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My lips tip up into a smile. I know what that means. I just hope they don’t make up by fucking on my couch.
“What happens now?” Andrew asks. His voice is soft, hesitant, and I want to tell him exactly what is going to happen next, but I have no fucking idea myself. I need to talk with my dad, but there is no fucking way I’m going to interrupt him tonight.
Instead of giving him an answer or any false reassurances, I tell him all I can. “You’re going to go back to your hotel under heavy guard, and we’ll worry about this tomorrow, maybe even the next day. Everyone is fucking exhausted.”
Andrew dips his chin in a single nod. “I have school. I’ve already missed a bunch.”
Fuck. He really is just a kid. I hate this for him, but at the same time, at his age, I’d already made my first kill and was initiated into the family. It’s time to man the fuck up. Inhaling a deep breath, I hold it for a moment, then let it out slowly.
“School’s on hold for right now, Andrew,” Claire says. “But not forever. Do you miss your friends?”
He snorts. “What friends? I just don’t want to get behind.”
“Friends really aren’t that big of a fucking deal,” I agree. “Get your shit together, keep it tight, that’s what matters.”
Andrew’s eyes widen, and he looks down at his shoes. “But you probably had a bunch. You don’t know what it’s like to be like me,” he mutters. His voice is low, and I can see now what Claire says about him. He’s soft. But there is a strength behind him that I don’t think she sees herself.
“I didn’t. I had my cousins,” I say with a snort. “And I had my older brother. Hendrick is a little younger, so he wasn’t really a friend until he got a bit older.”
“My brother was never my friend,” he rasps. “And I got nobody.”
I wrap my fingers around the back of his neck and squeeze until he lifts his head and his eyes meet mine.
“You got me, Andrew.”
“And what happens when you kill me?” he asks.
He’s not angry. He’s scared. And he’s right. If I were him, I would be asking the same damn thing. “Not my thing to kill kids, and that’s what you are still. A kid.”
I keep my voice low, mainly because I don’t want Shelby to hear me. She won’t have the same fate as Andrew. Shelby isn’t an innocent kid. She’s morphed into something that is almost scary. When I first went to Vegas, never did I imagine she would be this way, and I can tell Claire feels the same way.
“Coleman?” Claire calls out softly.
Turning my head, I look over my shoulder at her. She’s standing just a few feet away from me, her gaze focused on me, and then she takes a step toward me. I feel her hand press against the center of my back, her eyes on mine.
“Claire?” I ask when she doesn’t say anything else.
She stays quiet as she rises to her toes, and then I feel her lips against mine. They move to my ear, where she whispers, “Thank you.”
Before I can respond to her words, the door flies open. Wells stands on the outside, his gaze flicking between the four of us in the room, then his lips twitch into a small smile.
“Hendrick is back. He’s got a place for Shelby.”
“Wait, what?” Shelby shouts. “A place?”
Claire’s hand flexes against my spine, but I ignore it. Her breath hitches, and I can only imagine what the fuck she’s thinking, but it doesn’t matter. She is not the focus here. This is about Shelby and where she’s going.
“A place,” Wells states. “You don’t want to know, and I won’t be telling you. If Coleman wants to, that’s on him.”
Shelby doesn’t hesitate. She runs past me, past Andrew and Claire. Wells steps to the side as Shelby rushes past him and toward Hendrick, who is likely standing in the living room. He’s angry, he’s hurt, and he’s worried for his woman. I don’t blame him for walking away for a few minutes to collect himself.
I don’t follow her. I stay where I am, my fingers around Andrew’s neck, my woman at my back. I know about where Hendrick is taking her, and it isn’t a joyride. It isn’t going to be pretty, and I should be ashamed. I should feel guilty. I should feel a lot of things.
I don’t.
“This whole thing is a clusterfuck,” Wells mutters. “Maybe choosing a prized bride wasn’t what we were supposed to be doing.”
He probably shouldn’t have said that out loud, but he’s not fucking wrong. I had no idea that I would have to put down half of my wife’s family over betrayal and selfishness. I would have never taken her as mine had I known that this would be their fate. I don’t like killing people. It doesn’t give me joy. However, I will do what’s necessary, and this shit was that.
