Page 142 of The Darkest Chase

He caresses me with a tenderness that makes me feel cherished.

Loved.

Like he’ll leave the hottest bruises on my skin just to kiss them later, growling that he’ll always keep me safe.

But he just won’t talk to me.

He locks up, and when I try to talk to him, he says he’s tired.

I’m not buying it.

Because more than once, I’ve woken up and caught him pacing, brooding around the house with a tumbler of whiskey. Even Rolf watches him, occasionally glancing at me like he knows I’m awake and he wants me to fix this.

God, but I don’t know how.

Because I don’t know where Micah goes when he gets like this.

I just know it has everything to do with Xavier Arrendell, the Jacobins, and Micah’s dead brother.

I also know he hasn’t confronted Joseph Peters yet. I’m the one who’s supposed to make that happen.

I just haven’t been back to the house yet, not when I’ve been putting it off.

This quiet glow I get with Micah, when he’s kissed me until my mouth tastes swollen and hot and my body feels so well used, it’s everything.

And I don’t want to destroy that with Xavier’s bullcrap.

He emailed me the other day.

Just a brief, stiff apology, explaining that he was drunk and not fully himself. He didn’t mean to make me uncomfortable, he says.

B.S.

It feels like a pretense to get me up there again so he can back me into a corner and watch me squirm. There’s a horrible difference between a man who makes me hurt so good and a man who truly wants to hurt me for his own selfish delight.

It’s darkly funny and twisted, yes.

But it’s so much different when I want it.

And Micah always makes sure I want it every time.

Xavier Arrendell doesn’t care about what I want at all.

Only about scaring me.

I’ll go tomorrow, though.

I’m done being chicken.

We’ll set up a meeting with new fabrics and fresh concepts. I’ll get Joseph Peters alone and ask him to hang close—and I’ll do whatever I can to hint that he needs to meet with Micah soon.

If he’ll roll on Xavier—if I get how police stuff works—he can avoid being charged as an accessory.

Plus, I kinda want to ask him a few things myself.

Like how dirty our kindly old police chief Bowden really gets.

But I’d probably make a mess of things.

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