Page 43 of Hansen

Evan grinned.“I’ll be waiting for you here at home when you are.”

Home.That was what Evan had said, even though they hadn’t talked about this being his home.That was fine.They didn’t need to talk about it.Evanwashome.

Chapter Seven

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EVAN NARROWED HIS EYESwhen Olga and her mate came in.He glanced back at Moore and Jolyn, who were sitting at a table with Rikar and Hayes.What was happening?Why were they all here?Had something happened that Evan didn’t know about?

The back door was open, so Evan leaned in.Orion was showing Davey how to spread the cookie dough, while Hansen was eating a cupcake in a corner.His eyes widened when he saw that Evan had noticed him, and he stuffed the rest of the cupcake into his mouth.

Evan rolled his eyes.“What is it with you and cupcakes?”

Orion glanced in Hansen’s direction.“Leave my cupcakes alone.”

“It was one,” Hansen argued.“It’s nothing like what happened last time.I’m sorry I had to sell your cupcakes to save Evan from a horde of hungry children, but you got fifty dollars out of it.Ishould be the one selling your stuff, really.”

“Are you trying to steal my job?”Evan asked.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Evan believed it.Hansen loved what he did too much to want another job, and even if he did, he would never take it away from Evan.This wasn’t why Evan was here, though.“Do you know if Moore called for a meeting?”he asked Orion.

Orion frowned.“What do you mean?What meeting?”

“They’re all in the front room.”

Davey and Hansen exchanged a glance and moved almost as one.They didn’t look like they knew about it, but if there was anything to find out, they would.After Evan let them pass, he followed them.

The bakery was quiet except for their friends.Luckily, the morning rush had come and gone, and the lunch rush hadn’t come yet, so there weren’t many customers.Evan quickly took care of the two women waiting at the counter while he kept an eye on Hansen’s people.

“Has something happened?”Davey asked when the women left.

Moore frowned at him, then looked around the room and shook his head.“I know what it looks like, but it’s a coincidence.”

“I’m only here for the cookies,” Hayes added as he picked up his and took a bite.He moaned, causing Moore to arch a brow at him.

Evan pushed past Davey and flopped onto the chair in front of Moore.“You looked into Franklin?”

Moore smiled, visibly amused.“I just said this wasn’t a meeting.”

“It’s not.It’s me asking about Franklin.”Evan wanted to be sure that Franklin was telling the truth before he felt pity for him.

Everything Franklin had said about his siblings had sounded true, but how was Evan supposed to know?He couldn’t, which was why he’d asked Moore to look into it.If Franklin had told the truth, Moore would find out.Hell, if he really had siblings who’d been kidnapped by the hunters, Moore and the mutants would help him find them.

It wouldn’t be easy or fast.Nothing was when the hunters and the labs were involved.The doctors and whoever was funding the operation were smart and sneaky, and they knew what they were doing.They knew how to hide the labs and the people they kidnapped.

But escaping the labs was possible.Evan wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t.

“I did look into him,” Moore confirmed.“As far as I could find, everything he said is true.I found reports of the accident and newspaper articles about it and the death of his mother.His siblings haven’t been seen since then.He filed missing person reports, but no one has been able to find them.”

“Something needs to be done about the labs,” Hayes murmured as he picked at what was left of his cookie.“We’re rescuing as many people as we can, but there are so many more still trapped.We need to get to the head of this because taking the labs down one by one isn’t working.”

“How?”Hansen asked.He wrapped an arm around Evan’s shoulders and squeezed him close.

“I don’t know about the labs, but it would be near impossible to do that for the hunters,” Orion interjected.“They don’t have a leader or anything like that.The hunters live in small groups, more often families.You can take out some of them, but there will always be more.”

“I feel like the labs and the hunters are two separate things.We might not be able to completely get rid of the hunters, but if we do manage to close all the labs, they won’t have anyone to sell people to.They might stop kidnapping so many people if they can’t do anything with them.”

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