Page 43 of Midnight Whispers

Her gaze darts between Cinder and me before she nods.

We go in the room, and Dahlia scurries to the far bed and tucks herself under the covers as if the thin bedspread is a protective barrier from all the shit going on in her life. Cinder heads toward the bathroom and comes out holding the hand of a younger girl who resembles her sister. She scurries up on the bed to sit beside Dahlia.

“Rose, this is my friend, Nero. He’s going to hang out with us until your mom gets back just in case there’s any more trouble, okay?”

Rose nods.

Cinder walks over to me, bringing me by the hand over to the corner of the room.

“I need to call Lisa and tell her what happened just in case he shows up at work,” she says in a low voice. “Can you stay out here while I make the call in the bathroom?”

I nod.

She looks back at the girls. “I’m just going to make a quick call in the bathroom. Be right back.” Her voice holds false cheer that I’m sure the girls see through, but I still admire how Cinder’s handling the situation.

Not a surprise. This woman always amazes me.

While she’s in the bathroom, I send a few texts. A few minutes later, the bathroom door opens, and Cinder comes out.

“Good news! Your mom is on her way back.”

Both girls nod, though they’re holding one another’s hands, not ready to let go.

The four of us sit in silence, watching a kid’s show that makes me want to gouge out my eyeballs. Seriously, it’s painful.

A half hour later, a knock sounds on the door. I put my hand up to stop Cinder from approaching, and I go to the door and look through the peephole.

“It’s me,” says a woman from the other side of the door.

Sure enough, it’s the woman who left a while back. I unlock the deadbolt and swing the door open. Lisa, as I now know her, rushes in but stops when she sees me.

“This is my friend, Nero,” Cinder says. “He helped calm things down.”

I’m not sure I’d put it that way, but hey, whatever.

Lisa nods and continues straight to her daughters. She wraps her arms around them both. “Are you girls okay?”

Their little hands grip their mom as though they’re afraid she might disappear, and the youngest sobs into her mom’s chest.

My chest squeezes, and my hand rubs over my heart to relieve the ache. I was once like that little girl.

Pushing that thought out of my mind, I clear my throat. “I arranged for you to stay somewhere else. Wrote the information down on the notepad.” I gesture to the small, scarred table in the corner. “It’s a little farther out from”—I glance at the two small girls—“your work, but there’s security, and no one gets in or out unless they’re a guest.”

Lisa watches me as though maybe I’m the predator, then her eyes flicker to Cinder with a questioning expression. She untangles herself from her daughters and walks over to the table, picking up the notepad.

“I can’t afford this place.” She drops the notepad back on the table.

“You don’t have to. My family owns it. You can stay there as long as you need to, free of charge.”

Cinder’s gaze bores into the side of my head, but I don’t look over. No, I shift uncomfortably on my feet because I’m not used to being the one who swoops in like the superhero. I’m more the villain type the superhero is trying to save people from.

Lisa looks between Cinder and me a couple of times, then seems to realize her best bet here is to say thank you and not look a gift horse in the mouth. Good. If I had to work to convince her my motives were true, I might just tell her to forget the whole fucking thing.

“Thank you,” she says. “That’s really nice of you.”

“Can we help you pack up?” Cinder asks.

“There’s not much, but yeah. That’d be great. I want to get out of here in case Freddie decides to return.”

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