8
Mercy
An energetic rappingof knuckles against my bedroom door brought me over. I opened it to find Kaige standing outside. He took in my questioning look and tipped his head toward the hall. “You’re coming, aren’t you?”
I blinked at him. “Coming where?”
His forehead furrowed. “Didn’t— We’re going into the Bend to start reminding the Steel Knights who’s boss.”
“What, now?” At his nod, I marched past him into the hall. “Of course I want to be there for that.”
I might have believed it was a miscommunication, but when we found the other three guys around the back of the garage, examining a couple cases of pistols, the hardening of Wylder’s expression told me I’d been left in the dark on purpose.
“You don’t need to come along,” he said shortly, already turning his attention back to the guns. “We can handle this without you.”
What the hell? He’d been a jerk about our hook-up, but this was something else entirely.
I set my hands on my hips. “I’m sure you can. But I’m also sure this is my fight even more than it’s yours, so I’m fucking well going to be part of making it happen.”
“The four of us know how to work together as a team. You’d just get in the way. Go find something else to entertain yourself with, Princess.”
Oh, so we were back to “Princess” again, were we? My teeth set on edge at the sting of his comments. The other guys glanced between us, tense and uncertain.
Then I registered exactly what Wylder had said. “Four? Gideon’s going?” I realized how insulting the disbelief in my voice might sound a second too late and quickly backtracked, catching the tech genius’s gaze. “I mean, usually you’d want to stay back here and focus on the data, right?”
“I insisted on coming along because I want to see what’s going on in the Bend firsthand to supplement that data,” Gideon said, cool and even. “I don’t expect to be involved in much of the fighting. I know my limitations.”
I spun back toward Wylder. He could lash out at me all he wanted. I’d already survived his wrath before. If it took a little more work to shut off the part of myself that cared what he thought of me now, oh well.
“If he can insist, then I can insist too,” I said. “And I do. Insist. Colt is mine to crush, and I plan to be there every step of the way, whether you like it or not.”
The glare Wylder shot me showed he didn’t like it at all. “Wylder,” Kaige said tentatively, and his boss let out a huff. Maybe he’d decided it’d be too much hassle arguing more.
“Have it your way, then. Just stay out of our way. And that means making sure you can defend yourself.” Wylder motioned to the guns. “Take your pick.”
I hesitated, taking in the array of pistols and lingering on the sleek one he’d already picked up. “You mean—”
“I promised you a gun, and I’m a man of my word. Get on with it.”
Well, if he was going to be that pissy about it…
I pointed at the one in his hands. “I want that one.”
Somehow his scowl got even deeper, but he shoved it toward me. “Then it’s yours. Come on, everyone, let’s move out.”
The guys all grabbed a gun for themselves, even Gideon. I tucked mine into the back of my jeans like they did. I’d handled a gun plenty of times, but my dad had never let me keep one on me, so I wasn’t used to carrying one.
He’d probably been afraid I’d get too tempted to put a bullet in his head. There’d been times when I might have.
We tramped into the garage and headed to a car that turned out to be Rowan’s, which was a good choice for a mission to the Bend—unlike Wylder and Kaige, he’d gone for something low key rather than obviously expensive. The silver Toyota sedan had plenty of room for all of us and looked to be a model at least a few years old rather than shiny and new.
Rowan drove us into the Bend with ease. Of course, he’d spent much of his formative years growing up there if not as many as I had. It used to be his home too.
Wylder sat in hostile silence the whole way, only speaking up a couple of times to give an instruction. But when Rowan stopped down the street from a trio of men wearing the Steel Knights’ red bandanas around their upper arms, the Noble heir straightened up with an eager expression.
The guys were circling a girl who looked barely eighteen and absolutely terrified. Their voices wafted through the open window to me with the hot summer air. “Nice tits you got there. What are you hiding under that pretty skirt of yours?”
I bristled and reached for the car door, but Wylder shook his head. “Stay inside. You don’t jump in unless it’s absolutely necessary.”