Read Fallen Angels 03 - Envy Online
Authors: JR Ward
The air that hit him smel ed dry and vaguely like earth . . . but there was something else. Cologne. A very woody spice that was at once expensive and pleasing, but also something he had a curious urge to get away from.
Manny forced his lids to open. His vision was wonky as hel , but it was amazing what you could pul out of your ass if you had to, and as the face in front of him came into focus, he found himself staring up at the goateed motherfucker who had . . .
On a wave of pain, his eyes rol ed back into his head and he nearly threw up.
“You’ve got to release the memories,” he heard Jane say.
There was some conversating at that point, his former col eague’s voice mixing with the deep tones of that guy with the tattoos at his temple.
“It’s kil ing him—”
“There’s too much risk—”
“How the hel is he going to operate like this?”
There was a long silence. And then al of a sudden, the pain lifted as if it were a veil drawn back, and memories flooded his mind.
Jane’s patient. From back at St. Francis. The man with the goatee and . . . the six-chambered heart.
Manny popped open his eyes and lasered in on that cruel face. “I know you.”
The guy had shown up in his office and taken the files on that heart of his.
“You get him out of the car,” was the only response from Goatee. “I don’t trust myself to touch him.”
Hel of a welcome wagon.
As Manny’s brain struggled to catch up with everything, at least his feet and legs seemed to work just fine. And after Jane helped him to the vertical, he fol owed her and the goateed hater into a facility that was as nondescript and clean as any hospital: Corridors were uncluttered, lights were paneled fluorescents on the ceiling, everything smel ed like Lysol.
There were also the bubbled fixtures of security cameras at regular intervals, like the building was a monster with many eyes.
While they walked along, Manny knew better than to ask any questions. Wel , that and he was so screwed in the membrane, he was pretty fucking sure ambulation was the extent of his capabilities at this point.
Doors. They passed many doors. Al of which were closed and no doubt locked.
Yeah, this sure as hel put the “undisclosed location” in “National Security,” didn’t it.
Jane eventual y stopped outside a pair of double flappers. She was nervous, and didn’t that cruemake him feel like he had a gun to his head: In the OR, in countless trauma messes, she’d always kept her cool. That had been her trademark.
This was personal, he thought. Somehow, whatever was on the other side hit close to home for her.
“I’ve got good facilities here,” she said, “but not everything. No MRI. Just CAT scans. But the OR should be adequate, and not only can I assist, but I’ve got an excel ent nurse.”
Manny took a deep breath, reaching down deep, pul ing himself together. Whether it was his years of training and experience, or who he was as a man, he ditched al the baggage and the lingering ow-ow-ow in his head and the strangeness of this descent into 007 land, and got with the program.
First thing on the list? Ditch the pissed-off peanut gal ery.
He glanced over his shoulder at Goatee. “You need to back off, my man. I want you out in the hal .”
The response he got to that news flash was . . . just fangtastic. The bastard bared a pair of shockingly long canines and growled, natch, like a dog.
“Fine,” Jane said, getting in between them. “That’s fine. Vishous wil wait out here.”
Vishous?
Had he heard that right?
Then again this boy’s mama sure hit the nail on the head, assuming the little dental show Manny was getting wasn’t just a figment of this situation, but the motherfucker’s personality.
But whatever. He had a job to do, and maybe the bastard could go chew on a rawhide or something.
Manny pushed into the examination room—
Oh . . . dear God.
Oh . . . Lord above.
The patient on the table was lying stil as water and . . . she was probably the most beautiful anything he’d ever seen. Hair was jet-black and braided into a thick rope that hung free next to her head. Skin was a golden brown, as if she were of Italian descent and had recently been in the sun. Eyes . . . Her eyes were like diamonds, which was to say both colorless and bril iant, with nothing but a dark rim around the iris.
“Manny?”
Jane’s voice was right behind him, and yet he felt as if she were miles away. In fact, the whole world was somewhere else, nothing existing except for the stare of his patient as she looked up at him from the table.
It final y happened, he thought. Al his life he’d wondered why he’d never fal en in love and now he knew the answer to that. He’d been waiting for this moment, this woman, this time.
This female is mine,
he thought.
“Are you the healer?” she said in a low voice that stopped his heart, her words gorgeously accented, and also a little surprised.
“Yeah.” He wrenched off his sport coat and threw it into a corner, not giving a shit where the thing landed. “That’s what I’m here to do.”
As he approached her, those stunning icy eyes slicked with tears. “My legs . . . They feel as though they are moving, but they do not.”
Phantom pain. Not a surprise if she were paralyzed.
Manny stopped next to her and glanced at her body, which was covered with a sheet. She was tal . Had to be at least six feet. And she was buiwith sleek power.
This was a soldier, he thought, staring at the strength in her upper arms. This was a fighter.
God, the loss of mobility to someone like her took his breath away. Then again, even if you were a couch potato, life in a wheelchair was a bitch and a half.
He reached out and took her hand, and the instant he made contact, his whole body went wakie-wakie on him, as if she were the socket to his inner plug.
“I’m going to take care of you,” he told her as he looked her right in the eye. “I want you to trust me.”
She swal owed hard as one crystal tear slipped out to trail down her temple. On instinct, he reached forward with his free hand and caught it—
The growl that percolated up from the doorway broke the spel that had bound him and turned him into a kind of prey. And as he glanced over at Goatee, he felt like snarling right back at the sonofabitch. Which of course made no sense.
Stil holding his patient’s hand, he barked at Jane, “Get that miserable bastard out of my operating room. And I want to see the goddamn scans.
Now.
”
Even if it kil ed him, he was going to save this woman.
And as Goatee’s eyes flashed with pure hatred, he thought, wel , shit, it might just come down to that. . . .
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Redemption isn’t a word Jim Heron knows much about—his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is al relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fal en angel and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option.
Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he’s made his peace with with that—until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. Then he meets a woman who wil make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart—and he has to work with a fal en angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.
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Caught up in a wicked game with the demon who shadows Jim, Isaac must decide whether the soldier in him can believe that true love is the ultimate weapon against evil.
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Grace Hal is a society beauty—but her fortune has made her the target of a madman kil ing off Manhattan’s most influential women. Her new live-in bodyguard is uncompromising, hard-hearted John Smith. Moving into Grace’s penthouse is the last thing he wants, but saying no isn’t an option. As he lays down the rules for his new client, angry sparks ignite between them—as does an incendiary desire. As the warm nights grow hot, and the kil er closes in, Grace and Smith face a crucial choice: fol ow the rules or fol ow their hearts.
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BY J. R. WARD
NOVELS OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
Covet
Crave
NOVELS OF THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
COVET
CRAVE
THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD NOVELS
THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD
BY J. R. WARD
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37