Read Online Mortal Sin by Allison Brennan - Free Book Online

didn’t sound a bit sorry, but she would never understand the rules Skye had to follow, so she changed the subject.
    “So what’s this about a trip?”
    “I’m taking Lily to Olivet for her own safety. And Rico has a job for me.”
    “I need you here, Moira.” Skye didn’t mean for it to come out that way. “Bertrand. I don’t know what happened to him. He was hit over the head multiple times, that’s how he died, but only one room was touched.”
    “You want to know if it was magic.”
    “I guess.” She sounded so stupid and needy.
    Moira glanced at Rafe. “On one condition,” she said to Skye. “I get to search his house.”
    Hell no. “I can’t let you—”
    “I know exactly what I’m looking for, and I won’t take a thing. You know as well as I do that he was our best lead to finding my mother. I need her location.”
    How many laws had Skye broken since she’d met Anthony last November? How many reports had she falsified, how many friends had she lied to, friends she’d asked to lie?
    “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
    Moira nodded. “Lily, stay here with Jared and say your good-byes. We’ll be back in an hour.”

 
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Moira glanced in the side mirror from the passenger seat in Skye’s Bronco. Hank and Rafe were following them to Bertrand’s house. Hank and Moira hadn’t exactly hit it off when she first came to town. Hank thought she and Jared were having some sort of torrid affair. Right—she was nearly thirty and she was doing the dirty with an eighteen-year-old senior? But at the time, Hank had been affected by the demon Envy and not thinking straight. Moira was glad he hadn’t fully succumbed to the demon because he probably wouldn’t have survived. No one quite understood why some people died and some people survived, but it was clear that Hank got better once Envy was captured and contained.
    Hank seemed to accept the supernatural with more ease than most people, including Skye, but he still didn’t fully trust Moira. He was protective of his son and now Lily. She supposed if she were in his shoes, she wouldn’t trust herself, either.
    Moira glanced at Skye. She was preoccupied, but what else was new?
    “Something bothering you?” Moira asked. “Over and above the obvious murder and mayham.”
    “Why did Anthony visit Juan yesterday?”
    “He goes over there all the time,” Moira said. She hesitated, then said, “I’ve gone with him a couple times. Anthony hated asking me to, but I understand what Juan is going through.”
    “It’s been nearly six months,” Skye said.
    “Being possessed by a demon changes you,” Moira said quietly. “Sometimes it’s impossible to recover.” Been there, done that. Sometimes, Moira wondered if she’d ever regained her sanity. And until Rafe came into her life, she’d had a death wish. As long as her death had a positive impact—like taking her mother with her.
    “I haven’t seen Juan in months. He avoids me.”
    “Yeah, well.” What did she say to that? Moira and Anthony had argued over Juan. They argued about most everything, but Juan was different. Anthony’s guilt over not being able to prevent Juan from being possessed affected the way he saw the former detective. What Moira saw was completely different. Anthony thought Juan could be healed if he just did or said the right thing. Moira wasn’t sure. She saw a man who wasn’t fully present, who still saw and felt things he didn’t want to remember. He was damaged, and she didn’t think prayers were going to cure him. Maybe that was a sin to think that way, but Juan was only half-present in this world.
    But Anthony wouldn’t let her play the tough love card. The “I’ve been where you are; adjust or die.”
    “I’ve given Juan as much time as I can,” Skye said. “I need him.”
    “When I get back, I’ll do a full-court tough love with him with your help.” No guarantee it would work, but nothing Anthony had done had fixed him,