Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(52)

“Yeah, but it doesn’t wait to be invited. It just shows up.”

“Is that why your mom’s so upset?”

His question led her to more questions. “That’s odd,” she muttered.

“What?” He ran a palm down her forearm.

“It didn’t show up in front of my parents.”

“Do you think that means something?”

She bit down on her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Didn’t Kylie say Holiday was trying to figure it out?”

“Yeah, but the last time I talked to Holiday, she didn’t know anything.” She drew in a breath. “She said she was coming up.”

“I saw her getting out of the elevator when I walked in here. She’s talking to Burnett.”

Miranda’s heart reminded her she had bigger problems. “Any news on Tabitha?”

“Not much.” He said the words gently, as if it might hurt less. “Chase got her and Anthony’s trace on the sixth floor.”

“What’s on the sixth floor?”

“Where…” He hesitated as if choosing his words. Choosing them for her, because … because he cared. Her chest filled with a sweet ache.

“Where they do MRIs and where I found Agent Farrell.”

The whooshing sound in her ears was her heart. She felt the fluttering of her pulse at the base of her neck. “Do they think Tabitha and

Anthony had something to do with that?”

Perry sat down on the bed beside her. “They don’t know. There was a shape-shifter, and Agent Farrell’s wounds looked like he was hurt by a

bear.”

“So they didn’t do it?” Relief came and went. “Is he going to live?”

“Yeah.”

Her mind reeled. Her pulse raced. Her heart wanted to revolt. It couldn’t take any more. “You don’t think Tabitha or Anthony were hurt, do

you?”

“It didn’t appear that way.”

She blinked and gazed at his bruised face. “How did you get hurt?”

“The shape-shifter.”

“You fought a bear?” she asked.

“No, I think he’d just changed back when I got there.”

“So you caught him?”

“No, he got away.”

She heard the ding in his pride, but her mind jumped back and forth. “I don’t understand. What does any of this have to do with the explosion

at the drug house? Is it connected?”

“Don’t know,” Perry said. “It’s driving Burnett crazy.”

Her gaze caught on the blood on Perry’s shirt again and she remembered Shawn’s shirt and eye. “Did Shawn fight with the shape-shifter, too?

”

Until the words were out of her mouth, she didn’t think it might be awkward asking her ex-boyfriend—who was beginning to feel less like an ex

—what happened to her new boyfriend—who was feeling less like a new boyfriend. Oh, hell she was so mixed up.

“No.” He almost smiled. “He got beat up by a girl.”

“What?”

“A jewelry store was robbed. He went to question the girl who worked there and supposedly she didn’t know he was FRU and she kicked him.” He

shrugged and the humor vanished. “Then someone shot her.”

“What?” Miranda’s mind couldn’t keep up.

“She’s going to be fine.”

“Is Shawn okay?”

A frown tightened the corners of Perry’s eyes. “You saw him. He’s fine.”

Her thoughts continued to spin. “But the jewelry store robbery has nothing to do with the explosion?”

“It might,” Perry said. “One of the robbers sounded French.”

Trying to input more information into her what-the-hell-is-happening file, she remembered Burnett asking about who had picked the lunch spot.

“They think Anthony robbed the jewelry store?” Her sister was with a drug-selling, jewelry-thieving vampire?

“Not him. Maybe his cousin.” Perry took her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.” She sighed. “My sister’s missing, people are getting shot and mauled by bears, my mom’s a bitch, my parents

are going to get divorced before they ever really get married.” And my ex-boyfriend feels more like my boyfriend.

“What?” Perry asked.

“They are fighting all the time. He said he couldn’t do it anymore and left.”

“He probably didn’t mean it.” Perry leaned closer, his forearm came against hers and sent a jolt of warm emotion.

“I hope not.” She dropped her head on his shoulder. It felt good. Sitting there, close, leaning on him. She missed leaning on him. Had she

ever leaned on Shawn?

She lifted her head. “Are you still leaving?” Until she asked it, she hadn’t realized how badly she wanted him to stay.

“Yeah, but now I don’t think I’ll be gone that long.”

“What’s changed?”

“What?” he asked.

“Earlier you said you would come back every week or two.”