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“Not anymore.” Leo sets a pair of boots on my lap. “We’re locking him in with the generator. He can sit in there until he fixes it.”
“If he doesn’t?”
“He’ll freeze to death.”
“He’ll choose that.” Wolf swings the other coat around his shoulders, his breath tickling the fur collar. “He’ll choose death for all of us.”
“Fuck that.” Fuming, Leo shoves into Wolf’s space. “Those sheds out there? They’re made of wood.”
“Get outta my face, freak.”
Leo presses closer. “We’re going to chop them down and burn the lumber after you and I collect coal from the river.”
“We’re doing all this in subzero temperatures?” He snarls back.
“Yes. That’s exactly what we’ll do.”
“We’re already burning more calories than we consume just by breathing. And you want to go out there and chop down buildings.” He laughs. “You want to die.”
“No, Wolf. I want to live, and that’s what we’re going to fucking do.”
“Whatever.” Wolf grabs a rifle from the stash on the floor.
Leo selects a shotgun and offers it to me. I’m surprised he doesn’t demand I stay up here. Then again, he doesn’t want me out of his sight. So I guess we’re all going to collect Denver.
Good. I don’t want to miss the look on his face when we put him in a cage.
Leo takes the lead, and the rest of us follow him down the stairs and into the black bowels of the cabin. Without light or heat, the house feels empty. Abandoned. Eerily quiet.
I stick to Kody’s back, clinging to my shotgun. My feet stumble over the rug in the sitting room, but I keep moving, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps.
There are no fires in the hearths, save one. It casts flickering shadows into the hall, glowing beyond the open doorway of Denver’s room.
Leo stalks straight there. No wavering. No uncertainty. Holding the handgun at his side, he crosses the threshold and vanishes inside.
Kody snaps out an arm, stopping Wolf and me at the doorway.
Pressing against his side, I peer beneath his bicep and spot Denver across the room. He stands before the fireplace, hands in his pockets, gaze fixed on the dancing flames.
Might as well be a mile away as far as my shotgun is concerned.
Please, Leo. Don’t start a gunfight.
He plops into the chair behind Denver and sets his gun on a sprawled leg. “How do we turn the power back on?”
“You know how.” Denver’s profile writhes in the firelight, his smirk a hellish thing.
“Not here to negotiate. Tell me how to fix it.”
“It’s not broken, Son. You need me to turn it back on, and I need…you.”
“You’ll fix it.” Leo’s smoky baritone settles in the base of my spine. “You don’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” Denver turns, glancing at us in the doorway before setting his toxic gaze on Leo. “I know you left meat at the hunting cabin.”
Leo doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink. He gives nothing away.
“You were gone too long.” A twitch in Denver’s cheek. A twitch of disappointment. “I watched the herds move past the hills. Saw them head south the day before you left. You caught up with them, took the time to dress them, and left the meat.”
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“You wound me,” Denver says softly, but there’s nothing soft in those eyes.
“I…?” Leo straightens, chokes, and surges out of the chair. “I wound you? Are you fucking serious?”
I stiffen, bracing to go in there. If Leo loses his cool, this will all go south fast.
Kody clasps my hip and slowly shakes his head.
He wants to see this play out? I want to see it over.
“I raised you.” Blank-faced, Denver stares at him. “I fed you. Educated you. Loved you.”
“You son of a bitch.” Vibrating with rage, Leo aims the gun at him. “You raped me. You raped my brothers. You raped the woman I love!”
“She put that hateful word in your head. You have no experience with women. You’re so pussy-whipped, so easily manipulated—”
Lightning fast, Leo slams the pistol against Denver’s head. The fucker goes down. But not out. He’s still moving, gripping his skull.
I hold my breath.
Blood trickles down his forehead as he pushes to his knees and reaches for Leo, stunned sadness pooling in his eyes.
Leo hits him again, harder this time.
Hard enough to knock him out.
“That is how I wound you.” He spits on Denver’s unmoving body.
I release a gasp and start to run toward them.
Again, Kody stops me. “Not yet. Stay with Wolf.”
He exchanges a look with his pale-faced brother. Then he joins Leo and helps him bind Denver’s hands and legs.
“That was tragic.” Wolf doesn’t sound like he cares until he turns to me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
He lifts a shoulder. “It only goes downhill from here.”
“Need to work on your optimism.”
“Optimism is for people who dream for a better future.” He leans in. “I’ll let you in on a secret, Little Mermaid. A fork is a fork. There’s no prince of Atlantica, and we have no future.”
