Free Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) by Jen Rasmussen

looking for some angle she could use. There was plenty of loyalty and compassion for his wife. But once lost, his patience would be difficult to recover.
    “Thank you for your time,” she said finally.
    “I’ll walk you out,” he said.
    “Can I just say goodbye to Laurel?”
    “I’ll pass on the message.”
    Why did he insist on shutting her down? Could he not give her just the tiniest bit of fucking cooperation? Thea’s fingers were tingling again. Her ears were ringing.
    Calm down. Deep breaths, light voice. Smile.
    “I’d really rather thank her personally. It would only take a second. I promise I wouldn’t mention—”
    “I need you to leave,” Marshal said bluntly. “Now.”
    “No! Will you just wait a second?”
    He grabbed her elbow. Thea’s claws came out.
    And Marshal Bowman saw them.
    “What the HELL!”
    Laurel heard his scream and came running back into the living room, but Marshal had already lunged at Thea.
    Luckily, the brief bubble of wrath had passed. Thea chose to retreat rather than attack. She pulled out of Marshal’s grip and hurried for the door.
    “Get out of my house!” Marshal shouted. “I have a gun!” He was reaching for her again, pushing her in the back. Could he feel her wings, despite the illusion? She’d never thought to ask if it was only visual.
    Thea ran out of the Bowman house. She was shaking when she got back into the SUV.
    What just happened?
    What the hell just happened?
    The flares of temper, the impatience, how quickly it all seemed to boil over these days. She’d been telling herself it was nothing, or that it was just stress. That she would deal with it when she had time to think about it.
    But she’d gone too far, now.
    Something was wrong with her.
    Something was wrong with Boyd Lexington, too.

Shit. Shit shit shit.
    Thea desperately wished she could ditch the SUV and just fly back home. She needed to talk to Langdon. But she’d be in huge trouble if she didn’t bring the company car back.
    Breathe. Drive. Use the time to calm yourself down.
    Her phone rang half an hour later. It was Detective Holgersen.
    “Why were you asking about Seth Bates today?” he asked without preamble.
    “Because I wanted to see him and nobody would tell me where he is,” Thea said. “Why were they giving me the runaround about it?”
    “Why did you want to see him?”
    “Is this another one of those things where only you get to ask questions?”
    “It’s pretty much always one of those things.”
    “Yeah well, too bad. I didn’t agree to be interrogated this time.” She hung up.
    Okay. That was a little unstable. You’re not doing the best job of calming down.
    When Holgersen called back a minute later, Thea mentally prepared a greeting, determined to keep her voice light and controlled this time. But he spoke before she could.
    “Seth Bates died this morning.”
    Her already overloaded mind had no idea what to make of that.
    “How did he die?” she asked finally.
    “Nobody seems to know. They think he was under the influence of something. A drug, a toxin. Did your people hex him again?”
    “ My people didn’t hex him the first time.”
    “Was it a hex, is all I’m asking?”
    His voice was actually shaking, he was so pissed off. Thea had been so caught up in trying to control herself, she hadn’t noticed that Holgersen sounded on the verge of losing it himself.
    “I honestly don’t know if he was hexed or not,” she said.
    There seems to be a lot of hexing going around that I don’t know about. Or understand.
    “Well, how the hell do I find out?” Holgersen was nearly shouting. “Because I’d really like to do that before an official explanation comes down and closes my damn case right out from under me.”
    “Closes it under you? That makes no sense.”
    “Yeah well, pardon me for not being good at metaphors or whatever the hell it is.”
    Thea frowned down at her phone. Holgersen had seemed so unflappable before. What had changed?
    “What