Chapter 36
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
KENNEDY
“You did this for me?” I stare at the wall that’s gone up in the hours since I left this morning.
“I had help … but yes.”
“Wow, Ziggy.” He’s changed his home to make me feel better about being here. He didn’t have to do that, and it’s making my throat weirdly tight that he did.
I’m the one who does things for other people. It’s not the other way around.
And while I definitely feel more at ease here, it doesn’t change that creepiness lurking in the back of my mind, knowing all that the wall is hiding.
A creepiness Ziggy will never know about.
He’s gone to all this trouble for me, so I’m going to work to be as comfortable here as he is.
It’ll take time, but I’ll do it. The fact that I’m starting to think I might actually get that time with him is …
almost too hard to believe. I don’t have to rush any part of our relationship. It’s almost impossible to believe.
“You like it?” His whispered words dare me to hear them.
But I’m grinning hard when I turn to where he’s standing, his fingertips trailing over the timber.
I catch him in a hug, and my face finds that groove between his shoulder and his neck as I squeeze the hell out of him.
The familiar burst of lemony soap clouds me, and I’m not sure whether I want to laugh or cry, so I hold it all in.
The important part is that Ziggy makes me feel anything other than sheer desperation.
That’s there too, of course. But it’s not the only thing, and I think that’s progress?
It’s too hard to know so early, but when I pull back and Ziggy’s smiling at me in such an open way, I have hope that we’re on the right path with this thing.
I mean, I know that I am, especially after last night, and as much as I want to say the L word, I won’t.
It’s hovering on my tongue whenever he’s close enough to hear it, and I’m scared I’ll end up screaming it at him to get it out. It’s not the word itself that I’m scared of though—I’ve said it to basically everyone I’ve ever slept with at this point—it’s that I want it to be right.
If I tell him I love him, I want him to be the last person ever to own that word from me.
The sound of a car approaching gives us the heads-up that we won’t be alone for much longer.
We leave the wall and everything that exists behind it and walk out the front to wait.
There are low, dark storm clouds gathering overhead, and I assume we’re in for another one of those afternoon storms that are so common here.
It doesn’t take long before Wilde’s truck appears.
Hart puts down the passenger-side window. “Apparently, we’re being summoned.”
“What?”
He lifts his hands like he has no idea what’s going on.
Hudson leans across him. “Town meeting. It’s important.”
I glance at Ziggy, who nods, and Wilde steers the truck back around to leave. I’m expecting that we’ll walk wherever we’re going, but Ziggy ducks back inside for his keys, moving faster than his usual relaxed pace. When he’s back, he gives me a gentle shove toward his truck.
“Do you know what this is about?”
“Maybe.”
I trail after him. “Maybe?”
He pauses by his door, looking at me over the truck’s windshield. “I think there’s a stranger in the End.”
“Besides us, you mean?”
His lips kick up on one side. “You’re not a stranger anymore.” I follow him into the truck, and he gives me one of his sly looks, patting the seat between us. “We know each other biblically.”
Heat rushes over me at the memory of last night. “Why don’t we skip this meeting and fuck instead? I’d love a turn with that piercing inside me.”
Ziggy’s eyes flutter closed, and he presses down on his groin. “Nope, nope, no.”
I open my mouth to suggest we let his dick decide when he turns on his truck and puts the radio on blast. It’s a mix of singing and static, but he doesn’t turn it down, just gives me a warning look and pulls the truck around.
It’s not until there’s nothing but harsh static coming through that I lean over and switch it off. “I’ll behave. I promise.”
That seems to satisfy him.
“So what’s this meeting?”
“If you and your brothers are needed, I’m guessing it’s for the whole town. I’ve only been to a handful of them, and they’re always held when there’s an emergency.”
“This stranger is an emergency?”
“I guess we’ll see.”
I’m surprised when we pull up outside the town bar, but I guess other than the fighting arena, it’s the only place large enough to fit everyone. There are only two other trucks outside, one of them Wilde’s, and it’s weird to think that most people out here don’t own cars.
Inside is crowded, maybe twenty or thirty of us, and through the people staring my way, I pick out familiar faces. Wilde and Hudson down the other side, Hart holding up the wall by the door, Booker talking to a freckly guy I think I’ve seen before … and Lynx.
His bright red hair gives him away, and he’s surrounded by a group of kids ranging from teens down to one teeny monster. He’s entertaining them by stabbing a knife between his fingers, the thunk-thunk-thunk getting faster and faster with each pass.
If I had to pick anyone in this room to be a babysitter, it would not be him.
“I think that’s everyone,” Wilde says without so much as a hello.
His face is serious, like it always is, but I grudgingly see why they made him leader.
With his scars and the injuries from his fight last night, he looks like a badass.
“I’ve been getting increasingly more reports of theft over the last week, until last night during Peril, Nox saw a man running from his property.
Leo reported seeing the same man this morning before sunrise. ”
A ripple of conversation goes through the room.
“I think at this point, we start a full-scale search. This person needs to be found, and we know the End better than anyone.” Even from the back of the room, I notice the way his jaw tightens. “And our friends from the Dale have decided to stick around and help us.”
Foley stands from one of the front tables, wearing a dark red tank top, forearm in a cast, and a broad smile. “Wilde’s End shares a border with the Dale, and I’d rather stop this pest on your territory than have it invade ours.”
Wilde looks like he wishes he could give Foley an extra hit.
Honestly, seeing him clearer than last night, I get what Hudson means. The man could be a goddamn movie star with his looks—he’s tall, Hollywood muscular, and inhumanly handsome—but those good looks are turned creepy with the tattoos across his face.
“Should we pair up?” Foley suggests.
“No,” Wilde immediately cuts in. “We have sweep teams. We know what we’re doing.”
Foley eyes him like he wants to push back. “Fine. I’m joining Booker’s.”
The doctor lets out a long sigh but doesn’t bother to fill the silence.
“Kids will be with me,” Lynx says.
“They’re not joining the search,” a woman in her forties says. “I’ll stay behind with them.”
“Like hell you will.” Lynx hands off his knife to the little one. “I have enough weapons to go around.”
She huffs and crosses to take the knife away. I’d assume she’s the kid’s mom, but nothing about the way they’re interacting supports that. “Weapons don’t belong with children.”
“They have to learn to hunt at some point, Viv.”
“Not at five, they don’t. And you’re looking for a person, not a wild animal.”
“We’re in the presence of bad omens,” he says, sending a chilling look back my way. “Anything can and will happen when two sides of the mirror meet.”
“Enough superstition from you. The children will be fine here.”
Lynx unstraps the machete from his side and taps it against the floor between his feet. Then, he gives a piercing whistle, and before I know what’s happening, the kid has plucked the knife from Viv’s hand and adopts a defensive pose. He pats the kid’s head like he’s patting a dog. “Down, boy.”
I lean toward Ziggy. “Where the hell are that kid’s parents?”
“Dead.”
Oh. Well, okay. “Has Lynx adopted him?”
The look I get is pure confusion. He tugs me away from the people closest to us and lowers his voice. “That’s Nixon over there. He’s the oldest brother, just turned twenty, but he’s been here with the kids for three years now.”
“Damn. How many kids?”
“Five younger siblings. Matt’s about to turn eighteen as well, though.”
“And they just … let their little brother hang around with Lynx?”
“You say that like Lynx gives people a choice in anything.” Ziggy shrugs. “He’s good with them. Nixon and Matt spent a lot of time with him as well.”
This town keeps on getting weirder.
“Lynx, we need you in the search,” Wilde says. “You can take Matt, Josie, and JJ, but the others will stay here with Viv.”
“You think she can protect them?” He pushes to his feet and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him start swinging that knife around again. It’s not until Bob climbs out from under the table that I realize he’s here as well.
“I think Leo’s safer here than running around in the woods with a knife.”
“But I’m a big boy!” Leo shouts.
Lynx pats his head again. “What Wilde says goes, little lion. I need you to protect Viv for me.”
That calms him down, and without another word, Lynx leaves, three of the teens trailing after him.
“This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?”
Ziggy smiles softly. “Once it’s over, we can relax again. None of us are safe until we all are.”
“It’s kind of cool how you all look out for each other.”
His fingers twist through mine, and he tugs me toward Wilde. “We look out for each other. You’re one of us too now.”
It surprises me how much I want that to be true.