But with everyone there, the house will be packed. Aro can easily be there, get Kade to unlock the doors, but that still means Reeves would have to get by unnoticed. Which, if everyone is drunk enough, would be possible, but…
“Maybe he doesn’t want inside the house,” Aro says, looking up at me. “He knew I’d tell you. He knew he couldn’t trust me.”
I hold her gaze, realization dawning. “A decoy…”
“Huh?” Dylan looks between us, still not understanding.
Kade tells her, “He told her he’ll be at my house, so we’re all at my house, waiting for him, and not where we can see what he’s really up to.”
Her mouth falls. “What do we do?” she asks me. “Grudge Night is tomorrow night.”
“Nothing,” I reply. “I turned in the Green Street footage. They brought him in an hour ago for questioning.”
Everyone at the table stops, and I squirt ketchup all over my fries.
“That’s what I talked to my dad about last night,” I tell Aro. “We have more on him than just the footage, too.”
Her eyes light up, and the three of them look between each other and then me and then each other again.
“So, it’s over?” Aro asks. “Nothing is that easy.”
I laugh under my breath, because she’s good. “Green Street is on the video too,” I inform them. “And Weston will protect its own. Grudge Night could get…ugly.”
Immediately, Dylan breaks into a smile, and I don’t even have to look to know that. I feel it. “Why does that make your eyes light up?” I ask her.
Kade and Aro laugh a little, Aro taking a bite of her burger.
“We get the kids,” I tell them, “including James and A.J., tucked in safe, and we be ready. That’s what we do.”
We eat, Dylan steals all of my fries, and Kade orders his own burger, before we leave about an hour later. Dylan has a gameplan in the notes on her phone, and Kade will be making sure his parents are out of the house, just in case.
We walk onto the sidewalk. “And the Senior Slumber Party? Should we still have it?” Dylan asks.
We step over the curb, behind Dylan’s Mustang. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“God, no.”
But when I look up, she’s smiling, because she loves bad ideas.
I shake my head, but okay. If she wants some fun, I think she’s going to get it.
Kade crosses the street and gives us a nod before he climbs into his car, and I follow, taking Aro to mine. We’ll go check on her brother and sister, but then we’re coming back to the tower. I need some rest before tomorrow with just her around and not my parents.
But then a vehicle is there, screeching to a halt in the middle of the street. I barely have time to make out Dirk and Stoli before they’re rushing and shouting.
“Grudge Night, bitches!” Stoli howls, and Dirk grabs Aro and hauls her into the convertible. She falls in with him, and I hurry over, but they’re already speeding off. Tire smoke fills the air.
“It starts now!” Stoli yells. “No fraternizing with the enemy, Hawke!”
“What the fuck?” I growl, watching them peel away with her.
Dylan and Kade run over, and I hear Aro scream in the back of the car.
“We’ll take good care of her!” a voice booms, followed by laughter fading away as they disappear around the corner.
“That was Falls.” I breathe hard, digging in my pocket for my keys.
And I thought the biggest threat would come from Weston.
Aro
“This isn’t funny!” I yell, thrashing in their arms. “Let me go!”
One of them has my wrists, and I kick against the door, the dark-haired one laughing. I remember him. He’s one of the guys who was in the park that night and in the hideout later. Stoli or something?
“Is he following us?” the blond one next to me asks the driver, and I look around as we zoom past streetlights, driving far above the speed limit.
Stoli pulls me up onto his lap, laughing, and the driver’s eyes flash in the rearview mirror. “Of course, he’s following.”
“Then let the fun begin!” Stoli roars into the night.
The guy next to us wraps something around my wrists, and I pull them away, but I’m too late. He yanks the strap, binding my hands with a cable tie, and I growl, kicking and whipping around. “Dammit!”
My hair flies into my face, and I’m about to launch forward to grab the driver, but Stoli wraps his arms around my body like a steel band, no doubt guessing that I’m capable of anything.
Probably a bad idea to attack someone while they’re driving anyway, but I’ve never been accused of good ideas, so…
They cruise past the last stoplight, turn left, and hit the highway toward Weston.
But then I look over, seeing the other person in the seat next to the driver.