Page 36 of God of War

As he leaves, Ares’ brow furrows. “Hike?”

I wave to him, back to me, silently saying ‘What does it look like we’ve been doing?’

“Oh.” Ares replies. “Fuck, okay.”

He stands and digs a wad of flattened cash from his pocket. Without waiting for Lou and the check, he peels off a fifty and tosses it on the table.

“Come on,” he says. He hauls my backpack off the seat and slings it over his shoulder.

“Where are we going?” I ask, following him up.

Ares sighs, then as he turns around and heads for the front door, he mutters something that sounds an awful lot like ‘Shopping’.

14

Ares

Delaney browses the aisles of thrift store clothes, mindlessly scraping hangers along the wobbly racks.

I eye her still empty hands and sigh. “We’re not going to a fashion show. Just pick something.”

She slides a bright red blouse along the rack. “I’m going as fast as I can. It’s not like there’s a section for what to wear when you’re on the run from your psychopathic parent.”

“That’s two aisles over.”

Delaney snorts a laugh. “You know, you can be kind of funny when you want to be.”

“You should see my stand-up act.”

My phone buzzes in my pocket and when I pull it out, I recognize the number right away.

“Gotta take this,” I mutter. I sling the pair of jeans and the two t-shirts I had grabbed for myself off my shoulder and into Delaney’s arms. A line forms between her eyebrows and her mouth opens in surprise.

“Pick something and hurry up,” I say, cutting off her protest.

“How am I supposed to pay for—”

I shove the wad of cash into her palm, then stride out of the store, the phone already to my ear.

“Yeah, I’m here,” I say, answering. I settle my back against the brick exterior of the thrift store.

“How’s the girl?”

That’s Reaper for you. No nonsense.

“A pain in my ass,” I reply. Then, because I’m not a total monster, “She’s fine.”

Except that she’s not. She’s being hunted by her sick fuck of a father and I can’t see this ending well for her. And then, because it feels wrong to not say it, “She’s tough.”

Reaper makes a sound of acknowledgement. “I have news. Rigby and Jay are out of lock-up. Charges dropped.”

I blink, surprised. “That’s… good?”

“Yeah,” Reaper replies. Like me, he doesn’t sound convinced that this is, in fact, good news.

“What?”

“Could be nothing.”

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