Page 21 of Midnight Auto Parts

“That was hentai,” Josie clarified behind me. “And I gave you that DVD boxed set forever ago. As a joke.” Her eyes rounded. “Wait.” She spluttered a laugh. “You watched it?Ha.Loser.” She tapped her chin with a fingertip, her grin sly. “When you say you’ve watchedenough, how much isenoughcartoon porn?”

Pretty sure the soul—Matty’s actual soul—up and left his body upon Josie airing his secrets so publicly.

“Porn?” Kierce’s forehead pinched as he clued in to Matty’s embarrassment. “What’s porn?”

“I’msoglad you asked, Kierce.” Josie pressed her index fingers together, twisting them back and forth. “When one tentacle monster loves another tentacle monster, sometimes they shove their?—”

“Hey,” Matty shouted awkwardly. “What’s up with the repo?”

To spare my brother more shame, I brought them both up to speed. And then I told them about Vi.

“What I’m hearing is Matty’s extensive knowledge of tentacle monsters might come in handy.” Josie had an uncanny talent for twisting the knife. “Maybe he should take a few days off to be a special consultant for the 514. He has visual aids, after all, so he could educate the officers on first contact. You might wantto bring travel-size lube to pass out among your new friends, though. I’ve heard things get slippery fast.”

“I hear Paco calling,” Matty said as he spun and powerwalked into the safety of the shop.

Never mind the fact that if Matty was here, Paco couldn’t be, or that The Body Shop was closed today.

“You can’t hear Paco,” she yelled, trailing after him. “He’s a ghost.”

I let her chase him a minute to get it out of her system, then I caught her by the ponytail and yanked her to a stop. Her growl would have been more menacing if she hadn’t also stamped her foot like a toddler. I cracked a smile where she couldn’t see.

Sweet relief coasted through me at their squabbling. Josie was a long way from healed from what Armie had done to her, tous, but she was a fighter. She had never met a challenge she couldn’t best. She wouldn’t give up on taking back her life or her home. She wouldn’t give up period.

Thank God.

With a feigned sigh, I ordered, “Let him go.”

“How about you let me go?” She turned within my grip to face me. “That hair is attached, you know.”

As much as I hated to hit her where it hurt, scalp notwithstanding, I was reminded of the task she had undertaken in her spare time. “Any luck finding Ankou’s tree?”

The question erased her earlier playfulness, and determination set in. “Not yet, but I’m close.”

No one stood a better chance of locating a specific tree than a dryad, and Josie had sources all over.

With her fully distracted from Matty, I released her. “Good work.”

“There’s a charged patch of soil on the edge of town I’m going to investigate later. It could be a grave, an unofficial one, I mean.Either forgotten or hidden. They can have peculiar energy plants don’t like.”

Peculiar energy sounded promising. “Do you want me to go with you?”

The afternoon stood wide open until dark, when Kierce wanted to try his hand driving on empty roads.

“Nah.” She waved off the offer. “I already told Carter she has to take me.”

Carter, who had a search to organize, was an unlikely choice. “She agreed to this?”

“I won’t say she agreed, but she’ll do it.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I have my ways.”

“Ways I don’t want to know about.” I wrinkled my nose. “Otherwise, it’s going well between you?”

Rather than a snappy response, she fell silent, her chin angled away from me.

“I think she likes the company. Having someone to come home to,” she murmured. “That sort of thing.”

When she didn’t elaborate, which was unJosielike, I had to prod her. “How about you?”

“The distance helps as much as it hurts,” she admitted. “I want to be with you and Matty but…”

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