Page 39 of Dead By Dusk

There’s a plea in the way he looks at me as he asks this, one that has me taking a deep breath and shoving past them all to sit next to Carmen. I allow myself a moment to gather my thoughts. No matter how much I hate to admit it, I never would have relented as easily as I did if it weren’t for that damned look on his face. I would have held my ground or started throwing kicks and punches to pry the folders from Adonis’ fingers.

Dead or alive.

“Fine. I have nothing to hide.”

I regard everyone the same as I say it, searching for any changes in body language, but nobody breaks the carefully constructed facades they’ve created. No twitches, no scrunched eyebrows, no change in breathing or shifting weight. Not a single person moves except Adonis whose head tilts, just slightly to the left, as if he knows something I don’t.

Or worse, that he’s already caught me in a lie.

19

We’ve Been Here Before: Ronan

“It’s the little things that I remembered first, really,” Silene starts, her piercing stare roaming the faces of everyone in the room. “Phrases, really. Someone’s voice speaking to me.” She flicks her beautiful green eyes to mine and lets them linger a beat longer than she had anyone else’s when she reaches the end of her statement. This little action tells me that, while she had warned me in my dream, I was her guide on her way out.

When she turns away from me, she clears her throat, the lights above us flickering, briefly casting our attention elsewhere before she continues.

“My fear of heights came first. Fighting felt like second nature. Next was one in the form of a dream. I had discovered something about someone Ronan and I worked for. Something big and terrible. He didn’t believe me. Not at first, at least. When I woke, I didn’t know what I knew, or even how I knew it, just that there wassomething.” Every single person is listening intheir own way. Nate is a picture of inquisitive hesitance while Adonis appears to be more scrutinizing over the words that she’s saying. Like he’s tearing apart every word that she says and is building it to fit a narrative that makes more sense. Then there’s Carmen, who hasn’t stopped looking at the ground, but has shifted closer to Silene, taking hold of her hand in a comforting sign of support.

Though every now and again, her body stiffens slightly, or her eyebrows pull together with worry. Small but noticeable signs that I see clear as day.

Carmen’s hiding something.

“The next dream I had gave me more information. Who I was before we all met, how we know each other, and lastly…how we got here.” My attention pulls back to her when she says this, and I notice the way her confidence slightly falters. Her shoulders fall inward as a shuddering breath escapes her, seemingly in preparation to explain what she means.

“We all worked for someone. He…” Her gaze flickers to Carmen for the briefest of moments. I’m not sure anyone else would have even noticed, but I do. I notice everything she does. “He was very wealthy, cruel, and dangerous. We ended up on the wrong side of his business.”

And suddenly, I’m thrust back into the memories she’s speaking of, except now they’re my own.

“Can you just give up, already? We’ve been at this for hours and I’m starving,” I grit out between kicks and punches, but Nate continues to deflect each and every one of them. Offense seems to have always been his strength. He has some muscle, but he’s still much lankier than me and the other guys. But he’s also faster.

So much faster it borders on frustrating.

His eyebrows crease, but he smirks as he keeps dodging everything I throw his way. The sun beats down on us, andsweat covers every inch of our bodies. I had enough sense to rid myself of my shirt pretty early when I realized how unseasonably warm it was today, but he didn’t think to do the same, so I know his exhaustion must be quickly approaching. I just have to keep going long enough for it to catch up to him.

He’s almost there…just… one moment more, and…there.

I feign left as he sloppily dodges my last punch, and when he moves in response, I quickly switch direction, slipping past his defense. I kick in the back of his knee and smile in victory as he falls to the ground. My chest rising and falling just as hard as his, I take a second to look around, my gaze falling on the estate behind us. I know she’s in there, probably tucked away in one of the many lounges with a book.

“I have something that I need to tell you,” I say as he still struggles to catch his breath. Long white lashes brush against his cheek, and he doesn’t bother to open his eyes as he speaks. He doesn’t spare me a single glance, but grunts to tell me he’s heard me regardless. I don’t take much offense knowing his day-to-day work isn’t physically demanding like ours. Our infrequent sparring sessions take a lot out of him.

“Go ahead, asshole, we don’t have all day.”

I reach a hand out to Nate and help him up. He groans and grimaces as he stands, and I can’t stop myself from laughing at the sight of him so obviously uncomfortable with his sweaty shirt, now covered in dirt, clinging to his body like a second skin.

“You know Silene, right?” I ask as we begin walking toward the house. I work with Silene often, while Nate doesn’t often get the chance to. At least not directly since he works more on the cyber side of Mr. Delgado’s business. Honorable work, but a waste of his talent for sure.

He sideeyes me, that smirk back on his face. A gentle breeze pushes some of his wild orange hair from his forehead andmakes it easier to see his dark brown eyes. “Yes. I knowofher at least. Her success rate on missions is phenomenal. She’s only failed once and that was uh…one you assisted with, yes? Correct me if I’m wrong.”

I push at his shoulder, and we both bark out a loud laugh.

“What happened with that one anyway?”

“Irrelevant.” I cut in while smiling to myself at the memory.

“Okay then, why bring her up? And be careful what you say. That research you asked for a few weeks back is…dangerous,” he trails off, and suddenly I’m not so sure about what I want to say. He’s right. Voicing my thoughts could potentially end me, but carrying out these plans—involving him—without telling him the complexity of the situation doesn’t feel right. He and I haven’t always been close, but h—

I’m forced back to the present by the sound of Silene loudly clapping her hands before resting them in her lap. She’s rolling her lips together and anxiously looking around the room at the other men.

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