Chapter 29
GRIFFITH
There’s something wrong.
I’m on the opposite side of the bar from Clem, my hands busy pouring drinks, but something has me setting the glass down hard and searching for her. Maybe it was a noise or a shift in her scent. I can’t pinpoint exactly what the alert was, but I know she’s not okay anymore.
I abandon my customers, take a couple of steps, and there she is, poised in a fighting stance. Without thought, I leap over the bar top and rush to her side, searching for the enemy who has her on high alert.
My attention settles on a guy sitting on a barstool. He’s fit, got a bit of a beard, and intricate tattoos creeping up his neck and down to his knuckles. The way he sits on the stool and watches Clem seems curious rather than aggressive.
But I’m not about to write him off until I know what’s going on.
“Clem?”
“He’s Luke.” Her whisper is harsh, and my mind only needs a second to place the name.
He’s the hunter.
On my next deep inhale, I search for a sign of the scent left on Clem’s shoe.
Nothing. And not him having a different smell. He has no smell at all. A snarl rises in my throat; I was too reliant on a skill that won’t help because of some fucking hunter magic. I was too complacent.
“I am.” The intruder nods, still not making an aggressive move.
Maybe he thinks Clem is alone here. That if he acts nonthreatening, then I’ll leave her and get back to my job.
No fucking way.
Instead, I step forward, grab his arm, and twist it behind his back. “Rodney! You’ve got the bar!”
“Got it, boss,” he calls after me as I drag the hunter out of Local Brew.
“Call Carl,” I command to Clem over my shoulder while keeping a wary eye on the hunter.
He grunts when I restrain him, but doesn’t try to break free. Still, he could pull a knife when I’m distracted and leave me wounded like Clem if he gets a good swipe at me.
Once outside, I press the fucker against the side of my truck, making sure to pin his other arm too.
“You smell like nothing,” I snarl, furious he was able to get so close—into my fucking bar—without me clocking him. “You made a mistake, coming here. You’re not going to touch Clem ever again.”
“I never hurt her.” His voice is calm, which only ups my fury. I want him scared.
I want him gone.
I slam him against the truck bed. “Bullshit.”
“Ask her then.” He wheezes the words, wind knocked out of him. “I was there when she was hurt. But it wasn’t me.”
“You’re a hunter,” she hisses, having come up beside us even though I wish she’d stay miles away. “That guy greeted you like a buddy. Then he tried to fucking gut me.”
Luke grimaces. “He acted on his own. I never would have hurt you.”
“Yeah, because I knocked you out before you could.” She glares at him, her arms crossed in defiance.
Shrimp ambles up to us and sniffs the guy’s jeans like he expects a treat.
“I can—” the hunter starts, but is cut off by the blaring of police sirens.
Carl’s cruiser whips around the bend in the road, and he comes to a screeching stop beside us. He shoves his door open so hard that I’m surprised the thing doesn’t rip off its hinges.
“This him?” My friend looks ready to murder, and as much as I want this hunter dead, we need him breathing for answers. Need to find out if he has backup on the way.
“Yeah.” I angle Luke toward the backseat of the cruiser. “I figure you’ll put him in the holding cell.”
Carl cracks his knuckles but then nods. Still, there’s scorched earth fire in his eyes when he cuffs the hunter and shoves the asshole into the backseat of his car.
“You should take Clem home,” he tells me.
“Fuck that.” She wrenches open the passenger door on my truck and snaps for Shrimp to hop up. “Griffith is driving me to the station. No way you’re interrogating that piece of shit without me. I’m the whole reason this started. I deserve answers.”
Carl mutters some curses, but doesn’t protest. If he were a less law-abiding guy, I’d expect him to lose us on a back road and carry out his own justice where no one could stop him.
But, no, as we follow, Carl heads for Town Hall.
“You okay?” I ask Clem, noting the way her foot taps and how she’s tangled her fingers in Shrimp’s shaggy coat.
“Not yet, but I’m going to be.”