The guy’s smile is the same—cheerful and curious as he brings his sparkly eyes to me. Yeah, definitely hot as hell. “Let me guess.” He cocks his head. “Ka-tu-ra Or-tiz.” He punctuates every syllable.
Oh, I see. They know. Like we are celebrities.
Ty’s smile vanishes. “So you’ve heard.”
“Oh, we’ve been waiting.” Marlow blinks slowly and puts the rifle across his shoulders, his hands hanging on either side of it. “Where are the other two?”
Ty glances at Kai, who stands with his hands in his pockets with an indifferent but tense expression, then looks at Marlow.
“Well, here is the thing.” Ty pulls off the backpack and takes out a piece of paper that Bo wrote for Archer. “Got a message for Crone.”
Marlow carelessly flicks the paper open with his fingers, scans the message, and exhales. “Fuck, Ty. It’s not gonna cut it.”
Ty looks away. “I know. But that’s it for now.”
Marlow shakes his head, then turns to me, and that cocky smile is back. “How about we pluck thisse-ño-ri-tato come with us?” His playful eyes study me up and down, and only now, with his sunglasses perched on his forehead, do I notice that his eyes are almost transparent blue. Gorgeous. Like the mist of the waterfall.
But his confidence rubs me the wrong way.
“Se-ño-ri-ta,” I mimic him, “is not interested.”
Marlow might not be bad, but the other three stand at a distance with their rifles at their sides, and they are like Commandos with frat attitude. I’ve seen that type after the Change. Not a chance I am going anywhere with them by myself if I want to make it to the Westside with my panties on.
Marlow smiles at Ty. “You look rough.”
“Well,” Ty answers with his sunshine smile. “I don’t have an army of minions to serve me. And now you guys killed our major source of food, so…”
“Yeah. Last night’s patrol. Crone’s orders.” Marlow looks down as if in apology and kicks the ground with the metal tip of his military boot.
His clothes and boots are new. Not a speck of dust.
He whistles to his goons and walks briefly toward them. “Sorry, guys,” he says as he rummages in a backpack that one of the guys hands him and comes back with granola bars, apples, and energy drinks.
You kidding me?
We take a seat on the side of the grassy intersection, and I devour the bar and the energy drink like a kid who just got the first ice cream in her life.
“There is more where this comes from,” Marlow says and winks at me.
“Marlow,” I say, chewing, my mouth full. “Is that Russian?”
He shrugs. “Russian, Polish. Whatever you want it to be.”
I give him a backward nod, taking a gulp of the energy drink like I’ve never had one before. “Govorish po-russki?” I ask him if he speaks Russian.
His eyebrow cocks in surprise. “Dlia tebia, solnyshko, shto ugodno.” Anything for you, sunshine.
We both smile. I like this one.
In a minute, he and Ty get up and step aside, only fifty feet or so. It’s hard to hear what they say but they shoot shit for some time while Kai and I chill in the shade and the other goons stare at us.
“Secretive, huh?” I look at Kai and nod toward Ty and Marlow.
He shakes his head. “Don’t want the others to hear,” he says under his breath. “Crone is probably watching right now.”
I scan the trees, find one of the cameras, and wave my hand with the biggest smile and, “Fuck you,” under my breath.
When we finally get up, say goodbye, and start walking, I hear Marlow’s voice behind us.