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“She’s in the trees,” I called out, moving behind the car and keeping it as a meager shield, motioning to Conor to do the same.
“What do you want?” Troy hollered, unafraid to reveal her location now that we were staring at the tree she’d picked for a nest.
“We told you—to talk.”
Her Kentucky accent was thicker than ever as she spat, “Ain’t no one who wants to talk about Jorgmundgander with me that don’t have trouble on their mind.”
“Then why the hell did you let us in, Troy?” D retorted impatiently, plunking her hands on her hips.
“You armed?”
I scoffed. “Of course we fucking are.”
“I wanna see your weapons before I come down.”
“I thought she was visually impaired?”
D answered Conor, “She is.”
“Then how the fuck is she up a tree and trying to shoot us?”
“She either lied or she can see better than she let on.”
“What are you bitching about?” Troy hollered. “Less talking, more showing.”
“This is ridiculous,” I grumbled, but I flashed her my holsters. D did too.
“What about him?”
“I don’t carry weapons,” Conor lied.
My cell buzzed. Spying Ovianar’s number, I frowned but turned away from Troy to pick it up.
“Hey, what the fuck do you think you’re doing? Hang up the phone!” Troy snarled.
Hearing the click of the safety on her weapon ricochet around the otherwise silent clearing, I just flipped her the bird.
Showing my back to someone armed with a sniper’s rifle wasn’t smart, but this was total BS and we all knew this was her trying to establish some control over the situation.
“Ovianar, what—”
“STAR!”
Minerva’s scream had me freezing up. “Minerva? What is it?”
Her sobs echoed down the line. “She’s gone. Oh, God, she’s gone.” Her wail hit me straight in the heart. “How could you do this to us? How?”
The anger and the fear and the grief coalesced into one mass that she hurled at me. For a moment, it choked me. I had no words. Nothing to say.What could I say?
“I didn’t…” My mouth worked. “W-What happened? Where are you?”
“We needed milk,” she cried. “I-I went out, came back, and she… Oh, God. She’s gone. She’s fucking gone. Dead. She’s dead.” The sob she released made me realize I did have a heart and it was breaking.
We’d fallen out years ago, but I never wished ill on them.Ever.
A shiver worked its way up my spine. “She can’t be!”
“She is. She goddamn is,” she shouted.
