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No, it had been longer than that. The day I’d taken the whipping, I’d felt the fear of losing one more soul who might be able to fight for our side and make the difference. Maybe before then, but I’d swallowed those feelings down as if they didn’t exist. Now they were bubbling over and too much to ignore, too much feeling to quash.
“If you’re willing to make the deal, you need to come now. If Kaden gets a whiff of this, he’ll never let you. I’m pretty sure your friend waiting for you already suspects something is up,” Alaric said.
I looked about Nowhere again, and all I could see was the place crawling with soldiers.
“How do I know Herrick will honor his word?”
“Erquin said he’d be willing to step in again for negotiations if it will keep the peace.”
Erquin I trusted, if no one else.
“Your friend is heading this way. You need to turn around and stall her if you want to do this. We’ll go in that store—the back exit lets out right near my outpost. From there I can bring you to Erquin’s. I know Herrick will meet you where you can discuss things. I’ll personally guarantee your safety.”
I turned, seeing Cookie closing the gap toward us. “You give me your word?”
“Yes, but you better decide fast,” he said.
“Give me a minute.”
I met Cookie before she could get closer to Alaric.
“What’s he want?” She glared over my shoulder in Alaric’s direction. “This doesn’t look like a quick hello, how’ve you been. What’s he trying to get?”
“He might have some information on Herrick. You need to give me a few minutes to see what I can dig up.”
“I don’t like this.” Her eyes didn’t leave him.
“Look, we’re going to duck into that store for a few minutes, just so he feels a little safer and we don’t have so many eyes on us. He doesn’t want to draw attention by talking out here any longer.”
“Idon’tlike this,” she repeated.
“But I’m doing it because it’s the best move for all involved.”
After a few nerve-racking moments, she nodded. “Don’t be long. I don’t trust him.”
I walked back to Alaric and motioned to the store. We ducked inside the crowded establishment, and I immediately moved to stand behind a group of tall men, knowing Cookie would lose sight of me, with only a slight pang of guilt. I was doing this for her. If there was something I could do to save everyone from what was coming, I’d do it. How could I not at least hear out the terms when our situation was so bleak?
“We have to go now,” he said.
He grabbed my hand, pulling me after him as we made our way through the back door. Another shortcut through an alley and we were in Alaric’s outpost.
We used another door, as if he’d already had it set up for just this occasion. He was pushing me through before I could get my bearings. Had he been lying in wait for me? Had he just set me up?
We were on a beach and he squinted, looking around, as if he had no idea where we were. Had he been tricked as well?
“Where the hell are we? This isn’t right,” he said.
The door we’d just come through opened, and three men walked out, all with beards, brown eyes, and no smiles. They shut the door behind them.
“I’m sorry. We’re having technical difficulties. The doors are all malfunctioning,” Hank said. Or was that Frank? It was always so hard to tell the difference.
“Can you get us back to my outpost?” Alaric walked closer to the door that we’d just come through.
“No, sorry. That’s not possible,” Tank told him, blocking his way.
Hank and Frank came and stood on either side of me.
Alaric continued to argue, trying to get to the door. He was wasting his breath. If Hank, Tank, and Frank didn’t want you to go somewhere, you weren’t going. I wasn’t sure how he’d been a tinker in Nowhere and not learned this. Well, unless his business was so boring that no one ever cared what he was up to? I, on the other hand, had seemed to be in the spotlight right from the get-go.
