“He’s my housemate. And best friend.”
“Ahh. Okay.”
His low growl filled the room, and I bit my lip in an effort not to laugh.
“Nick will definitely be there tonight,” Max said, changing tack. “Since we’re talking about best friends, let’s include him. You’ve mentioned him a lot over the past few days. I can’twaitto talk to him again.”
That shut me up quickly enough, and Max’s expression turned smug.
“Shall we go through the photos of who Callum spoke to the last time he was there?”
“Yep.” I nodded. “Sounds like a great idea.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
We spent the next hour familiarising ourselves with the faces of who we were looking out for. Strangely enough, none of the people we’d contacted had returned our calls. Hopefully some of them would show up at Midnight later.
“You ready?” Max asked, stretching his arms above his head. His shirt rode up, showing off a very impressive six-pack.
I snorted. “I suggest you don’t do that when we’re in the club. You’ll be fighting them off with a stick. And we have work to do, remember?”
Max laughed. “I’ll keep my stretching to a minimum.”
“Probably for the best.” I stood and smoothed out my shirt. “And yeah, I’m ready.”
I followed him out the door, pulse speeding up a little now we were actually going.
I’m going for work purposes, I reminded myself.
As long as our persons of interest are there, it doesn’t matter who else is or isn’t.
I kept repeating it in my head all the way there.
But when Max pulled into the car park behind Midnight, he pointed to a black SUV. “That’s Rys’s.” Then at the white one parked beside it. “And that’s Falon’s.”
That was enough to set my heart racing all over again.
I used to be a hunter.
Facing down dangerous humans and non-humans was a regular occurrence. I had better control of my emotions and my body than this.
Come on, Mase.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in deeply and let it out slowly, focusing on locking everything down tight. I did it again and again until my heart rate returned to normal.
Max parked and turned the engine off. “You all set?”
“Yeah.” I put all thoughts of Rys to the back of my mind and focused on what we’d come here for. I’d opted against bringing my knives, and Max was also unarmed. The magic dampeners in the club would prevent him from shifting and using his fangs or claws. “You reckon there’ll be any trouble?” I asked, wondering if I’d made a severe error in judgement.
“No. Zane keeps on top of any hints of trouble.” He glanced down at my body. “You were right not to bring your knives.”
I hoped so.
RYS
We arrivedat Midnight far earlier than I normally would on a Saturday night. I’d brought Talis and Axel with me. Falon was meeting us there. Sasha had volunteered to stay behind to keep an eye on the pack. Not something I’d normally have her do, but these weren’t normal times.
“Remind me why we’re here so early?” Axel asked as we nodded to the shifter manning the door and walked inside.
