Fallen Angel (Hqn) Read Free

More like she found me.”
    “You can tell me more down on the beach. Backup should be here soon.”
    “Tim, I’m going to the hospital.”
    “We have an investigation to deal with. You’re our only witness.”
    Declan set his jaw. “I can tell you I was walking on the beach and she landed on the sand, like a goddamn catapult had launched her off the cliffs. I didn’t see anyone. I didn’t hear anything. You’re welcome to ask me more questions after we get her to the hospital, but I’m going.”
    “They’ll take care of her, Declan. What the hell is wrong with you?”
    What the hell was wrong with him?
    “I’ll see you at the hospital, Tim.”
    He yanked open the door of his truck and whistled to Liam. The dog jumped in, and he swung his long legs in after him.
    The sheriff rubbed his eyes with one hand. “Shit. Okay. Only because it’s you, Dec.”
    Declan hit the gas and took off after the ambulance as it pulled out onto the coast highway, cursing all the way to the hospital.
    And somewhere behind the curses was a small prayer that she’d make it.
    The scenery went by in a blur of grays and greens and the beginnings of a blue sky. The radio was tuned to the local country station, and an old Patsy Cline song came on. He flipped the sound off roughly.
    “Don’t need to hear that on a day like today,” he grumbled to Liam.
    The day was bad enough, and would probably get worse. He didn’t need a song to remind him of his mother on top of everything else.
    Don’t think. Just drive. Just get there.
    He pulled into the emergency parking lot at the hospital as they were unloading the stretcher into the E.R. bay. Rolling the windows down for Liam, Declan jumped out and followed the stretcher and the team of EMTs in, but once inside the E.R. doctor, Stephen Kane, a man he’d known since high school, stopped him.
    “We need some room to work, Declan.”
    “I found her, Stephen. I want to make sure she’s okay.”
    “I’ll let you know.” He pushed Declan back with a gentle hand on his shoulder.
    Declan glared at him. Stephen pushed harder. He let his muscles relax, knowing he wasn’t going to be of any help in there. “Okay. Okay. Take good care of her.”
    He watched as the doctors and nurses worked on the girl in a frenzy. Everything was moving so fast, he couldn’t tell what was happening. Orders were shouted, equipment hooked up. He was acutely aware of the smell of disinfectant, the metallic scent of blood he hadn’t been able to get out of his nostrils since she’d fallen at his feet on the beach. His ears still echoed with that hard thump as her body had hit the damp sand. So damn hard her blood had splashed the legs of his jeans, which he hadn’t noticed until now. He dropped his head, rubbing the back of his neck.
    Jesus.
    His head buzzed, went a little empty. He dug his fingers into his hair.
    A hand on his arm steadied him, and he was surprised to see it was his father.
    “Dad.”
    Oran Byrne was shorter than his son, but still a commanding figure. His features were rugged, a little worn with age. His hair was all gray now, but still thick. He wore it a little too long. His mother would have hated that.
    Small pang at the thought of his mother, dead now from cancer for more than ten years. Too many reminders of her today.
    “What’s going on, Dec?”
    “I was walking, like I do every morning. Someone threw this girl off the cliffs.”
    “Threw her off? Jesus. And she’s alive?”
    “Barely. Something weird going on, though—”
    “Throwing someone off a cliff isn’t exactly typical, Dec.”
    “Yeah. But look at her.”
    He gestured with his chin. Even from where they stood, with the medical team buzzing around her, they could clearly see the strange marks all over her body.
    “What the hell is all that?” his father mumbled.
    Christ, there was blood everywhere. Even worse than it’d been on the beach, the red so stark against the white linoleum, the doctors’ scrubs, their