Page 16 of Break Out the Girl

Two ancient looking trucks are idling, while three men mill around, carrying hunting rifles.

“Look, man,” the oldest guy says. “I don’t know about this, let’s just get what we came for.”

“Don’t need that reward money? Because from where I’m standing, you ain’t got dick but a beat truck and a bed in your mom’s double-wide.”

“Fuck you. Bevan’s one of us. None of us gonna snitch,” the first guy grumbles. I think I recognize him. Red? Reg?

A third man chimes in. “But the rest of those kids ain’t Ashgrave, Marlon’s right. We get them but let Bevan go. The bounty on that Elite bitch is fucking money.”

Red/Reg paces around. “I dunno, don’t seem right. Fuck it, I’m out. You do you, I’m getting scrap.” He storms off from the other two men, vaguely heading in my direction, but pausing to pull an iron frame of some kind out of the weeds.

Scrapping is an on-going thing around Ashgrave. It’s a fucking miracle there’s any metal left, but I guess this is the furthest site from town, so gets picked over the least. I move my attention away from Red/Reg and back to the other two.

They’re loading back into the bigger truck.

Off to join the hunt.

Good to know that I won’t be able to trust Ashgrave people to just instantly be loyal. Can’t blame them, I guess. When you’re dirt poor, selling someone out has got to be tempting.

I wait in the long grass until the blue truck is out of sight then make a decision. Let’s see what Reg/Red is really made of.

He shrieks when my wolf reveals itself, waving a metal rod in my direction. “Stay back,” he shouts, trying to retreat to his vehicle. I advance a few paces and the man tries to keep his eyes on me, at the same time as running, but this just means he faceplants over a rotting pallet.

In one bound, I’m on him. Two paws on his chest. He’s frozen as I lean forward and sniff, making sure my canines are on full display.

“Fuck,” he whispers, and I figure I’d better shift before he shits himself.

Red/Reg stammers when he sees me. “Y-you.”

“Yeah, me. Thanks for not joining the manhunt,” I say, putting out a hand to hoist him up.

“You heard all that?”

“Yeah, man. Those assholes got no loyalty, but I’ll remember this. Your name’s Reg, right?” I hazard a guess. The dude isn’t a ginger, so Reg seems more likely.

“Rex,” he groans, getting to his feet. “Fuck, Bevan, nearly had a heart attack.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I look at the man. He has a truck, and probably some cash.

That’s more than we have currently. “Rex, I’ve got to ask you, are you up for helping me? I’m not going to force you into anything you don’t want to do, but I’d really fucking appreciate a little assistance right now.”

Rex swallows, his eyes darting around the decayed land, then back to me. “OK, I’ll help. Your mam took care of my old lady real good. Figure I owe you.”

Thanks, Mom.

I clap a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll do my best not to put you in any danger. Here’s the deal, we need to get to Northport Harbor. And we need clothes, food, any of that shit.”

He turns a shade paler. “We? It’s not just you?”

I look back to the woods and signal the rest. “No. There are four of us.”

A second later Rex lets out another shriek as London bounds up to him, still in full-on faun-mode.

“Holy fucking shit,” he gasps. “What the fuck? I’ve only seen, like, squirrels and rabbits.” Rex glances at me, “and a wolf now. But what the fuck is he?”

François and Aurora join us as well. “That is Mr. Tumnus,” François drawls in his irritating way.

Who the fuck is Mr. Tumnus?