Read Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1) for Free Online Page A

came into view.
     
    Henry had finished mowing the grass this morning before the
heat of the day set in. Now that he was freshly showered, he was going to enjoy
the Saturday paper in the shade of his porch, with a frosty glass of iced tea. In
his years of bachelorhood, he had learned to fend for himself in the kitchen
and made a darn fine glass of sweet tea, if he did say so himself. He was still
quite a handsome man of sixty-three. His blond hair had turned silver, but his
blue eyes were still electric, and he still had the chiseled jaw and broad
shoulders of his youth. Many women over the years had considered him quite the
catch, but his heart could never settle down. It wasn’t his to give away.
    Just as Henry got to the sports section, a car started down
the street. He actually heard it long before it turned the corner. The engine
had the sweet rumble of a car built by actual human beings, back in the day
when cars were made of steel and sweat and rolled off the line in Detroit, not Japan. Sure enough, when the car made the turn he could see it was Mustang
Mach 1. If he had to guess, he’d say a ’69. It was a beast of a machine done in
the original maroon and black paint scheme with a vented hood and tail fin, a
true car guy’s car.
    Henry watched as the Mustang pulled into the driveway directly
across from his house. A long-legged young woman stepped out, pulling the clip
from her hair and tossing it back into the car. So much for it being a car
guy’s car, Henry chuckled to himself. Once her hair was loose, the dark mass
tumbled around her shoulders and halfway down her back. Henry couldn’t help but
think of another young brunette that had lived in that house. For a moment he
was transported back to watching Laney bouncing across the street to tell him
the latest gossip while she watched him work on his car. Henry swallowed hard
and shook off the memory. Thirty-five years had passed, and he still mourned
her every day.
    He set his newspaper aside and started across the street. Might
as well introduce himself to Bobby’s new renter. With the shape the house was
in, this girl would need all the help she could get. As he reached the opposite
sidewalk, he noticed her standing at the front of her car studying some
paperwork, probably making sure she had the right house. By the looks of the
weedy yard and dirty windows, she probably hoped she had the wrong address. She
wore jean shorts with a purple tank top and flip flops. Henry couldn’t help but
wonder at how women’s fashions had deteriorated since the sixties. Where was
the class and style?
    As he stepped up on the curb he called out to her.
“Afternoon. Are you the new tenant?”
    She turned as he approached and slid off her sunglasses. She
smiled as she looked up at him, and he thought she called out some greeting,
but he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t speak; he couldn’t even breathe. It was as
if Laney Bennett were standing in front of him, alive once again. After a
moment, Henry could, of course, see the differences—she was older than Laney
had been when she died, which made her features more angular, and her hair had
a hint of red to it that made it more mahogany then Laney’s black. The biggest
difference was that Laney had been full of light—she seemed to glow with her
happiness and enthusiasm—but this young woman had a hardness about her, an edge
that whispered she’d seen too much. But those warm chocolate brown eyes were
exactly the same and that’s what held him speechless.
     
    Devin stood in front of her family’s aged home and waited
benignly for the elderly gentlemen to compose himself. She wasn’t completely
surprised by his reaction. She’d expected something similar while she was here,
just not the moment she stepped out of the car. Devin had seen that same expression
on her father’s face many times, and it usually preceded one of his long
alcohol-induced absences. She’d overheard her father once sobbing to her