Page 232 of Secret Shifters Next Door

We lay there, gasping for breath for several minutes. Miles sat up and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me and putting his lips to my ear. “You’re so beautiful. I want you toknow how much it means to me that you trust me. That we have this. I promise, I’ll make our first time special.”

I curled into him, already wanting to fall asleep. He lifted the covers over us and settled down with my head on his chest. I’d never been so happy before in my whole life. It may have been a curse, but I was happy it had been cast. It had brought me to Lilly Valley and to Miles.

TWENTY-FOUR

MILES

Blayne handed an earpiece to Celina. “This is how you’ll hear what we say.”

Celina took the tiny earbud and looked at it apprehensively. “It’s so small. How will I get it back out? It’s not gonna, like, get lodged in my brain or something, right?”

Blayne chuckled. “No. See this little wire here? That’s what you grab to pull it back out. It has to be small, so no one else can see it. With your hair down, nobody will be able to tell that you have it in or see the pull wire. Trust me, it’s safe.”

I stood behind Blayne, watching as Celina slipped the earpiece in. We’d already put a small wireless microphone on the belt loop of her jeans. Both devices had batteries that would last up to a couple hours. We’d used them before and found it to be a great way to track conversations between people at a distance. All I was worried about was that Celina would be going in alone.

Felicity had contacted her and asked about doing brunch this morning. We’d started planning immediately. Finding the right equipment was easy. The hard part would be getting the details out of Felicity. Last night, Tate and I had spent over an hour working with Celina, giving her pointers on how to draw information out. I wasn’t entirely sure she would be up to thetask. Even people who were experienced in stuff like this tended to let nerves get to them. Celina was untrained. Not only that, she had a hard time with uncomfortable conversations. Celina would not be meeting up with Felicity if it were up to me.

I’d voiced that concern to Celina, but she had been adamant that she wanted to do this.

“Miles, I want to help you. This is one way I can. We’ll be in public, and I’ll have all four of you guys nearby in case things fall apart,” she’d said last night in bed before we fell asleep.

She was right. We would be nearby, but something was gnawing at the back of my head. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all too dangerous. For her part, Celina looked as cool as ice. I knew her well enough at this point to know her mind was probably going a mile a minute, but on the outside, she looked totally fine.

“Okay,” Tate said, taking a seat next to Blayne. “Do you remember what we discussed?”

She nodded. “I think so.”

“Vague questions about her family. Try to bring up her dad. Don’t let her know what you know. Talking about parents is pretty tame stuff, and that shouldn’t throw her guard up. Most of what she says will probably be a lie, and we expect that. But if we get enough information out of her, we can try and use it. Maybe she’ll sprinkle the truth in along with the lies. We won’t know what helps lead us to her father until later. All you’re going to do is draw the conversation out.”

“I can do that.” I smiled at the confidence in her voice. “This isn’t really my line of work, but I’ll do my best.”

I looked at her and said, “Imagine this is one of your stories. You’re the heroine trying to save the day.”

Excitement lit in her eyes. “You’re right. That does help. You can trust me; I can handle this.”

I hoped she was right.

We sent her on her way fifteen minutes before the scheduled brunch date. The bodyguard still trailed her, but instead of using one of the black company sedans, he drove his personal car. We wanted to make sure there was no way any hunters watching would know Celina had someone on her tail. I’d wanted to be the guy in the car, but I’d been overruled. The hunters knew all four of our faces for sure. They’d spot me a mile away. I’d reluctantly agreed, knowing they were right. I put all my faith in Celina to get out of this safely. Instead, we loaded the audio equipment into a nondescript van and parked it about two blocks away. We were probably a thirty-second sprint from the restaurant, but I felt like I was on the other side of the world.

I sat in the back of the van with the guys and listened to the audio coming through Celina’s mic. Terry, her bodyguard, was one of our best, and I trusted him to do the job right. He was on the same frequency as Celina’s radio so he could call in the moment he saw anything weird.

“Celina’s pulling in the parking lot. All clear,” Terry radioed.

I leaned forward, clenching my hands between my legs. Every second she was out of my sight, the more worried I got. There was a burning sensation in my chest from stress-induced acid reflux.

“Calm down, Miles,” Celina whispered into her microphone.

I couldn’t help but relax a little. Steff looked at me and smirked. “She already knows you pretty well, huh?”

I nodded. “Even five miles away, she can tell I’m freaked the fuck out.” It was scary how in sync we were already.

“She’s walking inside now,” Terry said.

My smile slipped off my face when I heard Felicity’s voice on the radio.

“Celina? Over here.”

I felt powerless as I sat and listened to them exchange pleasantries. Simple words back and forth. Still, I got the sensethat things were on a razor’s edge. Ready to fall over one side or the other at the slightest provocation.

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