Deliver Us From Evil (A. Shaw 2)

Shit.

“I was just getting ready to crash,” he called out.

“Please.”

He hesitated, but finally opened the door and motioned her in. She eyed him curiously.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to vomit.”

“I’m fine.”

She sat in a chair, he on the couch.

“What’s up?”

Reggie started talking, but he wasn’t listening. Shaw knew that Kuchin was too smart for something as simple as his plan. He would want proof that Reggie was coming. He would ask to speak with her. Shaw would never get the chance to save Katie unless…

“Shaw? Shaw?”

He looked up to see Reggie standing next to him, poking him in the shoulder.

“Yeah?” he said in a bewildered tone.

“You haven’t listened to one bloody word I’ve been saying.”

“I’m sorry. Look, this is just bad timing.”

She eyed the phone still clutched in his hand and looked at him suspiciously. “What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Nothing is going on.”

She knelt in front of him, her hands on his knees. “Something is going on and you’re going to tell me what it is.”

Shaw could barely form words. Indelibly painted on his brain were the images of Katie and Kuchin. “It’s nothing. I’ll handle it.”

She pounced. “Handle what?”

“Will you please let it alone?”

“It’s him, isn’t it?”

“Who?”

She grabbed his thick shoulders and shook them. “Oh for God’s sake. Talk to me.”

He stood abruptly, causing her to fall on her backside, and walked away. “I said I’ll handle it.”

She rose, followed him. “How?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“He has someone, doesn’t he? Someone you care about?”

He whirled, terrible suspicions running through his own mind now, but none of them made sense. “How did you—”

“I guessed,” she said. “I don’t think you’d ever be scared for yourself. So it had to be somebody else. How did he get to them?”

Shaw sank down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know.”