Hear No (Hidden Evil, #1) Read Free Page B

to get there and make sure said angel or spirit guide was okay. So he’d lost the ability to feel … he still did his job.
    How the hell was he selfish ?
    His cell rang. He tapped the Bluetooth device on his ear.
    “Nate.”
    “Pedro has a pick-up for you,” said the familiar voice of Wendy, the first gen who ran communications between the Other Side and the spirit guides in the human world. “Says there’s a problem.”
    “When is there not a problem?” Nathan replied.
    Wendy laughed, unable to see the darkness of the world the way Nathan did.
    “Is it local?” Nathan asked.
    “Sort of.”
    “That means no.” Angels and first gens didn’t like bad news, either. “Where am I going?”
    “Virginia.”
    “When?”
    “Your plane leaves in ninety minutes.”
    Nathan muttered a curse. There was no time to pack, and ducking out in the middle of his pizza delivery shift meant he was going to have to find a new job upon his return.
    “You know you need to book these things at least four to six hours out,” he told Wendy, not for the first time.
    “You’ll make it, Nate. I have faith.”
    He rolled his eyes at the cheerful ex-angel’s tone.
    “Your car is in your normal spot at the airport,” she added. “Your usual stuff is in the trunk, and we rented you an apartment. Directions are –”
    “Wait, an apartment?” Nathan echoed. “I’m not picking up and bringing back?”
    “Not this time. Pedro is sending someone to brief you. We have … issues.”
    “You mean, I have issues.”
    Another giggle. “Are you at the airport?”
    “Um, no. It takes twenty minutes to get there. I’ll be lucky if I can catch my flight.”
    “Not lucky, Nate, blessed.”
    “Right. I’ll let you know when I land.” He hung up.
    Nathan guided his car down to the south side of town, the opposite direction of any of his pizza deliveries. It was close to dawn on the other side of the country, which meant he needed to sleep on the plane so he was ready for a full day of angel-directed madness. With no concept of time or money and an inability to see problems, angels like Pedro, who had been around since the beginning of time, made for horrible managers. The upside to an angel boss: even if Nathan screwed up, the angels only saw what he did right. They were the epitome of everything pure and good, incapable of seeing evil, wrong, or mistakes.
    He reached the airport, parked, and leaned over to the glove compartment. He was a simple man, despite his penchant for designer clothes. He could travel with no more than his little black notebook, cigars, a couple of snow globes and his wallet. He could buy clothes and toiletries when he landed.
    Dumping the pizzas in a trashcan, he trotted into the terminal, determined to catch his plane.
     

Chapter Two
     
    The Shadowman was watching her. He followed her through her daily routine, perched on the balcony outside her apartment while she slept, even lingered one aisle over in the grocery store.
    Why was a monster in a grocery store?
    Kaylee awoke mid-panic. Her heart was racing and her senses jumbled from escaping the dream world too fast. She breathed deeply, orienting herself to the small master bedroom of her apartment in Reston, Virginia. When she confirmed where she was, she relaxed.
    The sense of not being alone remained, like it had been every day for the past month. Not one to believe in ghosts, she had begun to reconsider, especially on nights like this, when she was all too aware of how alone and dark it was in her two bedroom apartment. She never checked the closet of the second bedroom. There could be someone there, or in the broom closet near the entrance, or maybe even in her master closet …
    Kaylee glanced towards her closet then shook her head.
    No more scary movies before bed, she told herself.
    She threw off her blankets and padded to her bathroom. She’d awoken like this four out of the past five nights, often enough that she understood she wouldn’t be going