Page 37 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Morgan put his hand on his stomach as if the thought made him queasy. I didn’t blame him. Topics like this were distressing. And I suspected he knew very well how many people would see him—a rare type of supe—as a valuable commodity too.

“We have to stop them,” Morgan said.

“No.” I shook my head. “We need to get you to safety.”

“Aren’t you with the SC?”

“I’m retired. I was called in for this job by a former colleague.”

Morgan snorted. “Retired? You’re like in your thirties.”

“Hardly.”

Morgan bounced in his seat. And at least he was back to smiling again. “Oh. Are you one of those long-lived supes? I’ve always wanted to meet one of you. What have you seen? What have you done? I want to know everything!”

“You’re one of us too,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but…”

“We’re getting off topic. We need to get you out of here.”

“Ugh. You’re pretty bossy for a sidekick,” he grumbled as he flopped back into his seat and scratched his shoulder.

12

WIN – SHIMMY - WIN

MORGAN

“I need to tell Violet about the change in plans. And I was supposed to call her fifteen minutes ago to check in, so I really need to do that.” I absently scratched my neck.

Violet was going to be so peeved at me for even thinking about leaving with a stranger. But my gut was saying this was the right move—well, not literally, but you know what I mean. Besides, I was just here for the crystal. If Nelson was taking it away from here, then I was going with him.

Nelson nodded. “That’s fine. I need to update my team too.”

“It doesn’t seem very heroic though…”

“What do you mean?”

I tried to ignore the itchiness under my arms. No one wanted to watch me scratch my armpits, especially not my handsome sidekick. “Leaving the hunters here without trying to do something about them… It grates worse than if someone swapped the positions of two colors on the rainbow.”

Nelson didn’t disagree.

“So, let’s make a plan.” I rubbed my hands together.

Nelson lifted his eyebrow and gave me “the look”. I was familiar with “the look” because I’d been getting various forms of the same look from people all my life. It usually meant they wanted to be stick-in-the-muds.

But not wanting hunters roaming around unchecked wasn’t the same as wanting to play charades for four hours straight, which was the last time I’d received “the look” from Violet.

“Let’s listen in on them. See what they are saying.”

“And how would we do that?” Nelson said slowly.

“You’re with the SC. You have things…” I waved toward his boringly black suitcase.

Honestly, the suitcase was what I expected of the SC. They were so dreary. Just like the black market peeps. Always so… black. Although Nelson did look pretty hot in black. His snug black pants, his tight black sweater, his mesmerizing black eyes…

Wait, I was getting off track. What was I thinking about again?