Page 40 of Damaged

I didn’t know the first thing about the city he was talking about. Hell, I didn’t even know if it was a city. I might have had a good memory, but it was of no use to me when the discussion revolved around something I’d never even thought to learn about on the internet.

“Yes,” I managed to say. It was close and big. That was all that mattered.

It was a full ten minutes before Dalton spoke again, but it wasn’t to me. He’d turned his phone back on and was talking to someone I assumed was Jace. God, maybe this was all a setup again? I was so confused. I felt like that eight-year-old kid who’d been placed in the back of the fanciest car I’d ever seen in my life. I’d been completely oblivious about what was going to happen to me.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Dalton said. His voice carried a strange tone that made me nervous. His eyes kept switching between the rearview mirror and the road in front of us. “He’s fine,” Dalton said flatly before that strange tone was back. “I need you to run a plate for me. I think I might have picked up a tail.”

None of his words made sense to me. Plate? Tail? How did those words even belong in the same conversation?

Since I could only hear Dalton’s side of the call and he’d stopped talking, the tension inside of me continued to grow.

“Yeah. No, it’s probably nothing,” Dalton said. He laughed lightly but it didn’t sound like him. It sounded… forced. I didn’t like that. I wanted to know what his real laugh sounded like. Did the man even laugh?

“You know me,” Dalton continued. He laughed again, though it still wasn’t real. “Seeing ghosts. He’s pulling off,” he added before hanging up the phone. This time, he left it on, but he didn’t connect it to the car like it had been before. The screen on the dashboard was still dark.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Dalton responded, his voice now even and unconcerned.

I remembered the conversation we’d had about ghosts. He’d said mine would be in good company in his house.

With his ghosts.

He hadn’t needed to say that part, though.

I fell silent but I couldn’t help but watch the expressions that passed over his features as he continued to check the rearview mirror. Despite what he’d said to Jace, he hadn’t relaxed.

It finally dawned on me that he’d thought someone might be following us.

I looked behind me but didn’t see a car. He’d mentioned it pulling off and had laughed it off with Jace, but then why was he still tense? Why was he still checking the mirror?

Fear skated through me as I looked over my shoulder again. It wasn’t possible. There was no way he could know where I was.

“Are we being followed?” I croaked as I tried to push my irrational fears back to the furthest parts of my mind—that place in my brain where a lot of thoughts ended up.

That place that was dark.

Quiet.

Safe.

“No,” Dalton murmured. “It was probably nothing.”

Probably nothing? Was that supposed to make me feel better?

“You’re lying,” I blurted. “You think there was someone behind us.”

Dalton sighed and glanced at me. “Jace ran the plates… the license plates on the car. The plates link back to the owner of the car.”

“Who was it?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

“It was just a rental,” Dalton responded. I could feel his eyes on me as I toyed with the hem of my shirt. “There are thousands of them in this area. Probably more. It’s like I said. I’m just being paranoid. It’s not the first time.”

“So we’re okay,” I murmured. I was trying to comfort myself with the words but there was no denying what I really needed to hear.

“Silver,” Dalton said softly. “Look at me.”

It wasn’t a command or order. It was a request.

---