Lynx pauses on his way back to the truck and eyes Bob. “Not sure I’d call him that either.”
Rooney waves off his comment. “Whatever you want to call him, the point is that you’re both terrifying. Wilde has the scars to prove it.”
Wilde’s hand immediately covers his neck, where the teeth marks are fading into his skin. “Just keep him over there.”
“I don’tkeep himdoing anything.” Lynx storms back to the truck.
I know Lynx doesn’t think he has any control over Bob, but there has to be a reason why the cat is sticking around.
“You been okay up here, Ziggy?” Wilde asks suddenly.
I eye him as I nod.
“There’ve been a few reports around town of things going missing now. Booker said some supplies have disappeared, Mase and Sonny are missing blankets they had drying, and Leo said he saw a man in the trees this morning.”
“A man?” Rooney echoes. “Like a stranger?”
“I don’t know how much to trust the word of a five-year-old, but it lines up with the weirdness, so I want us all to be alert.”
“That makes sense,” Rooney agrees. “Especially after the last time we had a stranger here.”
It’s rare that anything happens in Wilde’s End. The town is so remote, with so few of us living here, that excitement is not a draw card. The last incident happened before I moved here, where a couple were hiding out in Hobby Straight with a group of stolen kids. Wilde and some others held them here until the police arrived, then lied and said they stumbled on the people while they were hiking.
There hasn’t been anything since. That we know of.
And there isn’t much that happens here without us knowing.
“I’m missing six carrots, two cucumbers, and a bush of blueberries has been stripped bare.” Lynx dumps the wooden slats onto the tiled floor.
“Someone’s hungry,” Rooney says.
“Someone’sdead,” Lynx answers. “They also took my favorite knife. The second I find out who’s stolen from me, I’ll slice their skin from their body.”
Rooney laughs. “And you say you’re not creepy.”
“I’mnot.” He says it like he takes personal offense to that. “I’m protective.” His hand hovers over the handle of the machete strapped to his leg. “I have no issue disposing of the trash.” He slants a look at me and Wilde. “No matter who they are.”
I glare back. Lynx can think whatever he wants about the brothers, but I’m not going to let him threaten them. Any of them. If he hurt Kennedy, even a small amount, I wouldn’t hesitate to do worse back. People can underestimate me all they like, but it will be their funeral.
No one will take him from me.
Lynx’s razor-sharp eyes focus on my face. “What’s this?” he asks softly, stalking closer. “Are you challenging me, little Ziggy?”
“Touch him and not even Bob will save you,” Wilde warns.
“But I’m not the one making threats.”
Wilde glances my way. “Whatever Ziggy’s threatening, I agree with him.”
“Me against the world yet again—” Bob’s hiss cuts off Lynx’s words. “And Bob. Sorry, Bob.”
I huff and turn toward where I want the wall built. I point to it and roll my hands to show them we should get moving.
“So bossy …” Lynx taunts, getting everything set up. Then he leans in by my ear. “I slipped venison skewers into your fridge. I hope you both choke on them.”
I pat the spot over my heart twice before Lynx looks away. Complain all he likes, he’s still looking out for me. Kennedy, though … I wouldn’t be surprised if he really does want him to choke. An attitude like that is going to come between me and Lynx, so he needs to figure out a way to bottle it. If the rest of us can adjust to the brothers and wait for the storm that’s coming, he can too.
And while I’m sure there’ll be a storm, Kennedy is the silver lining to it.
