Page 76 of In Prey We Trust

He shakes his head, giving me a rueful smile. “No, we don’t. I know you don’t have that much experience with real friends, but we can only do so much if she doesn’t talk to us. I deciphered why she gets mopey, but she didn’t tell me. I love Coco, but she knows we’re not psychic. No amount of dropped hints and shit makes up for direct communication.”

I know he’s right, but I still feel bad. Cori has been amazing, and I don’t want her to feel sad.

“That’s true, but I still want to help. Maybe I should see if Fitz can keep his eyes peeled? He did a good job with your guys.” I wink at him and I’m surprised to see Rufus actually blush. “A very good one, by that look.”

“Don’t be crass; it doesn’t suit you,” he sniffs, and I burst into giggles.

Cori appears from backstage, smiling as she holds up new brush cleaning cups. “What’s so funny?”

“Dolly’s boyfriends,” Rufus cuts in. “They’re all aflutter because they’re worried someone will pay the Leonidas’ to fix one of the college level matches. But I said she’d just whoop whomever’s ass with her weird blue wizard shit…”

“Shhhhh!” I scold him as I look around. He might not want Cori to know he was talking about the triplets, but he also can’t distract her by spilling my shit in public. “We have no idea who’s listening around here. I don’t want audio to get leaked online by Pink or Selene’s people to get leverage.”

“Not to mention the creepy old vulture you have to see again today,” Cori adds as she glares at our friend. “How long do you have to keep feeding her vague bullshit?”

Scooting down the set, I work on another section of the backdrop. “Until she releases me. I have to prepare myself every time I go so I have a believable, yet completely fictional, account of my life, so she thinks I’m ‘sharing my pain.’ It’s annoying as hell.”

“Farley texted me this morning, by the way.” Rufus snaps his fingers and pulls his phone out of his pocket. “He says—and I quote—the ‘bitch is off her rocker and I’ve sent the paperwork, so don’t worry.’ In our family, that means he’s sent one of the Postman.”

I watch as Cori’s eyes widen, and I pause. “Who the fuck are the ‘Postman,’ Rufus?”

His grin is almost feral as he shrugs. “The McCoys don’t trust anyone not from the family. We don’t use the mail—Memaw assigned a branch of the tree to be and raise what we call the ‘Postman.’ They handle all correspondence personally. I look forward to seeing what happens when one of them shows up on campus.”

“They’re fucking huge, D. Like the biggest goddamn science experiment badgers I’ve ever seen,” Cori interjects. “And they barely speak. Brandine had some stuff that had to be delivered and the one they call Goliath came to the salon while I was working this summer with his brother Jethro. Ru-Ru said they’re all that big, too.”

Satisfaction courses through me, and I grin broadly. “By Hecate’s hemline, I hope I’m there when they show up. Seeing her shake with fear would be the cherry on my sundae. It’d be even better if I got to see it more than once.”

“Girl, the Postmen never ring twice. If that doesn’t stop her, the next move will be the Messengers.”

Arching a brow, I look at Cori and she shrugs. “Okay, tell us about the Messengers.”

“Stupid, nosy, snide bitch,” I mutter under my breath as I stalk across the green to the tunnel. “Who the hell gave her permission to ask about my goddamn. sex. life?!”

Bowser looks at me in shock and slows down, letting me pass him. I’d laugh, but I’m so angry at Rockland right now that it’s probably a good idea for everyone to stay out of my way. The Postman hasn’t arrived yet, so she was digging into my boyfriends like a pirate on a treasure hunt. She had the nerve to ask me what things my ‘older men’ have convinced me to experiment with and whether there are group activities.

As if I’m giving that bitch a single detail of my sexy men’s moves for her poorly written trash.

“You know it’s garbage when Rennie is threatening to gouge out his eyes if he has to read ‘one more Predhub-rip off’ scene in these disgraces to novel writing. He’s way too nice to say something like that if it’s not awful.” I grumble as I kick a rock before I swipe my card at the entrance and stomp inside.

My phone rings and I pull it out. Fitz’s face fills my screen and I can’t help smiling. The picture is crazy—he took one of himself hanging upside down from the outside of the library after he scared me one night. Clicking the button, I answer, “Hey, crazypants. I’m halfway home. I think I scared Bowser with my ranting.”

“Ranting? Who am I killing? Gimme a name, Baby Girl.”

“Ugh. No one we can actually kill, Fitzy. You know Rockland time makes me angry.” I wave at the scanner and exit the tunnel with the quokka hot on my heels. “I think I’m going to stop and futz with the stupid dorm room, since I’m already in a bad mood.”

“Fuck that! I’m coming; don’t you take one more step into that snake pit until I get there,” Fitz yells.

I don’t even have time to argue because he hangs up. Cursing under my breath, I give Bowser an apologetic look. “Uh, you get off early, man. Fitz is—” Before I can finish, the hyper tiger is running across the lawn of the library towards us with a war whoop. “...here.”

My furry escort smiles broadly. “I’m glad, Miss Dolly. You look brighter already. I was worried about you until Mr. Fitz called.”

Mr. Fitz? Good Goddess, Raina’s men are all so damn polite and adorable.

“Baby Girl!” Fitz says as he swoops me up and spins me around. I can’t help but smile and some of the anger fades as he twirls us. “I missed you. The winged weenies are squabbling and Chess is teaching. My brother is off with your friends, helping them haul their stuff to our townhouse. I was bored to tears.”

I smack my palm against my forehead. How did I forget to even ask them about the move this morning? Neither Rufus nor Cori brought up my stern tiger’s offer to let them hunker down in the townhouse they’d rented. It’s right outside Cappie’s borders, and the secret access point they created for themselves will work fine for my friends to slink in and out. “Are they excited? I hate they had to do this when I couldn't help.”

His grin widens. “Well, the fluffy gangster was giving him a lot of shit last I heard, but I think he’ll live. Now, let’s go fuck up your room and see if this sneaky roommate is actually there.”

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