and ran a hand through his long hair. “Everybody has their weird bedroom shit, I guess, but a seventy-year-old hooker? Pass.”

She rolled her eyes and waved him on. “Go, Jon.”