Chapter 141: The Midnight Handover

Damon’s POV

A few minutes before I supposedly kidnapped my dear Micah, midnight had already arrived.

The ice arena was freezing, silent, and smelling heavily of stale sweat and shaved ice. Coach blew his whistle one final time, calling an end to our brutal eight-hour training session. The other players were practically crawling off the rink on their hands and knees, peeling off their soaked pads, completely broken from Noah’s relentless drills.

Coach stood by the locker room entrance, holding a clipboard with a grim, stressed look on his face. He made the guys split up into groups of three or four, ordering them to take shared cabs or drive together straight to their dorms. With the rampant kidnappings tearing through the city, nobody was allowed to walk across campus alone after dark.

Everyone had someone to ride with. That left only me heading toward the wealthy northern hills toward the Silver estate.

Coach turned to me, his thick eyebrows pulling together in concern.

"Silver, you have to be extra careful heading home tonight," Coach said, tapping my shoulder with his clipboard. "The security around the campus perimeter is failing. Another athlete was snatched yesterday, and we cannot afford to lose our starting defender hours before the championship final."

I wiped a line of sweat from my chin and laughed softly, casually glancing over my shoulder toward Noah, who was unlacing his skates on the bench.

"Don’t worry about me, Coach," I smirked, leaning my hockey stick against the wall. "I’ll be perfectly fine. I just have to spend the night at my dear captain’s house."

Noah’s head snapped up instantly. His jaw clenched into a hard, irritated line, his cold blue eyes glaring straight through me.

"Go to your own house, Silver," Noah snapped flatly. "I am not accepting any unwanted guests tonight."

"Oh, come on, Captain! Don’t be so cold," I pouted, stepping off the rubber mat. "After three days of sweating on the ice together, the least you could do is offer your loyal teammate a spare couch—"

Before I could finish my teasing, the sharp, shrill ringtone of Noah’s phone cut through the empty arena.

Noah reached into his pocket and checked the glowing screen. The annoyed scowl on his face instantly vanished, replaced by an icy stillness. He swiped the screen and brought the phone to his ear, turning his back to the room.

Coach shook his head, letting out a weary sigh. He zipped up his heavy jacket and grabbed his keys from the bench.

"I wish you two the best tomorrow," Coach said, walking toward the double exit doors. "And make sure Noah doesn’t forget his sleeping brother up in the bleachers."

"Of course," I replied with a faint smile. "There’s no way in hell Noah would ever forget Micah."

Coach gave a brief wave and pushed through the doors, his heavy footsteps fading down the dark hallway until the exit clattered shut.

I turned back to Noah.

He was standing completely motionless beside the bench, listening silently to whoever was speaking on the other end of the line.

Then, he ended the call without uttering a single word.

"Hey, Silver," Noah called out.

His voice was terrifyingly low that it made every single hair on my arms stand straight up.

He slowly turned around to face me. The composed mask he wore for the public was entirely gone.

"Take Micah to your house," Noah commanded.

I blinked in disbelief.

"Huh? Wait... What?" I asked, staring at him like he had lost his mind. "You want me to take him? To the Silver estate?"

This was the same possessive psycho who had threatened to snap my neck if I touched Micah. This was the guy who had chased me around a dining table with a fork just for offering to help his brother wash up. And now he was telling me to take Micah home with me?

"There is an urgent matter I need to handle tonight," Noah said, his tone clipped and vicious. "I cannot leave him alone at the house. And I will not have him anywhere near where I am going."

He didn’t wait for my agreement. He marched up the concrete bleacher stairs, grabbed Micah’s camera bag and the thermal carrier, and marched back down, aggressively shoving the heavy straps straight into my chest.

"Take these," Noah ordered.

Before I could even adjust my grip, Noah turned around and walked over to the second row of bleachers where Micah was curled up fast asleep.

I watched in stunned silence as Noah leaned down. He slipped one arm securely under Micah’s knees and the other around his slender shoulders, lifting his sleeping brother into his arms as easily as if he weighed nothing.

Micah didn’t wake up. He just let out a soft, sleepy sigh, his head falling limp against Noah’s chest, his small hand instinctively gripping the front of Noah’s shirt.

Noah looked down at him for a brief second, his jaw tightening, before turning his eyes back onto me.

"Let’s go to your car," Noah said.

"Wait, Noah, hold on," I argued, hurrying behind him down the hallway. "I still don’t understand what the hell is happening. Who called you? What kind of matter are you handling at midnight?!"

"Silver!" Noah yelled, his voice echoing off the concrete walls like a whip.

I flinched, stopping in my tracks.

Noah turned his head, his eyes flashing with a desperate, suffocating rage. "I don’t have all night to explain myself to you! Hurry the fuck up and open your car!"

My stomach twisted into a knot.

Something was horribly, dangerously wrong.

Noah wasn’t just angry; he was on the edge of a violent explosion. The call he received had changed everything. Whatever it was, Noah was preparing to walk straight into a bloodbath, and he was terrified of Micah getting caught in the crossfire.

I didn’t ask another question. I broke into a fast jog, leading him out into the frosty night air.

My red sports car was parked near the curb. I pulled my keys from my pocket, clicking the remote unlock. The headlights flashed, and I yanked the passenger door wide open.

Noah leaned into the low vehicle. With care, he lowered Micah into the leather passenger seat, making sure his brother’s head rested gently against the headrest. Noah pulled the seatbelt across Micah’s chest, clicking the metal buckle into place with a soft snap.

Then, Noah reached down, unzipped his own heavy varsity jacket, pulled it off his shoulders, and draped it carefully over Micah’s lap and torso, tucking the edges around his arms so the night air wouldn’t reach him.

Noah stroked a loose strand of hair away from Micah’s forehead, his pale fingers lingering against the soft skin of his cheek for an extra second.

I stood right behind Noah, clutching Micah’s bags, watching the whole scene unfold.

A sharp pang of jealousy ripped violently through my chest.

Look at him. He didn’t look like a brother protecting a sibling. He looked like an obsessive, territorial lover guarding his most precious possession from the rest of the world.

The tenderness in his hands made my blood boil with envy. I wanted Micah to look at me like that. I wanted to be the one wrapping him in warmth. I wanted to be the one he leaned against when the world fell apart.

Unable to stand the sight for another second, I reached past Noah and slammed the passenger door shut with a loud, aggressive BANG!

Noah whipped around, his eyes locking onto mine with an instant, murderous glare. He looked like he wanted to bash my skull into the hood of the car right then and there.

He didn’t strike me. He couldn’t. Not when he was handing me the only thing on this earth he actually cared about.

"Keep him safe, Damon," Noah said, his voice dropping into a deadly, unyielding whisper. "If he wakes up, keep him inside your estate. Do not let him step foot outside your gates. If a single hair on his head is harmed while he is under your roof, I will burn the Silver family to the ground."

I met his terrifying gaze, swallowing the sarcastic remarks that usually lived on my tongue. The desperation behind his threat was too real to mock.

"I’ll protect him with my life," I said seriously, meeting his eyes head-on. "You know I will."

Noah stared at me for a long, quiet second, searching my face. Then he gave a stiff, barely perceptible nod.

"You should also be safe, Captain," I added quietly. "Don’t get yourself killed before the third period tomorrow."

"I’ll be just fine," Noah muttered coldly, turning his back on me and giving a dismissive wave of his hand.

He marched across the dark asphalt toward his black car. The engine roared to life and within seconds, his car accelerated out of the parking complex, its red taillights vanishing into the empty city night.

I stood alone in the chill for a moment, letting the heavy reality sink in. Noah was heading toward something lethal.

I shook my head, threw Micah’s bags onto the back seat, and slid behind the steering wheel. I started the engine, shifted into gear, and guided the sports car out of the university gates, heading north toward the private Silver family estate.

The drive was completely silent. I turned the heater on, letting the warm air circulate through the cabin. Every few seconds, my eyes drifted from the dark highway to the passenger seat.

Micah was sleeping so peacefully. With Noah’s heavy jacket tucked over his shoulders, he looked fragile, soft, and small. Just having him beside me in my car made a strange, intoxicating warmth bloom inside my chest. He was finally here. With me. Away from Noah. Away from his terrifying father.

Twenty minutes later, the car turned onto the long, winding coastal boulevard.

The sudden shift in the car’s momentum made Micah stir.

He shifted under the heavy jacket, letting out a soft, confused whimper. His dark eyelashes fluttered rapidly, and he slowly opened his big, glassy eyes, staring blankly at the dark roof of the vehicle.

He blinked against the faint green light of the dashboard. He turned his head slowly to the left, his gaze landing directly on me sitting behind the wheel.

"Damon?" Micah muttered, his voice trembling and thick with sleep.

He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes, looking frantically through the dark windows at the empty road and the looming pine trees.

Panic exploded across his face in a split second. The softness vanished, replaced by sheer, paralyzed terror.

"Where is Noah?" Micah stammered, his breath turning rapid and shallow as hot tears instantly welled up in his wide eyes. "Why am I in your car? Don’t tell me..."

His entire body began shivering violently under the jacket as he clutched the fabric with white knuckles.

"Did you kidnap me?!"