Page 53 of Hummingbird and Kraken

“Oh,” the man observed. “Up by those Indians.”

“They’re not…” He was about to say They’re not Indians, but he remembered that it was actually the word Ro had used. The word was fine. The way he said it turned it into a slur.

“They have a farm stand, right?”

There wasn’t anything he could put his finger on, but he didn’t like where the conversation was going. Something felt just a little bit off. “I’ve heard they do,” he replied politely, hoping that Geir would be back soon.

He turned to study a box of cereal he wasn’t planning on buying.

“I’ve heard weird things about that area,” the man went on. He stepped closer to Declan, practically reading over his shoulder.

Now he was definitely feeling uncomfortable. He made a non-committal sort of hum.

He reminded himself that he was in a well-lit grocery store in the middle of the day. He could faintly hear the din of voices near the checkout. If anything actually happened, he could scream and Geir would come running.

Still no sign of Geir. He put the cereal back and moved behind his shopping cart, putting it between them. He watched the breakfast bars like his life depended on it. He was right in the middle of the row, so getting out with his cart would be slow and leaving without it would be odd.

He could tell the man was still watching him.

He heard footsteps coming and looked up. Only it wasn’t Geir.

Another man, dressed similarly to the first but with shaggier hair, came up. “Hey,” he greeted the man who’d been harassing him.

“Hey, Marlon. I was just saying hello to... What did you say your name was?”

Marlon looked at him just as closely. Like he knew something about him and didn’t like it.

Now he was trapped between them. Declan’s heart was hammering. He couldn’t decide whether to be rude or de-escalate. “Oh, it’s Mike.” It was the last name he ever wanted to hear again, but it was the first name he could think of. Apparently he just associated it with unpleasant things.

“I’m Jack. This is Marlon.”

“Oh, I just realized I forgot something. Sorry, nice to meet you.” Why hadn’t he thought to say that sooner?

He walked away rapidly, abandoning his cart.

“Sure, maybe we can…” one of them started to say. He could only hear his own footsteps, though, so at least they weren’t following him.

As soon as he reached the corner, he broke into a run.

He looked frantically down each aisle for Geir. When he found him, he had three jars of salsa tucked into his arm and a fourth in his hand. No wonder he’d taken so long.

Declan tugged him deeper into the aisle and pressed in close. The lids of the bottles hit his chest and the one in Geir’s hand dug into his arm when Geir held him tight.

“What’s going on?” Geir’s voice rumbled through his chest.

“Creepy men. Stalking me or something.” He kept his voice low. “They wanted to know about weird things with those Indians.”

Geir set the salsas on a shelf, pushing boxes of rice mix out of the way. “We should leave.”

Declan drew in a shaky breath. Now that Geir was here he felt much safer. He was pretty sure that the men already knew who he was, or at least where he’d been recently. He wasn’t going to give in to bullying.

“No, we should stay and act normal. Maybe we can find out more about them. Get their license plates numbers or something.” That’s what a detective would do. At least on TV.

He felt scared, but also bold. Geir was with him. And maybe he could help.

Geir gave him a look. “If they come close to you again, we’re leaving.”

Declan nodded. “Deal. Let’s check out and see what they do.”