I looked up at Moose who simply shrugged like a useless ape and then scratched the back of his neck. That’s when I turned my attention to Kenny.
“What’s going on, brows?” I asked him calmly.
“Slater set fire to the training room.”
“Motherfucker!” Sutton snapped.
“Sorry, chief. I needed to tell Drew first,” Kenny explained.
My eyes widened and my brows rose. “Slater?”
“He was under instruction.”
“From…?” I didn’t need to hear the name.
“You know who,” Kenny confirmed.
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose with my free hand.
“But I swear to you, we don’t know who is responsible for the rest. Pete’s tree, the old warehouse… none of it makes sense.”
It made sense, all right, and I knew exactly who was responsible for all of it. It was the wisest move he could have made—if it was him.
Misdirection. Distractions. Magic. It screamed of Eric Tucker.
The tactics of a true leader, but ones that had cost me a lifetime of memories and a place I clung to and used to restore my sanity on my darkest of days.
“And what about Slater, Jedd, and Deeks?”
Right on cue, the doorbell above old Wheeler’s hardware store door rang out, and the sounds of heavy boots hitting the floor had all of us turning around. In the doorway, framed by the light of outside, yet somehow looking darker than ever, were my sarge and one of the club’s founders.
Deeks and Slater were back, staring at me with fire in their eyes and frowns on their faces.
“What the hell?” Sutton whispered on behalf of all of us.
“Slater?” I croaked, my eyes wide with surprise and confusion. “I thought…”
“We need to talk,” was all he said.
“Why? Where the hell is Jedd?”
Slater and Deeks took one look at each other before theycrossed their arms over their chests, and Slater stared back at me. “He’s not coming back, Drew.”
The fire department wasn’t willing to let any of us back inside the yard for a few hours until they could confirm we were no longer in danger. Our home was cordoned off, and a bunch of feral Hounds were left to roam the streets of Babylon, knowing we couldn’t keep Wheeler’s place occupied the way we were doing. It was like trying to cram elephants into a drainpipe.
Ayda had phoned ahead to Rusty’s place, and just like that, the guy who barely said two words without waving a spatula had closed the place down to the public, and it was now being used as The Hounds’ safe haven.
I was sitting in a booth with Slater and Deeks opposite Ayda and me, while Kenny and the guys lingered close by. Howard had left us, choosing instead to head back to the station so it didn’t look like he was a part of this brotherhood.
“We’d barely taken a foot inside the place when Jedd asked to speak to that Winnie chick alone,” Deeks told me, his face full of confusion and an aching sadness that made my own heart squeeze tight. “Next thing Slater and I know, we’re being ushered into a cell together and told to wait. We didn’t even have to wait thirty minutes before the ATF woman was rattling her keys and telling us to be on our way.”
I couldn’t make sense of it, but one of my greatest fears was that yet another one of my brothers was about to throw themselves in front of a moving freight train in order to save me. Pete and Harry: Take Three. I couldn't let it happen. I wouldn’t.
“Explain to me everything that happened the second Ayda and I left the yard to head to Sinclair’s place.”
Slater’s nostrils flared at the mention of Owen, his jaw tensing as he failed to hide his feelings of betrayal and hurt.
“Don’t worry. He paid,” I assured him.