Page 54 of Hummingbird and Kraken

He grabbed one of the salsa jars without looking at it and headed back, Geir’s arm wrapped comfortingly around him. The men were gone.

The cart stood where he’d left it. Only now he was worried that they’d put a listening device on his ice cream bars or something. He snorted. Too many spy movies.

They checked out as quickly as they could with a mountain of groceries, and then loaded everything into the truck.

When he was done, he loitered around the door to his car. When they left the house this morning, he’d been worried about letting Geir pay for things. Now that was the last thing on his mind.

He didn’t want to drive back alone. The homophobic assholes at the garage weren’t a big deal. Geir had been such a badass, and he could try to ruin them with bad reviews on Yelp. Creepy men who seemed to know where he lived were in an entirely different category.

Hell, he didn’t even really know how to get home. “What if I get lost?” he asked, hugging his arms around his chest. “My phone doesn’t work, so I can’t use GPS. What if I can’t find your mailbox and I never see you again?” Alright, maybe he was being a little dramatic. He didn’t want to name any of his bigger fears, so instead this one rose to the surface. He wouldn’t make a very good detective.

Geir raised one eyebrow but didn’t make fun of him. “I’ll drive slowly. We’re going to stay on the highway through three small towns that each have a few stop lights. There are only two turns. And we’ve been over the directions. If you can’t see me, just pull over to the side of the road and I’ll come back for you.”

“Alright,” Declan steeled his shoulders. “I can do this.” He muttered it a few more times under his breath. “I can do this.” It would be an adventure. Nothing could happen on the road that was worse than the day he’d already had.

Well, not all of it was bad, he reminded himself. Waking up next to Geir had been pretty amazing. Going to sleep next to him tonight, now that he didn’t have to worry about leaving, would be pretty nice, too.

He got into his car. It smelled a little musty, but all of his stuff was still in the back. It was illogical, but it made him feel better. Like his crates of books would protect him until he got home.

He pulled out of the driveway, following Geir. As promised, they drove so slowly through the town that someone actually honked at them. Declan felt a little silly, once it was clear that he wasn’t being followed. He even flipped on the radio and started to sing while he was driving. He’d rather be in Geir’s truck, but he liked the idea of driving home together.

As soon as he got home, he left Geir to carry in the groceries with a small apology and took out his sketchbook. He had a plan.

“What are you doing?” Geir looked over his shoulder.

“Drawing the bad guys.”

“The bad guys?”

He nodded. “The villains. Evildoers. There was definitely something wrong about them, I promise.”

He finished up the first sketch, labeled it with Marlon’s name, and moved to the next page to draw him again from the side.

He might have been freaked out at the time, but this part he could totally do. Maybe he could be a police sketch artist or something. That sounded exciting.

Geir put away the groceries while he worked.

He couldn’t remember Marlon’s features as well, since he’d barely seen him, but he could offer rough sketches. Jack’s were pretty detailed.

Then he remembered the woman in the car who kept trying to give him a ride. Was this all connected, or was he just looking for a conspiracy? His mind spun out all kinds of scenarios, each one more convoluted than the next.

He drew her anyway, at least what he could remember.

He could smell something cooking and realized it was a frozen pizza that Geir must have tossed in the oven. He’d planned to save those for a night when he didn’t want to cook, but now was a pretty good time.

Geir popped it in front of him. He reached out to grab a slice, then pulled back because it was too hot.

“Can we bring these over to the tribe tomorrow? I feel like they should see them.”

Geir looked them over closely, flipping through the pages. “You’re very talented.”

Declan beamed. He knew he was pretty good, but it was nice to hear it from Geir. “Do you know any of them?”

“No, never saw them before. I’ll remember them, though. I won’t let them hurt you.”

“My hero.” He clasped his hands and batted his eyes, but he was only half-joking.

Geir sat down at the table and Declan didn’t wait for an invitation to settle into his lap. The ups and downs of the past week had been exciting, but right now he just needed Geir’s arms around him.