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“I don’t know. I—I argued with myself about it.” My nerves simmered just beneath the surface, trying to keep my stories straight. Plus, the anticipation of what we might find filled me with excitement and dread.
He chuckled. “Do you have multiple personalities I should know about?”
I grasped the handle above my head and glared at him. “What? No!” It came out a lot more defensive than necessary, but I didn’t have a good excuse for almost revealing Oscar’s existence and what he’d suggested about dead bodies. And I couldn’t shake the thought that we could really find anything in this storage unit.
Even that.
He smiled with a glint in his now red, glowing eyes, playfully keeping the tone light despite my insistence on taking everything so personally. “It wouldn’t be a deal breaker, Tess.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re sick.”
He threw his head back with a hearty laugh. “You should work on that ableism.” Glancing over at me, he winked.
I didn’t know if he was teasing me or not, but my heart hammered against my ribs. Technically, he was right, but I hadn’t imagined his tone. The one that insinuated he’d love to seduce multiple personalities in one woman. That it would be a worthy challenge.
And then made it sound like I was the one with the ethics problem.
I didn’t have the headspace for this kind of fuckery.
“Anyway, I don’t think he’d be stupid enough to leave bodies, but that doesn’t mean whatever is there will be safe. I have no idea what to expect.”
The streets narrowed, and the buildings became older, facades marked by time and wear. “So, what’s the plan once we get there?” he asked.
“We see what’s inside and figure out what Ivan was hiding,” I replied, my voice steadier than I felt.
He nodded, his eyes focused on the road ahead. The playful edge to his demeanor faded, replaced by a determined resolve, as we approached the storage facility. My stomach twisted with hunger and anticipation.
“I won’t let anything hurt you, Tess.” He laid his hand over my knee, and that’s all it took for the heat to pool in my core and my lady parts to throb shamelessly.
“Thanks.” The storage unit held secrets and, potentially, answers to questions I hadn’t known to ask. The smell of new leather mingled with the heady masculine scent of Maverick himself, stabilizing me. The answers were within reach, and whatever we found, I had to be ready.
Chapter Forty-One: Neon Secrets
Tess
Gravel crunched under thetires as we drove through the entrance to the storage facility. I glanced at the address and unit number scribbled hastily on the slightly crumpled scrap of paper in my hand.
“Storage unit 385, that way.” I tried to keep my voice steady, but with my gut swirling with anticipation almost to nausea, it was hard to hide the apprehension.
He maneuvered into a parking spot, and we stepped out, the cool evening air brushing against my skin a welcome relief from the tension building inside me.
We walked down the broad pathway, flanked on either side by rows of identical roll-up orange doors. The harsh fluorescent lights overhead sputtered occasionally, and the uniformity of each door added to the surreal moment.
When we reached unit 385, I paused. The door seemed no different from the others, but the magnitude of its secrets pressed heavily on my shoulders. I took a deep breath, the cool air filling my lungs, but with the metallic scent of the storage units and the faint aroma of dust and age, my racing heart refused to calm.
“Here goes nothing,” I whispered, turning the dial. Stopping at each of the numbers in the combination I had retrieved from Ivan’s files, my stomach threatened to purge everything that wasn’t inside anyway. The dial felt cold and heavy, a tangible connection to the enigma we were about to unravel. With a quick glance at my companion, I pulled. The mechanism opened with a satisfying click, reverberating through the silent corridor.
“Let’s see what Ivan was hiding.” Maverick’s voice was a steady anchor in the midst of my swirling thoughts.
My fingers curled around the handle of the door, the metal cool to the touch. With a steadying breath, I lifted. The door rolled up with a creaky, protesting groan, the sound amplified in the enclosed space. As the door rose, the faint glow from the corridor spilled into the darkened unit, revealing the first hints of what lay inside. The outlines were indistinct at first, but as more light filtered in, the details became clear.
My eyes widened in disbelief.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
Dust motes floated lazily in the air, illuminated by the beams of light cutting through the darkness. The interior of the unit was shrouded in shadows, the shapes and forms of various objects slowly becoming discernible.
We stepped inside, the bare concrete floor beneath our feet. The stagnant silence was broken only by the soft rustling of our movements and the distant hum of the facility’s lighting. I felt thegoosebumps spread over my limbs, the air in the unit heavy with the burdens of the past.
