Page 162 of When Darkness Calls

He snorts. “Yeah?”

“Hell yeah. Liz is bringing me junk food. I get to spend the day in bed with my best friend and my boyfrie—”

I paused, looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

He’s grinning. A fortified, goofy, Grayson Williams smile.

“Did you just call me your boyfriend?” He teases.

“Pfft. What? No…”

“Yeah, yeah. So, the day in bed with your favorite snacks, your best friend, your boyfriend, and what else?”

I blush, thinking hard.

“The Invisible Man,” I blurt out.

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s severely underrated.”

Grayson stifles a grin, rolling his eyes, and standing.

“I’m gonna grab some fort making supplies. Need anything?”

“Yeah,” I murmur. He raises a brow in question. “A kiss, please?”

Grayson smiles, leaning over me, placing a gentle kiss on my lips.

And everything just feels…right. Definitely a better Halloween than last year. The boogeyman is mine.

forty-nine

Grayson

After Dani begged us to go downstairs when The Invisible Man ended, we finally got everything packed up from her room to move our blanket fort downstairs.

Liz is wrapped up like a burrito on the floor, lying across a few cushions she laid out, and I have Dani’s legs propped in my lap, her back resting against the arm rest of the couch.

Liz picked this one out. I think it’s like some kind of zombie, romantic comedy? I’m not really sure. I haven’t paid much attention.

My focus keeps getting drawn back to Dani, looking over each of the bandages I can see, making sure they aren’t bleeding through or coming loose.

She catches me staring a few times and her face flushes. Seeing the pinkish hue on her cheeks eases the tightness in my chest. Last night when I found her, she was so pale, so cold. So much worse than last year. I thought she was already dead, but Keegan had felt her pulse, slow, but there.

He had worked all night, checking over each of the wounds, assessing her head and whether she had any internal injuries. I know he’s tired. One look back at him in the kitchen nursing what I guess is his fourth cup of coffee since sunrise tells me as much.

He, Cade, and Nick are sitting around talking about the things we found inside that storage container. It looked straight out of a horror movie.

And although we got this happy ending—Dani breathing, alive, the five of us relatively unscathed—there’s still so many questions unanswered.

She said they told her they were working for someone. But who? Were those two tied to Marcus and Jerry? What about the girls that were missing they had kidnapped?

Dani said those fuckers sold them. The possibility of human trafficking becoming a harsh fucking reality really quick.

I’m lost in my head when a cup clatters in the kitchen, the distinct sound of it shattering on the floor making Liz jump.

“What the hell?’ She shouts.