Twisting me around, he cups my cheeks, and I can’t catch my breath.
I need to know.
“What happened to you?” I pant. “What are you afraid of?”
Staring into my eyes, he opens his mouth, his body shaking. It’s on the tip of his tongue. I can tell.
I want to know everything. Every moment. Every detail that got him here.
He’s so loved. What brought him here?
“I wish I could shut off the world for an hour,” he whispers, “and stop it from spinning around us.”
I don’t know why he said it, but I do know what he means. Sometimes you need everyone else to stop moving so you can catch up.
I pull his hand away from my face and hold it as I lead him into the shop. Silently, he follows, his fingers laced with mine.
We pause at the mirror, I look back at him, and then I release the latch, pulling open the mirror.
His eyes widen. “What…?”
Stepping through the frame, I still hold his hand. “I’ll tell you something and then you tell me something.”
Gently, I guide him in, watching his gaze shoot everywhere to examine his new surroundings. Closing the mirror, I walk us down the hallway, silently letting go of him as he drifts around, checking out the bedrooms, the small gym, the office, as well as the great room with its kitchen and door to Rivertown Grill. He doesn’t ask a single question as he studies the words on the wall and all the evidence the others collected. He even walks back down the way we came in to see how the mirror is two-way.
I wait for him in the great room until he wanders back in, looking at me like he’s almost suspicious of what I’ve been doing in here.
But I explain, “Hawke and the others knew this was here for years.” I pause a moment. “I just found out a week or soago. They’ve been researching the link between urban legends in Weston and Shelburne Falls and found this place.”
“Years?” He scowls. “Why didn’t they tell you this was here?”
I quirk a knowing eyebrow.
He frowns. “Those little shits.”
Yeah, I was mad, but Deacon has only spoken to me, so now I have that. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” he fires back. “They shared this with friends, no doubt. Everyone coming and going from your place of business, strangers right under your nose.”
I know. I don’t reply, though, because I’ll just get angry at them again.
“What are you going to do with this?” he asks.
“I don’t know yet.” I gaze around at the high ceilings and ample floor space. “I want to use it, but I also want them to come back.”
“Hawke?”
I shake my head. “Deacon and Manas.”
I recount to him what we’ve learned about the urban legends so far. About this hideout being Carnival Tower, and my new house being where Winslet vanished from during Rivalry Week so long ago.
And about the Night Rides and the car following us both.
His breathing turns shallow, and I see at least three emotions fill his eyes in a single second—confusion, anger, fear...
I continue before he has a chance to react. “I think she’s alive,” I tell him. “And I think she’s in Shelburne Falls.”
Shaking his head, he walks over to me. “It’s been more than twenty years, Quinn. No one has that kind of patience.”
