Free Jude; The Fallen (The Fallen Series, Book 2) by Tara S. Wood, Lorecia Goings Page A

said nothing, but walked down the stairs and out the front door without a backward glance. Jude set his book down and followed after Coriander.
    He turned the knob and walked in slowly, half-expecting a projectile to come sailing through the air. She stood at the far end of her office, looking out of the glass panes of the French doors, arms crossed over her chest in a protective gesture.
    “Did he leave?” Her voice wavered.
    “Out the front door. But not for good, I don’t think.”
    “Good. He’s got some things he needs to rethink before he darkens my door again.”
    “And what about you? Are you blameless in whatever’s going on between the two of you?”
    She whirled around to face him, fire blazing in her eyes. “There’s nothing going on between the two of us. Something neither he nor you can seem to get through your thick skulls. It’s tiring, Jude. So fucking tiring.”
    “What about Ash?” he asked, knowing that bringing her up was a powder keg waiting to happen.
    “What about her? She stays in Greece with Alex’s parents at a lovely villa in Mykonos, thank you very much, when she can’t be with us. She knows I love her, and she knows he loves her. That’s all that matters. God knows that’s all that matters to me.”
    "What do you know about God, Coriander?" Jude snorted. "You're no bastion of piety."
    "I don't need to be. Because every time I look into the face of that little girl, I want to fall to my knees to bask in the grace I see in her eyes. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I see it. I feel it. It’s divine. You can’t convince me otherwise. Have a little faith. Remember that everything in this life has a purpose. Whether you realize it or not."
    Bitter emotion swallowed the fallen angel. I wish I could, Coriander. I wish I could.
    “You, of all people, are telling me to have faith? Faith in what? Don’t you get it? He’s gone. From me.” Jude beat at his chest. “He’s gone from me. He speaks to Lucius. But not to me.” He snorted, his face twisting into a cruel sneer. “Faith. That’s rich coming from a woman who blunders her way through life with a dog and a bastard. That’s not faith, that’s luck.”
    Coriander's face was hard. "You should watch your mouth. I'm somebody's mother, remember?"
    No shit. The look on Coriander’s face was a sucker punch to the gut. He'd crossed a line and he knew it the minute the words flew out of his damned mouth. Jude opened his mouth to apologize and actually mean it, when Coriander shoved a finger in his face.
    "Just so we're clear, big guy, if I ever hear you shoot your mouth off like that again about my child, I will break you. There won't be enough left for even The Almighty to put to rights. And then I will make sure you spend eternity in my backyard pooper-scooping for the Anubis. Got it?"
    “Yeah, I got it,” he said, running a hand over the back of his head. “So what do you and the Anubis get up to in your jaunts across the globe?”
    The smile that spread across her face was blinding. “Let me show you.” She walked over to her desk and picked up a small duffel that sat on the floor next to it. She placed it on the desktop and rummaged through the contents. He walked over and peered inside.
    It was bigger than it looked, and he could see books and two spiral-bound notebooks, along with some small scroll tubes. He looked back over the desktop and his eyes rested on the little brass business card holder. He wondered why he hadn’t seen it before as he picked up one of the cards. It was a heavy cream cardstock, her name printed in bold block letters.
    Coriander Rhodes, Salvage and Reclamation.
    He held the card up for her to see. “I thought you were a doctor?”
    She snorted as she unpacked the duffel. “I am. I’m a history professor. So’s Alex. That’s how we met, at the University of Athens.”
    “What, like Indiana Jones?”
    “Not quite,” she frowned. “He’s fictional. And I don’t carry