Page 176 of Boys Who Hunt

Max approaches from the kitchen. “What’s going on here?” He’s still eating a sandwich but stops immediately when he spots the furious look on Silas’s face. And Heath.

“Heath took Ivy on a little shopping trip.”

“Sounds nice, what’d you get?” Max asks before his eyes finally land on my dress.

And the sandwich nearly drops from his mouth. “Wow.”

“A couple of outfits and dresses as you can see.” Heath holds up the bags, but Max still won’t look at him and eyes me up and down instead.

“Where’s Cora?” I ask in a hurry.

“Taking a nap in her own bed. I wore her out with games,” Max replies, smiling. “Don’t worry, she’s as safe as can be.”

Silas steps in. “Heath, flaunting your goddamn money doesn’t warrant going out there in broad daylight without a fucking weapon,” he grits. “And she isnotprepared.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Silas grabs my arm and drags me across the floor to the stairs.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Fine, I’ll bring some weapons next time if that will ease your conscience,” Heath yells, but Silas ignores him as he hauls me all the way upstairs and through the corridors.

“Silas!” I grit, but he still refuses to tell me, so I jerk free of his grip right as we enter a room.

A whole goddamn room filled with weapons.

My eyes bulge as I turn and look around at the multitude of knives, guns, clubs, whips, and all the sharp tools one could need for a job called murder.

Jesus Christ.

“What is this place?”

“Our weaponry.”

“That sounds medieval,” I jest even though I know this is no fucking joke.

“As medieval as the torture that’s dished out by the people we kill,” he says, ripping a big-ass knife off the shelves. “I kill for sport, but most of my victims … they’re the worst kind of criminals who don’t deserve to see the daylight.” He turns toward me, pointing the knife at me. “And those are the kind of fuckers after you right now.”

I gulp.

He flips the knife over and holds the handle out to me. “Take it.”

“And then what?”

A devilish smirk forms on his face. “We train.”

Max

The momentthe door to the weaponry closes, I turn around and walk back into the kitchen, determined to finish that goddamn sandwich. They might’ve eaten breakfast already, but man was I busy entertaining Cora while they went off to shop. She is one goddamn tornado.

I wore her out with some much-needed races up and down the stairs by pretending to be a crook while she played the cop before she finally collapsed in her bed again. The little munchkin really didn’t get enough sleep yesterday. Or maybe she just likes taking naps to get her energy back up. Who knows.

“I don’t care what Silas says, I spoiled Ivy, and I’m damn proud of it.”

Heath’s voice behind me makes me stop chewing my sandwich immediately.

“She needed the escape, and I needed the release.”