Page 13 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune (The Wayward Sons #4)

W e barely made it across the parking lot before I punched him. It felt damn good, even if he was pissed off. Actually, him being pissed made me feel better.

Was it childish?

Probably.

Did I fucking care?

Nope, I didn’t.

It was the least he deserved. And that split lip of his was satisfying to look at. He was a full-bred hunter. It’d heal in less than a day anyway.

“You have a house in Phoenix?” I asked as I followed him through the door of a small house. The furniture was minimal, and the location was out of the way.

“No, but I know people,” Sam said from the other end of the house.

I trailed after him and found the kitchen full of papers and a goddamn corkboard.

Granted, it wasn’t the corkboard that bothered me.

It was the pictures of me and Ryder scattered all over them—surveillance stills from around the country, driver’s licenses blown up, his family, and more.

“What the fuck?” I snapped. “Are you lookin’ into us? How the hell do you have all this?”

“Riley’s that damn good,” he replied.

“More like that fuckin’ invasive,” I muttered. There was way too much information on that board. I couldn’t imagine why the hell they needed it all.

“He likes to make sure all our bases are covered.”

“Yeah, because the time we got ice cream in Cleveland is important.”

“No, but the time you were in Cleveland is a part of your footprint,” Sam retorted, clearly irritated with me. “If Riley can find pictures like that, it means other people can too. Y’all aren’t all that good at staying off the grid.”

My lips quirked at the slip of his accent. All that dialect training had worked out so damn well for him. Hearing him without it was weird. He didn’t sound like him—not that I cared.

He obviously minded from how he cleared his throat and repeated himself, enunciating each word carefully.

“The two of you aren’t that good at staying off the grid,” he said.

“Yeah, well, we ain’t workin’ with some tech genius to erase every goddamn picture ever taken of us,” I told him.

“Riley already fixed that for you.”

“How?”

“Some kind of program to track and erase your footprint as you go. I don’t know.

He can explain it to you if you want to know.

” He sat down at the table and kicked out the chair opposite him as an invitation.

“Everything we know tells us there are anywhere from six to nine vampires in the mercenary group at any given time. It fluctuates. Why? I don’t have a fucking clue, and it’s not like they’re volunteering that information. ”

I made a sound, none too thrilled with anything he had to say.

“Humans are safe, but hunters aren’t,” he continued.

“I knew that. That’s the whole reason he got himself arrested.” Still hated that plan. There had to have been better options than this bullshit.

“Mhmm.” Sam nodded slowly. “But now we need to get him out while not getting ourselves killed.”

“Which is a fuckin’ problem,” I replied. “I know.”

“We have vampire-killing bullets.”

“You should’ve led with that.”

“They’re only so effective.”

“How the hell are vampire-killin’ bullets only so effective?”

“You have to hit them in a specific spot.”

“Lord and Uriel help me, you’re a pain in my goddamn ass,” I muttered. “Y’know, I always hated how you never said what you fuckin’ meant. I don’t need all this hemmin’ and hawin’. I need to know the plan to get him out of there.”

“And I need you to know that we’re better equipped to handle this situation than you are,” Sam said. “You don’t have the same resources we do, and you’re too emotionally invested to be leading the charge on this.”

“I’m aware.” I didn’t need him telling me that I was too emotionally invested. I knew exactly how emotionally invested in Ryder I was.

“While I know you don’t trust me—”

“Damn straight.”

“—you did trust Riley enough to call him for help.”

“Ryder trusted that kid, not me,” I corrected.

“Then I need you to trust Ryder.”

“I do.”

“And know that I’m only telling you what you need to know—”

“Bullshit!” I interrupted the second he said it.

“Gray—”

“There ain’t no way I’m lettin’ you help if you ain’t goin’ to tell me what the hell is goin’ to happen.”

“You know what I always hated,” he snapped, “is how you always jumped to conclusions.”

“I don’t—”

“You did, and you are,” he said. “We’re going to save Ryder, but we’re also going to kill the vampires.

And yes, Ryder will be safe in the end, but that’s a secondary benefit.

What that means is that our plan circles around killing the vampires and not around prioritizing getting Ryder the hell out of there.

He’s their focus, which makes him a tool. ”

“I don’t like you callin’ him a tool,” I growled.

“He’s a damn good sniper, and we plan to use that as we take out the vampires.” He crossed his arms, those vivid blue eyes considering me. He had me there, and he knew it. “At least I told you.”

That wasn’t the flex he thought it was.

“What the hell can you tell me?” Just because he told me didn’t mean I had to go along with it. I wasn’t sure what the hell I’d do, but if I had to figure it out myself, I would.

“First things first, we labeled Ryder as a serial killer.”

“You what ?” I demanded, my voice rising a notch.

“It’s fabricated,” Sam assured me, as if that somehow made it better.

“We don’t need the fuckin’ feds chasin’ us down too!”

“No, just one,” he said. “We have an FBI agent on our team. A federal hold has been put on Ryder after his mugshot was red-flagged in the system. This means that the police won’t transfer him—”

“And the vampires won’t be able to get to him,” I finished for him.

“Exactly. At least not until my team is on him,” he continued.

“Another member of my team has encountered these vampires before. He gave us information about what to expect, so we’re not going in blind.

We plan to take Ryder into federal custody and transfer him to a safe location, but he’ll be surrounded by hunters every step of the way. ”

“Y’know they kill hunters, right?” I cocked an eyebrow, challenging him.

“We know, and we’re prepared for that.”

“So, what the fuck happens when they come after y’all while you’re trasferrin’ him to a different location? What the hell are you goin’ to do then?”

“We’ll be ready for them, and that’s all you need to know,” Sam told me. Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of this plan. Not one fucking bit.

“I don’t like it,” I said gruffly.

“I figured. But what’s your plan, Gray? Level all of Phoenix and hope you somehow manage to get ahead of the vampires in the process?” He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. I grunted. That was the only plan I had, and the asshole knew it. “That won’t kill them.”

“I know.”

“And that won’t free Ryder from being hunted.”

“I know.”

“Which means you need me,” he said.

“Debatable,” I muttered. He was right. He knew it, I knew it, he knew that I knew it. “You pull this off, that don’t make us even.”

“I figured,” Sam replied dryly.

“What makes you think you can do it?” I asked. “If I can’t, what makes you think you can?”

“Let’s just say we do things differently in Chicago.”