Page 119 of Shattered Veil

“Out of necessity—and don’t give me that look where ya scrunch up your nose like what I’m saying is insane.” Luke’s expression immediately shifted, and Claire stated, “I’m not defending him or saying he’s a goddamn angel in disguise, but he’s never intentionally hurt anyone.”

Without looking away from the laptop, Zoey noted, “He blackmailed you, sweetie—that’s a certain level of hurt.”

“Okay, yes, he blackmailed me to force me to help him because of what he was tangled up in, I’m aware—we all lived it. That doesn’t mean he’d have a hand in James disappearing,” Claire retorted.

“I’m with you, I’m with you,” Zoey replied with a wave of her hand. “Just sayin’.”

“And I’m saying,” Claire insisted, “I’m just as leery as you guys, but…look, he’s done shitty things to save his own ass, but even you guys know that would be a huge stretch. I’m—I’m still leery…and I don’t get it. But it’s a stretch.”

Zoey nodded.

I said, “Listen, I don’t know the guy, but he did steal literal evidence for us.” Luke clenched his jaw, and I added, “Ran from the cops. Brought said evidence back. I’m not sayin’ he’s an angel either ’cause I don’t know him from Adam, but—”

As if we had willed him into existence, the front door opened, and Colton arrived.

Everyone glanced his way, and he peered around the room. Hair dark as onyx, parted down the middle and hanging loose around his face; stubble that had grown to the point that it was just noticeable from a distance; a hooded sweatshirt that matched the color of his hair and had a small emblem of a skull on the left side of his chest—he looked similar enough to how he had at each one of our meetings. What was different about him now was how he was holding himself.

Colton seemed to be a confident individual when I had seen him previously. Every time I had witnessed him stride through a door, he was doing so boldly—with purpose and perhaps charisma. Now as he stood, though, his gaze turned more and more concerned as it dragged over us all. Locking eyes with Claire first, a crease formed between his brows. Luke was next in his line of sight, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Then, his lips pursed together as he took in Zoey, who was still squinting behind her glasses at the computer screen. Finally, me—his shoulders sagged in a rough exhale, and his icy eyes went soft as they bounced across my face.

He shut the door behind him, quietly commenting on our appearances with a grimly muttered, “Yeah…that’s about right.” I assumed that it was because we had so recently spoken that there were no general pleasantries—only rapid strides as he pointedly powerwalked his way to Zoey. Seemingly in the same thought process as we were in attempting to find the impossible connection between 2D, missing dancers, and James’ disappearance, he asked her, “You find anything on that computer yet?”

She exhaled loudly, glancing his way while he grabbed the other chair that was situated at the dining table. He dragged it to her left and sank onto it.

“No, otherwise you’d be sure as hell that we wouldn’t be sitting here on our asses.”

“Don’t think any of us are sitting on our asses. Time is of the essence here,” he grumbled nodding his head in gesture to the screen. “Text messages?”

“Mhm.”

“That’s it?”

“Mhm.”

Colton muttered, “Not that much, is there?”

“No,” Zoey returned with a sardonic chuckle. “Doesn’t help that most of these numbers aren’t even labeled as a full contact name. I mean…this one? Unlabeled, but clearly his landlord,” she clicked the trackpad purposefully, mentioning Mister Milkovich without speaking his name. “Asking for rent, barely any responses back. This one?” Click. “Nothing telling, just someone named R being pissy with him and, again, not many responses back.” Click. “This one just says different variations of call me over and over—”

“Have ya tried Googling them?”

She had begun to rapidly tap on the keyboard mid-way through Colton’s sentence.

“Already on it.”

Without a pause between us all and with a hefty cock of his head, Luke spoke up:

“Why are you so goddamn eager to find this guy?”

Eyes still on the laptop, Colton murmured, “We’ve been over this, I think.”

“Right…the vigilante shit,” Luke returned.

“Mhm.” He pointed at the screen. “You’re doing that one first?”

Zoey hummed in acknowledgment.

“Just seems like a far cry from what you were doing in North Carolina,” Luke noted.

“Time passes,” Colton said offhandedly. “Shit happens and makes you think. It ain’t that deep.”

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