Page 9 of The Most Wanted Witch

“I’ve got to go meet someone I knew from the factory.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. Totally safe.” I stood and picked up an invisible Dusty with me. “Can you keep Dusty company while I’m gone? He hates being alone.”

Dusty bit my finger, and I held in the pain. Bibbi liked to put bows on Dusty’s little head and sometimes dress him up. He’d have to take one for the team so I could get out of here in peace. It was going to cost me a lot of cocoas tomorrow, or there might be a massive dust explosion in my room.

“Oh! I’d love to.” She was all over him, leaving to kidnap him to her room seconds later.

I slipped on my boots, grabbed my jacket, and made it to the office before anyone else intercepted me.

“Where are you going?” Oscar said from where he was sitting at Zab’s desk, flipping through slips casually.

“Nowhere special. Just stretching my legs,” I said, walking a little faster toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Hawk asked from the back door.

“Nowhere,” Oscar answered.

“I was going to stretch my legs,” I said, turning to leave.

Hawk walked in my direction. “I’ll come with you. I wouldn’t mind a little exercise.”

I stopped at the door. “I really wanted a little quiet.”

“I won’t talk.” He smiled as he shrugged on his jacket.

My shoulders slumped. Why was nothing ever easy in this place? Why was nothing ever easy with him?

“Fine. I have an appointment and need to go alone.”

“Well, that was surprisingly easy,” Oscar said, laughing as he kicked his heels up onto the desk.

“With who?” Hawk asked with no humor whatsoever.

I turned back to Hawk, to the stare that wouldn’t quit and the stance that said he could go all night. “Is it possible for something to not be any of your business?”

“We’re at war. Everything is my business, especially covert meetings in the middle of the night.”

In other words, I could come clean now or he’d follow me and find out anyway.

“Let me ask you something: is this a wartime thing or a Hawk thing?”

“Hmm. Interesting question. My choice would be that the two are one and the same,” Oscar said from the other side of the room.

Hawk didn’t bother answering.

Well, that gave me nothing.

I glanced at the door, knowing I was running out of time to make my meeting and there was no way I was getting there in peace now.

Would it really be that bad if I did tell him? What if it was a setup? Hawk would be my best option for backup. Mertie had specifically instructed me not to bring anyone. I was curious enough to follow her to the letter of the note, which hadn’t said anything about not telling anyone.

“Fine, I’ll tell you, but you need to know I’m sharing this information because it’s a wartime decision, not because I feel you deserve to know everywhere I go.”

He rolled his hand, as if he didn’t particularly care what my reasoning was. “Who’s the meeting with?”

“Mertie, and you can’t come.” I’d fight that battle to the end. If he thought he was going to rule every move I made, the ugliest battle I’d be fighting was with him.

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