Page 65 of Fearless
"You think she'll like it?" Reaper asked with more than a hint of eagerness.
"She'll love it, bro. She's gonna flip." I grinned as I handed the ring back to him. "What kind of rock is that?"
"Watermelon tourmaline," he said softly, examining it one last time before returning it to the box. "It was one of my mom's stones. The setting was hers too. I just needed to find a smith that could put it together."
"Awww, look at you, Reap!” I gave him a good-natured punch to the shoulder. “Make sure you tell her that. Girls love that sentimental shit. When are you giving it to her?"
"I dunno, not today." He wrapped the drawstring bag around the ring box and slid it into the inner pocket of his cut. "When it feels right."
I rubbed the back of my neck. "I uh, might've gotten her something too. Not all sentimental like yours, but something I thought she'd like."
"Yeah?” His eyebrows lifted. “Let's see it, Romeo."
I dug through my pack, reaching for the pocket I carefully sectioned off from my tools and bike parts, and produced the slender, shallow box.
Reaper took it from me and carefully pulled off the lid, looking up at me with wide eyes and a grin when he saw the necklace laying on the tissue paper.
"Jandro, are you fucking serious?"
"Please don't tell me it's lame,” I begged. "I traded a set of perfectly good spark plugs for it."
"No, dude. This is really nice." He lifted the pendant, a monarch butterfly, and carefully ran his thumb over the surface. "What is this, iron and stained glass?"
"Yeah. She said the wings were made from windows in a cathedral. Probably a bunch of bullshit, but it made me think of Mari when I saw it, so—“
"She'll love it." He replaced the box lid and handed it back to me just as a low growl emitted from Hades' throat.
"Oh, you don't think so, pooch?" I slipped the necklace back into my pack. "Should I give Mari the rest of your doughnut holes instead?"
"Something's wrong," Reaper muttered, his fingertips drifting over Hades' raised hackles. "WhereisMari?"
"She went off with Noelle last I saw." I pointed in the general direction, but Hades was already taking off in a completely different direction. He cut straight through the center of the market, heading for the back side.
Reaper and I followed him without a moment’s hesitation, dodging shoppers and vendors alike. When the dog broke into a full-on sprint, my hand drifted to the gun in my holster. Reaper did the same, hand-gun already drawn as we hurried to keep Hades in our sight. He started barking his head off, which helped to get people out of our way.
We reached the last row of stalls and pushed through, with only the barren desert to greet us. It wasn’t too windy but a fair amount of dust had kicked up and stung the hell out of my eyes.
"Look!" I grabbed Reaper's shoulder and pointed to someone laying motionless in the dirt.
It wasn't Mari, but a big dude who had bled out from a serious injury from the looks of it. We turned him over and found that his neck had been shredded, like someone started decapitating him with a rusty saw and abruptly stopped.
"What the fuck?" Reaper whispered in disbelief.
"Your guess is as good as mine." I began searching his pockets, lifting up his shirt for any tattoos or signs of who this guy might be. "He hasn't been dead long, that's for sure."
"Look," Reaper pointed. "Tire tracks."
My heart nearly collapsed in on itself like a black hole. "Those are big tires. Some kind of truck."
"Oh God…” Reaper tipped his head back, grabbing a chunk of hair in his fist. I knew we were both thinking the worst—human traffickers.
"No time to worry. Let's round up the Demons," I slapped his shoulder hard to make him focus. "And follow those fuckin' tracks. Where's Gunner?"
Our answer came in the form of a screech and a fast-moving shadow above our heads. Hades stood on his hind legs, barking at the falcon who clutched something in his talons.
"Shit." The color drained from Reaper's face. "They got Gunner too?"
Horus screeched again and released what he was holding--a scrap of the property patch from Mari's jacket.
