Page 33 of Midnight Curfew

Other words sit on the tip of my tongue as the feel of him hits me all over again, but I don’t like to make him special, even in my head.

“You didn’t like it?” Trace asks, actually sounding interested.

But I don’t want to talk about it anymore. “Let’s get out of here.”

We continue down the stairs, veering right, around the courtyard.

I glance at Iron. “Are you nervous?”

“Please.”

It’s his first time breaking the law since he got out of jail, and I’m surprised Macon is taking the chance.

“Maybe you should sit it out tonight,” I say.

But he just shakes his head. “I don’t get caught when I’m making money.”

True. He only gets caught when he’s angry, not thinking straight, and hitting someone. He should still ease back into it, though.

“I think we should wait.” We head past the gym, seeing a few cheerleaders working out. “Make the delivery in a couple of days. Or find a way to do it in the daylight.”

Trace and Iron both look at me, and I know it doesn’t sound like me, but…“Something feels off,” I tell them.

Things have changed. They’re going to be waiting for Iron to make any misstep, there are street cams on every corner now, and fewer people in town in the off-season also means more eyes on the few of us who remain.

“Well, I’ve got orders to fill.” Trace unwraps the button-down from around his waist and slips it over his T-shirt. “You can sit it out if you want.”

“Oh, fuck you,” I grumble.

My brothers laugh, and we stroll by the open doors to the chapel, seeing Garrett Ames speaking to Jerome Watson and Dale Kirkland, another alumni booster.

Ames peers over his shoulder at us, and without bidding his pals goodbye, he turns toward me.

I jerk my chin at Iron and Trace. “I’m coming.”

They take the hint and hesitate for only a moment before they continue on, out to the parking lot.

Garrett Ames buttons his suit jacket, lifting his chin as he approaches. When he gets to me, I keep walking, following my brothers and forcing him to follow.

“Your stepdaughter was already picked up,” I say.

But I know that’s not what he wants with me.

“I don’t bother with her anymore,” he says. “Unless you can make her act her age.”

I can shove one of her paintbrushes under your jaw, up through your mouth, and into your nostrils. How about that?

“Callum will take care of her,” he points out. “But I doubt in a way most men would.”

I narrow my eyes, taking a moment to figure out what he means.

“Tell your brother his time is running out.” His eyes bore into the side of my face. “When I come back, the clock is ticking, and I’ll be on him like a second skin.”

I keep walking as he lets me go, and I’m not telling Macon shit. He knows he agreed to Ames getting off his back for five years. If we can’t make the Bay too valuable for the government to take from us, then Garrett Ames will sweep in with full force and do his worst without much fight from us. That was the deal.

We still have a year, but the pressure is on, and unfortunately, I don’t think Garrett is the only Ames coming after us.

“You have fun this summer,” he calls after me as I step into the rain. “I’ve done as much as I can do, so it’s time to let Callum prove himself.”