“He won’t care about that,” Lucky said softly. “You’re not out there murdering people, are you?”
Not yet. I didn’t doubt for a second what I’d do if I saw someone come at Rae with a fucking crow bar, but I couldn’t think about that. Picturing him getting hurt would tip me over the edge. “Thanks, but I’m okay. The crew I’m working with could do with a serious dosh injection—facilities, equipment, somewhere to live instead of camping in a swamp—but I’d never take a penny from Dom, any more than you would.”
I had Lucky there. Dom was rich as fuck, but rarely managed to convince Lucky to let him buy him so much as a sandwich. It was no different for me.
As if on cue, Dom called from downstairs. “There’s food on the table if you two haven’t fallen asleep up there.”
It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d knocked out with Lucky, but sleep was the last thing on my mind, and despite it all, I was famished.
We trooped downstairs. Dom had cooked pasta withall the cheese, but even that wasn’t enough to perk me up. I was slumped at the kitchen counter, scarfing it robotically, when my phone rang.
An unknown number flashed up on the screen. I stared at it, frozen in my seat, caught between the desperate need to know Rae was okay, and fear that it wasn’t him calling me at all.
Lucky reached around me and answered the call, setting it on speakerphone. “Yeah?” he said in a voice that wasn’t his at all, or anywhere close to mine.
Silence.
Then a slow chuckle I heard in my dreams. “Cash, it’s me.”
Dinner forgotten, I scrambled for my phone. “Just a sec.”
I turned the speakerphone off, and left the room, not daring to speak again until I was back in the relative sanctuary of my room. “Are you okay?”
Rae blew out a breath. “Fuck, yeah. We were caught up with the police all day, but they had nothing on us, and the hunt was called off. No one rode out, not even the terrier men for cubbing.”
“For real?”
“For real. I’d have let you know sooner, but they took our phones away. Don’t worry. We use burners and we’d just ditched the one you’d been contacting me on. I’m picking up a new handset for myself tomorrow. I’ll message you as soon as I get a SIM.”
I sank down on the edge of my bed. “That’s awesome that they cancelled the hunt. It doesn’t always work out that way.”
“Oh, I know,” Rae said. “And I know the stingers were a one-time thing. We won’t catch them out like that again.”
I touched my throbbing cheek. He was more right than I cared to admit, but it had been worth it to save just one fox.
“Anyway,” Rae went on when I failed to speak. “There’s more good news. The next hunt has been called off too, something to do with public order and risk to life. It won’t last, and I reckon they’ll try and sneak something in before then, but with all the attention we got today, we’ve probably got a few days grace before they come after us again.”
I wasn’t so sure. Even without evidence, the hunting community would know exactly who’d ruined their fun, and the police didn’t care enough to keep the peace for long. I needed Rae away from there and safe, even if it was just until the next action. “Come to London.”
“What?”
“London,” I repeated. “Come stay with me a couple of days.”
“We tried that before, remember? I was so fucked-up I thought your housemate was Dominic Ramos.”
I winced, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it. Maybe Dom would go out. “Come on,” I said. “I have to work, but you can chill in my house, work on your blog, get some sleep in a real bed…”
“Always with the bed, aren’t you?”
It was my turn to chuckle. “It matters. I remember what it’s like to live so rough.”
Rae said nothing for a long moment.
Then he muttered something so softly I thought I’d imagined it.
“What was that?”
“I said,” he repeated. “If I come to London, I’m sleeping in your bed, with you. Think on it, and let me know.”
