Page 59 of Hunted in the Shadows
My gaze followed the list back to his pocket, and the subsequent look I shared with Cliff needed no words. He’d seen what I had—and we had to get our hands on it.
Cliff drew an aggravated breath and started forward to brush past Rhett toward the main hall. “We’re not doing your grocery shopping, you psycho.”
Rhett moved to block him—as I had anticipated. “Everett, hang on. You’ll want to hear me out.”
“Because that worked out so well last time?” Cliff scoffed.
Rhett sighed, rolling his eyes. “Okay, yes, I’ll admit that I may haveslightlyoverstepped with the whole using you as bait thing. But this is different strokes completely, trust me. Now… I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”
Cliff’s smirk was sharp enough to gut a person. “And here I thought you didn’t swing that way. Do me a favor and buy me a drink first.”
For the first time, Rhett’s smirk vanished altogether. He turned red, eyes flying open wide, andfinally, I caught a glimpse of the unhinged young man who’d been with us on that prowler hunt.
“Watch it,” Rhett gritted out, his voice low and restrained.
Cliff's chuckle was a cruel sound. “Oh, right—I forgot you’re too busy fucking your mom, aren’t you?”
Rhett lunged, shoving Cliff against the wooden railing, his fists knotted in the fabric of Cliff's plaid shirt.
We hadn’t gathered much about Rhett's family when we'd first met him, but we knew enough to know most of the money he scraped together back then mostly went to taking care of his mother back in Georgia. And, of course, rumors followed through hunter circles—the kind that twisted into something uncomfortable over the years. Something about Rhett doting a little too much, a little tooclose.
Judging by how Rhett's jaw ticked, it was still raw enough to strike a chord—and Cliff had hit it dead-on.
“Don’t talk about her,” Rhett seethed. “Don’t you fucking talk about my mother. You’re still valuable, Everett—even if someone puts a few holes in you first. Am I clear?”
For a moment, Cliff's cocky mask slipped and true confusion clouded his expression. “Valuable to who?”
I shoved between them, slipping two fingers into Rhett’s pocket as I pushed him back.
“Hey!” I barked. “That's enough—get off him. We’ll pick up silver elsewhere.”
I transferred the folded list into my jacket in the same breath. Grabbing Cliff’s shoulder as though I’d have to physically steer him away, we rounded the corner.
“Don't fucking walk away from me!” Rhett shouted, his quick stride snapped on the wood behind us.
We barely passed the threshold of the main building when commotion came from the other side of the hall. At first, I worried that Rhett had remotely raised some sort of silent alarm to sic the rest of the outpost officers on us in retaliation, but he shoved right past us to investigate the growing crowd.
The main entrance was swarming with people trying to glimpse what was happening.
“Rhett!” Another hunter intercepted him in front of us, his breaths heavy and eyes wide. “Your siren—it got away.”
“What?” Rhett bolted toward the commotion, seeming to forget us entirely.
As he muscled toward the front, another figure forced into the hall, shoving against the growing crowd’s flow. I squinted, momentarily bewildered. The person was so short, I briefly mistook them for a child.
Then I got a good look at her face—Gwen. Her eyes locked onto mine, and even from a distance, her wild desperation was visible. A faint ringing filled my ears as Cliff and I ran to meet her halfway.
Sylvia. Where’s Sylvia?
“What happened?” Cliff asked, grasping her shoulders as she came to an unsteady stop.
Gwen breathlessly gaped at us, looking lost for words. Flecks of ice caked Gwen’s ankles and combat boots.
I stepped closer, setting my shadow over her. “What did you do? Where is she?”
“She—” Gwen carefully scanned the distance between us and the lingering hunters in the building. She lowered her voice, eyes swimming with apology that made me sick to my stomach. “I couldn’t stop her.”
It started with a shout at the door—“A winged creature has been captured!”
