“I don’t think so.” It may not be the answer he was waiting for, but it’s the truth. “Her heart was already pointing toCoop.”
“It’s true.” Wes raises his brows to him in amusement. “So, you see, Laken was never mine to lose. She was already knitted to your soul before she ever left me. And that, my friend, is the sword in my heart.” He looks past him to the girls who appear to be at a standstill themselves. “But you won’t last forever, Coop.” He glances back to me and offers a morbid smile. “None of us will.” He takes off into the crowd as bodies bury him from oursight.
I step in close to Coop as the music strangles the atmosphere around us. “Did you ever find out who the girlis?”
“Yes, I did.” He looks my way, and in this dim light, he and Logan could beinterchangeable.
“Who the hell is she?” Logan steps in from behind and startles usboth.
Coop gives a little laugh. “I’ll tell you before the night is through, but why don’t we make a game of it? First one who figures it out gets a bonus prize. I’ll fill him and only him in on another little nugget. I happen to know what the hell Skyla is doing with that witch she’s leashed herself to.” He takes a deep breath as he looks back in the direction of the girls. “And it’s not a bad idea—that is, if itworks.”
“It won’t work,” Logan is quick to assure us all of Skyla’sdemise.
“You’re a real fucking cheerleader, you know that?” Coop grins as he says it. “Why don’t you try out for the team at West? I hear they’re looking for a few goodgirls.”
“Funny,” he growls at me before reverting to Coop. “Give us a hint. I guarantee it’ll take me less than five minutes to solve it, so get ready to spill all you know about Skyla aswell.”
Coop’s chest thumps with a laugh. “Ezrina’s science project—she’s a beauty and a bitch—Laken’s words, not mine. She’s been suspiciously M.I.A., and considering she’s been a thorn in my wife’s side as far back as Ephemeral—” he looks to us as he drops off the granddaddy hint of them all, and both Logan and I tip our heads back andgroan.
“Kresley Fisher.” Logan grunts. “But why the big show in the blue tank? Ezrina had to kill Kresley to put her in thatthing.”
Coop ticks his head back. “Something went wrong during the facial reconstruction. Kresley’s heart stopped. Ezrina said it was a nightmare. But it’sdone.”
Logan raises his brows. “Makes sense. Now catch us up on what we really want toknow.”
“Wait.” I pinch my eyes shut and try to derail the headache Ellis is sponsoring. “I’m out. I don’t want to know.” I take off and get lost in the crowd. As much as I want to glean every intimate detail I can about the covenant Skyla has with Chloe, I want all of the information I get to be from Skyla herself. And I want her to give it willingly. Our marriage means more to me than some seemingly vital gossip. Besides, as long as Logan is aware of the fact, that’s as good as me being in on it. At least for now. Logan and I are of one mind when it comes to my wife. If she’s in imminent danger, he’ll know what to do. I’ll find rest in that fornow.
A beefed-up dude with a T-shirt that looks ten sizes too small, a drink in both hands, shuffles his way up. I know him. He’s been at all the Viden meet and greets. It’s Zander Richards, Emily’s cousin on her father’s side. His little brothers volunteered in Wesley’s nightmare and are off haunting the globe somewhere looking for human flesh to consume because Wes has killed them for sport and turned them into a bunch of staggering Spectators. They’re still keeping the news feed going, but, for whatever reason, Wes hasn’t thrown them to the wolves. The Spectators are the Bigfoot of our generation. If the feds start snapping them up, it will take the heat off the Nephilim. Is that what Wes wants? It seems counterintuitive to his overall plan of taking down those who chose not to side with the Barricade. It’s all a bad plan if you ask me. And that, right there, is the alarming thing about my brother. He is rife with bad ideas and quick to initiate them. Thus, turning Kresley into Laken. But if the rumor is true and he’s been fucking her sideways in the Transfer as Chloe suggests, I can’t say Kres regrets her decision. It doesn’t make sense, though. He had Chloe morphing into Laken’s likeness whenever he wanted. Something is up. And, knowing my brother, we’ll all hear about it sooner thanlater.
Zander shoves his huge mitt into my chest and sends me staggering backward. His drinks go flying, and the crowd gasps around us. “You’re a little fucker, you knowthat?”
“Hey”—Wes pops up from out of nowhere and barks in his face—“what the hell’s your problem, man? Why don’t you take off? You smell like you’re soaked invodka.”
“I’m soaked, all right.” He blows past Wes and gets in my face again. “What’s the matter, little man? You need your big bro to fight your battles for you? Wait a second”—a greasy grin lights up his face—“I almost forgot. Yourwifewears the balls in thefamily.”
“That’s it.” I scoop him up by the shirt and drive him to the wall, landing him against it so hard a crack snakes right to the ceiling. “I get it. You’re worried about your family. But whatyoudon’t get is the fact I didn’t put them in that predicament. They did it to themselves,” I riot in his face just as the music hits a lull and the crowd stills aroundus.
Zander grabs me by the shirt and twists me into the wall, making that fissure I’ve just erupted in Harrison’s home run a little deeper. “My brothers had no choice. Maybe if you knew your own brother as well as I know mine, you would have known that,too.”
He takes off, and I spot Emily chasing afterhim.
“Damn idiot.” Wes pulls me from the wall and for a moment I’m not sure if he’s talking about Zander or me. “Each and every volunteer came of his own volition. I would be remiss to force anyone’s hand. I follow the same rules as your wife.” He glances back at her. “Only I know when and where they will bite me in the ass.” He takes off for the door and doesn’t lookback.
“Nice.” Logan dusts the drywall off my shoulder as Liam comes up besidehim.
“The two of you are really racking up the construction jobs for me. At this rate, I’ll be able to retire before I everbegin.”
Drake and Bree pop up, looking deliriously happy and least of all concerned over the newly formed hole in the wall behindme.
Brielle hops up and latches her arms around my neck. “There’s nothing hotter than Gage Oliver beating the shit out of some guy at your bachelorette party!” she howls in my face, and I smell the liquor emanating off her. Skyla and Chloe show up, and my stomach turns seeing them within fightingdistance.
“You’d better back off, Bree.” Skyla plucks her off and quickly takes her place. “He’s all mine, girls.” She gives Chloe a sly wink, and Chloe flips her thebird.
“You bore me, Messenger.” Chloe takes up Logan’s hand and starts to lead him toward the crowd losing it to the music. “Let’s show ’em how it’s done.” And shockingly—perhaps not shockingly, Logan goes right along with her. I know him. He’ll keep his enemy close enough to get what he needs out of them. Theoretically, Skyla might be doing the very same thing, but this is Chloe. It will never work the way it’s supposedto.
Lex trots up, red-faced and panting. “Is that Bishop wiping her paws on myman?”
Skyla grunts out a laugh. “I never thought I’d say this, Lex, but go get what’syours.”
