Josie and Brock took care of the dishes while Grayson and Fynn ran errands, pulling together the last-minute details while also keeping the girls in the dark. It wasn’t easy, seeing as we were all temporarily living under the same roof, and in a few hours, it wouldn’t be secret at all.
Mads cornered me in the bathroom. Her hand shot out, bracing it on the door just as I was about to close myself inside. “What are you doing?” she demanded, suspicious eyes on me.
“Taking a leak,” I replied, stating the obvious.
She frowned, her brows creasing together. “Nope. Don’t play that stoic game with me. I want the truth. You guys are planning something, and I want to know what.”
I leaned a shoulder on the door. “Why?”
“Do you really have to ask?”
I regarded her for a moment. The hard set of her jaw and firm press of her lips. I knew this Mads. “Telling you won’t change anything. I won’t let you be a part of this.”
“Won’t,” she echoed through clenched teeth, her eyes darkening.
Poor choice of words. Angering Mads would lead to the exact opposite of what I was trying to do. “Now you’re suddenly talking to me.” She hadn’t spoken two words to me all day.
“Haven’t you learned yet? I will find out.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
She was serious. I could see it flashing in her gray eyes. Determination. Fierceness. Stubbornness. And still, it changed nothing. Not for me.
“No,” I stated.
Her hands flew in the air. “Dammit, Micah. Enough.”
I took a step forward. “Why do you have to make everything difficult?”
She put a finger into my chest. “Says the asshole who can’t be straight with me for once in his life.”
I wrapped my fingers around her wrist, intending to remove her finger poking into my ribs, but once I touched her, I couldn’t seem to make my hand move. “I don’t want to fight.”
The center of her eyes eclipsed with shadows. “Too late.”
“Mads, I have to go.” We both knew I wasn’t talking about taking a piss.
I didn’t like the expression that flashed over her features. “Leave, then. No one’s stopping you.”
She didn’t actuallywantme to leave, but I did so anyway.
When the time came, Brock, Fynn, Grayson, and I walked out the door, leaving the girls at the house without a word. I didn’t ask Brock if he said anything to Josie, and he never asked me about Mads. All that mattered was what we had to do, what waited for us, what we set into motion.
One more night.
That was what I told myself. One more night to finish this thing with Sterling.
It ended tonight.
The fraternity was a problem for another day.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
MADS
Tiptoeing along the side of the house, I plastered myself against the bricks. Two seconds after the guys left, I snuck out the back door, leaving Josie, Kenna, and Ainsley in the family room watching a movie. The guys were up to something, and I was going to find out what. Josie knew, too, but she wasn’t saying anything. My guess was that Brock hadn’t given her the details of their plans, most likely so she didn’t spill the particulars to Kenna, Ainsley, and me.
As if that would stop me.
I dared a quick peek around the corner. The four of them stood by Brock’s SUV, huddled around something small like a phone. It was indeed a phone, the screen lighting up their faces in the dark. Fynn switched the device to speaker as he punched in a number.