Page 86 of Nemesis

He pauses. “What are you doing?”

“I—”

“It’s clear. For now anyway. I didn’t see anyone.” His teeth score his lower lip. “You’ve run into them before, then?”

Oh. “I was out riding, and they hit my bike.”

He stops. “What?”

I shrug. If he didn’t notice my bike has been out of commission, that’s his problem.

His phone chimes, temporarily pausing his questioning. He scans it, then looks over his shoulder. I crane around him, spotting the top of a truck moving down the row.

I grab Saint’s arm, ready to tow him back into the house, but he’s immobile.

“It’s your friend,” he says when the truck stops near the gate. “Let’s go.”

He brushes past me back into the house. I watch him for a second, then leave him there. He might want to say goodbye to Nyx in private, or… I don’t know, check that the front door is locked?

I lever open the gate and slip out, heading for the passenger side of the truck. It’s an older model, with a single row in the cab. Which will mean a tight fit between the two men and me. The window is rolled down, so there’s no disguising who waits for us.

“Thanks,” I breathe, climbing into the truck.

Reese stares at me. “What the fuck happened?”

I open my mouth, but then Saint is here a second later. The gate is closed and locked, and he urges me none too gently farther into the truck. I slide in close to Reese. He stares at me. The bandage on my head, the open wounds everywhere else.

I stare back.

Reese is in a white t-shirt and jeans, and a backward cap keeps his hair out of his eyes. My gaze drinks him in, noting the holstered gun barely visible on his left hip. I have a knife in my shoe. Saint probably has some sort of something on him.

It seems like everyone in this town is armed.

“Reese,” he introduces. He stretches his muscled arm past me.

Saint eyes him, then shakes his hand.

“That’s Saint,” I say. “He doesn’t have any manners.”

Reese smiles. His teeth flash in the darkness. A low chuckle fills the cab.

Not Reese.

Not me.

Since when does Saint chuckle?

“You’re one to talk,” Saint says to me.

I glower.

“Artemis,” Reese says. “You have an address for where I’m going?”

“I’ll give you directions.” I grew up in this town. There’s only a rare street that I haven’t traveled down. And from here, I can easily pick my way back home.

Except…

Roadblocks.

---