Page 37 of Dark Endures

Not Again

Maddox

What was that woman doing here, working until three in the morning? Especially since she was working her other job yesterday.

Her eyes looked tired even with all the makeup she put on her face. You can’t hide that kind of exhaustion.

Makeup—at least that dark, smokey makeup—isn’t part of her normal attire.

Did she have a date last night?

Why do you even care if a woman in your employment had a date?

Because what man lets his woman work herself until she’s that exhausted? She’s better off without a guy like that.

There’s a knock at my office door.

That’ll have to wait for later. “Come in.”

Everett strides in without his usual swagger.

Something’s off. “What’s wrong?”

“Jordan is gone.” Everett stops moving.

Jordan? Who’s Jordan? “Not the little blond boy that moved onto The Street like six months ago?”

“Yeah, that Jordan.”

Not possible. One of my men would have noticed. Someone would have said something.

These kids are sneaky. If they want to disappear, they just vanish. “He’ll show up.” Usually when they run out of supplies that they’ve taken.

“He didn’t run away.”

I didn’t want to believe kids would run away either, but they do. We can’t help them all. But Everett seems so sure. “Why do you say that?”

“Because he didn’t take any of his stuff.”

Hmmm. That’s not unheard of, but it’s certainly rarer. “Is there anything else?”

“The other day, when we were talking, he seemed jumpy. Afraid of his own shadow. A week ago, Jordan wasn’t like that. Something happened. I know it.” Everett paces over to the snakes. “He’s afraid of someone, and we need to help him.”

Even if it pans out to nothing, I’ll have learned about Everett. “Let me pull up the security footage.”

“Already got it.” Everett pulls out a brand-new phone.

One we didn’t give him. “Where did you get that?”

“Huh?”

“The phone.” Though I should be asking about how he hacked into our security feeds, I don’t really want to know the answer. Everett needs an internship soon. Someone who will keep this kid on his toes.

Everett stares at the phone in his hand flummoxed for a moment. “I found it.”

Yeah right. I raise an eyebrow at him.

“Does that even matter right now? Jordan is missing.”

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