Nick: Yeah, that’s fine. Give me an hour.
Mase: See you later.
My heart rate picked up at the thought of what I was going to do.
Was I really going to tell him? Knowing full well he’d want to tell Rys.
Yeah. Yeah, I was.
I’d kept him in the dark long enough.
* * *
Dathal
I’d fully expected Axel to pick me up on his motorbike, giving me time to decide how much I wanted to tell him about last night. I hadn’t anticipated him turning up in an SUV.
“Whose car is this?” I asked, getting into the passenger seat.
Axel gave me an amused look. “One of Rys’s. What happened last night?”
I barked out a laugh. “Straight into it, then?”
“Yep.” He pulled out onto the road, glancing at Nick’s house as we drove off. “I take it things went well, since I had to practically drag you out of there.” My smile was automatic. “Yes.” I thought of Nick, naked and rumpled in his bedroom where I’d left him. Leaving had been unexpectedly hard, even with the prospect of getting some answers tomorrow. I could’ve easily crawled back between the sheets and stayed in bed all day with him.
“Yes?” Axel huffed. “Is that all you’re going to give me?”
I shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you know what happened.” Not that I’d tell Axel any details about last night. That wasn’t my style, or his either. But I couldn’t really tell him anything without revealing Nick’s secret. And that wasn’t mine to tell.
“Did you at least find out what he was hiding?”
“I did.” I glanced out the window. Now would be a good time for Axel’s magic to kick in, to take it out of my hands, but of course it never worked like that. “I can’t tell you, though.”
Axel nodded, fingers tapping on the steering wheel. “As long as it’s nothing that puts you or anyone else in danger?”
“It isn’t.”
“Okay then.”
I glanced over at him when he didn’t say anything else, narrowing my eyes. “Is that all you’re going to say?”
“You’ve already pointed out that it’s none of my business.”
“And you usually ignore me.”
Another few seconds passed, and I could almost feel Axel trying to hold in words.
We had a lot to discuss before our visit back home tomorrow. I didn’t want there to be anything unresolved between us. Sighing, I waved a hand at him. “Just say what’s on your mind.”
“Fine.” He turned the car onto the long stretch of road that led into Rys’s territory. “Are you seeing Nick again?”
“Yes. I plan to.”
“And then what?” His fingers went back to tapping. “What happens when this investigation is resolved?”
“Then I go home.” I ignored the pang in my chest at the thought of that.
“As simple as that?”
