Page 22 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

“Well, you said that Pete was always at the bar where you worked, and it looked like you got on with Bobby pretty well. So, couldn’t you just call him and see if Pete’s there?

Then we could get him to meet us at another location, since we know that it’s not going to be safe to have you go back to the little town now,” Griff explains.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” I ask him. “That’s such a simple solution.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Coen asks with an encouraging smile.

I nod and pick my phone back up as I don’t allow myself any time to think about what I’m about to do too much. I do remember to put the phone on speaker so that the guys can hear the conversation too.

“What?” Bobby answers in his typically grumpy way on the third ring, and my smile widens.

“Now, is that any way to talk to your favorite waitress?” I tease.

“Ne,” he starts and then cuts himself off, which immediately raises my suspicions.

“What’s going on?” I ask, and the guys' smiles turn into frowns.

“I’ve told you I need those patties. If they don’t come by tomorrow, then I’m going to have to go with another supplier,” he barks down the phone.

I stay quiet.

In the background, I can hear him push through the doors of the kitchen, into the hallway, and then his office door slams behind him.

“Neith, girly. What the fuck have you gotten yourself into?” he asks, his voice hushed.

My eyebrows rise with surprise, “What do you mean, Bobby?”

“My bar is full of cops, although the fancy kind, they all wear suits. Fucking HID,” Bobby says gruffly, clearly not impressed. “They’re asking for you. I told them that you left and didn’t come back, and that you left no forwarding information at all.”

“Thanks, Bobby,” I say, my eyebrows drawn down into a heavy frown.

He snorts, “Don’t thank me, I had no idea if you were alive or not at first. For the record, I’m glad that you are.

Don’t fucking come back here, Neith. I don’t know what they want exactly, but the way that they’ve taken over the town and are watching this place and your house, I know that they ain’t up to any good.

Not that HID are ever really up to anything good. ”

“Ah shit,” I curse.

“They’ve been questioning the whole town, and everyone’s told them where to stick it,” Bobby says proudly.

“They have?” I ask. Shocked that so many of them are trying to protect me.

“Of course,” Bobby says. His voice turns sly as he says, “You did well in the Choosing. I always knew you had it in you.”

“Aw, thanks,” I start and then realize that if he’s watched the Choosing, that means that he’s a supernatural and somehow hid it from me. “Wait a fucking second, you sneaky fucker. I thought you were human?”

Bobby chuckles, “Aye, I know you did. Now what do you want?”

I don’t bother trying to ask him any questions, he won’t share. Instead, I say, “You know Pete?”

“Yes,” he replies simply.

“I need to find him. Is he there? Would you be able to pass a message along for me?”

“You know then. I’m a friend of your fathers.

I’m sorry, Neith, but he hasn’t been here for a long time.

He was here until just after we realized that you weren’t coming back.

He just disappeared. I have no idea where he’s gone, but he told me to keep an eye on this place and anyone new that comes into town,” Bobby explains.

“I, what? You?” I stutter. Not really comprehending what he’s just said, and what it means.

“Sorry, Neith, I would have told you, but I promised your dad that I wouldn’t. We were there to protect you,” Bobby adds. “I’m sorry, but I need to go. I don’t want them figuring out that I’m talking to you.”

I sigh, “That’s okay. It’s just a bit difficult to wrap my head around. Take my number, and if you need some backup, let me know. Also, if my . . . if Pete gets in contact with you, can you call me? And let him know that I’m trying to get in contact with him?”

“Of course,” Bobby replies.

“Thanks, Bobby,” I say, and quickly reel off my number for him, before he just hangs up.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Griff says. “He’s a human, right?”

“He’s supposed to be, but clearly not if he watched the Choosing and is friends with my dad,” I point out, feeling all kinds of confused.

“It would appear that you’ve had people watching over you for longer than you thought, and not just Pete,” Coen says.

“Yep. To be fair, it kind of makes sense that he’s a supernatural.

I have questioned whether he was in the past, but since I couldn’t feel any power signature from him, I thought nothing of it.

Of course, I didn’t feel any power signature from Pete either, and since they are friends, it makes sense that whatever Pete does in order to cloak himself, he has also done to Bobby too,” I reply, taking the guys along on a tangent with me.

“We also now know that HID is staking out your hometown, so there is no way that you can go back there,” Reed adds.

“And we still don’t have an idea of how we can get in contact with Pete,” Raiden adds with a frown.

“No, and I have no idea how we’re going to figure that out other than to hope that he finds us,” Ransom says.

“I could kick myself,” I say as something occurs to me, and I realize how stupid I’ve been.

“How?” River asks, looking adorably confused and completely missing the point.

I’m about to say that it doesn’t matter and tell them why I’m going to kick myself, but his question has me pausing, and I get distracted.

“You know what, I’m not sure,” I reply to River.

I do some weird twists in my chair, trying to see if I can kick myself, which he ends up copying, and then I decide that the only way that I’m going to figure out how to kick myself, or if I even can, is if I stand up.