Page 56 of Fresh Old Bounties

Strong arms caught me and pulled me up. Ian helped me onto the stool Dru vacated, and I sat with a sigh of relief. Fluffy trotted up to me, a distressed look in her eyes, and I summoned enough energy to move my foot enough to nudge-tell her I wouldn’t be joining her at the cemetery just yet.

Mark immediately stepped forward and took photos of the thief.

“What are you doing?” the man demanded. The glamour dispelling had revealed an average adult male face on the gaunt side. Not the man who had claimed to be Ian’s ex-partner’s son.

“For the wall of honor at the bar,” Mark said with his usual glee.

“Wall of honor?” Dru asked before I could.

“They have photos of idiots caught messing with bounty hunters at the Crawler,” Shane said.

“Wait? You’ve been in the Crawler?” I asked, outraged. “But you’re a shifter!” I pointed at him and turned to Mark accusingly. “He’s not even twenty-one.”

Mark looked Shane up and down and shrugged. “He looks twenty-one to me.”

Shane grinned, a rare occurrence that made him appear even younger. “I’m twenty-one.”

I looked at Ian, waiting for him to back me up, but he had moved to stand by Rufus’s side, unperturbed by our banter.

The sight of him looming over the thief reminded everyone in the room of why we were here, and we all grew quiet and serious.

“Who hired you?” Ian asked.

The robber pressed his lips together and glared back.

Rufus snarled again, but the man didn’t budge.

Dru stepped up. She lifted a hand with a flourish, and five sharp nails snapped into existence. “Allow me.”

The robber harrumphed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Hope,” Dru said.

“Yes?”

“Bring me one of the shop’s T-shirts.”

For reasons beyond me, the request made me suddenly giddy. “Really?”

“I don’t want to get blood on my blouse.”

Shane jumped off the counter. “I got plastic sheets in the van. Save us a lot of time in cleaning afterward.”

Ian gave him a sharp nod. “Go.”

“Stop,” I said.

Everyone turned to look at me, surprise on their faces.

I focused on the man tied up on the floor. “Did they pay you well enough to be tortured?”

The man glared back, and I dismissed it with a wave of my hand. “Yes, yes, robber’s pride, etcetera, etcetera. It’s not like we don’t already have you packed up and ready to go. Are you seriously going to go down fighting for someone who couldn’t do their own robbery? If you just tell us, I swear we’ll tell everyone we beat the information out of you.” I lifted my pinky finger. “Scout’s honor.”

The man cussed. “Whatever. I was hired online.”

“Where?” Ian asked.

He gave us a web address.

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