Page 52 of Forever Midnight

“Tru.”

“Leave me alone, Midnight.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible and you know it.”

“You’re keeping shit from me. I think I should go home.”

“No. Please, Tru.”

He kneels in front of me, pulling my hands away from my face, but I scoot back. “Don’t. I can’t handle this. I’m in way over my head, and now…Vinni’s probably dead. Who knows where the tapes are. My family is going to be ruined, Midnight, and there’s nothing I can do to fix this.”

“Hey,” he says softly, stroking my cheek with soft fingers. “Deep breaths.”

I release a few shaky breaths until the shaking finally stops and I slump against Midnight. He wraps his arms around me, and instead of pulling away, I climb onto his lap, letting him hold me and stroke my hair.

“You’re not doing this alone,” he whispers. “You’ll never do anything alone as long as I’m around.”

The tears finally fall, which only pisses me off. Some badass I am.

“Quiet your thoughts, chaton lféroce. You are so strong and brave, but I’m here too. My family is here. We’ll figure this out.”

Sniffing, I wipe my face. “Are you sure?”

Midnight pulls back enough to meet my gaze. “Absolutely. This is literally what I do for a living. Our clients hire us because no one ever gets away. Do you understand that, Tru? We will not rest until our target is eliminated. There’s a reason Vinni isn’t there with his dead friends. The attackers kept him alive. We’ll find him.”

I nod. “Yeah. Okay.”

He cups my face, gazing into my eyes, and suddenly I feel warm and calm, like curling up with a blanket and cocoa. “You’re an enigma, Midnight.”

“I promise I’ll tell you all my secrets. I just need you to trust me and know I would never harm you.”

“I know that. I do.”

“Good. Are you ready to rejoin the guys?”

“Yeah.”

Midnight helps me to my feet, and with his hand on my lower back, leads me back to the group. Syn is on the phone with his head down, Bowie lingering close to him.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Thorn says.

“You didn’t. It’s just the whole situation that got to me.”

“We have an idea where our friend Vinni could be,” Syn says after ending the call. “Let’s go.”

Our group heads back toward the SUV, but instead of getting in, we walk past it and into the worst part of town in New Onyx. Without Midnight, there’s no way I would come here on my own. People die just for turning down the wrong street.

After walking for several minutes, Syn stops in front of an abandoned house. Bowie clings to Syn’s arm and a quiet conversation passes between them. Syn turns back to the rest of us standing nearby.

“Go to the apartment building on Nevermore,” Syn says. “We’ll catch up.”

“You got it,” Thorn says, nodding his head in the direction we should walk.

“What’s happening?” I whisper to Midnight.

“That’s Bowie’s old family home,” he explains. “Some really bad shit went down there. My guess is Bowie just needed a minute.”

“Gotcha.”

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