Page 176 of The Darkest Chase

Micah just waits.

And I can’t anymore.

I can’t wait any longer for him to take it back, to make it better, when I know he won’t and I don’t know how he can.

So I turn away, staring at the sun streaming through the tall windows of this cosmopolitan house that doesn’t belong in Redhaven any more than he does.

I know what time it is—I run.

With all the strength I’ve built in my broken lungs and broken body, I run away from Micah Ainsley.

And I refuse to ever look back.

18

DARK SILENCE (MICAH)

The Rum Martinez.

It’s one of the most complex mixed drinks in the world. First created by Japanese bartender Takumi Watanabe, it’s almost never served in the United States.

Back when I was bartending in NYC, it was my specialty.

A complicated process involving everything from maraschino liqueur and vermouth to smoke infusers and toasted wood chips, served on decorative dried tobacco leaves. It takes longer to make the drink than it does to consume it, though someone with a refined palate might linger over it longer.

For some, it’s a delicacy.

For me?

It’s a comfort ritual.

I started slinging drinks to pay my tuition and survive, but it gave me structure.

It gave me a ritual. If I just did everything in the right order with the right ingredients, I could make something magnificent.

I never had anything like that before in my life. It transformed alcohol from this poison that summoned my father’s demons into a magical elixir I could use to comfort others.

I wish life was always that simple.

With the right recipe, maybe I could have made Talia happy.

Except I know that’s not true.

Even as I calm my frantic mind and savaged heart with the focused process, infusing the heady tobacco smoke into the drink, standing over the wet bar in my dark house, her last words keep replaying in my mind.

She loves me.

No.

Loved.

I didn’t miss that switch to past fucking tense.

And even though I tried to hide my reaction, tried like hell not to make it harder on her to walk out, it skinned me alive.

One little change in that word.

Something inside me broke.

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