Page 53 of Shattered Veil

“What are you doing here?”

The question was quiet, but it was as if she were hooked up to a goddamn microphone.

I replied, “Ignoring my alarm that’s telling me to get up and get ready for work.”

“And why are you doing that?”

“Because I’ll have, like, maybe half a brain to use since I haven’t slept much. And that half a brain is thoroughly occupied.”

“With?”

“With?” I repeated the word incredulously. “With? Women are going missing at your work!”

“We don’t know that,” she replied in a clipped tone.

I asked with a heavy weight, “Did the MIA girls come back?” Cassie pressed her lips together tightly, and I stated definitively, “Yeah, I’m coming inside.”

She stepped to the right to block my path. “For what?”

Sleep deprivation and stress from the reality of the now had burrowed under my skin tonight—that was certain—and her accusatory tone made the bugs that had settled to roost come alive.

I snapped, “The fuck do you mean, for what?”

Cassie crossed her arms, dismissively replying, “You should go home, Jay. Get some sleep.”

“Sleep,” I scoffed. “The fact that you think I could just go home and sleep right now is hilarious.”

“Jesus,” she sighed, looking to the porch ceiling before placing her dark gaze on me. “Fine. I’ll bite. Why won’t you be able to sleep?”

“I—fuck, Cassie, I’m sorry…but that question is asinine.” The cheerful ringtone on my phone went off once more, and I frustratedly smacked the outside of my pocket three times to silence the alarm. It somehow worked, and I repeated what we knew with purpose, “Women are going missing. Your work may be a place that is compromised with that, and the one man,” I thrust an index finger toward her face, “that we know of who can give us more information on that is presumably on the fuckin’ run.”

“This is my shit, Jay,” she retorted. “As much as I appreciate you covering for me at Henry’s, you are not involved in my shit. If Colton comes back, you can just send him my way.”

I barked out a bitter laugh. “Oh, okay. Sure. I’m not involved…and neither is anyone else!” I exclaimed, throwing a hand out toward the abyss of snowy dawn behind me. “No one else that we know—none of our family—is aware of any of your shit. And y’know what? That would have been fuckin’ fine. Completely fine—you don’t want anyone else who’s close to you to know about your work? Cool. Great. Grand. But guess what, Cas? I know. It’s not a secret to me, and I’m not gonna sit on my ass and ignore all the shit that we learned about tonight.”

“What do you wanna do right now, Jay?” she asked sharply. “Barge on into my house, sit down, and have a nice little chat about all the potential fuckery that could go down with whatever Claire’s ex said that he’s involved in?”

“No,” I returned. “I don’t want to talk about any of that shit. I’d just go in circles about it all, and I don’t—we don’t know enough, anyway. Not right now.”

“Then what?” Cassie asked, her face pinched in exasperation. “What do you want? Why are you here?”

“I’m here for you!” I yelled.

“God dammit, I don’t need you to be here! I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself!”

“I’m well-the-fuck-aware that you don’t need me here. I have the feeling that you haven’t needed anyone but yourself for most of your life.” My words seemed to have stunned her, her head bobbing back for a quick moment as her mouth clamped shut. Her gaze stayed glued on me, and I took a breath to steady myself. “When I say that I’m here for you, I mean that I need you.” I placed a hand on the center of my chest and stated, “I need to be around you—not the other way around. I need the tangible. Proof. That you’re okay and that you’re not…not missing like these other women.”

Her defensive demeanor suddenly left her, her arms hung at her sides, and the hardened look in her eyes softened.

Cassie whispered, “Oh.”

“Look…I am…fried. Everything that’s happened in the past few hours has been a lot.” I exhaled heavily. “I’m cold. I’m tired.” Cassie’s brow pinched together sympathetically, and I concluded softly, “I care about you, and I’m worried. Please…for the love of all that is holy…let me inside, Cas.”

As quietly as they had exited my mouth, the last few words still felt like they came straight from my chest.

Cassie took a single step forward to softly wrap her arms around my waist, tucking her head into the crook of my neck. The act was so unexpected that for just a moment, I froze. My hands hovered in the air in a split-second hesitation, and her grip on me tightened. Her nose nuzzled along my neck, her forehead dropped to my collarbone, and when my brain fully recognized what was happening, I returned her embrace. I pulled her close, one hand on the back of her head and the other around her waist, and I squeezed as I rested my cheek against her hair.

It warmed me despite the weather blustering around us, for the hold she had on me was unexpectedly gentle. Vulnerable, even—raw. I found myself holding my breath because I knew that the moment would be fleeting. I didn’t know for sure, but it appeared that Cassie may have been doing the same for her body was still with the exception of her fingers that would occasionally flex against my back. She did so one last time, finally drawing in a long inhale that forced her shoulders to rise, and she let it out against my neck. I breathed similarly in response, and she murmured:

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