A split second later, a two-pence coin bounced off the geezer’s bald head and Ranger let out the first genuine laugh I’d heard from him in days. “Fucking bullseye.”
Couldn’t deny it. I rummaged for a missile of my own, but Decoy and Mats pulled in beside us, curtailing the fun with Deeky’s bestdadglare.
He hopped out of the flashy beast he and Mats currently called home. Mateo had parked Bertha at a weird angle—looked like I’d parked her my-damn-self. But I was willing to bet a nut she was orderly as shit on the inside.
“We’re gonna sleep.” Decoy gave me a look I was too wired to interpret. “You going for dinner?”
“Not here. I need something green in my belly. We’re gonna walk to that ASDA down the road.”
Ranger sighed.
Decoy nodded. “Text me when you’re back.”
“You’ll be asleep.”
“I’ll be trying.”
That gave me pause. Decoy slept like a soldier. Out on command, wide awake in the blink of an eye. “Something keeping you up?”
“Ivy’s been up late this week. She keeps FaceTiming in the middle of the night from Cam’s phone.”
“Cam’s phone?”
“He’s stayed at the house a lot—” Decoy smothered a yawn. “Fuck, I’m too tired to string a sentence together.”
We all were, which made the temptation to hit the road the second our mandatory stop period was over all the more frustrating. I needed to get home as much as Decoy did, but I wouldn’t know until morning if all of us were fit to drive without more rest. “Where’d Mats go?”
“Lying down already.”
Dragonfuck. “All right. I’m going shopping. Holler if you need anything.”
We parted ways. Decoy went to bed and me and Roo set off on the adventure of a lifetime across the motorway bridge and through an IKEA car park.
“Here.” Ranger tossed me my phone. “It keeps buzzing.”
“Now you’re telling me?”
He lit a rollie. I gave him my very best glare, then studied my phone screen, squinting at the bright light with a scratchy gaze, swiping through texts, scrabbling for the energy to reply while keeping a sharp eye on Ranger and ticking people off my list.
Cam, Locke, Nash, Embry, Juana.
Willow.
Viktor.
Lilana and Ivy.
Nothing from Orla or Riv since this morning. Radio silence from Folk, Saint, and Alexei.
I placed a call, waving away Ranger’s offer of a toxic cancer stick, missing the zoots I relied on as much as the family we’d left behind. Yearning for the voice that eventually picked up.
“Hey there, handsome.”
A smile lightened my heart. “Khaleesi. How goes it?”
“I’m bored.” I heard movement at Orla’s end. “Unless you count Nash trying to roast a chicken as entertainment.”
“It counts. Make sure he takes the wrapper off this time.”