Page 6 of Fastlander Fallen

“I wouldn’t expect it!”

“You threw away my bagel-gift!”

The sound of his deep laugh followed her, and she smiled as she locked eyes with Hallie.

Help, Hallie mouthed.

I’ve got you, Corey mouthed back the words they’d always used for each other.

She weaved through the crowd and climbed the stairs to the trailer, the one Hallie and Gunner always called ten-ten.

She took the clipboard from Hallie’s hands and twitched her head toward the door. “Go help your man interview. We all know men make the worst decisions.”

Hallie threw her head back and laughed a relieved sound. “I will make up for breakfast.”

“Damn straight you will. You owe me drinks tonight.”

“I’ll go with you!” a shifter called from the crowd. It was the man who had been hitting on her earlier.

“You want me to kill him?” Bagel Boy…no, Ace…asked.

“Tempting!”

Hallie bumped her in the shoulder, and said softly, “I owe you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She watched a man come out of the front door and jog down the stairs, and she looked at the clipboard for the next name that didn’t have a checkmark by it.

She smiled at the name.

“Ace Longdong.”

Bagel Boy pointed two fingers in the air and approached the stairs. “That’s me.”

“Nice name,” she teased.

“Thanks, I thought it suited me.”

He didn’t know it yet, but after this was all done, she was going to check the shifter registration database for information on him. Why? Because he was fine as hell, had a sense of humor, smelled like hot-boy cologne, was sensitive to human emotion, and had made up his last name for an interview with no cares given.

He was a walking red flag.

Unlucky for him, her favorite color was red.

Chapter Two

Ace Holland scented the air as he walked past the human woman holding the clipboard.

She was pretty. She wore her hair shoulder-length and had it flopped over in a messy style, with a streak of burgundy in her dark locks. She had blue eyes, but not bright blue. They were a stormy blue that would look dark from far away. She was taller, maybe five-eight or nine, and had that hourglass shape that would easily attract the monsters out in the clearing.

Ace stifled a growl as he thought about leaving her alone with those assholes.

She’d thrown the bagel into the woods.

She wasn’t his.

“Hey,” he said, turning in the open doorway.

“You going to declare your love?” she asked, her dark eyebrow cocked up.

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