Velvet Midnight - Max Walker Page 0,4

of the city were bright enough to shine into the dark room, one hundred and one stories above the ground. This was one of the tallest buildings in the city, and I currently lived in the penthouse next door. Francisco was a wild neighbor to have, that was for sure. An heir to some oil fortune and an addict to lavish parties dripping wall to wall with supermodels of all genders, it really helped justify the crazy amount of rent I paid.

A red light stuck out from the sea of blinking, artificial stars. It seemed to be floating. Like a UFO or something. It blinked on and off. It reminded me of something…

Wait a fucking second.

I looked to the opposite side of the room, at a bookshelf that took up an entire wall. Filled with random bullshit, it would have been real easy to miss the blinking red light.

I was looking for it, though.

And I found it.

“What the fuck is that?” I pushed Scott off me, his lips leaving a wet circle on my neck.

Scott and Penelope both followed my gaze. “What’s what?” Penelope asked.

“That blinking red light. Between the globe and the lockbox.”

I stood, my face flushing with blood. Closer inspection wasn’t needed, but still, I had to see it for myself.

Had to know how truly fucked things were.

Behind the antique globe and scratched-up bronze lockbox was a tiny camera, the blinking light coming from above the lens. Everything had been recorded. Everything.

I snatched the camera off the shelf, the globe dropping to the floor and breaking in half. The camera flew through the air, cracking against the window. It fell to the floor in pieces. Penelope and Scott both looked shocked, their faces turning paper pale, their jaws dropping in unison.

“Did either of you do this?” I felt a fury welling inside me like the tide being yanked by a full moon.

Scott shook his head while Penelope uttered a “hell no.”

“Tell me the fucking truth.”

Scott spoke up. “We didn’t. I didn’t— Why would we?” Penelope was picking up the pieces of the camera, shock playing out on her face.

I rubbed a hand over my face, hoping that the entire world would have disappeared by the time I opened my eyes.

It didn’t.

“I need to go.” Everything moved in slow motion and on fast forward at the same time. It felt like my limbs didn’t belong to me. Like I was watching someone else tug on their jeans and shirt, except I was watching it through their eyes. This moment didn’t feel real. Like I was drowning in oil and burning from the inside all at once.

I threw the door open. The sounds of the party echoed the beating of my pulse inside my skull. Dodging offers of drinks and conversation, I made it down the packed hall and into the main living room.

I was looking for Francisco, scanning the writhing room of bodies and disco lights. Instead, I found Maverick Gold, my best friend and probably the one person I needed most in that moment.

He must have seen the expression on my face. He crossed through the room, his charismatic smile quickly flipping into a worried frown the closer he got to me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, speaking over the thumping music.

“Everything.” I had to sit down. My knees felt like giving out. “Everything’s wrong. Everything’s over.”

3

Benjamin Gold

“Oh what the hell, bro.” I turned and walked off.

“Why are you briskly running away?” Dusty asked, catching up to me.

I realized he had to catch up to me, so I slowed it down. “I’m not running away. I just remembered I have something else to do, and it’s uh, somewhere else.”

We didn’t need our twin-ception powers for Dusty to see that I was full of complete shit.

“He seemed surprised to see you?”

“He did?” I caught my heart skipping a beat, making me want to bang my head against a nearby tree stump. “Well, that’s stupid, considering this is my family’s sanctuary he decided to show up at like some kind of stray.”

“Whoa,” Dusty said, looking over at me. He wore his thick-framed Ray-Ban glasses, his eyes magnified underneath the lenses. “I didn’t realize he’d bring up so much emotion.”

“Yeah. Me either.”

We had walked all the way to the stables, which were dusted over with a gentle blanket of snow. There were hoof prints in the pasture, leading toward the covered trough of hay. There, four of my mom’s new rescue horses munched away on their lunch. They were a mixture of grays