Page 33 of The Darkest Chase
“Wh-what?”
“This isn’t a command or a direct order. I’m not telling you to do this because I’m a cop asking for a little help from the public. This is you and me, Talia, and it’s completely off the books.”
Oof.
That alone should make me wary. It’s like it’s not just that he doesn’t want to burden the other guys at Redhaven PD.
I think he’s actively keeping this to himself, for some weird reason.
But it’s like he has a magnetic choke hold on me with that unblinking icy stare, stealing my thoughts. Soon, I can only hear the way he speaks, hypnotic and intense.
“You can walk away from me right now if you’d like. Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise,” he whispers. “I’m not making demands with my badge. I’m asking you to help me as a human being. And if you feel that what I’m asking you is wrong, or if it scares you, or even if you just don’t want to—tell me no. We’ll never speak of it again. I’ll go back to being that cop you say hello to now and then whenever we pass each other on the street. Not the strange man asking you to help him scale a goddamned mountain.”
I don’t know why that hurts.
Yes, I’ve been tossed into Micah’s orbit so fast it’s left me dizzy. Yet the thought of being cast back down and just being acquaintances leaves an odd tightness in my chest.
He basically saved my life, didn’t he?
And I wonder if that’s my conscience talking when he’s asking me for help or if it’s that damsel in distress reaction I can’t smother, getting emotionally attached to a white knight who came charging to my rescue.
Whatever it is, I can’t stop myself from asking, “…and what if I say maybe? What if I say I’ll think about it?”
“Then I’ll ask you to go camping with me tomorrow night.” His eyes are smiling when he says it.
“I… What?” He’s very good at that, catching me off guard. I can never figure out what goes through this man’s head. “I don’t follow. What does camping have to do with Xavier Arrendell?”
“Everything,” Micah whispers. “You aren’t sure because you need proof, you need more info—and I’m going to show you, Miss Grey.”
I’m still reeling by the time we part ways.
I take the long way home to give myself time to think, walking alone under the clear night sky without Micah turning me upside down with his nearness.
I’m so confused.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to trick Xavier Arrendell into incriminating himself in front of me, or even what incriminating clues would look like. This idea that Xavier’s a drug dealer, that he may be behind a major regional drug operation…
This isn’t my world.
It’s not something I understand, and it’s definitely not somewhere I belong.
I can’t unknow what I know now, though.
Even if I tell Micah no, I’ll still have that awareness in the back of my mind, always watching Xavier like a skittish animal.
God, I don’t know what to do.
If I listen to Micah and he’s wrong, I could wind up hurting a man whose worst crime is struggling with complex grief over his dead brothers. It could be true that Xavier’s a drug addict, and honestly, being an Arrendell would probably drive anyone to bad habits.
But if he is, couldn’t he be a victim of the drug dealers, too?
And if I tell Micah no and he’s dead-on right…
How many people will end up hooked on cocaine and dead? All because I was too scared to do anything?
This feels too big for me, like a gaping hole opening up in the fabric of my reality.
It’s not the kind of decision I can make quickly—if I can make it at all.