Page 23 of When Darkness Calls

“Okay, Human Torch. Let’s get out of here before you come in your pants.”

He just glares at me, but with the mask on, it’s so easy to hide my grin.

seven

Grayson

“We just want to know who you’re working with. That’s all. If you tell us that, we can stop this,” Keegan's tone is nonchalant. Like he’s trying to coax a toddler out of their hiding place.

Next to him, wearing his distorted mask, Nick’s everyday mask is off—the one he wears with everyone he encounters with a kind smile and quiet manners. The fucker is scary. He spins his knife like he did yesterday at our meeting, but now the tip is dripping with blood and each twirl has it splashing across his mask. His shoulders shake with a snicker as his heel connects with this guy David’s shin. There’s a distinct crack and the sound of his pain-filled groans.

I got to hand it to the man. He’s taking this like a champ. Either we were wrong, and his loyalty is much stronger than we expected, or he is scared of who he works for. Just not as scared as he should be of us.

Keegan catches Nick’s gaze, nodding to the man lying on the graveled ground behind the Founder’s Fest game booths. The twinkling music and sounds of children’s laughter and screams echo all around us. Back here though, with only a slight glow of the carnival lights illuminating the scene, we’re all alone. The timer on Keeg’s watch says we still have ten minutes before security will head back in this direction and we have to head out.

Nick drops down into a crouch, knife pointed directly above the man’s left eye. David begins to splutter bullshit about being a father and a hardworking man, and how if we let him go, we’ll forget all of this happened. Which, frankly, just isn’t true if all of our info is correct.

Just before the point touches his eyelid, the fireworks erupt in the sky, and a blood curdling scream flows through the back alley.

Nick, Keegan, and I all stopped and looked at each other. The fireworks continue to burst high in the dark of the night sky.

David’s voice is hoarse as he bargains with us.

“Shut the fuck up,” Nick hisses through his mask.

We heard a scream again.

“G, go. We’re moving the timeline up. Warehouse in twenty if it’s nothing. Text if it isn’t,” Keegan blurts, the demand has my back straightening, grip tightening on the knuckles as he pulls out another syringe plunging it into this guy’s leg. In seconds, he’s knocked out.

The guys haul David’s body up and begin dragging him out of the alley toward the Main Street cafe. My feet move on autopilot around the darkened alley, dodging dumpsters, cords, and debris.

I’m rounding the corner when a body slams into me. Hard.

My hands come up to grip their arms to steady us. Before I could even see her face, I know it’s her. Dani’s hair has always smelled like vanilla and something spicier.

Her head whips up, eyes frantic, before she croaks out in a relived voice, “It’s you. You came for me?”

“I’ll always be here for you,” I reply automatically, like my brain hadn’t caught up to what my mouth said.

“Please, we have to go. A man.” Dani starts pushing my chest. “There’s a man in a ski mask,” she chokes on a sob, and it’s then I notice her trembling, her shirt rumpled, and her leggings skewed.

I grabbed her hand, yanking her close. Her face is so close to me I can feel the warmth of her heavy breaths. “Did he touch you?”

Another sob is all the answer I need before I’m ready to kill him.

“Go. Follow the alley and run fast. The next gap is just around the corner. Stand by a busy booth and call someone. Stay in the crowd and do not leave until they get there.”

She nods, turning to run, before she stops, and timidly replies, “Thank you.”

Her fast footfalls quiet the further she goes, but mine never once make a sound as I canvased the back alley. I walk until I come across two figures huddled together between two booths, the carnival lights casting their shadows across the alley. One has their back to me, and I can’t make out their features, but the one facing me is wearing the ski mask.

Blinding is too simple of a word to explain the rage that blankets me. My vision tunnels as I ran towards them, wishing I had taken Nick’s knife before he left. This fucker deserves to suffer. Hell, they both do, if the other person doesn’t seem to be fucking fazed at all that he’s talking to someone wearing a goddamn ski mask in a shady alley.

The one wearing the mask’s eyes narrow. As I get closer, I can see the smirk tugging at the corner of his bloody mouth. He grabs the other guy, pulling him as they run back into the fray. Standing in the bright lights, eyes scanning the crowd, I don’t know which feels worse. Knowing Dani was here and I didn’t save her again, or knowing whoever had dared to touch her just slipped away.

Whoever the bastard was, he’s gone. And it’s like he was never here.

I pull my phone out dialing Cade’s number.