Turbulence by Elaina John Page A

Greyson felt. “Well, thanks for your help, Don. We’ll head over now.”
He and Ross got back inside the SUV.
    Ross leaned his head back against the seat. “I hope it’s not
Davie. He’s got a mate and a daughter.”
    “It might not be him.”
    “Don recognized his hair, Grey.”
    “Everyone’s doing crazy stuff to their hair nowadays. I saw
a girl the other day whose hair was as blue as a Jhetan rock.”
    Ross slid him a halfhearted scowl. “Who’s naïve now?”
    Okay, sure. Greyson might be naïve in believing this. But as
much as he pretended like he didn’t care about anything, the Jhetans were his
life. He felt each blow any one of them received as if it were his own.
    If that body in the morgue really was Davie Riddick, he was
in for a great deal of pain because Davie mattered to people. To his family. To
his friends. To Greyson.
    Even with the evidence pointing toward the worst outcome, he
hoped with all his might that Davie just ran off and left his wife and
daughter. Because the alternative was a heartbreaking fate.
     
     

 
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
    Avalon awoke to the sound of shrill ringing in her ear. She
groaned, burying her face deeper into the soft cushion of the pillow. It
couldn’t be time to get up yet. It seemed that she just fell asleep after
staying up late to finish the book she had been reading.
    When the ringing didn’t stop, she remembered the phone she
placed on the nightstand. Avalon blindly reached for it, her eyes too heavy to
open.
    “Hello?”
    “Avalon, are you asleep?” Greyson. Who else would call her
at this horrid hour?
    “I was,” she slurred, her tongue thick in her mouth. “What
time is it, sir?”
    “Two o’clock.”
    Avalon groaned again. No wonder her body wasn’t adapting
well to this wakeup call. She hadn’t even started dreaming yet. “What do you
need, sir?”
    “Can you…” There was a deep sigh on the other end of the
phone. “I need you to come over.”
    The change in his voice alerted her that there was something
wrong. His tone was usually arrogant and strong. Now it sounded weary and thin.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
    “Just come, Avalon. I can’t sleep.” The phone clicked in her
ear.
    She slowly got out of bed and stuck her feet into a pair of
soft pink slippers. She rarely allowed herself to buy anything. But she saw
those slippers with the matching silk nightdress and robe and had to buy them.
    The dress was more revealing than anything she’d ever worn.
It had spaghetti straps and a deep V neckline. The hemline of the dress came
only above her knee. The silk felt so smooth and soft against her skin.
    She wouldn’t have worn it to bed if she’d known Greyson was
going to call. Thankfully, the accompanying robe fell to her calves. Avalon
tied the belt and slipped out of her room.
    The cabin was dark and quiet. She tiptoed out as to not wake
her grandmother who was asleep in her bedroom, even though Veeva usually slept
like the dead. If Veeva knew where she was going at this time of night, she’d
probably have a ranting fit. Greyson fell to her bad list after she learned he
ratted her out on the whole spiked punch ordeal.
    The chilly autumn night wrapped around Avalon like a black
cloak as she walked up the road. She never realized how creepy the colony
looked at night before, especially when everyone was in their homes where she
should have been. The shadows caused by the trees were as deep as inkblots. The
skittering of the drifting leaves was as loud as a gunshot in the silent night.
    She pulled the sides of her robe closer together, working
herself into a panic. Why didn’t she tell Greyson to come get her? It wasn’t
safe for a woman to be walking alone at night. Even humans knew that.
    “Hey, you!”
    Avalon screamed. A scream of a worse nightmare. The man—she
hadn’t even heard him approach— stood right behind her, dressed in black with a
machine gun in his hand. It was quite possible she was about to