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“Yeah,” Carter said, “I think I am.”
“You have everything to lose protecting Kennedy the way we need to,” Greyson said flatly. “I’m already a criminal. I will kill anyone I have to protect Kennedy.”
He looked at me directly. “I’d burn your fucking house down to get you into mine, and I wouldn’t apologize about it like Sebastian will. I’d kill these three stupid motherfuckers to have you to myself, if I thought you wouldn’t be sad about it forever.”
“I would,” I said. “No killing. You’re all mine.”
“But you three, you could lose everything, you get convicted of murder and there goes your NHL careers. So, I don’t fucking need you. You don’t bring anything to my fight to protect Kennedy except for liability. You’re a weakness.”
“No.” Carter shook his head. “You don’t have anyone you can really trust in the Jackals. Not like you can trust us. You can’t do this on your own.”
“And you think I trust you?” Greyson sounded skeptical. “I’ll have my men watching Kennedy constantly from now on. My only mistake was thinking she was safe when she was with you.”
When he threw out those words, his tone dripped with revulsion, Carter bristled, and I laid my hand gently on his forearm, trying to anchor him to his better self.
Greyson was a dick. Now that my memories were coming back, I had the sense he had always been a dick. But we’d always all loved him anyway.
“We’re not going to let you do this on your own,” Carter said.
“I’m not looking at teaming up with the Jackals again,” Jack broke in. “That almost destroyed our lives once. I don’t see a reason to let it destroy my life now. We could talk to the cops?—”
“Yeah, and when they start digging into what happened to Kennedy in the past, because that’s sure as hell tied to what’s happening now, they might just unearth everything we did before,” Greyson growled at him. “Everythingyoudid before. So, why don’t you pretty boys just sit your asses down and let me do the work.”
“That’s not an option,” Carter growled. “We work together.”
“He’s right,” I cut in before Greyson could go on. “Greyson, I need you, but I need them too.”
I held his gaze. Greyson’s intense blue eyes softened when he stared into mine, and I thought I had him.
But then Sebastian walked into the kitchen and asked, “Do you really need him, though?”
Greyson shook his head. “I don't need them. I’ve been on my own all these years, since they walked out on me. And on you. We don’t need them, Kennedy.”
“I do,” I whispered.
Greyson seemed to be battling internally. Then finally he said, “You’re going to have to prove yourselves.”
Sebastian scoffed. I wasn’t sure where he stood—Carter side or on Jack’s side of the idea of teaming up with Greyson. But Sebastian said, “We don’t have anything to prove.”
“You sure as fuck do,” Greyson said. “You think you’re badasses when you’re in the rink. But you can’t protect Kennedy from the ice. And I don’t think you have what it takes to protect my girl.”
“Ourgirl,” Carter gritted.
Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest. “What kind of tests are we talking about?”
Greyson smiled thinly. “We’ve added some new things to the Jackal initiation since you three walked out on us.”
3
Even when our world was on fire, we had practice.
I could feel Greyson’s radiating judgment, but he didn’t say a word. He knew Kennedy, and he wanted to stay on her good side. The fact that he had wanted to find her all these years—and probably the fact that he hadn’t recently committed arson in order to manipulate her—had him on her good side. He wasn’t going to lose that.
Still, he insisted on riding with us to the ice rink.
And Sebastian, the traitor, even wanted him there. He said it’d be good for Greyson to keep an eye on Kennedy whenever we couldn’t be there.
I was still struggling with the idea that we needed Greyson in any fucking capacity. But then, Sebastian told me quietly, “You don't get it. I saw her get hit by that car once, and we lost her for five years. Seeing that car barreling toward her...” He gave a short shake of his head, his shoulders stiff.
