“Besides us, you mean?”
His lips kick up on one side. “You’re not a stranger anymore.” I follow him into the truck, and he gives me one of his sly looks, patting the seat between us. “We know each otherbiblically.”
Heat rushes over me at the memory of last night. “Why don’t we skip this meeting and fuck instead? I’d love a turn with that piercing inside me.”
Ziggy’s eyes flutter closed, and he presses down on his groin. “Nope, nope, no.”
I open my mouth to suggest we let his dick decide when he turns on his truck and puts the radio on blast. It’s a mix of singing and static, but he doesn’t turn it down, just gives me a warning look and pulls the truck around.
It’s not until there’s nothing but harsh static coming through that I lean over and switch it off. “I’ll behave. I promise.”
That seems to satisfy him.
“So what’s this meeting?”
“If you and your brothers are needed, I’m guessing it’s for the whole town. I’ve only been to a handful of them, and they’re always held when there’s an emergency.”
“This stranger is an emergency?”
“I guess we’ll see.”
I’m surprised when we pull up outside the town bar, but I guess other than the fighting arena, it’s the only place large enough to fit everyone. There are only two other trucks outside, one of them Wilde’s, and it’s weird to think that most people out here don’t own cars.
Inside is crowded, maybe twenty or thirty of us, and through the people staring my way, I pick out familiar faces. Wilde and Hudson down the other side, Hart holding up the wall by the door, Booker talking to a freckly guy I think I’ve seen before … and Lynx.
His bright red hair gives him away, and he’s surrounded by a group of kids ranging from teens down to one teeny monster. He’s entertaining them by stabbing a knife between his fingers, thethunk-thunk-thunkgetting faster and faster with each pass.
If I had to pick anyone in this room to be a babysitter, it would not be him.
“I think that’s everyone,” Wilde says without so much as a hello. His face is serious, like it always is, but I grudgingly see why they made him leader. With his scars and the injuries from his fight last night, he looks like a badass. “I’ve been getting increasingly more reports of theft over the last week, until last night during Peril, Nox saw a man running from his property. Leo reported seeing the same man this morning before sunrise.”
A ripple of conversation goes through the room.
“I think at this point, we start a full-scale search. This person needs to be found, and we know the End better than anyone.” Even from the back of the room, I notice the way his jaw tightens. “And ourfriendsfrom the Dale have decided to stick around and help us.”
Foley stands from one of the front tables, wearing a dark red tank top, forearm in a cast, and a broad smile. “Wilde’s End shares a border with the Dale, and I’d rather stop this pest on your territory than have it invade ours.”
Wilde looks like he wishes he could give Foley an extra hit.
Honestly, seeing him clearer than last night, I get what Hudson means. The man could be a goddamn movie star with his looks—he’s tall, Hollywood muscular, and inhumanly handsome—but those good looks are turned creepy with the tattoos across his face.
“Should we pair up?” Foley suggests.
“No,” Wilde immediately cuts in. “We have sweep teams. We know what we’re doing.”
Foley eyes him like he wants to push back. “Fine. I’m joining Booker’s.”
The doctor lets out a long sigh but doesn’t bother to fill the silence.
“Kids will be with me,” Lynx says.
“They’re not joining the search,” a woman in her forties says. “I’ll stay behind with them.”
“Like hell you will.” Lynx hands off his knife to the little one. “I have enough weapons to go around.”
She huffs and crosses to take the knife away. I’d assume she’s the kid’s mom, but nothing about the way they’re interacting supports that. “Weapons don’t belong with children.”
“They have to learn to hunt at some point, Viv.”
