Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(25)

Shawn wiped the blood from his lips, stood up, and walked over to where she was lying face up on the ground. The electric shock, set to go off

if a perp got more than ten feet from the agent, wasn’t strong enough to kill, but it hurt like hell. He knew. Burnett’s policy was that an

agent had to experience it before they were allowed to carry the cuffs.

Seeing her on the ground, still jerking, brought on a guilty frown.

“Take deep breaths.” The pain in her face sent him deeper into guilt mode. But then he saw the backpack she’d carried over her shoulder lay

tossed on the ground and its contents spilled out. An unzipped deposit bag and money, lots of it, littered the ground. He immediately recalled

Mrs. Crow telling him that Lily had been in the office preparing a bank deposit.

“Preparing it” all right!

He thought of all Mr. Crow’s blood at the crime scene. No need to feel guilty for this gal. She’d brought it on herself.

His chest still felt heavy. “If you’d listened you’d have known what could happen. But you didn’t. Bet you touched the stove when your mama

told you not to, didn’t you?”

“Who the hell are you?” she gritted out.

“I am the FRU agent who is taking your ass in for robbery.” He motioned to the money fluttering in the breeze around her and ignored his

throbbing lip. “And let’s just hope Mr. Crow makes it, or you’ll be going down for murder.”

“What?” She sat up. “The paramedics said it wasn’t bad. Tell me he’s going to be okay!”

When he didn’t answer, she got to her feet.

She still twitched, but the fact that she could move this soon after 100 milliamps of electricity ran through her impressed the hell out of

him. He checked her pattern to make sure she wasn’t full vampire.

No surprises. Definitely a mixed-breed. With a high tolerance for pain.

“Take me to the hospital now!”

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he asked, his side and face throbbing.

“Not for me, you idiot! For Mr. Crow.” She stomped her foot like an angry child.

Shawn stared, the taste of blood still lingering on his tongue. She’d already made a fool of him twice. He wasn’t going for a third.

“The only place you’re going is a cell. And if you don’t want to get zapped again, you’d better stay within ten feet of me at all times.”

Shifting out of kick range, he knelt down and collected the bills and shoved them back into the bag. Throwing it over his shoulder, he walked

back to collect his gun and her suitcase.

He heard her dogging his steps. So the girl could learn.

“How bad is Mr. Crow?” The question came out with all kinds of emotion: fury, frustration, and fear. “Answer me!”

*

No sooner had the door swished shut, leaving Miranda alone with her sister, than Tabitha blurted out, “I’m so sorry.”

“About what?” Miranda asked.

“This. All of this. You didn’t want to go.” Tears formed in Tabitha’s eyes. “And look what happened. I brought this on you and Anthony.”

“You didn’t have a clue anything like this would happen.” Miranda reached over with her uncasted arm and gave her sister’s hand a squeeze.

Tabitha squeezed back. “I swear I didn’t. I’ve been there twice. It never happened before. I just wanted to find out about Anthony. I needed

something to keep my mom off my back about dating him. Now she’s going to refuse to let me see him. Our dad and your mom are blaming me. Not

to mention your friends have more of a reason to hate me.”

“No one hates you,” Miranda said.

“Please, Mr. Scary-as-Shit FRU Agent can’t stand me. And he’s taking that out on Anthony.”

“No. Burnett’s firm but he’s always fair. He comes across grizzly sometimes, but he’s … not. He let me hug him once. And not because he

needed it, because I did. And if you ever see him with his baby girl, Hannah, he’s talking sweet to her and making funny faces. He’s more

teddy bear than grizzly.”

“I hope to the Goddesses that you are right. Because … I really think I’m in love with him.”

Miranda’s mind started scrambling. “You’re in love with Burnett?”

“No! With Anthony.”

Miranda considered her sister’s confession. “It’s kind of soon for that, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t that what love’s like?” Tabitha asked. “It hits and you know it.”

“It’s not always like that.” Miranda wished she could suck the words back in. If her sister put two and two together …

“So that’s the problem?” Damn Tabitha was good in math.

“What problem?” The skirted lie gave Miranda’s voice an unnatural pitch.

Tabitha eyeballed her.

“I’m just saying sometimes it takes a while.”

Tabitha leaned closer. “You don’t love Shawn, do you?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, but…”

“I care about him.” Miranda held up her fingers. “I’m … this close to falling in love with him.”