Page 84 of Darkness of Mine

I don’t know why Jeremiah wants to talk to Carmen, but I have a feeling she might.

I go to get in the car but River’s hand on the passenger door stops me. He keeps his arm braced against the car as I turn around.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

I nod. “I’m fine. Just need some water.” The dizziness has gone away but my mouth and throat feel as dry as the sand we’re standing on.

River closes his eyes and hangs his head. A soft breath falls from his lips.

“Hey.” I lift my hand and cup his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

Tortured eyes bore into me. “I’m trying Freya, I am. But don’t ever ask me to leave you unprotected like that again. I won’t do it.”

I run my fingers through his hair, for once seeing his protectives for what it is. Fear. “I’m fine, River. I’m right here and I’m just fine.”

His lips capture mine in a short but hungry kiss. “It damn well better stay that way.”

36

ELI

Ilean forward on the couch, locking my hands behind my head to stretch out my neck as Freya calls Carmen for the third time. She tried before we flew back but didn’t get through. Same thing happened after we landed. She’s starting to get edgy, her knee jiggling up and down as she sits with her feet tucked up on the armchair.

Personally, I’m just glad to be back home and away from Jeremiah fucking Lock.

Freya still hasn’t told us everything he said to her, and I don’t like that. I must be getting as obsessive as River because I want a blow-by-blow account of their entire exchange just so I can make sure she’s okay. It will have to wait though because the phone finally stops ringing as Carmen picks up.

“Is everything alright?”

Freya’s leg stops jiggling. “Yeah. We’re okay, we just need your help.”

“I’m sorry. I would have answered sooner but Rebekah decided to take it upon herself to tag along on a retrieval.”

Freya grabs the phone off the coffee table. “Shit. Is she okay?”

Carmen sighs. “She’s fine. Though she might not be once I’m through with her. I swear to god, she’s worse than you, Freya. Why she thought she could handle seeing that shit I have no idea.”

Freya’s gaze flicks to me. “You’re on speaker phone with Eli, Carm.”

Carmen goes quiet. “Noted.”

Despite stepping foot in her private headquarters neither Freya nor Carmen have enlightened us as to what exactly she does. That doesn’t mean we don’t know though. Carmen’s retrievals are rescue missions and they’re not the kind a teenage girl should be involved with.

“How can I help?” Carmen asks.

“Jeremiah Lock wants to talk to you. He’s bank-rolling Zach and has agreed to hand over the relevant bank details but only to you, in exchange for a conversation.”

Carmen goes silent for so long I look over to see if the line is dead. Freya shakes her head and shows me the screen, the seconds still ticking over.

“Carmen?” Freya’s voice is soft.

“I’m here.”

“You know him, don’t you?”

We hear footsteps, then a door closing. “It’s complicated.”

Freya and I share a look. I know that tone well enough, having heard Freya replicate it on more than one occasion. Carmen’s version of ‘it’s complicated’ translates to seriously fucked up.