Page 72 of Oakheart

“We can be safe about it,” I said. “Just drive there, see what’s going on. Maybe it’s already over and the packs are just... hashing things out in the aftermath?”

“Okay,” she said. “If it’s not safe, we’ll just come back, but it’s not doing anyone any good for us to just sit here waiting, and Seth—I mean, I’m sure he’d text if he has thumbs and his phone’s nearby but if there was a fight, he shifted. So... okay, yeah, let’s do it.”

Her car was a small, silver, zippy little thing with comfortable seats. When we got in, she said I could turn on the seat warmer if I wanted.

Aseat warmer.

I flicked the button she’d glanced at, and it only took a minute before warmth radiated on down my thighs and lower back. Well, that was just delightful.

Shifting till I was comfortable, I tried to calm down and convince myself that everything would be all right.

There was no reason for this to go wrong. Grant wasn’tthatsmart. Not against Jax and Viktor and Aleks together.

And if it came down to it, I had no doubt that Dakota would blow him up from the inside just to see the matter finished.

Still, my heart was pounding until we got to the place. I could still smell smoke clinging to the ground around where their house had burnt down, and there was blood in the air.

When I got out of the car, I realized it wasn’t just old smoke lingering in the air, but the thick meaty smell of burning bodies.

Many of them.

I wandered around the car to Maia’s side, stunned to watch as Seth and Aleks carried one out of the woods and added it to the pile.

Grant’s enforcers, gone.

Maia gasped, and Seth looked up, grimacing. Clearly, this was the last thing in the world he ever wanted her to see, but he stepped away from the burning bodies, toward her, and she ran straight into his arms.

Aleks looked at me, and while he wore a tiny frown, he wasn’t worried about me the way Seth worried about Maia.

We’d both seen worse than this, and from the looks of those bodies and the makeup of the group Grant had brought with him, this scene that should be nightmarish? Yeah, it was nothing but a relief.

I met Aleks where he was and slipped my arms around his waist. His came tight around my shoulders and he squeezed me close.

“Marcus is dead,” he muttered against my temple.

“Good.” He flinched, just a little, so I leaned back to meet his eye. “I thought for years he’d kill me. Grant was smart enough to realize he could use me, but I... rubbed Marcus the wrong way.”

Aleks wrinkled his nose. “Mm, do not rub Marcus at all.”

I snorted. Maybe it shouldn’t have been funny, but what was there to do about this whole mess except laugh?

“I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

“Good, because I sort of killed him. He sort of killed himself, but it was with my arm, so?—”

Okay, that didn’t make a lot of sense, but I also wouldn’t have given a damn if Aleks had killed him outright. Some people deserved worse, and I hoped however he’d gone, it’d been a fraction as torturous as the pain he’d inflicted on others.

“And Grant?”

“I beat him, but Jax finished him.”

I let out a sigh and let myself sink to rest my head against his chest. This way, I was buried and half hidden in his arms.

“I’m glad.”

Glad that Grant was dead, yes, but also glad that Aleks hadn’t had to do this alone. Grant was a piece of shit, but he was still Aleks’s uncle, and that wasn’t a weight I wanted him to have to carry.

“The rest?” I asked.