Page 29 of The Gathering
“Yes sir. I’m sorry.”
“You’re no damn such thing, I can hear it in your sexting fucking voice, which means you just lied straight to my face. You adding these infractions up with that calculator you know how to use?”
“Yes,” she said, breathless.
“Still sexting me!”
“I can’t help it!”
“Rules are rules and we had a deal.”
“We did.”
“So you understand what’s coming when we get back.”
He barely caught her nod in the moonlight.
“I can’t hear head-speak.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Fuck, he was ready to sacrifice a year’s rations to leave that second. He’d make her pick from the menu for bad girls. He was learning she loved it way more than the good girl menu.
A sound snapped his head to the border zone and Bacon pushed Phelony closer to the tree they stood next to.
“What was that?” she barely whispered.
He lifted his binoculars and scanned slowly along the tree line, bringing it into focus. A shadow moved near the building and he zeroed in. His heart raced. Bodies. Two. Adult ones. He spotted a third. Fuck, how many were there? What were they fucking doing?
He pulled his phone from his pocket, keeping them in his binoculars while pulling up Bishop’s name and hitting it. He glanced at the screen every few seconds.
“What do you see?” Phelony whispered.
“Somebody’s over there,” he barely said, hearing Bishop’s voice mail. He hung up and found Bullet’s number next. With the shitshow outside their swamp he wasn’t surprised. Shockedthere weren’t a lot more reported shadows in fact. People had to be real desperate by now.
The phone clicked and Bacon put it to his ear.
“What’s cookin’ brother,” Bullet’s answered.
“Hey, I’m out here at your backdoor in Nitro’s Hatch. Checking into some shadows the Seer reported seeing and I’m looking at a couple of ‘em right now through my night vision binoculars. I got Phelony with me so I’m gonna need some quiet backup with long range heat. Gonna see if Spook’s close enough to come in case there’s more. In fact, I’d prefer not to kill a hungry human but there’s no guarantee that’s all they are.”
“I see your coordinates in the group chat. Me and 35’ll be there in ten. Just left that side of the swamp but Bishop’s still there. I’ll see if Spook’s nearby.”
“Good. See you in eight.”
“What’s going on?” Phelony whispered.
“Not sure.” Bacon pressed the binoculars to his eyes tight. “We’ll keep low till backup arrives.”
“Well, that’s smart,” she whispered.
“Ah yeah, they’re taking shit,” he muttered. “Looks like sacks of something. Rice, no fuckin’ doubt. Or beans.”
“Oh no,” she said, gluing herself to his backside.
He handed the binoculars over his shoulder and she took them, looking. He reached around and grabbed her ass, pulling her harder against him. “You see?”
“I don’t know, babe,” she said suspiciously. “Looks like they’re bringing stuff in too.”
