Mac came up beside me.“You planning something stupid?”
“Not stupid.I’m going to finish this once and for all.”
He almost smiled.“You don’t walk away from this clean, Wolf.You know that, right?”
Only one of us was going to come out of this, and it was going to be me.“I stopped expecting clean a long time ago.”Going up against another brother was never a good idea unless you knew you were going to win.
I never lost.
He took a drag off his cigarette.“For what it’s worth, I never liked how it went down with Tyler.”
“Then why didn’t you say something?”
“Because loyalty’s louder than guilt around here.”He flicked the cigarette into the dirt.“You’re the first one in years to change the volume.”
By midnight, the party had split in two.
Half the club was inside, drunk and loud.
The other half lingered outside, waiting for something they couldn’t name but could feel coming.
Demi leaned into me near the bikes.“He’s been watching me all night,” she said.
“I know.”
“I hate that he smiles like he’s already won.”
“He hasn’t.”
“Then stop letting him act like it.”
She was right.She usually was.
The bell from the church room rang.
I looked at Demi.“Stay out here when they go in.”
“No.”
“Demi—”
“I’m not hiding while you fix what he broke.This is about my brother.”
I let out a breath.“Then stay close.If I tell you to run, you run.”
She nodded, with her eyes fierce.“Deal.”
I reached into my cut and checked to make sure I had my knife.
When I looked up, she was watching me like she already knew what I was about to do.
“Tonight,” I said, “we finish it.”
Her hand brushed mine once as a silent promise that she was there no matter what.“Then let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Werewolf