I couldn’t agree more.
A beige sheet of paper stands stark against the side of a blood-red barn on the outskirts of town, the same one I’d apparently been heading for when Aiden had tracked me down yesterday.
Cypress spotted it first, riding alongside the wagon on Cerberus while I sat with Aiden to my left on the bench. Prompting both him and Aiden to dismount while the latter’s request that I stay in the wagon fell on deaf ears.
One poster. Three portraits of three very different individuals. One of a fearsome-looking woman I don’t recognize and two of menacing-looking men that I’d know anywhere. And above and below all of them? Fresh black script that boldly proclaims:
“The Midnight Gang…” Cypress mutters as he draws up closerto the notice. “I quite like that. Not a bad likeness either for Aiden and myself.” He turns to me as he adds, “They did not fully capture your beauty, little bird, but who could?”
“We’re being charged as murderers?” I question, in shock even though I’ve been present or near present for five. “But—”
“Fucking hell,” Aiden spits, looking around for anyone who may have spotted us, and not looking the least bit relieved even when he finds no one. “Fuck. We’re going. Now.”
I turn, following him toward the wagon, but I pause when I hear the sound of paper tearing behind us. I look back over my shoulder in time to see Cypress ripping down the notice, then carefully rolling it up before tucking it into the inside pocket of his coat.
“A keepsake,” he says as he jogs to catch up, and the look Aiden gives him holds so much agitation that even Cypress seems to think twice about pushing him further. Unfortunately, I am still too stunned to feel the proper amount of danger.
“Wait,” I say when Aiden moves to hoist me back up to the wagon bench. “We’re reallywanted? But it was self-defense.”
“Apparently someone disagrees,” he says back. “Please, get up in the wagon.”
“But people are looking for us now? Because of what happened with that man in Last Chance?”
“It can’t have been because of him. That was only a couple days ago, and these look like they’ve been up for at least a week or two…” Aiden trails off and lets go of me to pull out a pocketbook that isn’t his from inside of his vest. Hurriedly, he starts rifling through it, and almost immediately, I see a piece of paper of the same shade tucked inside, my stomach sinking before he even has a chance to unfold it. “Fuck,” he mutters, once he has the creased copy of the wanted poster in his hands. “Fuck, son of a bitch had it with him. That’s why he tracked us down. He saw the poster and realized who we were. That’s why he said more wouldcome looking.Fuck, then that means…”
“Preston,” I murmur, but he shakes his head, glancing at Cypress.
“There were four, you said,” he argues. “I killed all of them.”
“You’re certain?” Cypress asks, frowning.
“For fuck’s sake, I know what dead looks like, Cy.” Aiden looks back at me. “Did you see anyone else there besides them? Before we got there?”
“No, it was just me and Tess and then… Hold on, you told me that you and Cypress came back to the stable for the horses, but Cerberus and Helios were already gone. I remember seeing them gone. Why did you come back to the stable that night?”
“For you, Cora,” Aiden replies, sounding at his wit’s end.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
I can’t help but smile. “Really?”
“Was I not clear yesterday when—never mind, can we please talk about this later?
“But—”
“Cora, we were both infatuated with you. Of course it was you that we came back for,” Aiden snaps, his expression turning pleading. “Christ, I need to think.”
“But if this is because of Preston…” I start to say, unable to stop myself. “Then it’s my fault. You were protecting me.”
Aiden shakes his head. “This isn’t your fault. Wasn’t then. Isn’t now.”
“But if not for me…” I feel Cypress’s hand on my back, soothing as he strokes up and down. “The poster saysalive. Does that mean they only want to bring us in to question us?” My conversation with the sheriff back in Preston comes to memory, how he said most bounty hunters would rather the simplicity of bringing someone in dead, but if the poster specifically saysalive… “If someone else finds us, they won’t want to kill us,because then they won’t get the reward, right?”
“No one else is going to find us,” Aiden reassures me, tugging me closer so he can hold me against his chest. “We’re going to figure this out. We might just need to lie low for a while.”
“Where?” I mutter, still thinking of the reward on the paper and about how many people like David would want to collect it. “It’s so much money.”