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“Hey—there she is! Don’t let her get away!”
He heard the shout in English, and for a second, it registered in the back of his head, something that felt—wait.
Where was Iris?
He turned, closing the phone, and spotted—what?
Three men were running hard after Iris, who was just disappearing around the end of the courtyard.
What—
He took off in the opposite direction, around the end of the building where he’d left the trash, into the alleyway between buildings, and sprinted.
He caught up to her just as she passed by him. He turned, ran hard, and grabbed her, scooping her up against him.
She screamed, elbowed him in the gut, and he gasped, nearly dropping her.
And then she screamed again, pushing away from him, just as someone jumped him.
He flew forward, but he’d learned how to take a hit and turned just as he landed, rolled and found his feet.
Then he rounded and hit the man who’d tackled him square in the jaw.
The man tumbled back, and another man grabbed him around the waist.
“No! Stop!”
Iris’s voice rose above the ruckus but did nothing to slow anyone down.
The man rammed Hud back against the building, and the breath whooshed out of him. But he turned and got his knee up into the guy’s gut, and the man jerked back, off him.
Hudson turned to Iris. “Run!”
“No!” She rushed toward him, just as the first man came at him again, a little fire in his eyes. She stepped in front of Hudson, her arms out, a tiny spitfire of fury. “Jonas, stop!”
The man called Jonas stood in front of her, his eyes pinned to Hudson, breathing hard. Then he bent over at the waist and spat out blood.
Yeah, well, that’s what he got for—wait. Sheknewhim? “What’s going on?”
The other man came up to him, holding his nose, blood trickling out. Oh no, because now recognition clicked in. “Ned?”
“Hudson.” Ned held out his hand.
“Don’t shake hands!” Iris slapped Ned’s hand away. “You scared the life out of me. How about a simple, ‘Hey, Iris! Stop running’?” She stared at Ned, then at Jonas.
“We didn’t want to lose you.”
The voice was deeper, and came from a man who was breathing hard, had run up after the other two.
Iris turned, clearly following the voice. “Dad? What are you doing here?” But she ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck. His curled around her waist.
Her father? Tall, dark hair, blue eyes. He was an older version of his sons, although with something sterner on his face that unnerved Hud a little.
“What’s going on, Iris?” Hud said.
Iris turned away from her father. “I have no idea.”
“And why does every time I meet your brothers result in a punch-up?”
