Page 101 of Ramshackle
I decide to ask them about it later, when we’re not surrounded by others who are now returning to their gossip.
“Woah.”
“Did you see that?”
“He talked to her!”
Evie’s still staring after him with her brows furrowed.
“What’s the big deal?” I ask her.
She turns slowly, dragging her gaze from them after they sit at a vacant table. “They’ve been here for over a month and he hasn’t said a word to anyone here. Other than the mission, where I think he spoke two words, some of the members were beginning to think he was mute.”
Oh. He talked plenty when we were at the library.
I check in with Dane and Kellan, and the latter shrugs. “He’s not chatty, but he does talk.”
Gabriel chuckles. “He fits the brooding man role quite well. What’s his interest in you?”
I frown, staring across the tables to where he and Tinsley sit. “I have no idea.”
“There you are.” Aiden strides up to the table, looking from Kellan, to me and Dane. “I’ve got a fresh lead. Be prepared to leave tomorrow evening for another island.”
“Lead on what?” I ask, curious.
His eyes lock on mine. “On your father.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Jackson
Thorne stalks down asidewalk, the collar on his trench coat up and buttoned at the front to hide the scar around his neck. He looks the same as he had after his first death, with the exception of the added scar and crookedness of his ears. The smell of death that followed him before is less potent, but enough for me to follow with assistance from my gift.
It had taken me a few nights to find him, but good timing and an aerial view helped me catch him prowling the streets. I’d followed him that night until he ended up in a penthouse apartment, which appears to be where he stays during the day. I set up motion sensors on the door to alert me anytime he leaves, so I can find and follow him from there.
He turns beneath a neon sign, throwing a door open and moving inside.
I smirk from my perch. I know exactly where he’s going now.
The Pits, the gifted fight club Kellan started over a year ago, runs in the basement of this dive bar.
Any of the others might rush to get the people out now that he’s found them.
Me? I learned a long time ago to wait and see. A predator doesn’t jump the second it finds its prey. It waits. It watches. And then it attacks when it knows it’s already won.
I hop from roof to roof, dropping in the alleyway behind the bar with the staff entrance. The bouncer standing guard shouts in alarm.
My heels don’t get a chance to touch the ground before I’m flying at the bouncer, my fingerless-gloved hand slapping over his mouth as I shove him back against the brick wall.
“Shhh…”
His eyes widen in a panic, and he tries to reach for something.
I pull one of my larger knives and jab it against his thigh, pointed to his dick to make sure I have his attention.
He freezes.
My head tips to the side as I get a better look at him. Tall. Burly. Mustache and a goatee with earrings in one ear. He doesn’t look familiar, but then, I’d only been here that one time when Kellan convinced me to fight for him so he could win a big bet. The only name and face that comes to mind from that night is York’s, and he runs the Pits for Kellan now.
