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“He smells like a whole barrel of shit,” Amo remarked.
“There were a few piles of that in the house, along with raw animal carcasses. He’s been eating whatever he can get his hands on. Rodents…bugs…trash,” Brody explained.
That gave me an idea.
I turned around and went to the back of the Brabus. Reaching into the bed of the boxy SUV, I dug through one of our duffels until I found what I’d come to get. Returning to my prior position, I held the foil packet up so that the man could watch as I opened it.
“You want this?”
His eyes sparked to life, homing in on the cured beef I held between my fingers. When he inhaled like an animal catching a whiff of its prey, I knew I had him.
“Yes,” he monotoned.
“Tell me something useful, and it’s all yours.”
“They came in the middle of the night,” he replied quickly, trying to rush forward.
He was easily held back.
“You’re gonna have to do better than that,” Amo said.
I nodded to show I agreed. “We need to find someone.”
“I haven’t saw nobody,” he whined.
“You just said they came in the middle of the night,” Aurora reminded him.
He began to stutter and look around as if he were afraid of being caught with us. It was the most coherent thing he’d done since Brody dragged his ass to my truck.
“Yo.” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Whoever scared you…if you don’t tell me exactly everything that you can remember, I’ll let you find out how much worse we are.”
He looked into my eyes and must not have liked what was reflected at him. He leaned as far away from me as he could and slightly turned his head.
“The man with braids did that to them.”
“Keep going,” I coaxed, waving the jerky in front of him.
His chapped lips parted, and I found myself wanting to take a step back my damn self. His mouth was a fucking cesspool of rotting meat—unidentifiable strips stuck between filthy teeth that weren’t all facing the correct way.
Living in the Badlands was hard for people—more so for lags. Why that seemed to affect their ability to wash their ass and take care of their dental health was anyone’s guess. They already had nothing going for them; what the fuck would a crusty asshole accomplish?
The man snapped his mouth shut and began speaking in a rush. “Big black pick-up. It’s what he came in.”
“And?”
“That’s all I know, I swear it. He took em two girls and killed the man.”
I looked over at Amo. “Someone with braids that drives a black pick-up. You got anything?”
A thoughtful look came across his face.
“They gotta have access to some nice resources if they can afford the fuel in something like that…”
“The Nailers?” Brody asked.
“No. They’re on good terms with us.”
“And Kovu doesn’t have age or gender pity. He makes sure they kill everyone,” Aurora added.
“What about the Roboys, then?” Brody suggested.
I knew that name. I looked at Amo for confirmation and could almost see the lightbulb click on above his head. “That’s a good guess. More than good…oh, never mind. That’s bad.”
“No shit.” Of all the fucking people, out of all the limitless factions Lilith could get her ass snatched by, it had to be those inbred dumbasses.
“Isn’t the guy who runs around in those cosplay glasses with them?” Dawn asked. “Don’t you know him, Rory?”
The look that came over Aurora’s face made it clear this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about.
“They’re goggles,” Brody corrected, sliding into the conversation with his cape on.
“I don’t give a fuck what they are. We need to move.” I held the jerky out to the lag, allowing him to finally have it. “Take this and go.”
He accepted the meat and took off at a lopsided run, already tearing into the beef like a rabid dog.
“That’s one shitty last meal.”
“Huh?” Dawn questioned.
“Leo, give it five minutes then go deal with him. String him up across the entry way of the town and make a bigger tag.”
That out of the way, I turned to address Rory. “Can you take her back and let the others know we’ll be home soon?”
It took her less than a second to know who I was referring to.
“Of course. Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
I got into the Brabus, beginning to count every minute that it took us to get to Lilith. I thanked Satanas I hadn’t shown her off yet. It worked in her favor that no one knew what she looked like. As soon as they found out her identity, they’d know how invaluable she was. I had to get to her before she became a victim or a pawn.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
This had to be the universe’s way of confirming I’d made a colossal mistake.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been in the bed of the truck. My hearing hadn’t gone back to normal yet, and there was a pounding in my head from where someone had knocked me out.
