“I’ll go get food,” I say. “Must be somewhere nearby where I can get a half-decent breakfast to go.”
It comes out the way it always does – not a question, not a favour. A fact.
Kayla looks up at me. For a second, something passes across her face that looks dangerously like she’s about to ask if that’s okay. Like there’s a rule somewhere that says she needs clearance to let one of us step outside without supervision.
She doesn’t voice it.
Instead, she nods. “Yeah. That’d be good. Worked up an appetite last night.” She doesn’t say it like a joke, and I know she means it. We all heard it. Bones and Nightshade kept her busyinto the early hours of the morning, until they all passed out from exhaustion I think.
Hatchet’s already on his feet. He doesn’t look at me when he moves, just reaches for his jacket, checks the pockets by muscle memory. The pad stays on the bedside table. If he has something to say, it can wait.
I grab my new wallet where Tex’s credit card sits from my last outing and the room key. The motion feels absurdly normal. Like I’m heading out to pick up takeaway for a group of mates who’ll argue over sauces and steal chips when they think no one’s looking.
Kayla hesitates by the door as we’re leaving. Not blocking it. Just…there. A body marking the threshold.
“I’ll be here,” she says, unnecessarily.
I meet her eyes. “We’re not going far. And we won’t be long.”
Hatchet gives a short nod, sharp and reassuring, the kind that says he’s already mapped the street outside and isn’t worried.
Kayla steps aside. The door clicks shut behind us with a soft finality that doesn’t carry any threat. No locks slamming. No orders shouted after us.
Before we take more than a handful of steps, the door opens behind us and a voice calls, “I’m coming with you.”
She doesn’t ask.
The room next door opens immediately, like it’s been waiting for the cue.
“Like hell you are.”
Nightshade stands there in yesterday’s clothes, eyes sharp, posture already braced for a fight that hasn’t started yet. Bones is just behind him, unreadable.
Kayla doesn’t flinch. “I’m not a prisoner.”
“No,” Nightshade agrees. “But you’re also not wandering around outside without cover.”
Ghost appears from the bathroom doorway, dressed but with a towel slung over one shoulder from drying his hair, expression mild in the way that usually means he’s already decided something. “She’ll be fine.”
Nightshade’s gaze flicks to him. Then to me. Then to Hatchet.
Hatchet meets it without blinking.
“I said no,” Nightshade snaps.
Kayla folds her arms. “You don’t get to say that today.”
For a second it looks like he’s going to dig in out of sheer habit. Then Ghost tilts his head, considering.
“Let her go,” he says. Calm. Reasonable. “We’re not in a cage.”
Nightshade exhales through his nose, sharp and controlled. “Fine.” A pause. His eyes cut back to Kayla. “But only if Honey, Hatchet, and Ghost go with you.”
Not a suggestion. A condition.
Kayla looks at me. Then Hatchet. Then Ghost.
Hatchet gives a single nod. Ghost shrugs, faintly amused, already tossing the towel aside and pulling on his shoes.
