Page 16 of Freeing Hawk
By the time we arrived home, I was exhausted.
While Romeo washed up, I took Tiberius down to the ocean so he could run through the water. I played with him for a bit then rubbed his body to clean off the mud. I then carried him back and bathed him in the master bedroom bathtub and towelled him off.
Once he was dry, I released him and followed him down the stairs to his bowls. They needed to be filled and I did that while Romeo set the food out.
We sat around eating and relaxing. It had been a long time since I’d spent quality with Romeo and Nikau. I missed that part of my life.
It took a while for us to settle into the night. But Romeo turned in before I did. I tried getting a hold of my sister, but so far nothing.
I sighed and climbed into bed. Tiberius trotted into the room and curled himself at my feet. I closed my eyes.
Chapter 3
Hawk
I spent most of the evening going through what little I had on Kingston’s case. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much. After a quick call in to my Captain, I was convinced to spend the evening with Eris and her family.
I adored these people so dearly.
The next morning, bright and early I climbed out of bed. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night, anyway. An early morning wasn’t going to change anything. I started the coffee, went for a run with Ghoul then returned to the house for a shower. It was barely seven thirty when I sat down to drink my first cup of coffee and talk through what I had with Ghoul. Though he wasn’t law enforcement, Ghoul had a certain knack for these kinds of things.
Those were Eris’ words.
She wasn’t wrong.
He gave me perspective, even pointed out some notes on the back of the poster. It wasn’t in English and it irritated me.
“What language is that?” I asked him.
He arched a brow while looking at it. “It’s either Japanese or Korean. I don’t speak either.”
“I don’t speak either.” I sighed. “One step forward two backwards. I mean, I don’t think this has anything to do with the case. Kingston doesn’t speak either language.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Ghoul stared down at the writing again as if he thought it would magically translate itself. “He could have found this and it’s a part of his clues. All we need to do, is find someone we trust to read it and tell us what it means.” Ghoul gave me a one shoulder shrug before sipping his coffee. “Now, let me make Eris some tea. Her doctor told her she can’t have coffee while she’s pregnant.”
“Oh gawd. I can’t have kids then.” I laughed. “Me without coffee is not a good look.”
Ghoul laughed and turned to do as he said.
The house didn’t take too long to get buzzing. I blinked and Camille had roped me into a pampering day. Those weren’t my things but if your niece said she wanted to have a pamper day, you sack up and have a pampering day.
I blew against my fingernails, knowing it wasn’t going to help dry them faster. Camille had insisted on painting my nails an ungodly shade of pink I was pretty sure if I was back home, the cops would tease the hell out of me for.
Still, it made Camille smile and just as things were getting good, her cell rang. I could only assume it was Patrick. Brave kid, considering Camille had an uncle monster who adored her dearly, uncle Dude and an aunt who knew many different ways of killing a man where they’d never find the body.
I chuckled at that then almost cried as my phone began ringing. I couldn’t touch anything yet. My nails were still wet.
“Eris!” I hollered. “Eris, where are you!”
She came running into the room as I flailed, trying to get my nails to dry even faster. “My phone, can you answer it?”
She dug into my pocket. “Detective Bracken’s phone. Her personal assistant Eris speaking!”
I frowned up at her.
“Oh—hello, who is calling? Angel James—hang on.”
“Put it on speaker for me?”
