Unstable by Lacey Carter Andersen
14
Emory
I’d boughtthe burner phone inside the gas station, knowing damn well that I was taking a big risk. But my gut told me this was necessary. Something was bothering me about this entire situation, but especially, Cole. The guy set me off. I hadn’t wanted him near us, but now that he was gone, I felt even more uneasy. Chances are if Maxen’s men weren’t heading straight for us before, now Cole would have told them our destination.
When we got there, we would probably be walking straight into a trap. If not for these damn marks, I’d be telling Kiera we needed to run the other way. But with our lives hanging in the balance, a possible death, versus certain death, was an easy choice.
Still, after we ordered dinner at a diner at the end of a long day of driving, I snuck out to the alley out back and dialed the same number.
“Hello?” The familiar, irritated voice comes on the line.
“I need a favor.”
He whistles low. “That’s a big ask, considering that King Maxen is hunting you and his queen.” He gives a humorless laugh. “You’re basically a dead man walking.”
“Not the first time.”
He grows quiet. “What do you need?”
“Just some info.”
“Some info is very valuable…”
“I just want to know about Cole, Maxen’s head of the guard.”
“Cole? Fuck. And here I thought you wanted to know what the crazed berserker was planning.”
Damn it. I should’ve asked. Sputter, as we all referred to him as, knew everything going on with Maxen, the people in his manor, and the town nearby. There were a handful of us who knew and mined him for information, usually at a great benefit to him. But we’d grown up around each other, and sometimes Sputter was willing to give me valuable information without a price. Especially if he thought it’d hurt Maxen, and not come back to bite him in the ass.
“What is he planning?”
I can hear Sputter’s smirk in his voice. “You’re being hunted. But then, I’m sure based on the dead berserkers his last team found, you already know that. Maxen is also well aware you’re running for it, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he’s going to catch you. His focus was the war, but now it’s almost entirely about getting his bride back. I wouldn’t want to be you right now, that’s for sure.”
Maxen didn’t know what we were after? That surprised me. I would’ve thought that’d be the first thing that Cole told him. But then again, as much as Sputter knew, he didn’t know everything.
“What about Cole?”
He lets out a low whistle. “Well, that guy is a mystery, huh? His mom was a sweet lady, but not very smart. Rumor had it that she used to spend time with your dad. He eventually got bored of her, luckily for her. When Cole came along, his mom had little interest in him, but the boy was obsessed with the idea of getting to know you and Maxen. I remember he’d come to see me and ask all kinds of questions about you.”
I frown. Why the hell would any kid be interested in us?
“Anything else?”
“Nah, just that the kid went from idolizing you to, well, reminding me of you. But then I guess you can’t exactly spend time with Maxen and come out the least bit normal. Right?”
He wasn’t wrong. “Okay, but nothing… bad? Nothing about him as a man?”
Sputter doesn’t say anything for a minute, then continues, “He’s cold, but not unnecessarily cruel, from what I’ve heard from his troops. He’s not a man to be messed with. Logical to a fault. But seems to try to protect his men in a strange kind of way.”
Damn it. None of this was news to me. Other than the fact that Cole was so interested in me as a kid. That was weird. I had assumed when he was brought in as Maxen’s playmate, that he was there for Maxen, not me.
I wonder why.
“Thanks, Sputter.”
“No problem, man. And if I pretend I don’t know you the next time you see me, no offense.”
I give a laugh that lacks humor. “Understood.”
When I get off the phone, I pull the battery out and throw it in the trash. Sputter’s line was secure. That’s why he wasn’t already dead. But I wasn’t about to take the smallest risk that my curiosity might get us all killed.
Back inside, Kiera gives me a look. “Just fished for some information and came up empty. Other than that Maxen has another team on our tail.”
“Of course,” Drake says, rubbing his shoulder and wincing. “We couldn’t get a break.”
“You okay?” Kiera asks.
The dragon instantly drops his hand. “Of course.”
“There’s no shame--” I begin.
“I’m fine.”
“I have a question,” Adam says before I can finish my words.
Uh oh. This should be good.
“What is it?” Kiera asks.
Adam pets Princess on his lap, who is concealed under the tabletop. “Drake is clearly hurting, but he doesn’t want to admit it. It doesn’t make any sense. He was tortured for his parts, wounded, and then got us all out of the reform school and was badly injured. Of course he’s going to be hurting, so why does he pretend he isn’t?”
Silence follows his question. I stare at his innocent face and know for a fact that Drake would have knocked me out for such a question. So how would he respond to Adam? Probably just dodge the question.
Drake finally sighs. “Here’s the thing… the healers said I might always hurt. Like a person with chronic pain. But I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Oh, Drake!” Kiera’s arms are around him in an instant. I hear her whisper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know,” he says, but I recognize the shame in his face. I’ve felt the same way more times than I can count.
“You know that pain doesn’t make you any less of a man? Or any less of our friend, right?” Adam reaches out and touches his hand as he speaks.
Drake shakes his head. “Of course, you would say that,” but there’s no malice in his voice.
I always hurt. But I’m old. Trust me when I say that having the battle wounds from the past is better than being buried six feet deep.
For some reason, our mood completely changes. I knew Adam didn’t entirely understand his own story about how he and Princess were tested on by scientists and what followed after. Having been raised in a lab, he’s innocent about so many things. But the rest of us knew what it meant when Princess went back to find his little girl and found that cancer had taken her. And I was pretty sure all of us were thinking the same thing, that the grumpy old cat’s heart was still broken. That as old and tired as he is, he knew that living was better than dying.
“He’s right,” I say.
Adam and Drake look at me in surprise.
I shrug. “We should be thankful for every day that we’re alive.”
Kiera gives me a smile that makes my heart ache. “Look at Mr. Positive.”
I almost grumble at her, but then the food arrives. We’re all given plates overflowing with red meat and fries. Appetizers are spread in the center of the table. Chicken wings, potato skins, mozzarella skins, nachos, and Princess’s salmon.
We thank the waitress, and then Adam sets the salmon between him and I. Princess cautiously creeps onto the booth and begins to eat. Looking down at him, scruffy and tired-looking, I find myself fighting the urge to pet him. I’d never been much of a pet person, but Princess was certainly more than a pet.
Then, I jerk my gaze away and dive into the greasy food. And, oh, it’s good.
I feel the gazes of some of the truckers, and the families that look like they’re on vacations, slide over us far too often, but my instincts say none of these people are a threat, so I try to relax. Try being the main word. The truth is that I have no idea if I’ll ever relax again.
We’re almost done when a white van pulls up outside. Every single one of us stops eating and turns toward the window. The driver’s door opens and out steps a berserker.
Fuck.
“Time to go,” I whisper.
Drake sets some of the pile of cash Cole had left us on the table. Adam grabs Princess, and we’re almost running for the back of the diner. We push open the door to the kitchen, and all eyes turn toward us as we race for the backdoor.
“You can’t be in here,” a cook says.
My gaze collides with his, and he shrinks back. I shove open the back door, and then we all head for the edge of the alley. Four berserkers get out of the van and head inside. We stay still, then dart through the parking lots and get back into our ride. Inside, the berserkers are talking to our waitress. She points to the back where we’d gone.
Kiera turns on the engine, and I can tell it takes effort for her to drive at a normal pace out of the parking lot. Still, we’re just a little ways down the road when I see one of the berserkers come out the other side of the alley. His gaze doesn’t hit us before we round a bend in the road, and our view of the diner is gone.
“Step on it,” I say.
They’re getting too close.
I have to agree with Princess.
