CHAPTER 8 ARCH #2
Oz had stopped moving. He stared between me and Manny, a speculative look on his face. Manny’s expression didn’t change, but he crossed his arms. “What kind of personal stuff?”
Nope. Not going there. I’d been planning to tell him, but it wasn’t happening when his boyfriend was in the same room. I met Manny’s stare with a stare of my own. “Personal.”
Movement had me clocking Oz, who was staring intently at me. He deliberately cut a glance over to Manny and back to me before he raised his eyebrows.
The skin on my face, and, hell, my entire head, was burning from embarrassment. How had he guessed? I begged him with my eyes not to tell Manny. No good could come of it.
The oven beeped to indicate it had preheated. Oz gave me a disappointed look as he returned to cooking. If he told Manny later, at least I wouldn’t be here.
Manny stood up. “I’m gonna go get dressed. I’ll be right back.”
Then I was alone with Oz. He, of course, stayed silent, throwing the occasional glance my way while he made what appeared to be biscuit dough. I wished I’d brought my bread maker, no matter how weird it would’ve made me seem. At least I’d have had something to do with my hands.
Eventually I felt uncomfortable enough I scrounged a conversation topic out of my brain.
“Uh, you’ve been living at Wonderhaven?” He nodded.
“Good, good. It’s a real nice setup they have over there.
Alpha Rafferty gave me a tour when I was in town a few months ago.
” I took a sip of orange juice. “I, uh, haven’t seen a report recently.
Did any of the other Wonders who were rescued with you stay as well? ”
This got me a head shake. Fucking hell, this was torture. I was an action guy, not a small talk guy. I didn’t do well carrying the conversational burden. Especially with someone who’d just guessed that I had the hots for his boyfriend.
Fortunately—or not, depending on your perspective—Manny reappeared.
He plated the bacon Oz had cooked, then he cleaned up the kitchen while we waited for the biscuits to be ready.
I managed to remark about how much Pia had grown, and how she seemed to be doing well in the Wonder school she was enrolled in.
Oz didn’t respond, but Manny added a few comments, so it wasn’t entirely awkward.
Once Oz and Manny were seated at the table, and we all had plates of food in front of us, I focused on eating. Other than complimenting the food, I stayed silent. When breakfast was over, I’d wait enough time to be polite, then I’d leave. This had been a disaster, and I wouldn’t be back.
I was mopping up the last of my eggs with a biscuit when Oz, who’d been typing on his phone, turned the screen toward me. What happened to the monster that was in the cells with us?
I blinked. “Monster? What do you mean, monster?”
Manny looked to Oz for permission then took the phone from me. He glanced at the question before raising his eyebrows at Oz as he handed the phone back to him. “What kind of monster?”
“And why do you call it a monster?” Most Wonders didn’t use language like that to avoid reinforcing the human-invented stereotypes.
I cast my mind over the reports I’d read about the Wonders we’d rescued.
Some of the Wonders had been listed as “Shifter of unknown species,” but none had been noted as out of the ordinary.
Oz opened his mouth, then shook his head and started typing.
When he handed me his phone, I held it so Manny could read it as well.
We were put in its cell to feed it. I got picked more often because I’m big.
The guy in charge called it his pet. It always asked me to kill it but I couldn’t because of the shackles.
Manny gasped and put his hand on Oz’s. “Oz! That’s horrible!”
My heart rate and breathing increased, and I had to fight down the urge to go into Hunter mode.
How had we missed this information? I handed him the phone back and cleared my throat.
“Oz, thanks for telling me about this. I’ve got some questions if you wouldn’t mind answering?
” He nodded and I pulled out my own phone to take notes.
I ran my hand over my head trying to organize my thoughts. “Um, first of all, did anyone on the Hunter team ask you about what you’d witnessed while you were being held?”
He shook his head then typed on his phone. Maybe because I couldn’t speak?
I pressed my lips together, breathing in and out through my nose.
Dominic and I had known for some time that we had a leak somewhere in the Hunters, someone actively sabotaging our operations.
This might be the lead we needed. “They should’ve asked you if you could type your responses, like you’re doing now. ”
Oz shrugged and shook his head again.
“Okay, thanks. Let me first ask you about the guy in charge of the kidnappings. You saw him?”
Oz started to type, then he took a sip of his orange juice. “We all saw him.” I jumped a little in my seat at the gravelly sound of his voice. He smiled wryly at me. “I never thought I’d be able to speak while this subject was on the table.” He leaned toward Manny, who gave him a side hug.
I didn’t quite know what to say to that, so I just went with, “I’ll bet.” I took another deep breath. “Okay, what did the guy in charge look like? Did you ever hear his name?”
He stared out the window for a moment. “No name. He was pretty short compared to me, maybe Manny’s height, five foot six or so. Some sort of magic carrier, but I don’t know what kind.”
My mouth fell open. Magic carriers had been created to protect Wonders. For one to traffic them was... horrifying.
Oz went on. “He had dark hair and some sort of accent. British or Irish? Not sure.”