Page 66 of Recurve Ridge

“Oh, you know. A baddie here, a baddie there.” Alan fluttered his hand, showing me his ringless fingers.

“Damn quick,” Jon stage-whispered in my ear.

I nodded. I hadn’t seen him remove the poison ring either. “No missions without a plan. My plan.”

“Fine.” Alan pursed his lips and drew an image out of his pocket of a tall man with dark hair sporting a face we all knew too well. “Here’s a target I prepared earlier.”

Beside me, Jon’s breath picked up.

“No.” I clenched my teeth to the grinding point, ignoring the ache blooming in my jaw.

“But—” Alan objected.

I raised my hand, glad to have full control of my body back. “I said no, Alan. We’re not murdering, assaulting, or otherwise harming the mayor of New York City.” I cast a sideways glance Jon’s way. The big man stood rock still, his face pasty. I offered him a humorless smile. “No matter what sort of psychotic asshole George Petersen is.”

“But, Robe?—”

“I saidno, Alan.It’s too dangerous, and you jeopardize the lives we’ve built here, plus who knows how many others, by playing games when we can’t be certain of the outcome.” I tramped down the stairs, intent on hiding beneath the house to avoid the discussion under the cover of working out what the hell Miller had dug up that really did stink. “My answer is no.”

“You’re no fun,” Alan called to my retreating back.

I didn’t respond.

* * *

Working again felt good.My shoulders took the strain of moving earth beneath the house at a half crouch. I’d straightened early on and crowned myself on the damned underside of the cabin, and the faint throbbing in my head was enough to make sure I kept it ducked down.

“Dig there.” Miller pointed out the low spots surrounding the footings. He followed me around like a nursemaid, hauling a sackcloth loaded with gravel to drop into the pits I dug to create a net of drainage aimed at preventing the entire place from rotting prematurely.

“Yes, sir.”

“About damn time.” Breath whooshed from him as he hurled what looked like half a ton of gravel into the purpose-built hole. “Offer respect more often, little apprentice.”

I grimaced and attempted to straighten my back. “I thought respect was a thing you showed for your elder.”

“Nah, you’re turning into a cripple, old man.” Miller returned to the heap of gravel that seemed to grow on its own beneath my house.

I straightened and banged my head on a length of timber I laid beneath the house to give it structure when I built the thing. A hiss slid between my teeth as I rubbed the offended patch beneath my hair, grateful for the distraction the bite of pain offered. Miller was right, even if he didn’t recognize it. I’d hit grumpy old man before I’d even made it to forty.

While I didn’t have the option of a future, he did. Miller knew he held all the cards—his main one being the option to throw me under the bus to get himself a short stint in military holdings and eventual freedom, though so far he’d refused to use it.

Same with Alan and Jon. I didn’t want to be responsible for removing what little chance they had left for some semblance of a normal life they could garner outside my literal patch of the woods. Every time I tried to kick one of them out, the assholes kept on coming back.

Grumbling under my breath, I scooted out from beneath the house, taking perverse joy in the simple action of straightening my spine. Something cracked and creaked, and I was pretty sure the sounds came from me.

“You’re falling apart.” Mari startled me out of my reverie.

“Starting to,” I grunted, pounding at a muscle that chose that moment to knot my shoulder into the semblance of a pretzel I couldn’t undo.

“Mmm.”

I opened my eyes and stared down at her.

She stared right back. Something akin to defiance flickered in her gaze.

Lowering my hand from my shoulder, I took a step closer, then another until I crowded her space in the middle of the clearing, much like I had the first time I met her.

She didn’t flinch or shove me back. Mari’s conflict-avoidance strategy seemed out of character enough for me to give her a little push.

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