Page 28 of Feed Your Fiends

He grabs Libuelle’s liquor licence in exchange but barely looks at it before handing it back. I doubt its absence would’ve stopped him from accepting my money.

“I thought Jarett found another spot and abandoned us,” Harod prods as I scribble down my choices on a notepad. “Then he just shows up again out of the blue.”

The pen tip comes scratching to a halt and I damn near break it from the pressure against the notepad.

Harod’s eyes are shining with mirth when I finally give him the time of day and look up.

“What?” I ask, my veins running cold.

Harod nods gleefully. “He came in for a drink the other day. It was good to see him.”

“N-no, he didn’t,” I blurt. He couldn’t have.

“Ordered his regular,” Harod says, grabbing a filthy rag to wipe the bar top. He’s no better than Rie Rie. “A bit quiet, but it was definitely him.”

I swallow, my intestines free-falling. “Was he alone?”

Harod pauses his wiping to look thoughtfully up at the rafters. “No. But the person he was with seemed too young to be a friend. More like a nephew helping him out. He was a bit loopy. I guess they hit another spot first.”

“A nephew? Someone my age?”

He nods.

A nephew. My cousin…

“Did he have blonde hair? Grey eyes?” It comes out in a rush that Harod finds amusing.

“I don’t be free-falling into men’s eyes to know, Ellie.”

Ellie.I fucking despise that nickname as much as I hated this place and everyone that came along with it. I bite my lip to stop myself from telling Harod as much.

“But he was blonde and pretty tall, yeah.”

My stomach clenches, and bile coats my tongue.

What the hell was Jarett doing back in town?

Do the Auclairs know? Does Gant know?

If Sylo knows Jarett, he must know that Jarett’s my father, right? Does that mean Sylo’s in on everything? Does he know that his father killed Madame and nearly killed Gant, too?

“You said he was out of it?”

Harod tilts his head. “He was finer than you seem. You look like you’re about to pass out. Want a drink? On the house. Your father’s spent enough.”

I shake my head and push the notepad with my list and credit card toward him. “No. Um, when will the order be ready?”

He scans my handwriting and taps away on the handheld credit card machine before shoving it beneath my nose for the PIN. “I think we have everything in-house already. If that’s the case, we’ll deliver it by Thursday.”

One day before the opening. That was cutting it a little close.

“It’s urgent. If there are any delays or shortages, please call me,” I say, ripping the receipt off the machine before scribbling down Libuelle’s number at the bottom of the list. “ASAP.”

He nods and I hobble out into the bright sunlight knowing damn well I should sit at the bar and stay off my feet until my ride’s here. It could be ten minutes or more, past the time I could stand. That aside, I didn’t put it past Gant to pop up on me. Sure, Hale had seemed to keep his word, but I’m not naive enough to think that our pact will last. I may have got rid of the phone Gant gifted me two years ago, but somehow, I’m sure he’ll use his paranormal powers to track me down and torture me again. He was a winged fiend after all, walking through walls. He probably has some freaky echolocation power in his ball sack. Still, I’d rather sit on the pavement than stay in the Watering Hole for a second longer.

Jarett’s back. After all this time?

Why? Why now?

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