Page 119 of When Darkness Calls

“No. Nothing. If I hadn’t seen him on the cameras by the tree house when I was watching for the pizza guy, I wouldn’t have known anything was out of the ordinary,” Cade answers, taking a sip of his coffee.

“What are we going to do?” Keegan asks from behind Nick. He shuffles past, coming over to get his own cup.

“Well, right now she’s staying here with Grays while I get the house upgraded with a new security system and some more cameras. I’m going to go through the footage. We might have some luck with facial recognition if we can get the brightness up or something.

“And when Dee’s done showering, we’ll listen to her account of the evening. See if we can find anything to piece this shit together,” he sighs.

We all nodded at the plans. I blow my coffee before taking a long gulp. And it’s not a second after I put my lips to the mug that Dani’s footsteps pound down the hallway from my room.

“What. The. Fuck. Is. This?” she yells, punctuating each word before throwing my mask and the files in my bag on top of the kitchen counter. I choke. Hot coffee spews from my nose. It’s fucking excruciating, burning my nostrils and my throat.

“Fuck.” Cade breathes, staring down at his sister who looks nearly ready to explode.

“Dani,” I gasp out, and her fiery gaze sets on me.

“I’ll deal with you in a second. You!” She turns to Cade, fingers poking at his chest.

“You didn’t fucking tell me?”

“I—Tell you what, Doll?” He says innocently.

“Don’t play dumb, dickhead. I know. I fucking know. The papers, the files, the folders, all of that shit is because you’re out at night playing broke-fucking-Avengers, and you didn’t tell me?” Hurt peers beneath her anger.

“I know I should have told you, but I wanted you safe. We are always careful,” Cade reasons.

Dani shakes her head sharply. “I don’t care about that shit. I’m fucking pissed—”

“I know. We’re breaking laws and—”

“No, dumbass. I’m pissed you didn’t think I would want to do it too!” She’s wide eyed, staring him down as if she was the one that was a foot taller and eight years older, not him.

Cade’s quiet. We’re all quiet. No one moves.

His brows raise, dumbfounded. “Huh?”

“I wanna go out and kick ass too. Or is that not allowed? It’s fucking rude that after all these years you still won’t let me do stuff with you guys. I feel like I’m four years old all over again and y’all won’t let me come play pirates in the fucking treehouse. I’m pissed.”

I swallow, the action causing my throat to ache, and I blink rapidly. A laugh chokes out, broken, but in disbelief.

Cade cracks a smile, looking over at me above her head. “You want to come with us?”

“Yes, like I haven’t been saying that this whole conversation. I’m pissed you didn’t ask me to do it with you.”

“I wanted to keep you safe.”

“Yeah, and I haven’t been a part of this and what’s happened, huh? I’ve been attacked three times and I’m not even fucking involved. Maybe if I had been then I’d have had some random ass knives or shit lying around that could’ve helped a lot.” She crosses her arms, tapping her foot, her fingers twitching.

“I—”

“That kinda makes a lot of sense,” Alex mumbles to Keegan, and she turns to latter.

“And you! You worked so hard to get into the accelerated med program. How are you doing this?” she asks him incredulously.

Keegan gives her a wry smile. “Well, I became a doctor to help people, Dee. I’m still doing that, but it’s a different kind of help. When was the last time someone did something about the actual bad shit in this town, and not the asshole sixteen-year-olds speeding on the bridge to Blackwoods?”

“I see your point, moving on. I’m coming with you from now on,” she tells Cade a sternness to her voice. Conviction.

“Okay.”