"Remember I told you about Specter from Subterra Vanguard?" Shanley began, lifting his head. The light cast sharp angles across his handsome face.


    "Yeah, I remember," Jimmie said with a slight frown. "Isn''t he your arch-nemesis? The one who''s always working against you? Why are you bringing him up when I''m asking about Juniper?"


    “Juniper is Specter." It took all of Shanley''s strength to force out those three words.


    “What?” Jimmie shot upright, his voice full of disbelief. “Juniper is Specter, the leader of Subterra Vanguard?"


    Shanley''s silence was all the confirmation Jimmie needed. He fell silent too, his expression turning even darker than Shanley''s. He knew the whole story between Shanley and Specter—the manhunts, the assassinations, the hijacked ships, the sabotage. He knew that several times, Shanley hade dangerously close to taking Specter''s life. The most sessful attempt involved a bullet to the head. He''d heard Specter barely survived.


    If that was true, then Shanley had almost murdered his own girlfriend years ago.


    "I didn''t know back then..." Shanley said, sinking onto the sofa. He turned his head, unable to meet Jimmie''s gaze. "We only found out each other''s identities when we shed in Moralia Country. Juniper got angry and flew home without me."


    He summed up the reveal in a few brief sentences, conveniently omitting the part where he had kidnapped her friend and threatened her.


    "She''s not at Cloudscape Community?" Jimmie asked, looking at Shanley with a deep stare, forcibly swallowing the curses on the tip of his tongue. "Or the university?"


    "No," Shanley shook his head. "Besides her apartment and school, the most likely ce she''d go is to one of you."


    Jimmie ran a hand through his hair, feeling like the air had been knocked out of him. "I''ll call Harold, Melvin and Ebony Fox."


    "Wait," Shanley said, his eyes snapping up. He wet his lips, his voice low and guilty. "Can you hold off on telling her sister for now?"


    Ebony Fox had a temper even worse than Juniper''s. If she found out, she would tear him to shreds.


    "You want to pretend this never happened?” Jimmie frowned. Was he really that spineless?


    "No," Shanley shook his head, exining earnestly. "I haven''t earned Juniper''s forgiveness yet, can''t afford to die right now..


    Once this mess with our past rivalry is settled, you all can do whatever you want with me."  s?novels


    "Hmph." Jimmie let out a coldugh, his expression finally softening a fraction. At least that sounded like something a man would say.


    Jimmie quickly contacted Harold Houston and Melvin Steele, but they both gave the same answer: no word from Juniper.


    Meanwhile, Shanley had someone check the military training grounds. Ebony Fox had been there all day for her training and hadn''t left. So Juniper couldn''t have gone to her.


    “Juniper probably just needs some time to process this,” Jimmie sighed, at a loss for what else to say. "She''lle back when she''s thought it through."


    "And if she doesn''t?" Shanley shot back.


    Jimmie couldn''t answer that.


    Juniper might be young, but she was


    incredibly strong-willed. Anyone


    would struggle to deal with a


    situation like this, especially Since Shanley had nearly killed her.


    "I''ll contact you the second I hear anything, Jimmie sighed again, managing not to curse him out After all, nobody could have predicted what happened all those years ago.


    "And one more thing..." Jimmie paused for a second before adding, "You should probablyy low for a few days. Especially, and I mean especially, do not run into Melvin."


    Shanley looked at him, confused.


    "When I was on the phone with him," Jimmie exined, “I heard him in the background, looking for a knife."


    Shanley was speechless.