#TeaserTuesday: Hook

 

It took forty-five minutes to get there, the waterways growing narrower and more heavily-shaded the farther they went. The moss hung in great curtains so dense Mercy was forced to slow, and idle the boat while they swept them back with poles.

“Christ, man,” Devin said after the third such incident. “If you can’t get through how do you expect your FBI wanker to make his way out here?” For once, he wasn’t laughing, and when Mercy glanced over, he saw his forehead sheened with sweat, his mouth curved downward. For the first time since meeting him, Mercy thought he most resembled Walsh, of all his sons.

For a moment, Mercy doubted his plan – but, no. This was the swamp, and that was what it did: it turned even the most capable of men clammy and nervous-stomached. From Toly’s motion sickness, to Devin’s skepticism, it was working its magic on the outsiders.

But Mercy wasn’t an outsider.

And that clammy, nervous-stomached fear was going to work its magic on Boyle, too, and work in Mercy’s favor.

As quick as it had come, doubt evaporated on a laugh. “Don’t you worry, mon cher. If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s bait a hook.”