by B. Groves
“Good afternoon, Linda. God has blessed us with another sunny day,” Kyle said with a smile, hiding his growing anger. “Chief Carter is expecting us.”
Linda nodded and picked up the phone, she nodded and said, “You’re right. Chief Carter is expecting you.”
Kyle looked around while they waited on Carter. He made some small talk with Linda but didn’t tell her the real reason for the visit, and Miguel had stepped in to talk about Olivia’s progress to Linda.
Linda’s eyes turned sympathetic. “I’ll keep praying for her, Miguel.”
“Thank you,” Miguel answered with a smile.
The door next to Linda buzzed and opened. Carter stepped through and waved them in.
“The charges won’t stick,” Carter said to Kyle as they went through the door. “The prosecutor won’t so much as give him a fine, I can tell you that right now.”
Kyle already knew Samuel would get away with beating the shit out of him.
“Better to let it go,” Carter said as they walked towards his office.
“I’m going to. Alison is still with him, right?” Kyle asked.
Carter gestured for Miguel and Kyle to sit down in the two chairs on the other side of his desk.
There was nothing fancy about Carter’s office, with a big desk, an executive chair, shelves lined with books about police procedures, and other personal reading. Pictures of his wife, kids, family, and friends dotted the shelves between the books, and behind him on a table. Awards and other degrees decorated the walls along with other memorabilia from his days in the military. Kyle spotted the folded American flag on one wall. He recalled Carter telling him that was his father’s burial flag, a Korean War veteran. Kyle had seen one too many of those ceremonies in his time.
Carter sat down and rubbed his chin. He had stubble growing out already, probably from the stress of the day.
“Yes, and I have the cameras turned off but an officer watching. I had to tell the officer he might see something strange and not to breathe a word about it if something happens and I promised him some perks, too.”
Carter rubbed his bald head. “Will Alison do the deed?”
“I don’t know. I think it depends on how much Manes pushes her, but I think she wants to eliminate them all at once.”
“I wish she would kill him,” Miguel mumbled, with a seething look in his eye. When Carter gave him a side eye, he shrugged. “I will never get justice for my wife in a court of law.”
“You will get your justice, my friend. It won’t be traditional justice, but you will have it,” Kyle said.
Miguel nodded rubbed his hands over his face, leaning back in the chair.
Carter glanced at the clock. “His lawyer will be here any minute.”
“Who is it?” Kyle asked.
Carter rolled his eyes. “Preston Hazard.”
Kyle shook his head and said, “I should have known it was Preston.”
Miguel raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Preston? And what the hell kind of name is Preston Hazard?”
Kyle and Carter laughed. “They call him the Duke of Hazard around the courthouse. The man has some slimy ways of representing his clients, but damn he’s good,” Carter answered.
“A few years ago, I had a beautiful drug sting going on. Working alongside the feds, and we were so close to busting a known meth lab,” Carter explained. “I mean this meth was the purist shit I’d ever seen. Ever watched Breaking Bad?” Carter asked gazing at Miguel.
Miguel nodded.
“I’m talking Walter White pure, except this shit was white. We had them,” Carter raised his hand and pumped his fist. “We had a solid case when we busted them.”
“But...”
“One fucking technicality that Preston found—”
Someone cut Carter off with a knock at the door. An officer came in telling Carter that Preston was there and was demanding to speak with him.
Carter sighed and rubbed his head. “I fucking hate that guy.”
Carter ordered Miguel and Kyle over to some chairs near some empty desks. Kyle didn’t hear other activity about Alison, so Carter said he would go get her.
Kyle and Miguel filed out of the office. He spotted the infamous Preston Hazard as Carter went to greet him.
Kyle often wondered why Preston never moved to a big city and started his own business there, but Preston was born and raised in Wolfpine and Kyle figured it was some kind of misplaced loyalty that kept him around. And, those drug cases were big money which always ran rampant in small towns such as Wolfpine.
Preston Hazard wasn’t a towering man like most people would think with a name like his. Kyle remembered he was shocked the first time he met Preston at a fundraiser and because the legendary Wolfpine lawyer was thin and lanky with dark hair and a huge nose.
He always reminded Kyle of Abraham Lincoln’s reincarnate and even with those looks, his mere presence demanded respect because what he lacked in the looks department, he made up for in intellect.
Kyle watched as Preston followed Carter through the office. His face looked calm but Kyle knew he was giving Carter a good tongue-lashing and naming every threat he could use against the department for Manes’ arrest.
Carter said something to Preston and Carter walked through the door back to the cells.
It was less than a minute later that Alison emerged through the door and ignored Preston as he eyed her suspiciously. Kyle almost laughed out loud. She didn’t care about who Preston Hazard was and he guessed that Preston was human.
Preston asked her a question on her way past him, but Alison rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Her eyes searched the office, and Kyle called her name.
Alison looked a little haggard and it made Kyle wonder what Samuel had said to her. Alison wasn’t the type to let a demon get under her skin. Her expression showed doubt and confusion.
Alison walked over to them and greeted them. She tried to hide her emotions, but her tense muscles and clenched fist were giving it away.
“Are you all right?” Kyle asked.
“Yes. I didn’t get him out, and I didn’t find out where the nest was either,” Alison answered with a look of defeat.
Kyle wanted to grab her and tell her everything was okay. His life may fall apart later, but that didn’t mean hers had to. He wanted to know what Samuel had said to her that made her so unnerved.
“Don’t worry about it,” Miguel said. “We didn’t find it either.”
Alison nodded. “I didn’t think you would, but I had to try. We need to be creative.”
Kyle’s gaze drifted back to the door. Samuel Manes hadn’t yet emerged from the jail cells.
“I have another problem,” Kyle commented.
Alison turned her gaze back to Kyle and narrowed her eyes waiting on his response.
“The church council called an emergency meeting on me tonight,” he answered.
“For what?”
Kyle sighed. “Emma.”
“They’re going to fire his ass,” Miguel chimed in.
Kyle turned to give Miguel a frown for which Miguel grinned. “You’re better off, amigo.”
Alison nodded and still seemed distracted even with Kyle’s news. “I need to get out of here. You don’t have a chance in hell with nailing Manes, and I want to go check on Simon.”
As Alison finished her sentence, Samuel and Preston walked out of the cell block with Carter close behind.
Samuel straightened his suit and Kyle could hear him telling Preston it was a huge misunderstanding and not to worry about lawsuits.
Kyle thought he heard something about a meeting later in the day, but their hushed voices made it impossible to hear the whole thing.
Kyle stood from his chair and said, “Let’s go. There’s nothing else to do here.”
Kyle, Miguel, and Alison turned to leave. Kyle didn’t bother to follow up on his police report. It wasn’t worth it.
He turned back to see Preston staring at him with a smirk on
his face while Samuel Manes spoke to Carter.
Kyle clenched his jaw at Preston’s arrogant smirk and almost turned around to tell the receptionist he changed his mind but he felt a light hand on his arm.
“You won’t win this. We’ll find another way,” Alison whispered to him.
Kyle let out a deep and defeated breath. He knew Alison was right. They had to make other plans to rid this town of this infestation.
Kyle followed Miguel and Alison out of the police station. Even if Alison failed, he would find a way.
Chapter 35
Journal Entry May 24, Early 2010s
The family and I sometimes sit around and reminisce about Heather. My mother no longer cries in front of us, but I hear her sobbing sometimes when she thinks no one is listening.
She made a shrine to Heather on the fireplace mantel. With Heather’s favorite items surrounding her high school graduation picture.
I stared at that picture sometimes to remember the person before the demon infected my sister, but all I see now is Heather’s eyes turning black, and an evil laugh exiting her mouth when I discovered the demon inside of her.
Then I remember the color of her face when I found her in the closet. Even in the dim light, her face had turned a purplish hue and her tongue hung from her mouth.
The image is fading with time. I thought with all the death and misery I’d witnessed over the years, I could handle my sister’s image, but it’s different.
Tonight, I informed The Network of my retirement. It’s not because my family asked me to, but because I can’t handle more death.
I need sanity in my life. I need… normalcy.
Brady sent me a private message wanting to know if I wanted to talk. I told him I was fine and I needed some time away to live normally.
He didn’t understand. He never would. His thrill in life was hunting. He lived and breathed it. It was his normal, but not mine.
Chapter 36
Alison walked through the door of Kyle’s house to a waiting Simon. He gave his usual happy greeting when she kneeled and he licked her face.
“I’m so happy you’re okay. You’re such a good boy. We’re staying a little while longer, but I know you can handle it,” Alison said smiling to Simon.
Simon wagged his tail, but she knew he needed a bathroom break.
She grabbed the leash hanging on the coat rack and placed it on Simon.
Outside, Miguel had dropped Kyle off, but Kyle hadn’t followed Alison inside. Instead, he groaned from the pain from sitting down on the steps.
Alison’s emotions from her confrontation with Samuel Manes turned to sympathy.
If Emma called an emergency meeting, then that meant Kyle’s job was toast. He was too close to the truth and although they’d already beaten him, they would hit him right where it hurts, too. His career.
Alison made her way outside with Simon and said, “Did you want to walk around with me?”
Kyle withdrew his cigarette pack from his shirt pocket and lit one. “No. I should get ready anyway.”
He looked up at her and said, “You had a rough time, too. I’m sorry if I’m not responding to it.”
While Simon sniffed around the bushes, Alison sat down on the steps.
“He confirmed everything I’d ever suspected about my birth, but there was one thing he said that’s been bothering me.” Alison turned her head to make sure Simon wasn’t getting into any trouble. “He called me an abomination and said that’s what a higher power said.”
Kyle turned to her. His eyes widened in surprise. “That’s bullshit. Come on, Alison. God wouldn’t put you and the others on this Earth if He thought so.”
Alison sighed as Simon sat down the sidewalk near their feet. “I don’t know what to believe.”
Kyle took a drag from his cigarette and blew out the smoke. “I have my doubts about God, but I truly believe you’re not an abomination. You and the rest of the hunters do God’s work. It might be in the shadows, but it is God’s work.”
Alison shrugged. She knew Kyle was trying to make her feel better, but it wasn’t working too well. Besides, he had his own issues to deal with.
“I know you have a lot on your mind too,” Alison began. “What are you going to do if they fire you?”
Alison sat there trying to resist her nicotine cravings as Kyle flicked his ashes away.
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about leaving the church for a long time and now that it’s staring me in the face, I never thought about future plans.”
Kyle turned to Alison in question. “I don’t suppose the network needs assistants, or are you in need of a sidekick?”
Alison chuckled. “We are always in need of help, but the pay isn’t exactly above the poverty level.”
Kyle shrugged and ground his cigarette into the concrete and placed the butt on the step next to him.
“I was kind of hoping you’d let me hang around with you a little more,” Kyle said.
Alison laughed, but her heart skipped a beat. She was always aware of Kyle and tried to fight off her imagination on what she’d like to do with him.
Alison tried to avert her eyes from Kyle’s smoldering gaze, but she couldn’t tear them away.
He was not one of the many old and stuffy reverends she’d met in the past. Although he was impulsive—stupidly impulsive, sometimes—he was passionate about his work even with his own self-doubts and he cared about the well-being of his congregation.
“You’re quiet,” Kyle said. “I guess that means no.”
Alison tilted her head and smiled. “I didn’t say no.”
She saw Kyle swallow and he reached out to push her hair back as they stared at each other.
“The scar is on your right side,” he said. “You never told me about it.”
Alison tried to hide her shiver from Kyle’s rough and warm fingers, but she couldn’t.
“I walked into a violent entity without prepping first right after my sister died,” Alison explained. “He threw me against a glass mirror and it shattered underneath my face. Thirty stitches.”
Kyle’s brows came together in shock. “Jesus…”
“My partner pulled him off me, and…” Alison turned away as the memories came flooding back. “We couldn’t save the human.”
Kyle’s eyes softened and Alison noticed his hand moved from her hair to her shoulder. “That must have been hard.”
“That’s when I understood that I had to leave it for a while,” Alison explained. “It left me with a souvenir along with a reminder.”
Kyle removed his hand from her shoulder and he turned to stare over the property. “Your stories sound similar to what I experienced in Iraq.”
He turned back to her and said, “It never goes away.”
Alison agreed as they continued to stare at one another. It was Kyle who leaned in first. Alison thought of resisting him. She thought that she was better off alone in her dark world, but deep down she missed the companionship and someone by her side. Her mind told her to pull away but her heart had other plans.
Alison leaned over and parted her lips. She realized how much she liked Kyle Ellis, the good Reverend Ellis, and she wanted to get closer to him.
Alison gave one last glance to Simon who lay on the sidewalk watching them. She wanted to laugh but held back because of the intensity of the moment.
Kyle asked to be her sidekick. He would be much more than that to her if all went well.
Alison felt his warm breath against her lips and it woke up emotions inside of her that she long thought were dead.
Their lips touched ever so slightly when Kyle sucked in a painful breath.
“Kyle,” Alison whispered.
“I’m okay,” he answered.
Alison leaned in a little more, their lips connected. Every fiber of her being felt alive for the first time in years. She couldn’t deny that she’d been wanting this kiss, had been thinking about this kiss and longed for this kiss since this morning when s
he helped Kyle dress in the bedroom and they sat on his bed talking.
He must have felt the same way because she could feel his breathing quicken as mouths met in an erotic dance.
