“Is there any word of him coming to Manhattan?” I asked Blade.
“Where was the message sent from?” Weston added.
“It was sent from New Mexico.”
“So not anywhere near here.”
“But that means he’s on the move,” Garrett said. “He could be visiting another cult down there.”
“We can’t do anything but monitor the situation,” I said finally. “We’ll keep an eye out for him.”
“He’d be crazy to turn up in Manhattan,” Mace said in concern. “Surely.”
“Our father has randomly appeared in New York before,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but that was Parker’s fault,” Archer reminded us. “Leif is not just going to show up for no reason.”
“He’s not stupid,” Beck said. “He can’t think he’s going to somehow, what, kidnap Belle Frost? She’s like six feet tall and solid muscle.”
“I bet he knows that Blade is onto him, and he’s trying to throw us off the scent,” Archer declared. “He’s distracting us. He wants us to concentrate on Manhattan and not whatever he’s doing in New Mexico.”
“Well, there are tons of us,” Mace declared. “So we’re watching both.”
“Except for Hunter,” Garrett said. “He has a debate to win.”
67
Meghan
Ihadn’t been able to concentrate on the debate prep because Hunter kept texting me.
“You are supposed to be keeping him off-balance, not the other way around,” Kate reminded me. “This is the final debate before the election. It’s the most important one. This could make or break you.”
“I know,” I groaned.
“Let’s try this again. What’s your plan for the housing crisis?”
“Well, I mean, it’s not that dire…”
“Wrong answer!” Kate yelled, blaring an air horn at me “You need to make it sound like there are people sleeping in the train station, and they have nowhere to live.”
My phone went off; it was another message from Hunter.
“Is he sending you nudie photos to try and throw you off?” Kate demanded, trying to grab for the phone.
“Lemme see!” Susie said around the doughnut she was eating.
“You’re a police officer!”
She shrugged. “I like naked men.”
I peeked at the message. “It’s not a sext. It’s worse.”
“Is it like a full-frontal dick pic?”
“No, he’s sending me houses he wants us to move into.”
Susie grabbed the phone. “That is a nice house!”
