Chapter 16

“Bertie’s out of luck,” Seb said. “The kid never came in today.”

“Oh, I know that. The plan’s for him to meet with Bertie tonight. But Bertie’s afraid he’s not going to show, so he sent me around to find you.”

“Why?”

“So you can go fetch and bring him back, idiot. What else could you possibly do?”

Ruin a young man’s life, for starters, but apparently, Otto didn’t see the irony there.

Seb shook out more of the water from his hair and turned away. “Tell Bertie to do his own dirty work.”

He made less than a yard before Otto’s gnarled hand wrapped around his upper arm and yanked him back. Sharp pain radiated through the muscle, but when Seb tried to jerk away, Otto tightened his grip.

“All the work’s already been done,” he hissed. “You laid the bait, I hooked him, now all we have to do is reel him in. What’s so bad about that?”

Seb clenched his jaw. “Maybe because the kid’s got a home here we shouldn’t touch.”