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“I know,” I try to sound soothing and hope I’m not failing.“I meant, areyouokay?”

He takes a concerning amount of time to answer me. His head tilts to one side and then the other, and I try not to fidget because his eyes are the only thing I can see in the smoke surrounding his face, and they’re intense enough that I want to look away.

He slowly shifts his focus over my head and tells me simply, “I’m hungry.”

That is not a good sign. Shit, I didn’t make him breakfast, either.

“Okay,” I nod, and his eyes return to mine.“We’re safe.We’re together.We’re never buying lawn gnomes for your house,” I add to tease him, and the smokebegins to withdraw and show me a faint smile on his lips.“And I put some emergency beef jerky in the car.”

His head draws back in surprise, and the darkness completely disappears.“Beef jerky?”

“Tender bits, one of the big bags, in the glove box,” I assure him. “And right after this, we’ll get you a real breakfast. Sound good?”

He doesn’t answer in words. He just rubs his cheek against mine and walks back to the car. I watch him because he’s given in way too quickly.

Sure enough, he hasn’t taken his eyes off of the house behind me. He digs out the beef jerky, making a crooning sound to the bag before opening it and eating as if he’s starving.

I need to get this conversation over with now so he can eat something real ASAP.

“Is that normal?” Mal asks with a confused frown.

“He’s hungry, and he needs to be fed.Now,” I insist quickly.

“You act like he’s dangerous. He’s just a puppy,” Kimi rocks back on his heels as he smiles at me.

I can’t look at him. He’s still the gold-skinned heart eater from my nightmares, which isn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be in the light of day. But when I see him, my heart does a painful twist in my chest that I want to ignore for as long as possible. He might be the hero, but I’m a victim of his heroism and I’m feeling the burn.

I focus only on Mitri and forget the other two.

“I was looking at it all wrong. It isn’t the powers they have that are drawing attention. It’s what they’re doing with them.”

His head tilts as his eyes slide to the side, absorbing the news.

“Laverne created a hex that can be used long distance. Darlene helped her as a silent partner. Together, they made it long distance with a multiplying factor. Ithink they were taken at separate times because Darlene wasn’t named when it was made public. It took whoever this is a while to figure out she was the second half of the equation. Renee was a reporter looking into Laverne’s disappearance.”

“Right place, wrong time,” Mitri follows along. It’s like he memorized all the details and is right there with me in my thought process. “The hex?”

“A mental manipulation enhancer is what she tested, but it could be anything.” I’m desperately hoping it’s something else because if what I’m thinking is correct, this isn’t good at all.

He goes silent and stares over my right shoulder as he processes. Or talks to his guns. It could be either. All the long pauses in conversation make a ton more sense now.

“What are you two talking about?” Kimi leans forward to try and get my attention but I back away from him, keeping my face averted.

“The missing people no one gives a shit about,” I mutter.

Mal and Mitri exchange a loaded glance and turn back to me. What’s that about?

“I do not believe in coincidence.” Mitri’s flat voice makes me sigh.

“I was hoping you would disagree with me on this one.”

“Speaking ofmanipulation,” Mal clears his throat before he continues. “We have two more team members under the influence.”

Two? Or just one with another leading the show? Or neither and an outside influence running things.

I don’t want to say any of it out loud. It will cause another rift between us all. That’s something we could do without, seeing as we’re already preparing for anotherknife in the back from each other. Or maybe that’s just me.

I glance back at Mitri, and he’s staring at me again.