Knowing we had little alternative, I nodded for Talis to go join the others and followed in his wake. I still wanted to murder Nick. But Gabriel? I had no idea. I kept my hands curled into fists so I didn’t reach for either of them.
Max greeted me with a smile. “Thought I might find you here.”
I smiled back, pointedly ignoring his partner. Nick had moved to serve someone further down the bar, thank fuck, and some of the tension in my shoulders eased. “Just enjoying a night out.”
He glanced from me, to Talis, then Axel, and finally Falon. “And this is the company you always keep on a Saturday night?”
I shrugged. “Fancied a change.”
His eye-roll was expected, as was the bluntness that followed. Max wasn’t one for playing games, which was one of the reasons he was my favourite cousin. “I assume we’re all here for the same thing. Orthings,” he added. “Do you even know who you’re looking for?” He directed his question to me, so I nodded at Axel.
“He does.” For a minute I wondered if I’d incriminated Axel in some way, the lawyer in me absent with Gabriel taking up so much space in my head, but then I remembered they’d both seen the footage of Axel in the club. That’s why they suspected him in the first place.
Max sighed. “There’s no point in us stepping on each other’s toes, so why don’t we split up. Two stay here and watch the door, two take downstairs, two upstairs.” He pulled some photos out of his pocket and handed them to me. “Whoever isn’t with me, Gabriel, or Axel can take them.”
I took them and pocketed them. “I’ll go with Falon. We’ll take upstairs.” I’d told Axel I’d keep an eye on Falon and I’d meant it. I also wanted to be far away from Nick and Gabriel.
“Fine.” Max gestured to Axel. “You okay to watch the door with Talis then?”
They both agreed, and Max got that look in his eye that said he was all business. “Only Mase and I are here in any official capacity. Only the two of us have authorisation to forcibly restrain anyone should they make a run for it. And only then if we deem it necessary. If any of you recognise someone from those photos…” He glanced around our small group, gaze hard. “Do not engage. Do not speak to them or approach them in any way. Either call me or come find us. Is that clear?”
Falon fidgeted next to me. A side effect of becoming an alpha was the distaste of being given orders. The urge to push back was inbuilt, primal, but like me, he swallowed it down and we both nodded. It was the best either of us could manage, and Max understood.
Both Talis and Axel gave verbal replies and Max seemed satisfied that none of us were about to break the law and land ourselves in trouble. One glance at Falon and I wasn’t so sure. If it was my pack and I spotted someone who could potentially give me some answers, not sure I’d have followed Max’s orders either.
But I’d try and make sure Falon did.
I felt Gabriel’s eyes on me as we headed to the staircase, but I refused to acknowledge him. Couldn’t if I wanted to save us both the embarrassment of airing our dirty laundry in front of the whole of Midnight. Because the moment I spoke to him, the moment I got close enough for his scent to register amongst all the others around us, I’d snap and everything I’d kept buried inside for so long would finally come spilling out.
And no one wanted that.
Because there was no being civil with each other ever again if that happened.
I followed Falon up the stairs to the upper part of the club. Although not as busy as downstairs, it had enough people to make picking out an individual tricky. We found a spot against one wall that gave us a decent vantage point of most of the top floor.
Falon leant in close. “Let me have a quick look at those photos.”
I’d had a look when Max had given them to me, but I took another quick glance as I handed them to Falon. I hadn’t seen anyone remotely familiar when we first got up here, but I took the time to look around more slowly, gaze drifting over the groups of people laughing and drinking, not a care in the world.
Fae mixed with witches and shifters alike, safe in the knowledge that no harm would come to them in here. Or it shouldn’t. Thoughts of Callum filled my head and I cursed softly. Had he been targeted? Picked at random? Just unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
I wondered if Max and Gabriel had any answers. Or were they as clueless as us?
GABRIEL
I stoodat the edge of the dance floor, Max beside me, each of us nursing a beer.
Hopefully to anyone watching, we looked like any other couple in there. Max leant down to whisper in my ear. Thankfully with the music so loud, we didn’t run the risk of anyone overhearing us. I struggled to hear him as it was.
“Anything?” he asked, so close to my ear I shivered.
I shook my head. The dance floor was packed. I’d already swept it four times and no— “There. By the pillar over the far side.” I gestured as subtly as I could towards the other side of the dance floor. Leaning against the pillar, eyes on the dancers, was a guy about the same height as me, black hair that looked almost blue under the lights of the club. He had high cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and full lips that curved up into a smirk at whoever he was watching.
“Could be fae,” I murmured.
“Mhmm.”
He looked like one of the guys we’d seen Callum talking to on Midnight’s surveillance video. But in this light and from this distance, I wasn’t a hundred per cent certain. “You think it’s him?”
