Page 118 of The Wild Charge

Tenny bared his teeth in a wide grin. “Blimey, guv, you’re right jumpy, yeah?” he asked in his favorite bad-TV accent.

Luis, half his face visible in the gloom, grimaced and said, “Stop it.”

“Or what?” Tenny asked in his real voice. “You’ll come over here and knock my teeth in? Be serious, Luis: you couldn’t do that even if you weren’t sitting in your own spilled piss.”

Luis tipped his head back so that it knocked dully against the side of the trailer. At that angle, Tenny could see a nasty goose egg coming up on his temple, and he silently saluted Walsh’s uncareful driving. “What do you want?”

Tenny dropped his façade as well. “Marshall Hunter. You knew he was the contact you offered up. And you know who he is.”

Luis frowned. “He’s…a contact? I don’t know his life story. I think Sal picked him out.”

“Stop fucking around. You know who he is – you know who he is to us.”

His shapely black brows lifted. “Us? Oh. You mean your friend. The creepy blond one.”

“You set us up. You knew his relationship to Reese, and sent us right at him.”

“Now, why would I do that when all of you keep threatening to kill me?”

Tenny smacked the side of the trailer, and the sharp, gonging sound echoed through the warehouse and made Luis jerk. “What did he tell you? What’s he after?”

Luis, recovered from his start, huffed a laugh. “Are you saying you’d believe anything I told you? Go ask him yourself. I’m not in the business of keeping up with every sick freak’s mind games.”

“Says the man who staked people out and bled them dry like a fucking Aztec. Spare me. What does Hunterwant?”

Luis was quiet a long moment, expression going almost serene. “You know what? I don’t think you guys have any intention of killing me. You would have already. WeAztecs,” he said, mockingly, “don’t waste time on enemies. But I guess you can kick a dog over and over and it keeps coming back.”

Tenny hit the trailer again, but Luis didn’t so much as twitch this time.

“Hunter’s strange,” Luis said, placid now. “Effective, but strange. I only met him the once. If you want to know more, ask your little boyfriend.”

It was oh-so-tempting to unlock the trailer, go in, and put a bullet through Luis’s skull.

But he didn’t have that kind of authority.

And shouldn’t have been this riled by the idiot in the first place.

Frustrated, helpless, he locked up and headed back across the parking lot, mind going to his duffel, and the file he’d crammed down in the bottom of it, that he still hadn’t looked at. Maybe it held all the answers, maybe it didn’t.

He was used to being the one who held all the cards, who was in the know, the agent with the dossiers at his fingertips. He hated being on the flipside.

When he reached the truck, he found not just Fox, but Eden, Axelle, and Albie as well, all dressed and toting bags. “This is why you needed fifteen minutes?”

Fox made a pained face, tone neutral when he said, “Yeah, they’re coming.”

“Don’t sound so happy about it,” Axelle said, scoffing.

“I’m–” Fox started, caught himself, and turned to regard Eden beside him. “I’m glad of the help.”

Eden twitched a small, tight smile.

Whipped, Tenny mouthed at Fox, when he turned back to him.

Fox tilted his head toward Reese.Same as you, he mouthed back.

Well. Fair enough.

Thirty-Two

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