Page 24 of Heartless Enemy
So I smiled back at Ulric, and told him that that was good to hear, while an entirely different sentence thrummed inside my skull.
I am going to ruin your life, you lying piece of shit.
His eyes shone as he held my gaze. “He would have been proud of the woman you’ve become.”
Keeping the smile on my mouth, I replied, “I think so too.”
Though not for the reasons Ulric imagined.
He patted my arm one last time before letting his hand drop back by his side. I resisted the urge to rub my hand over that spot to wipe away the feeling of his hand there.
“Is that why you came here this early?” Ulric asked, that ridiculous fatherly concern still on his face. “To talk?”
“No.” I shifted my sad smile to a happier one. “I heard that you’ve been reinstated. That you’re coming back.”
Now that Wright was dead, the South Side Department was without a captain. And since they were in the middle of planning an invasion, they couldn’t afford a drawn-out process of appointing a new one. So Ulric’s forced retirement had been revoked and he had been reinstated as captain.
He smiled. “I am.”
“That’s why I’m here.” I shrugged and shot him a shy smile back. “I figured we could walk there together for your first day back.”
His brown eyes shone with emotions. “You’re far too kind to an old man, kiddo.”
“You’re notthatold.”
He chuckled. “No. But what I am is indisposed.” While starting to turn around, he winked at me. “Just give me a minute and I’ll go get dressed.”
I nodded.
“Marla,” Ulric called as he started up the steps and towards their bedroom upstairs. “Shouldn’t you be getting up now too?”
Marla, Ulric’s wife, answered something that I couldn’t hear from down here. But two pairs of footsteps were soon moving around somewhere above me.
While they got dressed, I drifted through their house. The bookshelves were too neat to be Ulric’s doing, so I figured that Marla was the one who had reorganized them since last time I was here. I wandered into the small room that Ulric used as his study. In there was the familiar mess that I was used to from his office.
I scanned the shelves in there as I walked around the desk, but only old case files and notes from various missions stared back at me. I flicked through a few of them before returning the folders, along with a small notebook, to the shelf.
Footsteps sounded from the stairs.
Moving back into the living room, I stopped on the fluffy white carpet again right before Marla appeared from the stairs.
“Eve,” she said, her green eyes lighting up when they met mine. “It’s so good to see you.”
She strode across the floor and enveloped me in a hug. Pain sliced through my heart. Marla had always been kind to me, so I didn’t want to hurt her. But then again, that’s what I had thought about Ulric too. As I hugged her back, I couldn’t help but wonder if she knew the truth about me and my father.
“It’s good to see you too,” I said as I drew back.
Her pale brows creased in concern. “It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I was going to say hi those times when I saw you and Ulric on the south side, but it looked like you didn’t want to be noticed so I figured it was best not to…” I let out an embarrassed laugh and shrugged before finishing with, “Call out to you and draw attention.”
The concern on her face transformed into confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You know…” I let an awkward expression descend on my features. Clearing my throat, I lowered my voice as I whispered, “At the Red Moon.”
Her brows stayed furrowed. “The Red Moon? Ulric and I have never been to the Red Moon.”
“Exactly.” I winked conspiratorially. “That’s why I didn’t want to draw attention to you by going over to say hi.”