Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(41)

Chapter Eleven

Burnett’s gaze was the first thing Perry saw when he opened the door. The vampire offered a barely-there duck of his head. Relief and concern

flashed in his eyes. No one looking would even catch it. Perry did. It was a sign of affection.

He turned toward Shawn to acknowledge him. The warlock nodded, but the look in his eyes was anything but welcoming. Not that Perry expected

Shawn to be overjoyed with his return. Yet the dislike seemed stronger than before. As if Shawn saw Perry as a threat to his relationship with

Miranda.

Good.

The guy could consider himself prewarned.

Perry had every intention of winning Miranda back.

Moving in, Perry nodded at the girl and handed Burnett the backpack. He opened it, set the money and deposit slips aside, and pulled out her

wallet. No one said a word as he counted the money.

Only after replacing everything back in her bag, did Burnett look up at Lily. “It’s apparent you’re telling the truth.”

She cut a quick scowl toward Shawn. “I knew this guy was smarter than you. Not that it takes much.”

Perry sucked in his cheeks to keep from smiling.

If the twitch in Shawn’s injured eye meant anything, Lily’s jab hit a nerve. “If you hadn’t turned into the Kung Fu Panda, I—”

“Oh, how cute. The twerp watches cartoons!”

Embarrassment filled Shawn’s eyes. After inhaling, he started again. “If you’d told me about the money in your wallet, I’d’ve counted it,

and—”

“Can I go now?” Lily interrupted Shawn to ask Burnett. Yup, Perry had to agree with Lucas and Chase. Something besides simple animosity

existed between these two.

“Not quite.” Burnett glanced between Shawn and Lily as if he picked up on the pheromones, too. “We need help finding out who robbed the

store and hurt Mr. Crow.”

“But I…” Fear clouded her eyes again.

Burnett continued, “Look, if you recognized Chuckie’s scent, whom you’ve told us is part were, then he recognized yours. You can connect

your stepbrother to the robbery. And if your stepbrother is the person you’ve made him out to be, he won’t let that happen and he won’t stop

just because you ran away. He’ll go after the Crows. If you care about them, and it sounds like you do, you have to help us.”

Her shoulders dropped back against the chair. The sigh she let out told Perry she’d cratered.

Her brown eyes filled with a slow kind of unselfish fear and the finest mist of tears. “I’ll do anything. But seriously, I’ve told you what

I know.”

Burnett leaned in. “Let’s go over exactly what happened. And I’ll ask questions as you do.”

She nodded and a tear slipped from her dark lashes. “Please don’t let him get to them. He’ll kill them. He’s that warped.”

*

Miranda flinched when Tabitha slammed the bathroom door. No doubt offering her a few more seconds to figure out how to explain this. Problem

was a few seconds wasn’t enough.

Then even those seconds were cut short when the door slammed back open. “What are you doing?” her mom asked.

Miranda, a palm pressed against her cheek, stared into the mirror, right into her mom’s eyes.

“She was trying to use the restroom. Can you let her be?” Tabitha snapped, still trying to help.

But too late.

Miranda froze. Still facing the mirror. Still locked on the reflection. Still zeroed in on her mother’s eyes. Still about to pee in her

panties.

The next instant she realized the look of horror she’d expected to see on her mom’s face wasn’t there. Miranda shifted focus to the

reflection of her face, prepared to see … Her heart skipped a beat. What…? How…?

No tattoo.

She moved her hand from her cheek, where the vine-like image had been less than a second before, but now wasn’t. Dropping her gaze down to her

arm, expecting to see … Nope. Gone.

“You okay?” her mom asked.

Miranda, shell shocked, nodded. Why had the tattoo hidden itself? Had she made it go away?

“Miranda? Talk to me.” Her mom’s worried high-pitched tone seemed to bounce off the white walls. “Something’s wrong with our daughter,”

her mom yelled at her father.

“I’m fine.” Miranda forced the words over the lump of shock in her throat and turned around.

“It’s my fault,” her sister blurted out, obviously standing right behind her mom. “She’d never have gotten it—”

“It’s nobody’s fault.” Miranda hurried past her mom where her sister would see her.

Their gazes met. Her sister’s eyes widened.

“I told you it was her fault,” Miranda’s mom said to her dad. “She’s nothing but trouble!”

“It wasn’t her fault,” Miranda said, but her words were lost in Mary Esther’s booming response.

“Control your two-bit hussy,” Mary Esther shouted at her dad.

Her dad, face red, arms waving about in anger, exchanged words with each woman. Which only made them scream louder.