Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(48)

Unfortunately that unleashed her mom’s fury on Mary Esther. The women commenced name-calling, her dad commenced screaming. Mary Esther lifted

her hand, her pinky held in warning.

Burnett looked at Miranda as if asking her to silence them again. She shook her head in an oh-hell-no way.

He shot forward, smack dab in the middle of the arguing threesome. He closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were lime green. “Stop!”

Burnett’s voice shook the walls.

Silence became golden again.

He did a full circle, looking from her mom to her dad to Mary Esther. “I understand this is hard, but I have questions. The sooner you answer

them, the sooner I can start looking for Tabitha. Clear?”

They nodded. Mary Esther let out a heartfelt sigh of a mother in panic mode.

“Sit.” Burnett pointed to the three chairs flanking the two beds.

“Who do you think took my daughter?” Her dad’s tone wobbled and so did Miranda’s heart.

She looked down at her phone again. He’s innocent. Don’t have a choice. Sorry.

Her sister’s text accompanied by her earlier statement about how she couldn’t be high priestess if she wasn’t here had a big heavy lump of

hurt forming in Miranda’s stomach.

She didn’t want to think it. She didn’t want to say it. Because then Tabitha would be in more trouble. Especially with Agent Farrell being

hurt. Then logic intervened. Tabitha would never hurt anyone.

She was kind.

She was gentle.

She was … in love. And that could make you do crazy things.

What was Miranda to do?

“You agree, Miranda?” Burnett asked.

She didn’t have a clue what she should or shouldn’t be agreeing to.

She opened her mouth to say … what? Logic said she had to tell them, loyalty to her sister said …

More logic intervened. Anthony might not be dealing or doing drugs, but he was doing something he couldn’t share with Burnett. She didn’t

know what it was, but it couldn’t be good. And Tabitha was just enough in love with the guy to be blinded by this.

“Uh … I don’t think … I don’t think Tabitha was taken.”

“What do you mean?” Mary Esther asked.

Miranda’s father and mother looked puzzled. Mary Esther looked angry. Burnett and Shawn looked baffled. Perry managed to look at her with

empathy. As if he sensed this was eating her up inside.

She didn’t have time to let his concern soothe her. “I think Tabitha might have left with Anthony.”





Chapter Thirteen

Miranda explained everything.

Or tried to.

“And you didn’t try to stop her!” Mary Esther snarled.

“I didn’t know she was going to do it,” she explained, telling them again how Tabitha’s conversation had been convoluted and how the text

never said she was leaving.

It didn’t help. Everyone blamed her. Or seemed to. Or maybe she just blamed herself.

“I’m sorry,” Miranda finally said.

“You’d better be!” Mary Esther snapped.

“It’s not Miranda’s fault,” Perry defended first.

Burnett came in a close second. “It’s no one’s fault. I’ll talk to you later,” he told Miranda. Then he glanced from Shawn to Perry and

nodded to the door.

Burnett started out, Shawn followed.

Perry turned to leave then stopped. He came over to the bed. Before she knew his intent, he wrapped his arms around her. It wasn’t a sexy-boy

kind of hug. Just a worried-about-you hug. It didn’t help, or maybe it did.

When he released her, she saw Shawn standing at the door, watching them. She bent her legs, hugged her knees, and watched the three of them

leave. Frankly, she was too anxious about her sister to worry about Shawn.

*

Perry followed the two other guys out. He didn’t miss the warning in Shawn’s eyes. He just didn’t give a damn. Miranda had needed a hug. He

gave her one.

He planned on doing that a hell of a lot more, too.

“Watch it,” Shawn said, seething at Perry the second the door closed.

Perry stopped and faced him.

“No!” Burnett swung around at them.

The vampire was right. Now wasn’t the time.

Burnett looked back at Agent Jankowski. “Don’t let Miranda out of your sight. Don’t let anyone, anything, in. Not a mouse, a fly, or a speck

of dirt. I’ve got someone watching her window on the outside.” Then Burnett looked at Perry and Shawn “Come on.”

Burnett stormed down the hall. Then turned on a dime and shot into a patient’s room.

It was empty, of course. Burnett’s sensitive hearing had deciphered that.

The man stood, locked his hands behind his neck, and groaned. “None of this makes a lick of sense.” He took a deep breath and faced Shawn. “

Tell me again what happened. Every detail.”

Shawn explained how he’d stopped at the drugstore to get something for the burns on Lily’s wrists and how they’d been overtaken by gunshots.

His last words were, “I shouldn’t have stopped.”