And as if it were some great secret, I whispered, “I think I’m the lucky one.”
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “You both are. All of us, really.” Then, “We’re going to win.”
“You think?”
She nodded. “I know. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it end after everything we’ve done. Fuck Robert Livingstone. Fuck the wolves who’ve gathered around him.” She grinned, razor-sharp. “We’re gonna make sure they regret every single moment of their miserable lives.”
GORDO TEXTED FIRST in the early afternoon.
Landed. We’ll let you know what we find.
Kelly texted a couple of hours later. In Maine. Made Robbie wear sunglasses on plane because his eyes wouldn’t stop glowing. Joe almost ate a flight attendant, but I stopped him. Love you.
“YOU’LL BE RIGHT HERE?” Gavin asked me, looking weirdly nervous.
I nodded. “Yeah, man. Right here. I’ll meet with Will and some others to let them know what’s going on. Go. They’re waiting for you. I’ll come over when I finish up.”
We stood in front of the diner in town. Across the street, Rico, Chris, and Tanner were heading toward the garage. They wanted to bring Gavin in to help him learn about what he’d be doing while working at Gordo’s. They’d made him wear his work shirt, promising him that he was going to get dirty. The idea had apparently appealed to him, as he’d run up the stairs to go change after making sure I’d be going too.
“Don’t go anywhere else,” he told me. “I will find you if you do.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s fucking creepy.”
“Not creepy. Truth.”
“Yeah, yeah. Go. You don’t want to be late on your first day.”
He looked like he wanted to say something else but shook his head instead. “Okay. You go to diner with Will. I go to garage.” He nodded, more to himself than anything. “I can do this.”
“You can,” I told him. “I know it.”
He scowled at me. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Not dying.”
And then he did the damndest thing.
He kissed me on the cheek.
Like it was the easiest thing in the world.
He turned on his heels and stalked across the street, leaving me to stare after him.
AND SINCE HE’D DONE THAT in front of the diner, everyone inside had seen it.
The diner that was packed with people.
The only sound I heard when I walked in was the bell over the door and Dominique laughing behind the counter.
I glared at her before turning it toward everyone else. “Is there a problem?”
“Question.” A man. One of Will’s friends. “Is everyone in the pack gay?”
“So what if they are?” I snapped.
The man shrugged. “I don’t give two shits either way. I just didn’t know if that was, like, a prerequisite for being a shape-shifter or whatever.”