Page 63 of The Darkest Chase

I don’t even know how to bring up the topic with Joseph.

I keep my eyes fixed on the trim line of his shoulders in his perfectly starched tailcoat as I follow him through the house. Maybe money makes the people at the Arrendell manor too loyal to ever turn on their employers, though.

There’s an entire cult of secrecy around this place.

We rarely see the servants in town shopping for things the ‘royalty’ might need; everything gets delivered or brought in from out of town.

But with everything that’s happened here lately, no amount of money can buy those servants’ loyalty, or their silence. Killing them, on the other hand, just might.

…or so I’ve heard from, like, mystery novels and such.

I feel so naïve right now.

I’m just working up the nerve to ask Joseph a few leading questions when we cross into the main foyer and he pulls the massive double doors open, standing expectantly and watching me.

I stop on the threshold. It feels a million times warmer on the other side, like I’m caught between two completely different worlds.

I look at him as he raises his brows mildly.

“Is there something else you need, Miss Grey?”

“N-no.” I can’t do it. I can’t trust that anything I’d ask would be innocuous enough not to give the game away. So instead, I just smile. “Do you mind if I ask your last name? It feels too informal, calling you Joseph.”

He gives me a curious look, unreadable. I wonder if he can see right through me.

“Peters,” he says after a moment.

My smile brightens.

“Thank you for showing me the way out, Mr. Peters.” I file that away. “Have a nice day.”

I can at least tell Micah his name and that he seemed concerned about me—worried enough to possibly be sympathetic to Micah’s cause, and possibly willing to disclose a few Arrendell secrets.

I feel a bit better. Like I finally did something useful.

There’s a spring in my step, chasing away the unclean feeling Xavier left behind, as I slip back into the sun and grab my phone to shoot a quick text to Mr. Vampire Man himself.

Are you busy right now? I send. I’m leaving the mansion, and I really need to see you.

8

DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN (MICAH)

Ireally need to see you.

I frown down at that message on my phone, propping my elbow up on the wheel of my patrol car and raking a hand through my hair.

I really need to see you.

That shit worries me a hell of a lot more than it should.

Talia’s a grown woman.

She’s leaving the big house, clearly safe and under her own willpower. Still, my mind whipsaws with a hundred dark scenarios.

Talia, backed into a corner in Xavier Arrendell’s office.

Talia, trying to fight him off while he rips at her clothes.