When I make it down the rickety steps of Tom’s porch, I spot the same car that was in front of Caz’s house my first day in Vakeeli. The metal gleams in the daylight, the rims covered in a coat of dirt, and standing outside of it like a soldier with a large gun in hand is Rowan.
“Caz! Nice to see you, brother!” Rowan shouts.
Caz marches around the car. “Get us to that bloody club now. Willow, get in the back.”
I resist the urge to argue as I open the back door of the car. I hear the pitter-pattering of paws, and Silvera makes her way out of the trees, trotting to me.
“Oi! Where the hell did that thing come from?” Rowan’s eyes nearly bulge out of his head as he gawks at her.
“She’s Willow’s now,” Caz responds.
Silvera jumps into the back row of the car and sits on the seat obediently. Rowan looks at me, his chin down and mouth ajar, before he shakes his head and climbs into the car. I get in and shut the door, and Rowan says, “That thing better not shed on my fucking seats. Even Cerberus isn’t allowed in my car.”
Silvera growls, her eyes on Rowan, and I rub her back, hoping it’ll calm her down. “Careful, Rowan. Silvera doesn’t seem to like men very much. She almost chewed Caz’s face off earlier.”
“Oh, if only Cerberus were here,” Rowan chuckles.
Caz points ahead. “Drive.”
Rowan puts the car in gear, driving away from Tom’s house. I look through the back window at the lone shack, and when I do, the house explodes.
A scream escapes me as chunks of debris fly toward the car, and I duck as pieces slam against the back window. Silvera barks and I glance at Caz and Rowan, but they haven’t so much as flinched.
“C-Caz,” I stammer. “W—what just…”
Caz doesn’t look back as he says, “I told him not to make contact with anyone.”
“What did you do?” My words come out strained, breathless.
“I gave his transmitter a timer. He only had to give us five minutes to get away. If after five minutes he hadn’t made any contact, Tom would’ve been fine. I expected him to make contact about us being here eventually, but the fact that he did it within a minute…well, that says a lot about him. He contacted the pigs, the transmitter picked it up and…well, I assume you know the rest.”
Rowan makes a whistling sound, then utters the word, “Boom.”
“No, I don’t know the rest. How can you do that to someone?”
“I don’t carry just guns with me.”
I blink at the back of Caz’s head.
“He was a nice old man. He was harmless!”
“He wasn’t harmless. You’re just impressionable and you trust way too easily.” Caz turns his head a fraction.
“You’re ridiculous. You’re killing people for no reason!”
“No reason?” he shouts.
“Yes! He did nothing wrong! So what if he called someone, we would’ve gotten away regardless!”
“The fucking audacity,” Caz growls.
“Calm down, brother,” Rowan warns, glancing at him.
“No—she needs to fucking hear it!”
“Sure! Tell me! What is it that I need to hear? What could possibly justify you killing an old man?”
“Do you know that old man is on the outskirts of this shitty territory because he used to molest young girls—girls twice younger than you?”
My heart sinks. “What?”
“He was a teacher in Blackwater for a long time—a hundred and twenty years, in fact—and he took advantage of that role. He’d invite girls to his home when he lived in the city, pretend to tutor them, when really, he was forcing himself onto them. He’d tell them that if they didn’t cooperate, he’d make them fail his class, or worse, report them as unteachable, which could cause them to end up in The Trench. And that’s a very bad place, Willow. You basically go there to rot to death.”
I stare at Caz, stunned, and notice Rowan’s grip on the steering wheel has tightened.
“He wasn’t lying to you when he said he couldn’t leave,” Caz goes on. “He was sent from Blackwater to Ripple Hills to live on the outskirts as a form of punishment. He has no job, no money, and he’s fed twice a week. The only reason he has a transmitter is because he’s under parole and has to be checked on every two to three hours. He’s not to be around anyone, especially women, because he’s been restricted. If he makes one wrong move, he’s to be sent to The Trench to rot. The only reason he wasn’t there after what he did was because he had a little pull with The Council—favors he’d done for them prior to his deception. I did the world a favor by getting rid of that piece of shit, and believe me when I tell you I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
“H-how do you know he did all this?”
Rowan’s head drops a bit, but he keeps his focus on the road. Caz’s jaw ticks as he fights with the words, until finally it relaxes and I hear his voice in my head. Because he did it to Juniper.
My heart is in my throat now. “Juniper? Are you serious?”
Caz says nothing. Neither does Rowan.
I work to swallow, fighting the bitterness building in my throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“No, you didn’t. You just made your own assumptions. And for the record, I don’t just go around killing for no reason. I only do it to people who threaten me, my clan, or to people who fucking deserve it.”
I sit back against the leather seat, dropping my eyes to the dirt stains on my knees from kneeling so much in the forest. The tension radiates through the car, nuclear, and as uncomfortable as it makes me, I allow the tension to marinate.
It’s warranted in this moment. I shouldn’t have assumed…and Juniper. God. It’s no wonder she drinks so much—no wonder she got so angry at that guy at the party and shot him. She’s taking control of her own life and fighting the corruption of pig-like men. And I can understand it because I deal with similar issues in my world.
Women aren’t seen as equals to men like Tom. We’re objects—toys for men like him to play with, whether it be our bodies or our emotions. The thought of that lights a fire inside me, and it burns so deeply I clench my fists. There is no escaping the misogyny of men, no matter where we women turn. It’s bullshit.
“I want to help,” I say after several minutes of silence. The wheels of the car bump along the road as Rowan continues driving. I lean forward, gripping the tops of the leather seats. “If we’re going to save Juniper and Killian, I want to help.”
“The Rippies will eat you alive,” Caz grumbles.
“Then make it so they don’t.”
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” he demands.
“I don’t know. There has to be some way!”
“The only way I can see that happening is if we dress her like a…” Rowan clamps his mouth shut instantly, swinging his gaze to Caz.
Caz’s nostrils are flaring, his fists clenched on his lap. “You just had to open your big fucking mouth, didn’t you?”
“Dress me like what?” I ask.
“It could work,” Rowan says, shrugging. “If there’s one thing the Rippies think women of her nature are good for, it’s that.”
“It’s too risky. She might not even be able to pull it off. She doesn’t know shit about them.”
“What do I have to dress as?” I demand.
Caz doesn’t say the words, but he damn sure thinks them loud enough for me grasp. A whore.
