Hotter After Midnight (Midnight 1)

He wanted to tell Brooks the truth.

But the last time he’d told his partner the truth about the Other, Colin had wound up with a bullet in him.

“I expect more from you, man.” Brooks shook his head. “We’ve been teamed up for two years now. I expect more.”

He wanted to give more. Wished that he could tell Brooks everything.

But he couldn’t guarantee his partner’s reaction. And he didn’t want to have to fight off another friend.

And the captain had said the case data he and the doc had collected was confidential. Too confidential for even Brooks.

At least for now.

Colin sighed. He had to offer Brooks something. The guy deserved that much. “You’re right, there is more going on than I’ve told you.”

A muscle flexed along his partner’s jaw. “Why the hell are you keeping me out of the loop? We’re partners. ”

“I have to. What’s going on has been deemed classified.”

“What?”

Damn. This wasn’t going well. “There’s stuff going on here—it’s too dangerous for you to know.”

“Too dangerous for me?” His eyes narrowed to slits. “But let me guess. Dr. Drake knows, doesn’t she? Why isn’t it too dangerous for her?”

It was. But the doc was already in too deep to pull out.

“Shit! I don’t like this.” Brooks jabbed a finger in the air near Colin’s chest. “Not a f**king bit.”

Neither did he.

Brooks stalked around the Jeep. Jumped inside.

Colin sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He’d have to tell the captain that Brooks was getting suspicious.

Maybe McNeal would say he should confide in him.

Or maybe not.

Colin climbed inside. Started the engine.

“I know he didn’t touch me.” Brooks wasn’t looking at him. He was gazing straight through the windshield. “I saw his hands too. I know Niol didn’t touch me.”

“Brooks—”

“But I felt his hands on me, I felt him throw me across the room.” He clenched his fingers into fists. “How is that possible?”

“Look, man, I—”

“Hell.” Brooks sighed. “Maybe I’m the one who needs to be seeing the doctor. If I’m starting to imagine—”

“You didn’t imagine it.” He spun out of the lot. He couldn’t risk telling Brooks much, but he’d be damned if he’d let his friend think he was going crazy. “I can’t tell you what’s happening, but believe me, you didn’t imagine a damn thing.”

No, his partner had just stepped into the world where monsters were real, and he didn’t even realize it.

“We can’t tell him the truth, Gyth. It’s too risky.”

“Yeah, I know that.” But it didn’t mean he had to like it. Colin paced around McNeal’s office, tension tight in his body.

“The case is too big. I can’t risk having one of my detectives losing his cool because he’s suddenly aware that monsters are all around him.”

“He might not,” Colin muttered, gazing out the window into the darkness. Night had fallen over the city. It was a cloudy, starless night. The kind of night that hid secrets.

He had a bad feeling about the night. Niol’s words about a hybrid had thrown him.

He wanted to talk to Emily. He’d tried to call her several times since he’d left Paradise Found, but he just kept getting her voice mail.

“Look at what happened the last time you told your partner the truth.” McNeal was behind his desk. Hands resting easily on the scarred surface.

The last time you told your partner the truth. Colin stiffened. “What do you know about my old partner?”

“I know everything.” McNeal arched a brow. “You think I didn’t do a full check on you before I brought you on down here? I know all about Mike Phillips.”

Well, shit. “And you didn’t say anything?”

McNeal shrugged. “What’s to say? Your ex-partner found out that you aren’t human. He tried to kill you, burn down your house.”

Yeah, that about summed it up.

The captain leaned forward. “From what I learned, Phillips was unstable to begin with.”

“He was a good man.” He’d been a good friend, until that night. “He just couldn’t handle what I—”

“Bullshit. The guy had a history of being on the edge. He’d attacked suspects, been warned by his superiors, and he’d been stalking his ex-wife.”

Colin didn’t speak. Mike Phillips had been his best friend for ten years. Until that one night.

“He was fleeing the scene of the fire when he hit that truck, wasn’t he?” McNeal whistled softly. “Driving ninety in a twenty-five, running through the red light, driving straight into the side of that big rig.”

Colin clenched his back teeth.

“He was running, wasn’t he? He’d shot you, set the house on fire, then he left you to bleed out.”

“Ancient history.” History he sure as hell didn’t feel like rehashing right then.

“But it showed you how some humans can react.” His fingers drummed against the desk. “They’re not all like that, but the fanatics, the ones who think monsters should be destroyed, they’re the reason we still live in secret.”

“You ever wonder what it would be like, Captain, if all the Other did reveal themselves? If we stopped pretending? Stopped hiding?” If they all came out of the shadows, what would the world be like then?

“Yeah, I wonder…and I think half of ’em probably wouldn’t give a damn about us being different.”

“And the other half?”

“They’d get the torches and try to burn us all out.”

Colin nodded. “That’s what I figured.” And the world wasn’t ready for a war between the humans and the Other. “So I tell Brooks nothing.”

McNeal nodded. “If he gives you trouble, send him to me.”

No, he could handle Brooks. But, “You know, there are only so many times a man can see magic and deny it.” And if Brooks got tossed across a room by a demon a few more times, odds were good his partner would start to put the facts together.

“If he figures out what’s going on, we’ll deal with it. With him.”

Easy words to say, but he knew Brooks wouldn’t be that easy to handle. His gaze drifted to McNeal’s desk. To the thin picture frame on the side.