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Slowly, I squeezed between them, schooling my face to hide the discomfort. “If they thought I was betraying them, I’d be out on my ass. The guys are possessive to put it politely. They don’t share. Period.
“But I’m betting they assumed word would get back to you some way. Especially if they told people to spread it around. Did it?” I asked. “Did you hear about the den from someone other than me?”
“I did,” Bentley admitted. “A girl I hook up with mentioned something was going down in Buller’s Den and we might want to check it out.”
“There you go,” I said, laying it on a bit too thick. I pulled back. “Anyway, it’s over now and a winner wasn’t called. Cairo can’t pull that again unless you accept.”
“Nah.” Jeremy absentmindedly rubbed his reset shoulder. “I’ve got something better in mind for those guys that doesn’t involve scrapping in the dirt, or letting a mob run them out for me. I’m going to carry their bodies across the town line myself.”
I reeled back. “Jeremy, I’m going to give you more advice that you’ll probably ignore. Don’t let vengeance cloud your judgment. Whatever is it you and Daddy Ellis want from this town, you won’t get it in prison.”
To my surprise, he smiled.
“Ah, but then, you don’t know what it is we want.”
“Why did you call me out here?” I looked away. “Was it just to get your muscle to assault me? Again.”
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed slow circles on my back. Disgust rippled up my spine. “I apologize to you a lot. I’ve always been a hothead—doing before thinking, but I recognize if I listened to your warning last time, last night wouldn’t have gone down the way it did. So, I’m learning from my mistakes.
“We’re planning our next hit together. You’ll tell us where to go, how to act, what to watch out for, so this time it’s the Bedlam Boys who don’t see it coming.” His smile hardened around the edges. “A foolproof plan, and if it goes wrong this time, I won’t accuse. I’ll know exactly who to blame.”
Jeremy was looking for a flinch, a wince, a tell. He didn’t get it.
“Before we get into all that, and what I think of another dose of your implied threats, I need you to tell me something.” I flicked between the six of them. “Was it one of you who brought the gun and shot it off?”
Blank faces looked back at me.
“I won’t be a part of killing anyone, Jeremy. Screw the contract, and the farm, if that’s what it comes to. Gran wanted it in our family, but she’d never want me to get it back this way. So, if the plan we’re making is toward the goal of peacefully bringing about the return of Crystal Canyon, then bust out the whiteboards and dry-erase markers.
“If it’s a plan to hurt anyone—innocent or Bedlam Boy—I’m out. Understood?”
He put his hand, just the one, up in surrender. “Absolutely. What did you think? We’re not planning a hit. I just want to know more about them. Their history, their family, weaknesses, hobbies, friends. And Bedlam’s history while we’re at it. I got caught out with that Riot Royale thing. That’s not going to happen again.” Jeremy bore into me. “Unless that’s a problem?”
“No problem at all. Where do you want to start?”
JACQUES
Rainey burst into my room.
“Four.”
“Jacques.” She ducked between me and the desk, blocking the laptop. “The Crows, I think they’re going after you next.”
I grasped her hips and slid her out of the way. That done, I returned to my essay. Professor Valdez changed his ridiculous midterm topic. We now had twenty pages on a specific instance of society’s changing ethics influencing law. I suspect the inflation in pages was an attempt to punish me using his minuscule scrap of authority.
It was another in his long list of failures. I was enjoying myself researching the creation of child labor laws, child abuse protections, and minimum ages for entering into marriage. Essentially, there was a time when young people were essentially seen as small adults. The shift to viewing them as children with innocence to protect was relatively recent. And not a changing standard accepted into the Stone family.
“Have you started his paper yet?” I asked. “I’m curious which topic you chose.”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“I heard you say you’d tell everything you’ve been hiding, de Souza. Including what sent you running out of here and back, shouting about something I’ve known since Arsenio’s car caught fire. Start from the beginning, then I’ll decide if it’s worth closing my laptop.”
Sighing, she settled on the edge of my mattress.
“Jeremy called me out to his house. He’s in bad shape,” she said. “Looks like he went through a meat grinder, and he’s raging about it. I figured you guys wouldn’t want me anywhere near him after one of the Crows most likely pulled a gun. None of them admitted to it, by the way.”
