The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy, Malone, Nana [inspiring books for teens txt] 📗

in the same.” For a long moment I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was no way.

“Okay, I just put on my glasses. No way, East. This has to be wrong. I’ve been drinking with this woman.”

“The data doesn’t lie. But what the fuck does this mean?”

I could practically see her brow furrow. “Another problem. This claims that Krista Wilson is twenty-nine years old. That can’t be right.”

Dread started to gnaw at my gut. I’d dismissed Hazel that first night at dinner. Should I have taken a closer look?

Yeah, you git. Krista Wilson was part of the Wilson Crew. She’d fooled us all into thinking she was just an art student. But that was part of the disguise, wasn’t it? To blend. To mix. To make people believe you. Trust you.

“Shit, East, do you have a location on her?”

Oh, fuck me. A few quick keystrokes told me I was in trouble. “I'll call you back." Telly didn't say anything as I hung up.

I called Nyla, but her phone kept telling me that she was out of range or had stopped working.

Fuck, Nyla. It was only as I tried redialing that I saw her text.

Fuck me.

All of the fucking pieces were falling into line together. Jesus Christ, I needed to find her. When it came to her safety, I had no qualms about activating Bird's Eye. I had it on her phone, which was apparently off, but I could at least still track the GPS location.

It paid to be a paranoid son of a bitch. While I got the system running, I accessed the CCTV cameras. I was going fast and sloppy. I didn't care about being caught. I needed to get to Nyla, and I needed to get to her now.

* * *

Nyla

My eyes were burning. I'd been going over the case files for Ryder’s murder all morning, and I still had no leads, nowhere to go. I'd already looked at all known associates, and they all had alibis that were verifiable. So who the hell had wanted him dead?

The obvious answer was one of his former partners. Two of them were in jail. A third had been incapacitated by a stroke, which only left one. The one no one had been able to find for going on three years now.

A plastic bag rustled and dropped on my desk. My head snapped up. I'd been so caught up in what I was doing, I hadn't seen Hazel come in. "Oh, hey, Hazel. I don't know where Denning is."

"No, I'm not here for him. I'm here for you. I just finished an appointment and was in the neighborhood. We're going shopping."

"What?"

"Come on. When's the last time you skived off of work? Come with me."

"No. Hazel, I know it may seem like I don't do much, maybe that's what Denning even says, but I can't just up and go shopping."

"Yes, you can. Besides, I don't want to go by myself. I need to get a gift for Denning's mother."

I frowned and looked at the calendar. Yup, the old battle ax’s birthday was coming up. "I envy you, but I still can't come."

"Please? You work all the time. You just got back. You don't have to solve every case today. Get your ass off your chair. Live a little. Besides, I'll just tell Denning I asked you to come with me."

I glanced at the clock and saw it was eleven thirty. I realized that she was trying hard, and well, I needed more friends. "Okay fine, I'll take an early lunch. But I can't stay out all afternoon. I need to figure this out because I'm missing a vital clue here."

She glanced down. "What are you working on?"

I closed the folder and gathered the photos. "You know I can't tell you that."

She sighed. "Okay, but you can come shopping with me. Come on, get your purse."

"You know I actually don't like to shop, right?"

She turned and stared at me. "Fine, then you can watch me shop. Let's go."

I sighed and grabbed my purse, wondering how the hell I'd become friends with my ex's fiancée. She was very insistent.

I texted Amelia quickly that Hazel had kidnapped me for lunch and shopping, and that I'd be back, hopefully, around one.

She sent me back an emoji. The gasp face. And then a laughing out loud emoji followed quickly by a crying emoji.

Nyla: Thanks a lot.

Amelia: Have fun with your new bestie.

Nyla: Hey, that spot is already taken. See you later.

And with that, I became Hazel's prisoner.

We set foot outside of the building into the London sunshine, odd for the time of year. I gasped. "I didn't even know it was sunny outside."

"I know, right? Come on."

"All right, hold your horses. I promise you the shops aren't going anywhere."

"Yes, they are. And I'm so glad we're getting to do this. You know, just the two of us. Usually, everyone else is around."

I gave her a tight smile. "Yeah, you know, I'm not used to a lot of people."

"Well, I'm glad we're getting closer. It's important to me."

I couldn't help but ask. "Why is it important to you exactly? I know what you said, but we could just be cordial. You're really trying hard to be my friend, and I'm curious as to why."

"Honestly, I think you're pretty amazing. And I know, even though Denning won't say it, he respects you a lot. At least your abilities. I hear a lot about ‘Nyla did this, and then Nyla did that.’ He's usually mad about it, but you can tell that he's a little envious because he didn't think to do whatever it was that you did. Even when you got shot, all I heard for days was, ‘fucking Nyla got herself shot chasing down an intruder.’ You could tell that he wished he was the one who got to chase down Theroux."

I laughed. "Right, good old professional envy thing."

She sighed. "A little, but he does respect you. And since he respects you so much, I figured