Page 81 of Trick's Trap

The door to the office was open a crack. Unable to resist, he walked over to it, checking for stray agents before slipping inside.

It was safe to breathe in there now. Ethan had opened the windows and doused the incense burners right after he’d shot Cain.

The agents had been busy. Little yellow flags surrounded the partially demolished pentagram and the various pools of blood. The biggest of those was right next to the break in the line Tahlia made when she’d crawled toward him.

A little dizzy, Trick covered his eyes and spun around. He opened his eyes to see himself. There was a large antique mirror hanging next to the door.

Trick stared at his own reflection. There were a million thoughts running through his head, but he couldn’t grab hold of one long enough to examine it. It was as if the part of his mind capable of reason and logic was wrapped in a thick layer of spun wool.

Movement in the mirror caught his eye. He swiveled, but no one was there.

Trick’s reflection grinned at him. Startled, he blinked and rubbed his eyes.

His stomach twisted, and a cold chill ran down his spine.

“This is crazy,” he muttered.

His reflection didn’t follow suit. It just kept grinning.

Trick pointed a shaky finger at the mirror. “You can’t have her,” he hissed. “She’smine.”

The demon in the mirror smiled at him. It did a little gesture with its hand as if to saywe’llsee.

“Patrick?”

Trick jumped about a foot. In the mirror, his reflection did, too.

Tahlia was peeking around the door, her eyes studiously avoiding the bloodstains in front of her. “Ethan says we can leave now.”

He almost ran toward her. Her eyes widened as he hugged her to him, squeezing far too hard. He pulled her away from the door, dragging her away from that foul room as fast as her feet could carry her.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, throwing open the front door.

His heart didn’t stop racing until they were all the way down the drive on their way to the airport.

Chapter 32

Tahlia leaned against the back of the sofa, wrapping her arms around Patrick’s neck from behind.

They were in his office at the Caislean, sharing a lunch with Ethan as the latter went over the bureau’s official findings on what happened at her family’s estate in Florida.

“Of course you were hallucinating,” Ethan said. “Do you know how much opium smoke you inhaled?”

He waved the folder at them before dropping it to finish plowing through the Caislean’s signature tri-tip sandwich.

Patrick’s sandwich sat untouched in front of him.

She rubbed his shoulders. “Don’t make me feed you by hand,” she teased before coming around to sit next to him. “You’ve lost too much weight since we got back from Florida.”

He sighed and snaked a hand around her waist. “I’m not hungry. Why don’t you have some? You finished yours so quickly.”

Tahlia blushed. It was true. She’d been starving lately. And sometimes, she still got dizzy. It happened often enough she’d asked the hotel’s concierge doctor for a checkup. Given the number of times she’d been drugged with unknown substances, he’d been concerned enough to conduct a battery of tests. She was meeting him soon to get the results.

Tahlia refused to be afraid. Whatever was going on with her physically was a blip compared to what she’d been through. Her uncle and cousins were gone. She was finally free, and nothing was going to stop her from getting her happily ever after.

“Trick, you have to get over this thing. You werehigh,” Ethan said in between bites.

Always a big eater, he was starting to eye Patrick’s untouched meal. Tahlia nabbed it before he could claim it.

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