right place—albeit, a pretty fucked-up place. What in the hell had the wolf been thinking when he bought this piece-of-shit town? “I asked you a question.”
The human dropped his broom and reached into his front pocket, his hand shaking badly as he handed over a crumpled piece of paper.
Jeremiah snatched the paper. His eyes still narrowed on the small man and then glanced down at Sage’s shitty-ass handwriting. So, he had gone into hiding for his shift.
This wasn’t good. Jeremiah had no damn clue where he was, except in the middle of nowhere, and he hadn’t a clue where to start searching for Sage. “He didn’t say anything to you about where he was going?” Jeremiah knew the answer before the human shook his head back and forth. Sage wasn’t the type to check in with anyone, let alone tell anyone where he was going.
Fuck.
Jeremiah turned from the bedroom and headed back downstairs.
He had to be careful because his foot had already gone through the second-to-last step outside. He looked around, feeling as though the house was going to cave in on him at any second. What a dump.
“Excuse me,” the small human called from upstairs. “Who are you?”
Jeremiah could hear the nervousness in the man’s voice. He should be nervous. There were far more dangerous things to worry about than a stranger showing up. “Jeremiah,” he growled and then Sage’s Mystery
59
pushed open a screen door with no screen. A small dog stood at the top of the steps with the human, barking its little head off. Jeremiah could still hear the dog barking as he stood on the front porch.
Where in the hell could Sage have gone?
This was bad.
* * * *
William scooped Terror into his arms as he watched the stranger walk out onto the front porch. There was something about the guy that screamed danger on seven hundred different levels. The guy looked like the type that would rather cut someone’s throat than answer anyone’s question. He backed away from the banister and walked back down the hallway, heading into the room that he and Sage had shared.
“What is going on around here?” William asked Terror. “First Sage gets all moody, fucks me, and then disappears. Now this guy shows up out of nowhere wanting to know where Sage is. Do you think he wants to hurt Sage?”
There was no way William was going to allow anyone to hurt Sage. The man looked like he could handle his own, but still. The problem was that William wasn’t sure how he was going to go about taking Jeremiah down. The guy was huge. He had to think.
Maybe he should sleep on it and see if the guy was still here tomorrow. Sage wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow, so that would give him time to devise a plan. William knew that wasn’t the right solution, but he honestly didn’t see how he was going to take Jeremiah down by himself. He’d see if Sage needed his help taking the stranger down when he got back.
Besides, William was so tired he could barely keep his eyes open.
He had accomplished a lot that day with cleaning away the debris, and even his eyeballs were tired. The room with all the newspaper and 60
Lynn Hagen
bric-a-brac was almost empty, and William planned on finishing it up tomorrow.
“Come on, girl,” William said as he yawned and closed the bedroom door, locking it. He wanted to go downstairs and tell Jeremiah to get lost, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen.
William curled up next to Terror as he pulled the blanket Sage had brought to cover himself with. It was a lot larger and warmer than the one he had used.
Hopefully Sage returned tomorrow and they could work out the mess with Jeremiah.
* * * *
Sage huddled in the corner of the filthy room, feeling as though his skin was being shredded from his bones. His jaw locked and his body seized as he writhed on the floor in agonizing pain. He was soaked in sweat and pulling in ragged spasms of air.
Sage prayed he didn’t seek William out after his shift. No matter how
Jerrica Knight-Catania
Jennette Green
Elizabeth Chadwick
Taylor Henderson
Tricia Mills
Reed Sprague
John Everson
Catherine Coulter
Brandon Sanderson
Carol Lea Benjamin