Page 36 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Morgan tapped his fingers on his thigh like he was playing an angry piece of music on an invisible piano. “Where? Where would you take me?”

“Willow Lake.” With a bunch of people after him, including hunters, it was theonlychoice. When Morgan said nothing, I continued. “It’s where Ogden is. He, along with a lot of other powerful supes, will make sure you’re safe.”

“Why? Why would they care about me?”

I shrugged. “A lot of reasons. Because of Ogden. And Simon…”

“I don’t know a Simon.”

“He’s Ogden’s mate. The cat shifter who saw you get pushed through the portal. He feels guilty about failing to help you that day.”

“Huh.” He scratched his chin. “The one who threw the tracker at me?”

I nodded.

“Oops. I destroyed it. I didn’t know the guy was with Ogden.”

Well, that explained one thing.

“But more than that,” I continued, “my friends and I have been protecting supes like you for a long time. It’s what we do.”

“Out of the goodness of your hearts? I feel like there’s something more you haven’t said yet.”

I grimaced. Okay. To be honest, I hadn’t expected Morgan to be so astute—about why all these people might be interested in him or in speculating what my motivation might be.

“Willow Lake also has an oracle. He had a vision about you. Or, well, two, I guess. One was of you in the cage beside Ogden, and another showed you with me.” I didn’t mention he wasinjured in the last one. It might make him think we should go our separate ways.

Shit, maybe we should… Except everything inside me revolted at that idea.

Nope. I couldn’t do it. Not yet. Not until I got him somewhere safe.

“You have a lot of unusual friends,” Morgan said.

“You have no idea.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “And what about the woman downstairs?”

“What woman?”

“Her friends called her Tammy. You got all grumpy when she entered the restaurant. And when she stopped us from leaving, I thought you were going to pick up a butter knife and stab her.”

I’d thought he wasn’t paying attention to me when he was talking to her. It looked like I was wrong.

“I’ve seen her before…” I hedged.

“Where?”

I didn’t want to make him worry, but I couldn’t think of anything to say except the truth.

“She’s a hunter who came to Willow Lake a month back. We misdirected her and freed the supes she’d captured, but she and some of her asshole friends escaped before we could detain them. Honestly, we expected her to show up this weekend.” I rubbed my forehead, which was starting to throb. “Looks like we were right.”

“A hunter? As in a human who kills supes? What on earth is she doing here?”

“Many hunters are happy to use magic in their fight against supes.” I shrugged. “Hunters are hypocrites.”

“But who would sell them anything?”

“A lot of the supes here would sell anything to anyone for a dollar or two. And violence is prohibited against any market attendees, so they get a free pass to be here.”