I took another step forward, but Lu dug in her heels and kept me right where I was standing. She was plenty strong enough to do so.
“Go,” she ordered again.
Hatchersnicked air through his teeth and dismissed me entirely. “Find me,” he said. “Or I’ll find you.”
I pushed. It didn’t matter how hard Lula pushed back. I broke past her.
The hunter was already out of my reach, still facing us, walking backward.
A gun. He had a gun in his hand. He took several steps keeping it trained on us, then rounded the corner of the building.
I started after him, but Lula was more than inhumanly strong, she was also very fast.
She grabbed my arm and was in front of me again, blocking my movement.
“Leave it, Brogan,” she said. “Leave him. It’s fine.”
“Fine? What did he want? Why was he here? What did he do to you?”
“Nothing. He didn’t do anything.” She shoved harder, her hand like steel against my flesh. “Let it go.”
I took another step. She made a frustrated sound and moved to the side to let me pass, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me.
I jogged around the corner, but the hunter hadn’t stayed alive this long by kicking hornets’ nests and waiting for the sting.
He was gone.
I could go after him. Chase him down. Maybe catch him before he drove off—
—pull him through the window and beat him bloody—
—but he couldn’t answer the question I needed answered.
What was wrong with Lula? Why the hell was she talking to the monster hunter who had tried to kill her? He’d had his chance, he’d had enough time. Why hadn’t he shot her?
I stomped back around the building. Lula was walking—not slowly, but not so quickly I would miss her—back to the truck.
She was angry. It showed in every line of her willowy body.
Just in case I missed her body language, the explosive slam of the truck door, as she ducked into the driver’s seat, clued me in.
I mopped my face, sticking thumbs in the corners of my eyes to blink out the burn of sweat.
A crow, or maybe it was a raven, cackled from the corner of the restaurant’s roof. I flipped off the bird or spirit or god or whatever it was and walked to the truck.
The engine was rumbling. Air-conditioning hadn’t been a given when the truck rolled off the assembly line, but Lu had the fan on full blast and both windows down.
“Lu,” I said.
“No.” She waited until I got the door shut to put the truck inreverse. “I’m angry. I don’t want to say something I’ll regret.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Abbi tapped on the window from the back. She smacked the brochure against the glass and mouthed,please.
I grunted and smoothed palms across my jeans. “Abbi wants to see the Blarney Stone.”
“Lick!” Abbi yelled. “I want to lick the Blarney Stone. Forluck.”
Lula tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
