“It was fine. Boring.”

  “Do you like Dallas? Are you going to stay?”

  He shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess.”

  Maddie looked from me to him. “I see the family resemblance now,” she said dryly.

  * * *

  Laila finally spotted Julian leaving the hotel an hour later, and she jogged out of the hotel and hopped into the van.

  “You see the black car?” she asked Maddie.

  “I see it,” Maddie said, easing the van across the parking lot. A black town car was turning out of the hotel parking lot.

  “I heard some of the guys talking about dinner tonight,” Laila said. “But not until eight.”

  “And Dorsey and Patrick said that the happy hour is wrapping up,” Noah said, glancing down at his phone. It was nearly six. “So, he’s probably not going there.”

  “Hopefully he doesn’t notice us,” Maddie murmured as she pulled onto the street. “I probably should have bought another, more discreet car.”

  Laurence and I exchanged an amused look.

  “She bought this?” he asked me quietly.

  “It’s used!” Maddie exclaimed. “Actually, do you want a fifteen-passenger van? You can have it after we leave, if you want.”

  “Uh, I think I’m OK, thanks,” Laurence said, trying not to laugh. Edan looked back at us and rolled his eyes in Maddie’s direction.

  We followed Julian down the street, through heavy traffic for about fifteen minutes. The car turned into a parking lot next to a white brick building with a sign that said THOMLINSON MARKET on the front.

  Maddie slowed the van. “What is that?”

  “Hold on, I’m . . .” Noah typed quickly on his phone. “A butcher! And convenience store. But from the reviews, people mostly come here for the meat.”

  Maddie turned in to the parking lot next door. It was a deserted donut shop that looked like it had been closed for years, and we were the only car in the lot.

  “Scrabs eat meat, don’t they?” Laurence asked. He looked nervous.

  Across the road, Julian climbed out of the back seat of the car. Two young men, maybe in their early twenties, climbed out of their pickup truck. The door to the market opened, and a man pushed out a cart full of something packed in brown paper bags. Another man followed behind him with another overflowing cart.

  “They sure do,” Maddie said. “And if you have five hundred scrabs in one place, you’re going to need a lot of meat.” She grabbed her phone, aiming it out the windshield. She snapped a few pictures. She lowered it suddenly. “Shit.”

  Julian was staring straight at us. He started walking in our direction, so fast he was practically running. I could see the fury on his face as he got closer. He looked both ways, and then began across the street.

  “Uh, Maddie, this guy already tried to kill me once,” Edan said nervously.

  “You’re right, I’m going.” Maddie tossed Edan her phone and threw the van into drive. She hit the gas, and we peeled out onto the street, leaving Julian in our dust.

  * * *

  We picked up Dorsey and Patrick, who’d come up empty-handed at the happy hour, and headed back to our hotel.

  “These photos don’t prove anything,” Patrick said, scrolling through Maddie’s phone as we walked across the parking lot. He handed it back to her. “We should find out who those two guys are, though.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Maddie said. “I would have stayed longer, but Julian had his murder face on.”

  “He sure did,” Edan muttered, and then shivered. Laurence glanced at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read.

  “I’ll hold off on sending this to my guy at the Post. I’m going to go call him with everything else, though. I’m done waiting for the police to get their act together.” Maddie turned to face us. “Laurence, are you coming up?”

  He stopped as we reached the hotel entrance. “No, I should head back. Thanks, though. For . . .”

  “Terrifying you with Edan’s driving skills?” Maddie guessed.

  “Hey!” Edan looked insulted.

  “Or terrifying you by following around a guy with five hundred scrabs?” Maddie guessed again.

  Laurence laughed. “Uh, both. It was nice to meet you guys.”

  The team said goodbye to Laurence, and I hung back as they walked inside.

  “Thanks for coming today,” I said. “I know it was kind of boring.”

  “I’m not sure that boring is the word. Is this what you guys usually do?”

  “No, there’s usually a lot more scrab fighting. And blood.”

  He cocked his head, squinting through the sun, setting behind me. “I don’t think I realized exactly what you guys were doing out there. This is some intense shit. And Julian . . .”

  I looked at him expectantly as he considered his next words.

  “He’s scarier in person,” he finally said. “I got a bad feeling from him on the phone, but I thought maybe that was just because you’d told me what he did. But that’s the sort of dude I would turn and walk the other way if I saw him coming.”

  “That is a good instinct.”

  He hesitated for a moment, glancing up at the hotel. “You know someone took a picture of you guys here and put it on social media, right?”

  “Yeah, Maddie mentioned it. A group shot of us checking in, right? People often notice us when we’re together like that.”

  “Yeah.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “It’s just that if I know, then Julian may know.”

  “He may, but we stick together. I won’t go taking any walks by myself or anything.”

  He nodded. “I try to steer clear of talking about you with Mom and Dad, so I don’t know how much they keep tabs on you. What do you want me to say if they ask if I’ve seen you?”

  “You can tell them you have. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t keep track of me at all, though.” I looked past him. “Mom’s never even emailed or tried to make contact once since I called her from Atlanta.”

  “Do you want her to?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know. I liked the space at first, but then it just started to feel like she didn’t even care.”

  “She does,” he said quietly. “She’s always going to choose Dad, but she does care about you. In fact, she said something once that kind of made me think she was proud of you.”

  “What?”

  “She said that you were a lot like her, but braver. She said, ‘I don’t know why I was surprised when Clara joined those teams. I always knew she was the brave one.’”

  “I kind of wish she’d called and said that to me.”

  “I think she’s not sure if you want her to.”

  “I’m not sure if I want her to either.” I blew out an annoyed breath. “I told Maddie I’d go to therapy. Maybe they can help me sort it out.”

  “Tell me what they say—maybe we can both sort it out.” He laughed, though it wasn’t exactly cheerful. “I’m not doing any better than you. I’m just getting sucked back into everything.”

  “We’re a mess.”

  “We are.” He laughed again, and then looked back at his truck. “I should get going.”

  “Thanks for coming today.”

  “Sure. It was fun, actually. In a way.”

  I smiled, and we both just stood there for a moment. I didn’t know if we were supposed to hug, but I was surprised to discover that I actually wanted to hug him.

  I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about that, though. I could have just stepped forward and hugged him, but the potential awkwardness of that kept my feet rooted to the ground.

  He took a step back. “I will . . . talk to you soon, then?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I lifted a hand. “Bye, Laurence.”

  22

  The news broke the next morning.

  MDG FACILITY IN TEXAS HOUSED LIVE SCRABS, the headline screamed. All the cable news stations picked it up immediately, and the team gathered in our room to watch.

  “They’re not reporting about MDG creating the scrabs,” Priya complained.

  “My guy at the Post said they needed another source before they could report that,” Maddie said. “But he’s on it, trust me.”

  I glanced at my phone. “Maddie, it’s ten. We need to leave for the conference soon.”

  She slid off the bed. “I take it that means you want me to get dressed?” She was in sweats, her hair still damp from her shower earlier.

  “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “Wait, wait, it’s the Lubbock police,” Noah said. He grabbed the remote and turned the volume up. The news switched to a live feed of a news conference. A police officer was walking toward a podium.

  “He doesn’t look pleased,” Maddie said with a laugh.

  He began by giving them a quick summary of what had happened a few days ago—receiving a call and discovering the dead scrabs and people inside an MDG facility. Cameras flashed wildly as he talked.

  “This investigation is still ongoing, so I only have limited information for you at this time,” he said. “But we have determined that the facility was used for the housing and training of scrabs. And approximately five hundred scrabs that were being kept in that facility are currently unaccounted for.”

  A ripple went through the crowd in the room. The officer held up his hand to quiet them.

  “We are working with individuals at the Monster Defense Group to determine where these scrabs are, and we have set up a tip line for anyone who has any information. We ask that you call if you see anything suspicious. We have had some scrab experts out here to survey the city, and they’ve determined that it’s unlikely the scrabs are currently burrowing underground anywhere nearby.”

  “Are you saying that someone stole the scrabs?” a reporter shouted.

  “Yes, right now we are working off the assumption that the scrabs were stolen,” the police officer said. “Again, we urge anyone with any information to come forward. That’s all for now. Thank you.” He walked away amid shouted questions.

  “They don’t believe that Julian took them?” Priya asked.

  “Agent Simmons seemed skeptical,” Maddie said. “But she promised she’d look into it.” She walked to her suitcase and began digging through it.

  “What do they think Julian was doing with all that meat?” Dorsey exclaimed. “Having a barbecue?”

  “I mean, we are in Texas,” Priya said.

  “Whatever, they can be as skeptical as they want,” Maddie said. “We have it covered. Laila’s going to wait for Julian in the hotel lobby again, and we’ll look for those other two guys at the conference. Or anything else suspicious.”

  “They’re all suspicious,” Dorsey muttered.

  “Have you thought about what we’re going to do after we find the scrabs?” Patrick asked.

  Maddie glanced at me. We’d talked some about my ideas to expand training and possibly start up other programs, but we definitely hadn’t made any decisions yet. I wasn’t sure if she was just humoring me.

  “Uh, the plans are still in flux,” she said.

  “You’re planning on Germany next, aren’t you?” Noah looked confused.

  “Yeah, but maybe we should go back to New York instead of going straight to Germany.”

  “Why Germany?” Laila asked. “What’s up with the UK?”

  “I’m not totally sure the UK wants us back. I’ve been talking to some people, and they’re not crazy about the idea,” Maddie said.

  “The UK recruits are pissed, but a lot of them are willing to work in another country for a while,” Patrick said.

  “Did they find out if MDG sent those scrabs on our last assignment in London?” Dorsey asked.

  “I asked Agent Simmons about it, and she said they’re claiming they have no knowledge of it. They admitted to losing a good number of their trained scrabs that night we tried to stop the shipment, so it’s possible it was just some of those.”

  “But you want to wait on Germany?” Noah asked.

  “I don’t know.” Maddie glanced at me again. “I know we have some work to do, but I really don’t want to let the teams languish for too long. People will lose interest, and they won’t come back. I mean, we’re already losing some of our own team.”

  I blinked, surprised. “We are?”

  Priya blew out a long breath. “I don’t know. I told Maddie before I left that I was wavering about going back, but I missed you guys. And you had fun without me. I have fomo.”

  “What is fomo?” I asked.

  “Fear of missing out,” she said. “I think it’s too strong for me to stay in Alabama.”

  “I’ll go back, but only until the summer,” Laila said. “I deferred college for a year, and I want to start next fall so I don’t lose my place.”

  “Oh,” I said, my heart sinking a little.

  “And Noah is about to become a star, so he’ll be leaving us,” Maddie said, lips twitching. I looked at him quickly.

  He flushed. “I’m not about to become a star.”

  “Because you already are one?” Maddie guessed.

  He shot her an amused look. “A producer reached out to me about doing a docuseries about fighting scrabs. They want me to travel around to different parts of the world and talk to people about interesting things they’ve done to fight off scrabs in their communities.”

  “That’s awesome,” Patrick said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I’m still deciding. I’d have to leave the team. They said they’d like to shoot some stuff with you guys, if you’re up for it, but then I’d have to leave for six months to shoot the show.”

  “Scrabs aren’t going to disappear in six months,” Maddie said. “You are always welcome back.”

  He smiled at her, and they exchanged a look that made me think there had been more to this discussion when it had been just the two of them.

  “Well, I’m going to Germany,” Patrick said. “Whenever that is. Clara’s been working on some new training plans with me and Noah, and I think we could be in good shape if we really make some changes.” He looked pointedly at Maddie.

  “We’ll make the changes!” she said, putting her hands up. “Some of the other stuff Clara is working on is still up in the air, but we’ll implement a new training program. I promise.”

  I smiled at her.

  “I’m in for Germany too,” Dorsey said.

  I glanced at Edan. His eyes were already on me, and he quickly looked away.

  “Uh, yeah,” he said slowly. “I intended to stay with the teams. I think that’s still the plan.”

  My stomach dropped. He sounded hesitant. Maybe he was rethinking his decision to stay with the team too. He’d said that he went where I went, but that was before I cheerfully told him to date another girl. I wouldn’t blame him for changing his mind.

  Maddie grabbed some clothes from her bag. “Just give me, like, fifteen minutes,” she said, walking into the restroom and closing the door behind her.

  Edan stood and headed to the door. “I’ll meet you guys in the lobby.”

  I tried to catch his eye before he left, but he was already turned away. He disappeared into the hallway.

  * * *

  Patrick pulled the van into the empty corner of the hotel parking lot and turned the ignition off. I climbed out, followed by Laila, Maddie, and Noah.

  I’d expected the parking lot to be full today, considering it was the first day of the conference, but there were only a few more cars than there had been yesterday. It was still half empty.

  Edan opened the passenger’s side door of the van, shielding his eyes to look past me. “Why is it so hot? It’s January.”

  Priya hopped out, arms spread wide. “I like it. I’m going to sit out here and pretend it’s summer.”

  Edan frowned at the clear sky like he disapproved of the seventy-degree weather.

  “Is that why you’ve been so cranky since we got here?” Dorsey asked. “You don’t enjoy summer weather in January?”

  “I haven’t been cranky.” Edan paused, his lips twitching. “I prefer moody.”

  “Oh, yes, that’s much more manly.” Dorsey reached up to whack the side of his head.

  Laila gave them an amused look and then stepped back. “Let’s go. I want to stake out a good spot in the lobby so I don’t miss Julian.”

  I turned to look back at Edan as we started across the parking lot. He was watching us go, and he lifted one hand with a smile when our eyes met. I returned the smile.

  Inside, the hotel wasn’t as crowded as I was expecting. We left Laila in the lobby and headed up to the second floor to check in. A few men wandered around, wearing matching red badges.

  “I’m here at the first annual conference of the Scrab Defense League,” Noah said, holding his phone out and doing a circle to get the full picture, “and it is a sad sight so far. Not sure how many attendees they were expecting.” He lowered his phone and glanced at us. “Instagram story. I figured it’s best to post throughout the day in case anyone tries to murder us.”

  “Good thinking,” I said.

  Noah smiled at me. “It’s so nice how you never tell me I’m overreacting when I say stuff like that, Clara.”

  * * *

  We spent the next several hours attending panels that alternated between excruciatingly boring and terrifyingly stupid. We went to one about Second Amendment rights, and another about scrab defense theory. I had to stop Maddie from standing up and telling the speaker off when he started in about how scrabs would be really helpful to local police.

  We split up for the last session, and Maddie and I went to a useless session on scrab training, while Dorsey and Noah went to a panel about scrab combat. We met up in the hallway after it was over.

  “Anything interesting?” Maddie asked them.

  “It was mostly just talk about how to use guns against scrabs,” Dorsey said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m kind of rooting for everyone in that room to actually go up against a scrab one day, because they for sure are going to accidentally shoot themselves. I hope there’s video.”