“You’re the only one who can save Luca.”
She didn’t have to remind him.
“And if you want Luca to bring back your wolves, you have no other choice but to do what that takes.”
He was aware of that too.
But if he killed Nash Kelli… “Luca will hate us.”
“Do you need him to like you to bring back your wolves?”
No, they only needed time. “He won’t be able to ignore their desire to be here. He’ll call them whether or not he wants to.” And the wolves would come.
“Then it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s not the point. He’s the only Cana we have. We love him. If he hates us…” It would break every heart of the pack.
“You lovewhathe is, Isaiah. Notwhohe is.”
The truth in her words stung. “He’s still a Cana. To force him…”
Another time and place, the very thought of capturing a Cana in a tie would result in a death sentence. Varu had been stripped of their wolves for less. As a Greater Alpha, Isaiah feared neither sentence because he was too valuable.
But guilt didn’t care about value. Betraying Luca in such a way would become an open wound in Isaiah’s conscience.
One that would never heal.
* * *
Nails, roofing felt, plywood sheets, more nails…
Nox checked his list of supplies, two-by-twelves, two-by-eights, two-by-sixes, all over twelve feet, too long for the van. He’d have to have it delivered. That would be another seventy bucks over Mrs. Canton’s budget.
But did it matter?
Nox had spent the elderly woman’s limit after the first roll of roofing felt. The rest he’d have to cover with the remaining funds he and Luca had left.
Without the additional supplies, there was no reason for him to climb back on that roof and continue repairs because there was no amount of roofing paper or any number of nails that would fix the rot eating away at the wood.
Luca would understand. Wherever they needed to buy food or gas, wouldn’t.
Nox cursed under his breath. He’d figure out a way to get more money, someway somehow, but without robbing an ATM because Luca had told him not to.
He pushed the flat cart to the back of the store in search of roofing tape to seal the seams between pieces of plywood and stopped beside the shingles currently marked half off. He’d wanted to wait on those, but at that price, he couldn’t.
There went another several hundred bucks over budget.
Shit.
He loaded bundles onto the cart.
Footsteps against concrete approached from behind; heartbeats, expensive cologne, steel, oil, gunpowder.
Nox turned.
The two men wore canvas coats, jeans, and flannel shirts. Both of them as tall and wide as Nox but with enough old scars on their faces to suggest they’d been in serious fistfights.
They stopped, one on Nox’s left, the other on his right.