Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(44)
Author: J.R. Ward

She wasn’t the “fuck you like an animal” type.

“Guess who I just ran into.”

Jim glanced over at his wingman. “Who.”

“Matthias.”

“No … shit.”

“Yeah. Actually, Sissy pointed him out.” Adrian took some initiative and picked up the bag with the hammers and nails from the holders. “Mind if we hit Starbucks on the way home?”

“How the hell could she know him?” He frowned and looked to the entrance. “Wait, where is she—”

“Here’s your receipt, sir.”

She’d been standing by the exit, right by the fucking exit—

“Sir? Your receipt?”

“Where the hell is—”

Ad stepped in front of him. “She’s probably just wandering around. Where the fuck would she go? You stay here. I’ll find her.”

When Jim went to walk off, Ad locked a grip on his arm and yanked him back. “Stay. Here. I’ll go get her.”

The guy was probably right. Jim was liable to bark at her for disappearing even though she’d no doubt only gone for a stroll down the gardening aisle or something.

Pushing the rolling platform with the plywood off to the side, he waited by the door and patted his pockets for his cigarettes. Damn it, he’d left them back home—but it wasn’t like he could have lit up here anyway.

Where was she?

Always a firm believer in not panicking until it was time to, he threw a saddle on his adrenal gland and reined that shit in. Unfortunately, as Adrian came limping back with a frown on his puss and absolutely, positively no Sissy with him, Jim knew that something had gone bad.

“I can’t find her,” the other angel said. “Maybe she’s out at the Explorer.”

Jim exhaled in relief and felt like an amateur. Of course she’d go hang there. Take a load off. Blah, blah, blah.

Except when they went out to the SUV, she wasn’t anywhere near the thing. Or walking in the parking lot.

Leaving Ad with the stuff, Jim jogged back into the store and made quick work of the twelve million square acres of shelf space. Nothing. No Sissy.

As he ran full tilt from the store and back to Adrian, one last hope that she might have turned up got blown out of the water as he found Ad alone.

“Jesus Christ,” Jim demanded, “where is she?”

“He fucked you, didn’t he.”

As Sissy sat beside the demon in the Mercedes, she was too pissed off to be scared. Too pissed off even to speak.

“Well.” Devina glared across the interior of the car. “Didn’t he.”

She wasn’t about to share details with the enemy. But there was a serious satisfaction in slapping the bitch with, “Yes, he did.”

There was a long stretch of silence as the demon came to a full stop at a red light and then accelerated in a civilized way when the thing turned green.

Guess she was a law abider in some senses.

Sissy passed the time checking out the interior of the car. She’d never been in a Mercedes before, much less one of the super-fancy models: Everything was sleek lines and high-tech, leather and polished wood—the only thing out of place being the lack of a hood ornament out in front.

Hard to imagine anyone stealing something from the root of all evil and getting away with it.

“How’d he do you?” the demon gritted out. “From behind? He likes me from behind.”

Oh, there was a picture. “Not going there. But you know it’s true, don’t you.”

There must have been some way that Devina had known she’d been a virgin in the first place—only logical to assume the demon would be aware when she was no longer one.

“Does he pull your hair?” Devina demanded. “Bite your nipples? He’s rough. Was he rough with you?”

No, she thought. He was anything but rough.

Devina looked over again. “We broke the door on the shower at the hotel. The night before last.”

Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, Sissy thought. ’Cause these little sound bites were making her feel like punching something.

“He didn’t sleep when he was with me. Did he sleep when he was with you?”

“Yes,” Sissy answered. And then wished she’d kept her mouth shut.

“He was probably tired out from being with me.”

“Or the trip to Purgatory.” Sissy glanced over at the demon, measuring the stunning beauty that was just an illusion. “Is there a purpose to all this?”

“Yes, yes, there is. I want you to know that he hurt me really badly. Back in that parlor.” The demon met Sissy’s eyes. “And he’s going to do the same to you. You think I’m evil? You think Hell was bad? That is nothing compared to what that man is going to do to you. You’re in love with him, I can tell. So am I. And he has treated me with a total lack of respect.”

“Maybe he’s just not that into you.”

“It’s his nature, little girl. You don’t understand how he got this job. Don’t be fooled by anything he says or does—he is half-evil.”

“I can’t trust a thing you say, you realize.”

“Trust me, don’t trust me, I don’t give a fuck—your opinion about what I’m telling you doesn’t change the truth. Back in the beginning, Nigel and I had to both agree on the savior who would be influencing the souls. Jim is fifty-fifty, which is why we each gave our consent.” Devina put her directional signal on and made a smooth left turn. “I should have known he’d do this to me. And you might as well know what he’s really like.”

“No offense, but he refers to you as the enemy.”

“Not when he’s with me, he doesn’t.”

Sissy frowned and looked out the front windshield. The spring day was a beacon of summer soon to come, and people in other cars had their windows down.

How she envied them.

The demon shook her head. “Like I said, I don’t care whether or not you believe me—because sooner or later, Jim’s going to fuck you over.”

“I’m not getting involved with him,” Sissy heard herself say.

“You two had sex. You’re involved. Unless you expect me to believe a girl who saves it until she’s how old suddenly decides to just bang a guy? Personally, I find that prudish bullshit nauseating, but like he has his nature, you have yours.”

Well, then hers was changing. She couldn’t remember ever having this kind of temper.