Page 122 of Wilde's End
FORTY-FOUR
WILDE
Iglower at the shiplap houses as I pull to a stop to let Hudson out. He stayed over in my space again for the billionth time last night, and I’m starting to hate how much I love him in my bed. Maybe billionth is an exaggeration when it’s barely been a month since I dragged him back here, but time doesn’t make sense when I’m with him.
“I’m going to spend the night with Kennedy and Hartwell, but I’ll see you tomorrow?” he checks as he pops the door.
“Sounds good.” My eyes stay locked to him as he climbs out, then jogs up to the house to get ready for a day of work. We haven’t been able to figure out a solution to what happens next with the town, but we’ve thrown around enough ideas that we should be able to come up withsomethinggood enough for us both.
Ziggy will be coming down around lunchtime to help replace old wiring, so I’ll pick him up and maybe attempt to spend some time with the brothers. With Ziggy there, he’s a buffer betweenme and Kennedy’s distrust since he takes up most of Kennedy’s attention.
Until I can grab Ziggy though, I have a visit to make.
I take the back way down to where Lynx’s place sits next to the crop fields. It’s smaller than mine, all one room with a separate bathroom off the house, and when I pull to a stop on the grass beside it, Bob prowls through the open doorway. His golden eyes settle on me, like a warning not to get too close.
Lynx slowly follows a moment later. “All healed up,” he says as I climb out of the truck. “What a relief. And you beat Foley over the weekend, so everything is back to normal.”
“It is.”
He folds both hands over the porch railing while I cross my arms and lean against the warm hood of my truck. “Didn’t think you did house visits,” he says.
“I don’t. I came to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About watching yourself.”
Like he can understand us, Bob makes a low noise in his throat.
Lynx glances at the enormous cat and then back at me. “I’m minding my own business over here. Can’t imagine what you mean.”
“Hudson and I are together?—”
“Dating the enemy?”
“And it doesn’t matter what’s happening in Old End. You need to trust that whatever happens will be for the best of us all. He doesn’t want to screw anyone over, but there are goals he needs to meet as well. So we’re working on it.”
Lynx tilts his head back, studying me. “And you trust him?”
Trust has always been a hard one for me. It doesn’t come easily, and it’ll never be my default. I’ve trained myself to expectthe worst, which is great for preventing injuries out here, but not so great for wanting a stable relationship. “I’ve decided to, yeah.”
“Then I guess city boy is a Wender now,” he says dryly. “Lucky us.”
“It also means he’s off-limits. Him and his brothers. So this time when I tell you to stay out of Old End, I mean it.”
Lynx looks back at Bob, and I swear the two of them exchange a long look between them. “Can’t make any promises.”
“I can. You go near him, threaten him, hurt him, and it will be the last thing you ever do in my town.”
His hazel eyes stare me down. “How savage of you.”
“Don’t test me.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Hear that, Bob? Don’t test him.”
Bob lets out another warning sound.
I stride forward, close enough they can reach me, but I’m not scared of either of them, and I never will be. “You touch so much as a hair on his head, and no animal or knife will save you.”
