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I got out, careful of my injured leg, and walked up to the house as steadily as I could. Quinn and a couple of the other guys were hanging out in the living room.
“Hey,” Quinn called out. “We hit the jackpot last night. Picked up some cars and cash we can put to good use.”
“That’s great,” I said, my voice coming out stiff. I couldn’t summon any enthusiasm.
Put them to use attacking the Storm people some more? Maybe I should tell all the Claws men who’d joined my cause that they should cut their losses and just get out of here before the Long Night rolled in to lay down his brand of the law. How many of them would die in the next few days if I didn’t?
I limped on down the hall to the kitchen, not feeling up to handling the stairs. Part of me wanted to go out in the backyard and sit under the big oak tree, as if it would give me answers, but Xavier had ruined my favorite part of my childhood home the other night along with so much else. My teeth set on edge.
I paused at the sound of a high-pitched giggle up ahead and then pushed myself forward. Through the kitchen window, I could see Sarah dashing around in the backyard, letting the wind whip through a pinwheel covered in tassels. She had no sense of that space as dangerous—not yet, anyway. I was relieved to note the guards standing by the fence, keeping watch.
Jenner was leaning against the kitchen counter, gazing through the window too. A soft smile curved his lips. It amazed me that a man ruthless enough to be my dad’s former lieutenant could be so loving with his daughter.
Without thinking, I stepped closer to the glass. Sarah stopped playing long enough to wave at me.
“She seems… happy,” I ventured. It felt like a foreign concept.
Jenner nodded. “She’s pretty good at finding joy in little things. Never made much trouble for me or her mom. It’s one of the things I really admire about her.” He glanced at me, taking in my off-balance pose and the lump of the bandage on my leg. “How are you?”
I didn’t really want to answer that question. And somehow at the same time I had the sense that my answer lay just beyond the window. “I’m fine,” I said, concentrating on Sarah.
She deserved all the joys she could find. She deserved to keep her home. What would happen to her if we all had to make a run for it? What would happen to Beckett—would the Long Night kill him too?
I’d wanted to make a better future for all the kids in the Bend, hadn’t I? I didn’t see how that was going to happen if I let the Long Night take over. I’d seen the cold ruthlessness behind his polite exterior.
Rowan wouldn’t have wanted me to give up on my dreams, no matter what happened to him.
The mounting pressure on my shoulders eased. I was doing this for Sarah, and Beckett, and all the other kids. And for little Mercy who’d lost her childhood, and now wanted to make sure that others didn’t have to suffer the same fate. Thingswouldbe better in the future than they were today. They were counting on me to make that happen.
Jenner let me hold my silence for a long stretch. Then he ventured, in a gentle tone, “We’re not done yet, are we? What’s up next, boss?”
The way he said “boss” set off a weird glow in my chest that burned away a little more of the anguish twisted around my heart.
“We’re close,” I said. The Storm people had to be scared, or they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to track down Rowan and me like that. They’d tried to steal my best friend and my first love from me, but I wouldn’t let them back me into a corner.
My resolve bled into my words, turning them firm. “We’re close, and we’re going to make the Storm pay.”
My phone buzzed in the little purse of Anthea’s I’d brought in with me. I pulled it out, seeing Gideon’s name on the call display.
“Hey,” he said when I answered. “Something’s just come up with the Storm. I know you just got home. We can handle it if you need to rest—”
“No,” I said before he could go on, my chin lifting. “Swing by and get me. I’m still in this fight.”
