Heaven's Embrace

by ERIN BEDFORD

  “Wasn’t that bad?” she screeched, her eyes really looking like a cartoon character, the way the red veins bulged. “You insulted O’Connor’s eyebrows in front of the captain.”

  “He didn’t seem bothered,” I tried to remind her.

  “And you could have gotten me charged with sexual harassment! Talking about O’Connor’s preferences in women.” She shook her head viciously. “They take that crap seriously, you know. Even from a woman. You can’t compliment someone’s shoes without getting a lawsuit.”

  I sighed and stared down at my feet. “I’m sorry, Mandy. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble. I’ll apologize to O’Connor.”

  “No,” Mandy snapped. “You’ve done enough damage. Just leave it alone.”

  “But Mandy —”

  “Listen to her, Jane,” Gabriel commented from the back.

  I glanced back at him to tell him to mind his own business but then saw the seriousness in his face. “Did you have a vision?”

  “No,” Gabriel said, meeting my eyes. “I just know someone like O’Connor, and you won’t win any points apologizing. He’ll just take it the wrong way.”

  Huffing, I collapsed against my chair sinking down with my arms over my chest. “People are so sensitive nowadays. Can’t take a joke.”

  “No,” Mandy said softly after a moment. “They just can’t handle your kind of jokes.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I arched a brow, my lips pressed into a thin line.

  “I love you, Jane. You know that.” Mandy glanced my way before looking back at the road. “But you tend to find people’s weaknesses and poke at them. Relentlessly.”

  “No, I don’t,” I argued.

  “Yes, you do,” Mandy countered, and there was an echo.

  I twisted around to see Lucifer in the back seat with Gabriel. The two of them filled the whole back seat of Mandy’s car. Lucifer had an amused gleam in his eyes, and the one side of his lips tipped up in the corner, making him look particularly wicked.

  “When did you get here?” I asked, letting my eyes trail up and down his lounging form.

  “About the time your friend here tried to kill you all.” Lucifer gestured toward Mandy with a curious look. “And I must agree, pet. You would give me a run for my money in the torture department. Funny thing is you don’t even realize you’re doing it.” Lucifer chuckled. “That’s what makes it so damn sexy.”

  I gave Lucifer an exasperated look. “It’s not sexy to be mean to people. Only the Devil would think so.”

  Lucifer arched a brow.

  Shaking my head, I sighed. “Never mind.”

  “Who’s back there now?” Mandy asked. She had slowed down a bit so that I didn’t have to worry about wetting my pants anytime soon. Lucky me, since I was running out of pants as it was.

  “Lucifer,” I said.

  “Is Gabriel still here too?” she asked as she pulled into the parking lot of The Other Side Apartment Complex.

  I nodded.

  “Good, we could use both of them then.” She parked in front of a building, I wasn’t sure how she knew which one. Probably had the address from before. O’Connor came in behind us a few minutes later as we were getting out of the car.

  “Got the warrant?” Mandy asked O’Connor, she avoided eye contact with him, staring at his chest instead. Man, I’d really stepped over the line.

  “Right here,” O’Connor answered, holding up a piece of paper. “We should get moving in case he decides to bolt.”

  “You didn’t tell him?” I glanced at Mandy who didn’t look at me. Letting out a huff, I looked at O’Connor. He had a kind of guarded expression. I think it was safe to say he was still mad.

  “Tell me what?” O’Connor asked, but before I could open my mouth, he held his hand up. “The next thing out of your mouth better be something useful.”

  I pressed my lips together tightly and raised my brows. After a moment, I said, “Can I talk now?” O’Connor inclined his head slightly. “I’ve been telling Mandy here, I mean, Detective Stevenson,” - I shook my head - “so weird to call you that. Anyway, this Jack guy isn’t going to be taking off or putting up a fight.”

  Detective O’Connor crossed his arms over his chest his eyes narrowing. “And why is that?”

  “Cause he’s dead,” I said matter-a-fact.

  Dropping his arms, Detective O’Connor spun around without commenting and started toward the building. I followed him and Mandy, the guys close on my tail. The fact that they hadn’t added their own commentary yet was a miracle.

  “You really got to this guy, didn’t you?” Lucifer chuckled, brushing his shoulder against mine. The tingles trailed down my arm, and I had the urge to scratch at it.

  I grimaced but didn’t elaborate, though I’m sure he was dying to hear all about it. Who said I couldn’t learn new tricks? See? Progress.

  Thankfully, the apartment we were looking for was on the bottom floor. I had enough stairs going up to my own apartment, my butt didn’t need any more of a workout. Really, it wouldn’t be fair to womankind.

  Detective O’Connor knocked on the door. There was no answer. Knocking again, he said, “Jack Adams, it’s the Blessed Falls Police Department. We have a few questions to ask you.” Still no answer.

  “Maybe he’s not home,” I commented, my hands behind my back, stifling a grin.

  Mandy glared at me. “I checked with Jack’s mother. She said he should be here. He’s living on disability. Something about getting out of the military because of PTSD.”

  Detective O’Connor knocked once more and still no answer. “I’m going to get a key from the super.”

  “You’re not just going to kick down the door?” I gestured toward the door with a frown.

  Shooting me an exasperated look, Detective O’Connor told Mandy, “I’ll be right back. Make sure she doesn’t touch anything.”

  I gasped. “How rude. Like I would mess with an investigation.”

  Mandy pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. We waited a few minutes for Detective O’Connor to come back. Lucifer and Gabriel leaned against the wall next to me, making the grungy hallway look just a little brighter and a whole lot sexier.

  I shifted in place, my hands tucked in my pockets, and I glanced between the two of them. Lucifer caught my gaze and held it, making my toes curl. What happened with Michael was on the tip of my tongue, and I wanted so badly to tell him. The prospect of having both of them really had me anxious and horny.

  “Stop that,” Mandy said as Detective O’Connor approached with the apartment manager.

  “What?” I asked innocently.

  “You know what you’re doing,” Mandy whispered before looking at Detective O’Connor. “All good?”

  “Yeah, this is Phil.” Detective O’Connor pointed a thumb back at a short rail-thin guy, who looked so happy to be there on a Sunday. I feel ya, buddy. I feel ya.

  We waited for Phil to unlock the door and then followed him in. O’Connor and Mandy went in first, but before I could enter, Mandy called out, “Jane, get in here.”

  I rushed into the room and stopped right behind them, where, in the middle of the living room, Jack Adams had hung himself.

  16

  Not to speak badly of the dead, but Jack Adams was a slob. A pizza box stacking. Can collecting. Slob.

  Really, would it have hurt this guy to clean up occasionally? I could hardly move in his dingy apartment without stepping on a piece of trash.

  I shook my foot free of a fast food wrapper and turned to Mandy.

  “Don’t say it,” Mandy warned, cutting me off before I could even say anything.

  I held my hands up, my eyes going wide. “I wasn’t going to.” Though inside, I was going nah nana nah nah. I did tell her. And tell her. And tell her. But did anyone listen to me? No, I’m just the crazy girl who sees angels.

  “How did you know about this?” Detective O’Connor glared at me as if I had strung Jack Adams up with his belt and made him jump off
the chair.

  I was trying not to look at the guy hanging there. His eyes were bulging from his head, his skin gray. The smell alone made me want to gag. I had only ever seen a dead body at a funeral. This was so not the same.

  “This man has been dead for a few days already.” Lucifer circled around Jack like a vulture taking in his meal. “His soul has long passed.”

  I raised a brow at him but didn’t comment. I didn’t need to ask him how he knew. He was the Devil. Souls were what he dealt with every day.

  Turning my attention to the suspicious detective, I said, “I heard it from the beyond.”

  “From the beyond?” Detective O’Connor scoffed and rubbed his jaw. “As in beyond the grave? Did this Jack Adams speak to you, or did someone else tell you we’d find him dead?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t always know who is talking to me.”

  “What a load of —”

  “What about now?” Mandy interrupted Detective O’Connor which was good because he was being an ass. “What are they telling you now?” I gave her a questioning look. “We hit a dead end with Jack being dead.” Something I had already told you. “Where should we go next?”

  I turned away from them and took a deep breath. Stretching my hand out, I moved slowly across the carpeted floor being careful not to trip over the random crap at my feet. I made a humming sound as I searched.

  “I’m getting something,” I said, my hands touching along the edge of the couch. I peeked an eye open and found Gabriel near the door.

  Gabriel’s eyes glazed over for a moment, too long for Detective O’Connor apparently.

  “Come on now, we don’t have all day.” I spun around to see him with his hands on his hips, a scowl on his face.

  “My powers can’t be rushed, detective.” I mirrored his posture. “Unless you want some second-hand psychic work? If you want that, I know a good fortune teller who could throw the bones for you.”

  “Do you think this is a joke?” Detective O’Connor growled, stepping closer until we were mere inches apart. “We are trying to find an innocent girl, not play your games.”

  “Not so innocent,” Gabriel said, coming out of his haze. “She’s not here. I suggest you talk to the therapist again. He wasn’t telling the whole truth.”

  I turned my head away from the detective, gazing off into the distance as if seeing something. Detective O’Connor tried to speak to me again, but I put my hand up, cutting him off.

  “Not here. Not here.” I gestured down at the ground. “She’s not here. We’ve been sent on a wild goose chase.”

  “What do you mean?” Mandy asked, coming up next to us. “You’re the one who told us to come here.”

  I shook my head. “No, I didn’t. Dr. Marshall did. He’s the one who said Jack was obsessed with Clarissa. I simply provided my insight which, I might add, was ignored.” I shot her a chastising look. “Now, I am telling you that we were wrong, and we should take another look at the good doctor. See why he accused Jack.”

  “This is a waste of time,” Detective O’Connor sneered. “We have real detective work to do, not this nonsense.”

  “And what nonsense is that?” I challenged him. “So far, I’m the only one finding anything out about this girl. You didn’t even know her family was keeping her hostage. How were you planning on finding her? If we even should be trying to find her.”

  “Why wouldn’t we?” O’Connor countered. “What have your spirits said to make you think we should call this whole thing off?”

  “They,” I started, attitude leaking into my voice, “think this whole thing is a bunch of crap. Clarissa isn’t missing, she ran away. And for a good reason.”

  O’Connor’s eyes glinted with anger. “And what’s that?”

  I opened my mouth and closed it. I didn’t get my answer out fast enough because O’Connor threw his hands up in the air and laughed.

  “Speechless, the psychic is speechless. Oh, but don’t worry, I will relay to Clarissa’s parents that they can stop worrying because the spirits say their daughter ran away!”

  “O’Connor,” Mandy snapped and reached out to him, but he jerked away.

  “This is your fault. You wanted this freak show in our case, and now we are running around chasing our tails.” O’Connor tapped his foot incessantly. Mandy started to protest, but he didn’t give her a chance. He threw his hands up again and stomped out of the room, the manager close on his heels.

  “I hope this guy dies soon. He is just begging to be tortured.” Lucifer glared at O’Connor.

  “He’s torturing himself enough, I don’t think he needs you to help,” I rolled my eyes. To Mandy, I said, “That guy is going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t watch his blood pressure.”

  “Yeah, well.” Mandy sighed and tugged on the ends of her hair. “He does have a point. This does seem like a lot of work for someone to have run away. None of her friends know where she went, even her therapist is concerned for her. Does that sound like a normal college student running away from home?”

  She did have a point. Someone should have known where Clarissa was. For no one, not even her friends, to know? That didn’t seem right.

  If I planned to run away, I’d have talked to Mandy about it first. Have a backup plan in case, I ended up penniless and stranded on the side of the road. Plus, if I ran away, I’d have to bring her too. Can’t leave her out in the wild. Who knew what would happen to her without me?

  “What do your angels say?” Mandy glanced around the room, the dead body of Jack swaying a few feet away.

  Wrinkling my nose, I shook my head. “Can we take this discussion outside? It’s just too morbid.” I waved a hand at Dead Jack.

  Mandy slid her eyes over to him. “I need to call him in any way. I doubt O’Connor will do it with the wonderful mood he’s in.”

  I snorted. “You mean, he’s not always like this?”

  Mandy and I moved out of the apartment closing the door behind us. Lucifer and Gabriel didn’t follow. Probably off doing angel things. Maybe a communal bath where they scrub each other’s backs? I shook the fantasy from my head before I started to drool.

  “To be honest, he’s actually a pretty cool guy when he’s not being ripped in half by his ex-wife.” Mandy pulled out her phone and dialed a number. Putting it to her ear, she said, “This is Detective Stevenson, I have a ten-fifty-six. We need forensics and a cleanup crew. Make sure the coroner is called too. Yeah, okay.” Mandy rambled off the address and then hung up. “You can go on home, I’m going to wait for the others to get here. Don’t want someone to mess with the crime scene before forensics gets to it.”

  “Why?” I peeked back at the door to Dead Jack’s apartment. “Don’t you think it was a suicide?”

  Mandy nodded. “It looks like it, but we have to cover everything.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “Just what I needed though, adding a suicide on top of a missing person’s case. With my luck, it’s murder, and I’m going to have overtime coming out of my ass.”

  “Can’t someone else take the case?”

  “No, because it’s tied in with my missing person. Why waste resources?” she sounded like she was quoting someone, probably the captain.

  “Well, I’m going to the bar. I need a drink after all this.” I waved a hand back at the apartment. “You come by if you get off?”

  “If I can, but don’t hold your breath.”

  I waved her off and started toward the parking lot. I got halfway there and stopped in my tracks. Turning back, I walked back over to Mandy who was playing on her phone. “I just remembered, you drove.”

  Leaning off the wall, Mandy dug her keys out of her pocket. “Fine. I’m sure manager can make sure no one touches the room. I’ll be right back.”

  It only took a few minutes before Mandy was back. She gestured toward her car with her hand. “Come on, mooch. Let’s get you home so you can get drunk.”

  “Thanks, you’re the best!” I looped my arm through hers and skipped to
the car.

  “You have problems, you know that?” She angled her head toward me.

  I shrugged. “No one’s perfect.”

  Mandy and I drove back to my house, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I wasn’t sure what Mandy was thinking about, probably the case. She was the definition of a workaholic. Her longest relationship was with her job - or well me, but I wasn’t sleeping with her. I mean not that I wouldn’t if I was into women. She’s hot. You know for someone with a vagina.

  I chuckled to myself, earning me a curious look from Mandy.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “If you were gay, would you date me?” I asked, suddenly wanting to know.

  “No.”

  I mock gasped. “What? What do you mean no? I’m a freaking catch.”

  Mandy shook her head. “You’re too high maintenance.”

  “What?”

  “And you are a pig,” Mandy continued. “Not to mention, your obsession with naked mole rats.”

  I scowled. “Hey, they are adorable.”

  “Also, you’re kind of an alcoholic.”

  “Am not,” I argued and then paused. “Actually, I kind of am. But if you had sexy angels giving you a lady boner every other minute, you’d need to be heavily medicated too.”

  “But you get to have sex with them now.” Mandy waggled her eyebrows at me suggestively. “So, no reason to drink now. Why don’t you do that instead of going out?”

  I snorted. “Like opening a vein just so I can get laid is better than alcohol poisoning.”

  “Well, you tell me. You said Michael was pretty world rocking.” Mandy pulled into my parking lot and stopped the car. “I’m just saying, you’ve been complaining about not getting any for a while now. This is your chance to get them out of your system.”

  Pursing my lips, I stared at the dash. “I’m not sure I want them out of my system.”

  “Really?” Mandy’s voice raised in pitch, making my ears ring. “Because I would think guys that hot wouldn’t be that interesting out of bed.”

  “That’s so biased.” I gave her a really long look.

  “No, it’s not.”