Page 13 of Noel Secrets

“Correction,” Michael said, voice low. “It is my business. Because whatever mess you’re tangled in, you dragged it to this train. With my family.”

“I would never put your family at risk.”

“For your sake, I hope not.”

Simon whistled softly, amused. “Well, aren’t you two entertaining? What’s this danger you’re talking about?”

“Nothing,” both Michael and Jayda said simultaneously, daring each other to say more.

Simon’s eyebrows arched in disbelief. “You’ll have to do better than that. But fine, play that game. Let’s go, boys. Ice cream awaits. These two have something going on.”

Jayda scoffed, heat rushing to her cheeks. “Not even close.”

Michael wanted to agree. He should have agreed. Instead, he glared at Simon, silently daring him to keep pushing.

The twins, oblivious to the deeper tension, tugged on Jayda’s sleeve. “Can we please sleep here tonight?”

Jayda softened immediately, touching their hair tenderly. “Do you promise to behave?”

Michael leaned back, arms crossed, watching the scene with a complicated twist in his chest. She looked…natural with them. The instant connection between them surprised him. Her kindness toward them caught him off guard. It wasn’t like her to care. But it was obvious that she did.

And for some reason, that thought unsettled him more than Simon’s flirting.

What else had he missed about Jayda? And was it too late to change that?

The memory of those men with guns said it couldn’t be, no matter how much she pushed him away.

“I’ll be next door if you need me,” Michael said, exiting the cabin.

“Don’t worry, she won’t.” Simon smirked. He handed his extra key card to Jayda. “Just in case,” he said to her with a wink, and the two left Michael behind.

Michael stood in the narrow hallway. The air in the tight space grew thick with unspoken tension. Three adults in a space too small for their egos, their secrets, their suspicions.

And it was only day one.

Chapter Four

The steady clatter of the train against the rails should have been soothing. A lullaby of iron wheels carrying her further away from New Haven, away from the library, away from the man’s furious face the moment she’d pulled the trigger on the stun gun. Instead, the train’s rhythm scraped against Jayda’s raw nerves, a relentless reminder that she was running and not safe.

She shifted in her narrow bunk, pressing the side of her face into the pillow that smelled faintly of starch. Beside her, on the opposite bunk, the twins breathed in sync. Little saws, soft snores—the sound of safety, of innocence. They had the kind of sleep only children could manage.

Jayda envied them.

Every time she closed her eyes, the day’s events moved in her memory. The heavy boots slammed against the pavement when the men chased her. The angry hiss of breath when they tried to reach for her but she’d escaped their grasp. She half-expected them to burst into the cabin now, snatch her up, and drag her into the snowy night.

Who were they? The mob? They had to be. The man wanted the file of the woman who turned state’s evidence anddisappeared right after. Was the man she tasered the released convict that Professor D mentioned? If so, she was a dead woman.

Jayda hugged her knees, tucking herself small in the bunk, a makeshift hiding place on a holiday train bound for California. Snow stacked against the windows as the train barreled into a storm in the dark.

Would she ever go back?

The question curled sharply in her chest. If this man had her name, would she even live long enough to walk across a stage at graduation?

Which wasn’t even an option anymore anyway.

She pressed the heel of her palm against her eyes. The rumble of the train deepened as it pushed into a wall of wind. Snow streaked the window in ribbons, catching her attention. She sat up, pulling the blanket around her shoulders, and leaned toward the glass. The outside world vanished with just a blur of white swallowing the view.

“Great,” she whispered. “Outrun the mob but die in a snowdrift.”