Calum jumped a mile and spun around. At first he saw no source of the muttered exclamation and heard nothing over the stampeding tattoo of his own heart.
Then Brix stepped out of the shadows, his eyes dark and hooded. “What are you doing out here?”
“Erm . . . looking for you?” It was halfway true.
“Why are you looking for me?”
“Because you’re not in bed. I thought I heard something, so I checked your room. When you weren’t there, I—”
“Fuck’s sake.” Brix ran a hand through his wild hair.
“Sorry, mate. I was just a bit worried.”
Brix said nothing. Calum stared at the ground, wishing it would swallow him up. Pissing Brix off was the last thing he wanted to do. Why the fuck didn’t you stay inside?
Two fingers under Calum’s chin made him jump for a second time. Brix’s face suddenly an inch from his own startled him even more.
“Don’t do that,” Brix said fiercely.
“Do what?”
“Look down like you’re the fucking problem. You surprised me, Cal. I don’t hate you.”
Brix likely meant well, but the anger in his tone made Calum’s heart pound louder. Or maybe that was down to Brix’s proximity, or the heat of his fingertips on Calum’s chin. Who knew? Not Calum. All he knew was Brix’s gaze was so intense it left him dizzy, until their cold, damp surroundings made themselves known again.
Brix shivered and let his hand drop. “You shouldn’t be out here. You’ll catch your death.”
“I’m not going to get any colder than you are.”
“True.” The barest hint of Brix’s crooked grin briefly lit up his face. “And I’m fucking freezing.”
“Then you should come inside.”
“Wish I could.”
Calum wanted to ask why he couldn’t, but something told him Brix wouldn’t answer. Instead, he turned his attention to the boxes. “What are these?”
“Dunno. Haven’t looked.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause they’re not mine.” Brix sighed and his faint grin disappeared. “My aunt dumped them here because she’s too tight to pay her gang to lug them up the cliffs to the family caves. Reckons I’ll get pissed off enough to do it for her . . . and she’s right.”
The cliff-top cave Brix had disappeared into a few weeks ago flashed into Calum’s mind. If Brix was talking about the same one, it meant he’d be lugging the stacked crates up the highest cliff in the town. Calum eyed the crates. “You’ve already moved some, haven’t you?”
“How can you tell?”
“Because you’re knackered, and there’s less crates than when I first saw them out of the window. You must have been and gone while I was farting around with the fire.”
Brix nodded slowly. “This isn’t me, you know that, don’t you? I have no idea what’s in them, or where they came from, I just . . . can’t have them here. I’m not part of that world.”
“I know,” Calum said, and he did. Despite all he’d yet to learn about the Lusmoore clan, he knew without a shadow of doubt that there wasn’t an ounce of bad in Brix. “Wait here. I’m getting my coat.”
He dashed inside without waiting for an answer, grabbed his coat, and stamped into his shoes. Back outside, he half expected to find Brix already gone, but he remained, staring at the crates in the misty moonlight, his expression inscrutable.
Calum approached cautiously. “How are we doing this? On foot?”
“You don’t have to help.”
