Wren glared at the man so hard Teddy thought he’d disintegrate on the spot before turning around.
“Fine,” Wren spat. “You have five minutes. After that I am feeding the ferrets. One finger at a time.”
He stalked as far away as he could in the tiny room as the man squeaked and pressed himself harder against the wall.
“He’s insane,” Adam said.
“He’s…spirited.” Teddy smiled. “But he means well.”
“That was him meaning well?!”
“Yeah,” he said somberly. “You should see him angry. It’s not pretty.”
“Oh my god, I don’t want to fucking die,” Adam said. “I only took this job to help a friend. I didn’t even… He didn’t say there would be crazy people knocking me out. I just…”
“Hey,” Teddy said, voice as soothing as he could make it. “Hey, it’s okay. Deep breaths. They send me with him to keep him in check. He won’t hurt you as long as you act nice and cooperate.”
“I don’t have a name though,” Adam said desperately, staring at Teddy like he was a lifeline. “I don’t have anything. I just have the texts they send and locations for drop-offs. I don’t know any names. Please…”
“It’s all good,” Teddy said. “If you don’t know, you don’t know. Can I look at the texts?”
“I don’t…”
“Shhh, darling.” Teddy heard Wren’s hushed whisper. “I know you’re hungry…”
“Here!” Adam pulled out his phone and brought up a text thread with several locations listed going back several weeks.
Teddy pulled out his own phone and snapped a pic of the screen, unwilling to leave any trace of himself or his own information with the man.
“What do you know about each location?” Teddy asked.
“Nothing! They’re just places. Back alleys mostly…a warehouse…”
Teddy stopped him there. “A warehouse?”
Adam twitched, getting uncomfortable again. “I really shouldn’t say anything more. If these people know I’ve talked…”
“This is off the record and we can arrange protection for you.” Wren scoffed, but Teddy ignored it. “If you’re really just themiddleman, then we’ll take you out of the equation. We just need to know what you know.”
“Protection?” Adam scoffed. “With the local pigs? They’re worse than me, everyone knows that.”
Teddy couldn’t argue it. “We can get you a transfer to Slatehollow. There’s some good people there.”
Adam seemed to consider it for a few moments.
“I really don’t know much, just that they only ever want, like, lizards and stuff like that. You know, the things that can bite you and kill you?” He shuddered and risked a glance at Wren. “That’s where that lizard was going to.”
“Did you see any faces? Distinguishable features?” Teddy asked.
He slowly shook his head. “No, that’s the other thing. They wore hazmat suits. You know the yellow ones with the masks that you see on TV? It’s creepy as hell. They’d just sign for the stuff without a word and then I would leave. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, honestly.”
Teddy looked back over his shoulder at Wren, sharing a glance before turning back to Adam. “We can get you out to Slatehollow.”
Adam shook his head vehemently. “If anyone sees a cursebreaker driving me I’m as good as dead anyway.”
Teddy frowned. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll make my own way there. I know my way around the backroads.”
