Page 45 of Midnight Between Us
I step forward—not toward Keir.Toward Malerick.My voice doesn’t rise, but it doesn’t shake either.“He remembered his name today.Not a week ago.Not last night.Today.His brain is still recalibrating.His body’s running on instinct and adrenaline.And you want to yank him out of the only controlled space he has because he said one sentence that sounded like consent?”
“You don’t think people will notice if he stays with you?”Malerick shoots back.
“No one cares what I do,” I say flatly.“Even if I didn’t live on the outskirts of town, I’m still the town’s disappointment.I could host a naked parade in my front yard, and no one would show up.But if he’s seen with you—with either of you—he becomes a headline.People will know where to find him.”
There’s a pause.Then Atlas finally speaks.His voice is low but certain.“She’s not wrong.”
Malerick whips around.“You’re siding with her now?”
“I’m not siding with anyone,” Atlas says.“I’m trying to keep him breathing while we figure out who’s trying to make sure he doesn’t.You have a job to do.It might be best if we keep him away from anyone—even Hop and our women.”He turns to Keir.“Do you even remember what happened to you?”
Keir shifts on the stretcher.He winces, like the pain in his leg just caught up to the pressure in his chest.His mouth opens, then closes.When he speaks again, his voice is clear and distinct.
“I remember.”
It’s not loud.He doesn’t look at me.But the second I hear it, something cold threads through me.
Like someone just walked through my future and erased it.
Atlas stills.Malerick frowns.“What do you mean you remember?”
Keir’s eyes drift toward me—and this time, they stay.His gaze isn’t searching.It’s sentencing.Then he looks at Malerick.“You and I were on the phone.Talking about the sale of the company.I heard noises—” he pauses, then takes a deep breath— “I knew they were getting desperate because we wouldn’t sell.That made us a problem.They had threatened me and—all of us.That’s why I was urging you to do it.”
Then he turns to Atlas.“We need to leave Birchwood.You can’t keep me with Sims.They’ll kill her.”
Something snaps in my spine.
Oh, hell no.
Who gave him the right to decide that?To say, who gets protected and who gets left behind?
He doesn’t get to make decisions.Not about me or my life.
Malerick doesn’t wait.“He comes with us.He’s not safe here.”
“No,” I say.“He’s not safe there.You don’t have a plan, Mal.You have a last name and a badge.That’s not the same thing.”
“You’re in over your head,” he spits.
“Probably,” I admit because I’m not telling him that this place has security, that inside there are agents, and soon there’ll be doctors and even when there’s a full house it’ll look like it’s just me.I just say, “But at least I’m in it with him.”
Atlas’s jaw tightens.He doesn’t speak right away.He looks at Keir, long and thoughtful, then turns to me.“Call your boss, tell him about the situation.I’ll make a few calls too.I don’t like any of this.”
“I’m not calling him.”
“Finnegan Gil needs to know,” Atlas says.“We’re sitting ducks.That fire at The Honey Drop wasn’t random.Keir is right.They’re getting desperate.”
“Who?”I ask.“Who’s getting bolder?”
Keir flinches but answers.“Some investors.Wants to buy half the town.Gentrify it.Own it.Control it.I don’t know names yet, but when I said we wouldn’t do it they began to threaten me.I had one last chance.”
Atlas shakes his head, and something tells me that Keir has no idea who we’re honestly dealing with.Finnegan Gil wouldn’t be concerned about an investor.He fights criminals.
Mal mutters something under his breath, then growls, “I swear they don’t pay me enough for this shit.”He rubs a hand down his face, furious and wrecked.“I told everyone to stay away from this fucking town, but did you people listen?And now look at us.All back here.Like any of you gave a fuck about Birchwood before it started burning.”
I’m not here because I want to save this forsaken town, but because they made me.I narrow my gaze, and I wonder if that’s what’s happening with him.Maybe that explains why he went from being an FBI agent to just the sheriff.
Why were we dragged back to town?
