lunged forward and grabbed it. “Hey, snickerdoodle. It’s a little quieter than usual, but we’re not going in hot. Keep the poison in your garter strap for the moment, eh?”
“Shows what you know, Morales. I don’t wear garters under my clothes when I hunt.” A pause. “I don’t wear much of anything, actually.”
“So where do you keep the—”
Knox snatched the handset. “We don’t know if there’s trouble or not. We’re stopping in two blocks. Just stay on guard, and we’ll get food to go.”
Gray pulled the truck into one of the angled streetside spaces near Eileen’s Diner, put it in park, unbuckled his seat belt, and glowered at Rafe. “Snickerdoodle?”
“What?” Rafe defended. “It’s our thing.”
Conall’s dull voice came from next to him. “He’s saying you shouldn’t have a thing, Rafe. We weren’t supposed to like them, remember?”
Shock rippled across Rafe’s face, there and gone in a heartbeat, but it drove another shard of guilt into Knox’s chest. Rafe had forgotten, just like Knox had known he would. The brash, focused soldier, blithely asserting that he would take down anyone for Luna’s sake, had always been a lie. Rafe liked Dani. He liked Maya and Nina. Betraying them was going to break something in him.
Knox had set him up for this. It was his job to fix it. “Let’s get our food and get back on the road,” he said quietly. “And then we’ll talk. Okay?”
“Fine,” Rafe said, his voice forcibly cheerful. But he wouldn’t meet Knox’s eyes as he slipped from the truck.
That seemed to be going around.
By the time Knox exited the vehicle, Nina had parked the other truck and was climbing out of the driver’s seat. When she closed the door and turned, their eyes met.
She froze.
She didn’t look angry. She didn’t look pleased at the game she’d played to tame him. Yearning softened her brown eyes, her lips parting as if to invite a kiss. Then she flinched almost imperceptibly and looked away.
Uneasy, Knox stepped up onto the neatly swept sidewalk and frowned at the hand-lettered CLOSED sign hanging just inside the diner door. He gave the handle a tug, just to see, but it was locked up tight.
Nina tapped the window where the placard indicating normal operating hours had been affixed and raised one eyebrow.
If the streets hadn’t been so eerily silent, Knox might have assumed Eileen was just feeling under the weather. But even then, someone from the family would probably have opened up shop. In a town like this, the one real diner was a community gathering point, a place usually brimming with townsfolk grabbing a meal, charging their tech at one of the charging stations, or doing business over glasses of homebrew and Eileen’s famous peach iced tea.
“That’s weird,” Rafe said from just behind Knox’s shoulder. He had both backup fuel canisters dangling from one big hand—not a bad idea with the overcast weather eating through their solar batteries.
Knox caught Nina’s eye and tilted his head to indicate the gas station and general trading post across the street. “Shall we?”
She nodded, and Dani and Maya climbed out of their truck and fell into step beside them, along with Gray and Conall. Instead of making conversation, everyone remained silent.
Halfway across the street, Nina nudged Knox in the side. “Don’t look, but we have eyes. Top of the tower, two blocks down. I saw a muzzle.”
Knox kept his movements casual and easy until he reached the door and could turn naturally while holding it open. He spotted the muzzle of the sniper rifle she’d mentioned, and let his gaze continue on, sweeping the upper floors of closer buildings. A curtain twitched, and another jerked shut.
They were definitely being watched.
Inside, a pale young woman behind the front counter started at the sound of the bell over the door. She returned Rafe’s nod stiffly, then glanced down at the end of the counter, where a panel of one-way glass looked out over the store from the office.
A few moments later, the office door swung open, and a burly man walked out. He had cheap tattoos running up and down both arms, but he wore expensive leather—not to mention a pristine revolver on his hip.
“New management,” Gray murmured.
Knox jerked his head toward the aisles, and his men obeyed the silent command and scattered. Rafe strolled toward the tattooed man with an easy, open smile and hefted one of the plastic containers. “You guys still sell biofuel out back?”
“We’re out.” The man hooked his thumb through his belt so