Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2) Read Free

over the entire cabin.
    Lilith bristled and just leveled a stare at him. “First of all, you just woke up and I’m telling you this now. You can drop the attitude.” Some part of her felt a little guilty for chiding him when she was clearly in smartass overdrive. Chance frowned with one eyebrow raised as he settled back into his seat. His strong jaw was clenched tight as his eyes weighed on her, waiting for her to continue.
    Lilith took a deep breath, trying to wrangle her thoughts. Alienating Chance was definitely not a move in the right direction. When she finally continued, she’d managed to lose the edge in her voice. “Whoever our mystery guys work for must have snagged Gregor up in Knoxville. Timothy called me while I was riding the elevator down to the cab. He was at the airport to pick up Gregor and there was no sign of him.”
    Chance nodded thoughtfully as the unfriendly stare slowly melted. His hand rose until it was stopped again by the handcuffs. He growled in frustration and for a moment she was worried his temper would flare from the confinement. Hell, on the flight to Tennessee he’d nearly knocked a middle-age woman on her ass just to get off the plane and that one he hadn’t been handcuffed to. Thankfully, Chance took in a deep breath and just shifted in his seat. As curious as she was about the stun batons, she really didn’t want to see first-hand how they work.
    “Cohen called me while I was on the phone with Timothy.” That definitely caught his attention. Just the mention of Cohen’s name made him sit in a rigid line. She wouldn’t exactly call them friends. Actually, she’d never even infer that they might be the slightest bit warmly neutral to each other.
    Before Chance could say anything, she rushed on with the rest of the story. “It was really hard to hear him, a bad connection I think, but he confirmed that our mystery guests have Gregor and he just told me to run. Whatever this is about, Cohen knows things or he’s involved.”
    Chance clenched his strong jaw and stretched his neck to one side and then the other in good old fashioned anger. “Why am I not fucking surprised?” After a slow, deep breath, he finally looked back up at Lilith with a calm façade. It was all for show and she knew it, but she appreciated the effort. There was still a clipped coldness to his voice when he spoke, however.
    “Cohen told us both that the FBI was taken care of and that his family had no idea about Ashcroft or Gregor. I mean come on. He calls your cell and a second later I’m jumped by anonymous guys from the henchmen union?”
    “It doesn’t look good.” The coincidence hadn’t escaped her. The FBI wouldn’t use an anonymous mercenary squad to pick them up or fly them to some unknown destination without reading them their rights. Not to mention the supernatural creature in the back of the plane. If Cohen’s family was behind this, it would make sense. He said they had limitless resources and would stop at nothing to keep their secrets protected.
    Then reality hit her. If it was Cohen’s people…Even if they didn’t know everything, one piece of the puzzle alone was enough to damn them. Hell, they could just pick one randomly from a hat. Gregor killed off an entire family line of their species. Ashcroft risked complete public exposure. Cohen told them what he really was, complete with a few specifics. Both Lilith and Chance knew first-hand about the healing effects of their demon blood. On top of all that, both of them were suffering from some rare side effect that let them draw energy from people like emotional suckerfish. They didn’t even have a clue if these side effects were temporary or permanent. One part alone could definitely lead to an order of execution from everything Cohen had said. How did she not see the connection earlier?
    Lilith was in the middle of her brooding thoughts when the look on Chance’s face stopped her cold. There was a twinge of anger hidden in there