Page 34 of The Eleventh Hour

“What is this?”

“It’s our place.” Rafael laughs. “Come on, you’ll love it.”

She gets out and follows him. I hang back in the car for a moment. I wait, and it doesn’t take long. Rafael comes trotting back to the car.

“What the hell?” I hiss at him.

His face shutters instantly, and I feel like an ass. “What?”

“She’s your best friend now?”

Rafael shifts from foot to foot. I climb out of the car and stalk towards him.

“She’s not our friend. We don’t know if we can trust her yet, Rafe.”

“I believe her.”

“Oh, just like that?”

“Instincts, brother. I listen to them. You should try sometime.” The haughty tone makes me reel.

He goes to turn away, and I grab his wrist. He spins back and raises his eyebrows and slowly looks down. I let go like its fire.

“If you can’t trust her, trust me, Dane.”

My chest aches as I watch him walk inside. Trust…it’s such a dangerous thing to give someone, and I’ve been burned before.

I close my eyes and think of the horrified look in my mother’s eyes when I told her my secret. The way my father walked out the door six months later with a younger woman in his car and another child in her belly. The dead look in my mother’s eyes as she threw plates at me. As she screamed until they took her away.

The loneliness until Terrance paused as he was walking past and knelt down and smiled. Those dark green eyes that saw straight through me, saw my secrets, and it didn’t matter. The one time I trusted, and it paid off. Until it didn’t. Until he was gone, too.

I have to find him. Nothing else matters. I can’t trust her, no matter how much Rafael asks, because she’s holding the secrets to finding my brother, and if I have to tear her apart to get those secrets, I will.

Jax

Dane comes in just as Rafael returns and passes me a cup of coffee.

“Just so you know, you two are still paying me for this.”

Dane gapes at me. “No.”

Rafael glares. “Yes, we had an agreement with her.”

“But-”

“Dane, stop arguing all the time. She gets paid.”

I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him until he nods tightly. Rafael sits close to me, his arm brushing mine. I do not know what to make of him. In a world where I go out of my way to avoid being touched by people, his touch is not only comforting, but I find I crave it. I unconsciously lean into it. There is something so trustworthy about him. He makes me feel safe.

It’s ridiculous. I try to straighten, but our shoulders brush, and I slump, giving up. I scowl. I’m just going to take control of this situation.

“I met Louis here in school. We became friends, and when I was sixteen, I left home. Eventually, we ended up in a relationship, and you know, life happened.”

I fall silent, the eyes of both of the guys burning into me.

“It was a Wednesday, and it was eleven in the morning. I remember looking at the clock and thinking how cool it was, and that whoever was on the other side of the door was going to be good news. I was about to head into work. The gallery was opening late that night. Louis hadn’t been home for two days, but he’d said he was going out of town on business and would be back that night. It wasn’t unusual. So, there I am, living my life, when I open the door to two detectives. They took me down to the station and told me what had been going on.”

I swallow hard, remembering the photos, the screaming accusations, the soft cajoling, the verbal traps. It was the most exhausting days of my life.

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