Page 35 of Midnight Torment

Small, cold hands wrapped around my wrist. “I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” Megan said from beside me. She rested her forehead against my bicep.

I took a step back, my arm snaking around her small body to drag her against me, my chin propping against her head.

Two men were injured but alive. Flynn could leave them in our containment area until my rage had diminished enough for me to question them.

Xavier appeared with cable ties to immobilise the men, Ash following him with gags to tie into position. “Where the fuck did they come from?” Xavier demanded while crouched beside one of the guys.

I tensed, my arms tightening around Megan. “They must have picked up a signal from Megan when we were driving to get her a new laptop. I had her old one in a security bag, but maybe they got a hack on her phone as well?”

Megan stiffened, her nails digging into my top. “What?” she asked, her head canting back to peer up at me.

I shook my head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “My guess is they got to your phone and laptop in the middle of the chaos when the psycho visited your office. It was sloppy of me not to replace them when we got home.”

“Give yourself a break, Jay,” Ash said. “We’re firefighting every single day and we’re all tired.”

My soul was weary from all the shit we were having to deal with. For the first time in my life, I was sick of the death and violence. I just wanted to take Megan and go and live on that island I purchased a few years ago. We could even take the squirrel if it kept her happy. I could raise a herd of goats to keep the grass down.

“Is Simon safe?” Megan asked. “Did they follow us home?”

That certainly caught the attention of Xavier and Ash since they kept trying to pry into my private life and what was happening with Megan.

“No, we caught the tail as we headed into the city. I think they probably have cars out on patrol just waiting to wreak havoc and misery.” I refused to look at the guys.

“Need me to check on Simon for you?” Xavier asked, trying to pump Megan for information.

“Simon is just fine,” I snapped, earning me a sharp glance from Megan. “No one has been in the house. I have sensors everywhere that would let me know if someone even breathed on my lawn.”

“What about Beth and Ollie? Are they okay?” Her eyes were huge. The guys would never let this go if she didn’t stop talking.

“Sorry, but who the fuck is Beth and Ollie?” Xavier demanded. “I haven’t seen any security reports on them.”

“They’re the elderly couple who live next door to us,” Megan replied.

Ash’s eyebrow rose but Xavier flinched back as if Megan had slapped him. He turned his attention to me and gave me awhat the fuckglare.

“Fine,” I snapped, eying the assholes bound on the ground. “But somewhere private.” I stalked off toward our business premises, kicking the men on the way past just because I was in bad temper.

I lifted Megan under her ass, and she wrapped her legs around my waist, resting her chin on my shoulder to stare over it at the devastation left in our wake.

“You okay?” I asked in a low voice for no one else to hear. There seemed to be enemies crawling out from random rocks right now.

“Hmmm.” She tightened her grip on me, her arms trying to strangle me. Her head burrowed deeper into me, her lips close to my ear. “Are you injured?”

I didn’t want to admit that I had a few grazes from bullets that came too close after her reaction the last time. “I’ll live.”

Megan’s body stiffened, her fingers digging into me as if her will alone could hold me together or heal me. Her lips skimmed over the skin of my throat. She unlocked an emotion that I had secured away a long time ago, one that I prayed had been exterminated. She made me feel hope and that left me vulnerable because it could make you crave things that you could never have.

The last vestiges of hope died the day Grampa told me that my ladder would never reach heaven and I would never see my parents again. Megan had reignited the flame of that sordid emotion because I craved a future with her, happiness, and a family. She was my kryptonite and that made me also fall to my knees. I had been invincible before because I had nothing to lose, and didn’t care if I lived or died.

Xavier and Ash followed us into the building, and I set Megan on a desk. I hated sharing the part of myself that resided in that house with anyone. Megan was allowed in there only because it was where I’d gone to think about her in the past. Not that I’d ever admit it out loud, but I’d thought of her when I bought it, imagined her golden hair in every room of that house. She’d walked in and made it a home.

“Spill,” Xavier said, folding his arms across his chest.

Ash propped his ass on another desk and moved his attention to me.

“There’s nothing really to say,” I started and Xavier’s eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth to interrupt me and I held my hands up to ward off his verbal attack. “Fine. Simon is a squirrel that destroys my window boxes. Beth and Ollie live in the house next door to a property I own in suburbia. We all have safe houses, so save me the bullshit.”

We did, but I also knew the majority of those houses stayed empty to ensure no one found them.

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