Honkytonk Hell: A Dark and Twisted Urban Fantasy (The Broken Bard Chronicles Book 1) eden Hudson (best book club books txt) 📖

Should just wear a fucking sign around my neck.

But Desty nodded.

“I just wanted to make sure. Those blonde girls you were with last night seemed pretty serious about not liking me. But that’s okay—I don’t like them either.”

Laughing felt good, even without the sound. I picked her hand up off the seat. It felt kind of cold, so I folded her fingers into a ball and put my hand around them.

Desty turned and looked out her window again, but I could see her smiling in the reflection.

Then red and blue flashers lit up my rearview, letting me know that Halo’s version of a dickhead cop was after us. I let go of Desty’s hand and got a strangle-hold on the wheel.

For a second I considered gassing it and making Rian earn his paycheck, but if I got caught, I probably wouldn’t be lucky enough to get the face-meets-asphalt, ass-whooping treatment. Rian would haul me in. I didn’t want to take the chance that Desty might be considered an accessory, so I pulled over.

“What’s going on?” she looked over her shoulder at the lights. “We weren’t speeding.”

We were speeding a little bit, but that wasn’t why he pulled us over.

Rian, fallen angel foot soldier and state trooper wannabe, sauntered up to my window and tipped his hat back so he could see into the cab.

“Step out of the truck, Tough,” he said. “You know the drill.”

The drill is a superiority complex. Fallen angels don’t like having to look up at anybody—especially a punk with an eight-inch lift on his truck. That was part of why I got the kit.

I shoved open my door. Rian had to jump out of the way or get knocked over, which made me feel a little better about going peacefully.

“You realize you’re over five miles from Halo city limits?” Rian asked as he spun me around and put my hands on the truck bed. He ran his hands down my sides. “If you’ve got any weapons on you or anything in the truck to indicate that you’re leaving town again—”

“We’re just going to a bonfire,” Desty said, sliding over to the driver’s seat. I wished she would’ve stayed put. Whether we were calling it a date or not, her watching me get a pat-down hadn’t been in my plans. “At Dodge’s farm. The whole band is going. It’s a Welcome Home bonfire for Tough.”

Rian laughed. He got the Welcome Home joke, even though Desty didn’t. His hands slid down my left leg, then zipped back up my right a little too close to home for comfort. He stepped back.

“All right, little miss—”

But Rian never finished whatever retarded insult he was going for.

I looked over my shoulder at him. He was leaning forward, trying to get a better look at Desty. I’d disconnected my truck’s dome light a long time back, so he had to pull out his flashlight. It was weird to see that huge I’m-compensating-for-something Maglite without expecting to get it upside the head.

“Are you Modesty?” Rian asked.

When I was little, I remember watching a show about tigers. I hadn’t thought about it since Mom died and I’ll probably never think about it again, but the way Desty’s face lit up the second Rian said her name reminded me of a shot on that show of a tiger jumping out of the bushes at its prey.

“Are you—” Her voice was shaking. “Was Tempie with you? Is she with you? Or with someone you know? Another foot soldier?”

She wanted him to say yes, any idiot could see that. I don’t know why I thought it would help, but I put my hand on her knee.

Faster than I could flinch, Rian stabbed me in the ribs with his Maglite. Something crunched and bumped against what I would guess was one of my internal organs.

I went down, but I came back up and slammed my shoulder into Rian’s stomach. He bounced off the truck door, threw me down, and put his boot on the broken rib. My whole body tried to twist out from under his foot as the pain caught up with me.

“Keep your hands off her, dipshit.” Rian leaned on me a little harder and I forgot I couldn’t yell. “Modesty, Mayor Dark gave us specific instructions to bring Temperance’s twin to the mansion as soon as we locate her.”

Then Rian’s boot slipped off of my side and Desty was kneeling in the dirt by me.

“Are you all right, Tough?” she asked.

I nodded. As long as I didn’t breathe, I was fine. You don’t realize how much of your body is connected in the middle until you break a rib and someone stands on it. I had to let Desty help me get to my knees.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I have to go. I knew Tempie was here. I’ve been trying to catch up to her for so long. I need to see if— I need to know she’s not a familiar.”

The memory of Colt in that fucking collar licking Mikal’s hand jammed its way into my brain. I felt like taking another shot at Rian, but Desty picked that second to touch the back of my neck. Her fingers were freezing. Goose bumps prickled all down my back and chest.

“If she’s not enthralled yet, I can save her,” Desty said. “I have to go. You understand, don’t you?”

I nodded and waved her off. Not everyone’s enough of a screwed-up asshole to just leave their brother—or sister—rotting in Hell.

Desty stayed crouched by me for another few seconds, but when she started to ask if I needed any help standing up, I shook my head. My John Deere hat was on the ground by the tire. I slapped it against my leg to clear the dust