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It was a nice little lift to see them playing before I walked into Groza’s pit of hell.
“You answer what you want to answer and that’s it,” Kicks said as we walked over. “It’s not your problem if they don’t like it. You’re not part of this pack anymore.”
I didn’t need the reminder. I saw it in the people we passed. They might not hate me, but they didn’t like me either. Most of them had probably heard what Kicks just said too, which would spread like wildfire in the course of the day. He didn’t seem to care what anyone heard. He made up his mind and that was it, as if it were easy not to care.
We stepped up onto the porch, and Duncan opened the door. He didn’t hesitate this time around, just waved us in. I guessed we were all getting more comfortable with our new positions.
Kicks walked in first but went no farther than the front hall. He held out the bag. “Here’s the mushrooms.”
“They gave them to you. What did they want?” Duncan said, taking the bag.
“Yes, what is it that they wanted from you?” Groza said, walking out of the kitchen and toward us.
She might’ve had her chin up and her chest out, but she stopped just out of arm’s reach of me. It was a struggle not to grin.
“Nothing. Just to talk,” I said, trying to adopt Kicks’ nonchalant attitude.
“Nothing?” Groza said, sneering.
It was a lie, and she couldn’t do a damned thing about it. If I didn’t want to tell her, she’d have to accept it.
“Yes. Perhaps she just didn’t like you?”
Kicks laughed. Duncan seemed slightly taken back, as if not expecting the jab from me. He’d fall over if he knew the truth of it all.
“I’ve got a few people I wanted to check in with and then we’ll be off,” Kicks said to them.
The lines between our two packs felt like they were growing more entrenched as we stood there.
We’d turned to leave when Tico, one of Groza’s many guards, came to the door.
He nodded in Kicks’ direction but let his gaze glide over me before he turned to Duncan and Groza.
“We think we found something you’re going to want to see. It might be theremnantsof Walter, or at least his ring.”
Kicks had said he’d disposed of them.Don’t panic.They’d smell it.
“I don’t know if I can stomach it,” Groza said.
Stomach it? As if she were too delicate? The woman who’d ordered mass murder? This had to be an act for Duncan.
“I’ll go,” he said.
Kicks looked at me, and I knew he wanted to go too. He wasn’t the only one of us who wanted him to go. Ineededhim to go. This was one secret I never wanted out. I lifted my hand, giving him the slightest pat on the back.
“Mind if I tag along?” Kicks said as soon as I did. “I’d be interested in what happened to him as well.”
Duncan nodded. Even if he didn’t want him there, it was hard to say no after we’d just dropped off the mushrooms they needed.
“I’ll be back soon, but in case you want to leave before I do…” Kicks handed me the keys to the ATV we’d driven over. Yeah, there might be a high likelihood of that.
I pocketed the keys and got out of there before my pheromones tipped anyone off.
They headed out, and I followed. I’d hang around and buy Charlie a few minutes with his friends before making him leave. I’d be long gone before they came back, though. I didn’t want to be anywhere around here if they came back with news of the bodies.
I made my way through the community, passing people who nodded politely but weren’t looking to interact beyond that. It was strange to realize I’d made it almost full circle back to when I first arrived. It wasn’t as cold a reception as then, but it had chilled considerably since I’d left.
I neared where my cottage had once stood, now a charred skeleton. I kept walking to the guys’ house, remembering how I used to have coffee with Buddie in the morning and how Charlie was always running off with one of them on some excursion or another.
