Inquest

Inquest Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Planning

The icy air of late December stings my throat and lungs as I breathe, but I need its pure, clean essence to clear my mind. The absolute madness of everything that has happened tonight was just too much. I needed to escape the still volatile air inside the Hanover home for at least a few minutes. So I snuck out onto the deck, afraid, confused, and in need of some serious alone time. I just wish I had some chocolate. Chocolate always makes me feel better.

All I can feel right now is the tip of my nose going numb. My ears will be next. Numb is fine with me. The vast ocean of emotions, ideas, and thoughts that have been slamming against me for…I don’t even know how long anymore, they just need to be frozen until I can sort them out. The absurd mental image of tiny snowflakes, each one containing an emotion or thought, lying on a table in front of me, that I can calmly organize into their proper categories, makes me laugh.

“It’s too cold out here for anything to be funny,” says a voice from behind me.

I spin around and freeze, like one of the snowflakes I was just imagining. My skin prickles with goose bumps as soon as I see him. “Guardian Braden,” I gasp.

“You can just call me Braden.”

My eyes narrow despite his politeness. “What are you doing here?”

“I told you I’d see you again,” he says. He leans casually against the railing that surrounds the deck, but there is still a leonine readiness to his posture. His expression is warm, though, showing no hint of anything but amusement.

“How did you find me?”

Braden scoffs at my question. “It wasn’t that hard. Your friend and his family didn’t even change their names when they ran. I had their information in my files. Tracking down their address was simple.”

My mouth twists into an angry sneer. “Yeah, I suppose the Guardians would have resources like that.”

“Actually,” Braden says, pushing away from the baluster and taking a step toward me, which sends a warning shiver down my spine, “the only resource I needed was a phone book. Their number was listed right there in the white pages.”

“Seriously?” I ask. What were they thinking? Yes, his dad is a doctor who likes to make sure his patients can always get a hold of him in an emergency, but they were supposed to be in hiding.

Braden takes another step toward me. “I’ve seen elephants that were better at hiding than your friend.”

“Shut up,” I snap. “You don’t know anything about Milo.”

“I’m pretty sure I know more than you do,” he says.

I hate that he’s probably right. No doubt his files hold every detail of Milo’s life. No matter how much a person is willing to share, there’s almost always more that they aren’t.

“What do you want?”

“Besides standing out here freezing with you in the middle of the night?”

He’s not even a foot away from me, now. My flesh is humming, which is beyond strange and more than a little scary. He’s staring at me intently again. That same look of trying very hard to figure something out is back. I wish I knew what it meant.

 “Why are you really here?” I ask. “The Guardians aren’t coming back for Milo, are they?”

Is he out here distracting me while his brothers sneak in and grab my boyfriend? My heart rate spikes, and I start for the patio door. Braden grabs my arm, not forcefully, but hard enough to stop me and keep me from running. Even under my jacket, the skin of my arm tingles violently at his touch.