Red by Kate Serine

A lot. I’d hate to see anything happen to you.”
    I swallowed hard, trying to process what I’d just heard. I don’t know how a person is supposed to react when she finds out she may or may not be dying soon, but for me, it just hardened my resolve to solve this case and bring the killer to justice. If I was going out, I was going out doing my job. That’s how I always figured it would happen anyway.
    And, no, I hadn’t missed the fact that Nate said he liked me. In fact, the words played over and over in my head, somehow negating the pronouncement of my possible doom. Call me a silly little schoolgirl if you want, but knowing Nate cared made me go all fluttery inside. And who wants to die prematurely when she feels fluttery?
    When I looked over at Nate again, the shadows around him seemed to have darkened—a by-product of his apprehension and concern, I supposed. Aside from Gran and Eliza, I’d never really known what it was like to have someone actually worry about me. Yet here was this guy I’d rarely spoken to outside a crime scene, putting himself out there to bring a killer to justice and, with any luck, save my life in the process. Somehow, just saying a simple thank-you didn’t seem adequate.
    I hopped down from my bar stool and took hold of Nate’s hand, pulling him to his feet. Then I did something I almost never do to anyone—I slipped my arms around his waist and hugged him. It felt good. No, not just good, great. His arms came around me and held me close against him, making me feel safe and protected. I didn’t realize how much I had missed that feeling until that very moment.
    Afraid of letting the embrace go on for too long, I stepped back a lot sooner than I would have liked and grabbed my coat off the back of the bar stool. “Come on,” I said, trying to make my tone light. “If we’re going to crack this case, I guess we’d better get going.”
    Nate grabbed his fedora and placed it on his head at just enough of a rakish angle to make my heart trip over itself. And if that hadn’t done it, the smile he gave me would have. “Lead the way,” he said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
    Somehow, that was all I needed to know.

Chapter 10
     
    I pocketed my phone and shook my head. “Still no answer,” I told Nate. “He’s probably still sleeping off the most recent midnight snack.”
    “We’ll try again later,” Nate told me. “With Vlad being one of the walking dead, I can play hardball if I have to. No worries.”
    I nodded, wondering what exactly it meant when Death decided to play nasty against one of his escapees....
    Seeing as how the day was still young and neither Vlad nor Seth were accessible, Nate and I decided to visit the site of Dave Hamelin’s suicide and see if we could find any clues as to why Dave would have done himself in.
    I knocked on the infamous red door of Happy Endings and waited, knowing it would take a few minutes for someone to answer. Hardly surprising, considering what most of the employees did for a living. Although the FMA tolerated this kind of business as a necessary evil to keep our kind out of trouble and our identities secret, the Ordinary police weren’t so willing to look the other way and came poking around every now and then.
    Finally, the dwarf I’d run into the previous night opened the door and ushered me in. “Good day, Red. Always a pleasure.”
    “Hey, Ted,” I greeted him with a nod. “How’s it going?”
    “Busy day,” Ted grumbled, flipping the end of his beard over his shoulder to keep from stepping on it. “Lots of people coming and going—so to speak.”
    “Well, we won’t take up much of Snow’s time,” I promised. “I just wanted to ask her a few questions.”
    “Who’s the stiff?” Ted asked gruffly, with a nod toward Nate.
    “Death,” I replied.
    Ted’s eyes widened a little, but he said nothing until we reached a set of French doors that led to Snow’s private quarters. “She’s with a client,” he