Third Love (Heaven Sent Book 3)

by Mary Abshire

  “What are you doing?” Susan asked. “What did you inject me with?”

  She threw the bottle at him. He swatted at it and the water went flying to the side.

  “It’s a truth serum. I want to know why you tried to kill my wife.” He took a step closer to her.

  “You’re insane. I didn’t try to kill her,” Susan said.

  “The lab results from my stay in the hospital and in the water you gave me say otherwise,” Emily said. “I guess it was a good thing I didn’t drink all of it and Spencer was able to take the bottled water in for testing. Now the police have evidence. They plan to show up tomorrow to take you down to the station. They now also suspect you murdered the baby in the hospital and Justine.”

  Susan’s mouth hung open. Yes, Emily had lied to her, but it seemed like a good story to get the demon to talk. Maybe instill a little fear in her too.

  “Care to tell me why you did it?” Andrew asked.

  “You’re lying.” Susan bounced her gaze from Andrew to Emily. “I don’t know what games you’re playing, but it’s cruel. I lost my baby. How dare you accuse me of killing her. I was at work.”

  “The drug in her system is one you took from the hospital,” Emily said. “The hospital has cameras everywhere. I’m sure they’ve handed over surveillance to the police for review.”

  “Why did you do it?” Andrew asked, louder.

  “Get out of my house,” she yelled.

  “We’re the only people here,” Andrew said. “You’re going to prison for a long time with all the evidence the police are gathering. So you can tell me now, or I’ll wait until the trial.”

  Her face turned pink and she swallowed hard. “You’re lying.”

  “Am I?” He took another step closer. “Maybe you should contact the police and find out.”

  “Get the hell out of my house,” she grunted as perspiration formed above her brow.

  “No, not until you tell us the truth,” he said.

  “Since you were nineteen, you’ve been hurting kids,” Emily said. “Why? You were married twice before and killed your own children. How could you do such a thing?”

  Susan stared in shock at Emily. The demon’s pupils had increased in size. She fanned her nostrils while she clenched her hands at her sides.

  “How are you feeling?” Andrew asked, holding the syringe by his thigh.

  “You drugged me,” Susan said.

  “I poisoned you with something that is very difficult to trace. It didn’t come from the hospital. In a few minutes, you’ll be dead and nobody will miss you, especially your kids,” he said.

  Susan lowered to the chair. “I hope you two go to jail for this. Mark will know you killed me.”

  “He’s protecting the kids. Once the police talk to him, tell him everything you did, and reveal the evidence, I’m sure he’ll change his mind about you,” Emily said.

  Susan wiped her forehead and snickered. “You’re the fools. You think life is precious? Life is nothing but pain and heartache. I contribute the best way I know how.” She met Emily’s gaze. “When you have a baby one day, I hope it suffers.”

  Emily lunged for her throat. Andrew stepped in her way, blocking her. In a flash he’d tossed the syringe away and grabbed her wrists. He forced her back several steps. Her heart pounded as pure rage coursed in her veins. She wanted to kill Susan with her bare hands. Behind him, the demon laughed.

  “Look at me,” Andrew said. “Look at me,” he repeated and she obeyed. “She’s dying and she has to hurt people. She’s trying to hurt you any way she can. Don’t let her. Let me handle this.”

  She focused on breathing while she stared into his compassionate eyes. His calmness, his strength, and his love for her left her speechless. Little by little, her temper decreased.

  “I know you want to kill her, but it has to be me,” he said as he loosened his grip on her wrists. “I’ve got this. Okay? It won’t be much longer.”

  Emily inhaled a deep breath and nodded. She understood the demon’s tactic now. She’d never seen such evil up close before. While it frightened her, she had the strength to fight back. She refused to let such a vile person rouse her emotions again. Soon, the demon would be in hell and the world would be a safer place. She only had to wait a few more minutes before she could bear witness to Andrew sending her evil ass to hell.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Andrew saw the fire in Emily’s eyes. The red tint on her cheeks showed further proof of her temper. The demon had taunted Emily too much. Had he not been there to block her, Emily would’ve latched onto Susan’s throat and held on until she’d died. He thanked his quick reflexes for stopping Emily. If he hadn’t prevented Emily from strangling Susan, he would’ve done the same thing and that would’ve been bad. Any marks on her body could prove they’d killed her. Worse yet, if Emily had killed her, it might have prevented her from getting into heaven.

  He held his palms on her cheeks and gave her a kiss. “Don’t let her upset you. She’s not worth it.”

  “You’re right,” Emily said, sounding and looking calmer. “Send that bitch to hell.” She returned a kiss, and then he smiled.

  Lowering his arms, he turned to the demon sitting sideways in the chair. Susan’s face held strong tension. She ground her teeth. Sweat covered her forehead. She gripped the edge of the table so intensely her knuckles were white. She held her other arm across her abdomen. The woman had to be in pain. Good.

  Andrew moved to stand in front of her. He hoped she would die soon so he could catch the demon and send it where it belonged.

  Without moving her head, she lifted her gaze at him. “What. Did. You. Give. Me?”

  He grinned. “I wasn’t lying when I said it’s a poison that is difficult to trace. You’re going to die and I hope it’s very painful.”

  Emily came up behind him but stayed close to the table. He preferred she keep a distance in case the demon decided to run. He hadn’t had a problem yet with one trying to flee, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

  Susan struggled to breathe. Each time she inhaled, she made a low whistling sound. Her eyes had dilated almost completely and her muscles looked tense.

  “Stay back some,” he said to Emily from over his shoulder.

  Emily walked around the table and stood closer to the patio. She looked so sexy in the black dress. He couldn’t wait to slip underneath it later.

  Susan began choking. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, not that it would help her breathe any better.

  “I hope she rots in hell,” Emily said.

  Andrew rubbed his palms together, readying them to touch the demon. His pulse accelerated. Any minute now he expected the dark spirit to rise.

  Susan slowly stopped breathing. The gagging sounds ended and the stiffness in her body lessened. Andrew held his hands out, prepared to catch the demon. Susan’s head began leaning down and to the side, toward the table. When her movements halted, she looked as if she’d fallen asleep sitting upright.

  He waited with his hands in front of him for the demon to show. Seconds passed like hours and his hands started to shake. He glanced at Emily and she stared with her hands clasped together in front of her mouth as if she were praying. Frustration began to rise within him. What was taking so damn long?

  In blink of an eye, a dark mass shot forward, missing Andrew by inches. Emily gasped and the dark object stopped. Andrew leaped for it, bringing his arms together as if he were trying to catch a football. The matter dissipated the minute he came into contact with it. Black soot floated and fell onto the floor. Within seconds, the particles disappeared and the ones in the air were gone. All traces of the demon had vanished except for the ash on his hands.

  Andrew’s heart pounded. He looked at his soiled palms before he turned to Emily. Her eyes were wide and her face pale. She held her hands tight in front of her.

  “Is it gone?” she asked.

  He held up his dirty hands to show the proof. “Gone.”

 
She slowly lowered her arms as she walked toward him. “Did you see what it did?” She came to a halt a few feet from him. “I think it heard me.”

  Andrew thought he’d saw the same thing. Had the mass not stopped, he might have missed it. He didn’t want to think about why it did what had done. Not today. There was still work to do.

  “We need to clean up like we said we would and get out of here,” he said as he strode around the half wall, then headed for the kitchen sink. “Mark will find her and will want to question us later. We have to make this place look decent. We can say she was crying when we left. He’ll think she was so upset she had a heart attack. The police will buy it too.”

  He turned on the faucet and washed his hands. The grit on them always disgusted him. He squirted two large globs of soap into his palms and lathered them.

  Emily came up to his side with the syringe and water bottle. She set them on the counter. “I’ll put the food in the fridge. I don’t know what you want to do with these.”

  He rinsed his hands. “The water is fine. I didn’t do anything to it. Just put it in the fridge too.”

  “You didn’t poison it?”

  “No, I wanted her to think I had.” He’d known all along Susan wouldn’t drink the water, but he needed the bottle to distract her. When she’d tried to catch it, he had the right time he needed to stab her with the needle. That part of his plan had worked out well.

  Emily took the bottle and returned it to the refrigerator. While she worked on putting the food away, Andrew searched for aluminum foil. He found it in the pantry and tore off a piece. Before he could return the foil, Emily took it. She used some to cover the dishes before she put them in the fridge. Andrew wrapped the needle and syringe in the piece he’d torn off, then shoved the package into one of his pockets in his pants. Emily hurried to wipe up the countertops.

  “Are we leaving her like that?” she asked as she headed to the sink. She folded the towel before laying it flat on the counter.

  Andrew headed for the dining table. He stopped a few feet away from the dead body. It hadn’t moved from earlier when Susan had died. Her eyes were open and the pupils were black holes leading to who knew where. He didn’t want to know. He’d destroyed the demon and that was all that mattered.

  Emily came up to him. “Everything’s clean and tidy.”

  “We should leave her like this. Our story is more believable if we don’t touch her.”

  Andrew had a feeling the police would show up to question them before the night was over. Mark had seen how upset Susan had been, so he’d likely believe Susan had a heart attack from grieving. The cops might seem suspicious at first, but without any evidence, they couldn’t prove anything.

  Emily took a deep breath and gave him a slight smile. The relief on her face matched how he felt. Killing Susan hadn’t been easy, but he did it and now they could move on.

  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter Forty

  Emily sat at the dining table, staring out of the patio at the dark yards while Andrew escorted two officers out of the house. Peace had settled into her soul. Brian and Sara were safe now. The newborns in the hospital had a better chance of survival. Andrew had finally destroyed the demon. Three down. Many more to find, kill, and send to hell. The harmonious moment wouldn’t last long.

  Footsteps from the hall gathered her attention. Andrew strode toward her, wearing the same dark shirt and pants he’d worn earlier. After they’d returned from destroying the demon, they’d fooled around to relieve some of their built-up stress. Not much later, Mark had called to inform them he’d found Susan dead and the police were on the way. Andrew slid back into his clothes while Emily had dressed in jeans and a plain pink t-shirt. He looked sexy and wicked in black, more so of the former since his shirt hugged his pectoral muscles. He had his sleeves pushed up. The tattoo with Susan’s name and address had disappeared before they’d arrived home.

  “They’re finally gone,” she said.

  He removed a business card from his pocket and set it on the table. “I have a feeling they’ll call and ask more questions.” He sat in the chair next to her.

  “Yeah, I bet they will too.”

  As far as they knew, nobody had seen them leave the Williamsons’ house. And if by chance someone had, they could still use the excuse they cleaned up after the reception, which was true. There wasn’t any evidence to suggest they’d killed Susan. Even if the cops found the poison in her system, there was no proof of who had given it to her. The toxin was too rare. The only thing the police could prove was that Emily and Andrew had been the last ones to see her alive.

  “It’s a good thing Troy set up our backgrounds. I wouldn’t be surprised if they check into them,” Andrew said.

  “My record should be cleared since the charges in New York were dismissed. As for yours, there isn’t much to find. They could call Cook County Hospital to verify employment, but you’re in the database. There shouldn’t be any issue.”

  “Then we’re in the clear,” he said as he put his hand on top of hers on the table. He gave her a gentle squeeze.

  She dropped her gaze. Their backgrounds would look clean, and by all accounts there was nothing to worry about. But a tiny piece of her brain still did. Maybe the unease stemmed from the guilt after dumping her best friend’s dead body in a ditch and being sought by the police for murder under her real name.

  “What’s bothering you?” he asked.

  She sandwiched his hand with her free one. “I know the police won’t find anything issues since various databases have good information about us and they don’t have any evidence to prove anything, but I still have this niggling feeling that they will catch up with me someday. Karma is a bitch and she’ll show her ugly face. She always does.”

  “Do you ever think maybe she has?”

  She drew her brows together. “How?”

  “Well, helping me find and get to these demons isn’t easy. You were almost raped. You were put in jail trying to help me and could’ve been sent back to Chicago to face murder charges. And you nearly died from being drugged. I’d say Ms. Karma has already shown up.”

  His words made sense. She’d suffered through challenging situations while helping Andrew. Yet it seemed they weren’t enough. Karma had sunk her claws into Emily and it seemed she didn’t want to let go. “I wish she’d leave.”

  He scooted closer to her and brushed her locks behind her ear. “I’m not going to let karma, the police, or any demon take you down. Stick with me and I’ll protect you.”

  The love in his eyes, his touch, and his words gave her confidence he’d keep her safe. Karma was hell to deal with, but Emily knew how to kick ass too. And with Andrew, she had faith she could get through anything put before her.

  “I guess we should stick around a little while so they can rule us out as suspects,” she said.

  “Think of this as a short vacation,” he said with a grin. He lowered his gaze to her breasts.

  A break from pursuing demons sounded wonderful. They could enjoy more time in bed, in the shower, in the kitchen, and anywhere else they pleased. But a feeling in her gut led her to believe he’d get a new tattoo on his arm within a day. He usually did.

  “So, we’re not leaving even if you get a new name tomorrow?” she asked.

  “We’ll wait a week or so, two at the most for the police to ask more questions. I don’t think the people upstairs can force me to leave right away.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “My sentence is to destroy six. I have three left. Since I’m here an extra year, I’ll have to go after more, but they didn’t say how many. As far as I’m concerned, I could relax and take my time after I finish with the three.”

  She hoped he was right. Maybe they could enjoy a longer vacation. If each demon became more difficult, they were going to need time to relax.

  “Will you continue to work at the hospital?” she asked.
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  He grazed his fingers over her cheek and his thumb along her lips. “We should keep up appearances. I’ll work and you’re my loving wife.”

  His touch tickled her. Strings of desire raced to her nipples. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  “Absolutely. Aren’t you?”

  She stared at his mouth and leaned forward just enough to tease him. “I have to admit, playing a wife has been the best role ever. I’ll hate to give it up after our mini vacation.”

  He moved closer, but kept a few inches between them. “Who says we have to give up the act?”

  She licked her lips. “I suppose we don’t have to stop. But won’t you tire of playing the loving husband?” She brought her mouth close to his but didn’t touch him.

  “I’ll never tire of loving you. Never.” His warm breath brushed over her. “What about you?”

  “I think I could get used to his,” she teased with a grin.

  When he finally kissed her, she had a strong feeling he would stay true to his words.

  ****

  Emily woke up to the annoying alarm on Andrew’s phone. He reached over to the nightstand, forcing her to roll away from his naked body. She groaned in protest and chilled from the loss of his heat. Feeling the sheet near her legs, she tugged it up and turned onto her side. The room was still dark since the sun hadn’t risen yet. Andrew silenced his cell and then curled up against her backside. He kissed her shoulder.

  “Stay,” she said.

  He pressed his lips to her cheek and then her neck. “I have to go to work.”

  His gentle touch aroused her. She wanted more, but she doubted she’d get anything since he was scooting off the bed. Yawning, she watched him head to the bathroom. She wished there were light in the room so she could appraise his tight ass.

  He flipped on the light then disappeared in the room. “Uh … Emily?”