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“It’s almost ten at night.”
“Like I said, I have a time crunch. My day is not yet over. You have, however, been helpful to me, and so I’m not completely blowing you off.” I head for the deck stairs. “I will talk to Eric and Yolanda.”
“Start with Yolanda. She’s in the forest.”
I pause midstep. “What?”
“She snuck off. I saw it from my perch. That’s what I came to tell you.”
I glare at him. “You mean that’s the lead you were holding hostage until you got what you wanted.”
He lifts his hands. “Hey, I didn’t hold out for a promise. Just a good-faith show of intent.”
“You want to prove yourself? Find Eric. Tell him to meet me at the path.”
“How about the other guy? Will? He seems cool. Can I tell him?”
“If he’s the one you see first, yes. Otherwise, talk to Eric. He doesn’t bite.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I’m not surprised when it’s Anders who joins me at the mouth of the trail.
“Gunnar said you need backup. Eric was just over by the commissary, but he said you wanted me.”
I shake my head. “He thinks Eric feels threatened by him. Sexually threatened.”
When Anders stops laughing, I add, “Also, I am clearly with Eric for the money,” which sends him into a fresh gale of laughter.
“I’ve always wondered that myself,” he says. “If it’s not money, what is it?”
“His outsized… personality.”
Anders chokes on another laugh. There had been a time, before I got together with Dalton, that Anders and I had flirted with the idea of being more than friends. It’d been tempting. He’s an amazing guy, and I couldn’t remember ever being so damned comfortable with someone. But that comfort comes from the kinship of meeting someone and clicking because you see so much of yourself in them. We even have a matched setof emotional baggage. For friendship, it was the perfect recipe. Anything else would have been disastrous.
“Gunnar is just a little bit extra, isn’t he?” Anders says.
“That is an excellent way of putting it. At least he likesyou.”
“I am very likable.”
Storm stops and looks up at me. I’d had Gunnar grab Anders instead of doing it myself because I needed a moment to get a scent marker for Yolanda. I’d seen a sweater she’d left behind in the town hall, and I have that now. Storm has been following the trail but now looks up and then turns to the left, where a faint path branches off the main one.
“Good girl,” I say. “Go on.”
She leads us along that secondary path, and we fall silent as we head deeper into the forest. It’s ten thirty and while it’s light in town, the trees bring dusk early here.
I lower my voice. “How are you doing?”
“Excellent, really. Seeing my sister’s family…” He inhales. “I dreaded that, as much as I wanted to see them. I think part of me was hiding in Rockton, and I want it to be different now. I think it can be.” He glances over. “How are you doing? I know this isn’t how you planned your arrival.”
“It’s not, but the town is… well, perfect. Except for the unexpectedly early arrival of dead bodies.”
“Worst welcoming-committee gift ever.”
“No kidding.”
We go quiet, knowing our voices carry. When I catch the crackle of undergrowth, I whisper for Anders to retreat. We all do, as quickly and quietly as we can, until I find a spot to easily leave the path. We take it, and I crouch in the shadows with my arm looped over Storm.
