Page 79 of Psycho
“I fucking hate dogs,” he snarled.
They’d gathered the bodies and stacked them in the garage, dousing them in fuel. Adam was crouched in the corner. “What’s he doing?” Lucas asked Asa.
Before Asa could answer, Adam stood, moving to reveal his find. “Guys, meet Lightning.” A dog with a smooshed face and more wrinkles than fur snorted, then drooled.
“That was their guard dog?” Lucas mused as the mutt panted heavily, licking at Adam’s hand.
“I’m going to bring him home to Noah,” Adam said excitedly.
“That thing is not going in the Volvo,” Atticus vowed, pointing at the bulldog.
Adam rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’ll ride back with the twins. They go home with dogs all the time.”
“We good?” August asked.
“Yeah, all we gotta do is light the fire,” Archer said, pulling free a match and a lighter.
August nodded, filing back into the office to speak to Cricket and the girls. “Go. Now. Find someplace safe from the fire. In ten minutes, call the police. Got it?”
She nodded, motioning to the girls, who skirted past August and Lucas like they were the bad guys. It made sense to be wary of men in face masks, Lucas supposed. Especially after what they’d been through.
Cricket was the last out, but she turned back at the last minute to look at August. “You’re still going to help me find a job, right?”
A smile spread across August’s face. “Most definitely.”
“Okay, be careful.”
With that, she was gone. They lit the match as they were walking out the door, Adam carrying his newfound friend. They’d almost made it to the car when the explosion happened, shaking the ground hard enough to knock them all off their feet.
August stood, helping Lucas to his feet. “Yeah, we gotta go. Right now.”
Lucas didn’t breathe again until they were back at Thomas’s house.
August found Lucas in his childhood bedroom, perusing his things like he was in a museum. He’d been quiet since they returned home. After they debriefed Thomas about their mission, Lucas had just sort of broken away from the herd with Noah, who seemed over the moon with Adam’s ugly four-legged present. Noah must have shown Lucas which bedroom belonged to August.
“You can touch if you want. If you have a deep need to dive down the rabbit hole of seven-year-old August’s brief love of fencing or my fascination with space.”
Lucas shook his head. “None of these things are you.”
August wrapped his arms around Lucas’s waist, relieved when Lucas relaxed against him. “How so?”
“You keep everything you care about with you. Your treasures. The important things are all lining the walls of your apartment or tucked away in boxes somewhere in your house. You don’t like the things you covet out of your sight.”
“Still putting that profiling brain to work, huh?”
Lucas gave a humorless laugh. “Is it over?”
“The twins took care of Kohn’s body. The fire at the junkyard is out, but it will take months for them to piece together what happened with what’s left. The rumor right now is meth lab.”
“Any word on Cricket?” Lucas asked.
“She’s already been released from the hospital. The other women were severely malnourished, and suffered some minor injuries, but none of them had made it to the main event. They are being held for fluids and observation. Atticus is still limping around like he went up against a great white and not a bulldog with sleep apnea.”
Lucas snorted, but any trace of humor quickly disappeared.
It made August uneasy. He didn’t know how to approach Lucas when he was in this strange mood.
“Are you alright, Lucas?” August asked.
