“Yeah. I remember.”
“I was so angry at you.” She pulls back to look at me. “I wanted to punch you in your stupid handsome face.”
Despite everything, I almost smile. “You should have.”
“Maybe I still will.” But she’s grinning now. “I’m glad you finally came around, though. Only took you getting shot to admit you were wrong.”
“I didn’t admit I was wrong.”
“You’re about to, though, aren’t you?”
I sigh. “I was wrong. I should never have suspected you. You’ve never done anything but try to survive the mess everyone else created.”
“There. Was that so hard?”
“Excruciating.”
She laughs. Actually laughs. The sound is light and unexpected after everything.
“Come on,” she says, taking my hand. “Let’s go back before they send a search party.”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
“Titan would.”
“Fair point.”
36
ASH
Three days after we wiped out the Savage Legion, I call church.
The compound is still being rebuilt. The garage is a skeleton of charred wood waiting to be torn down. The front gate is temporary chain-link until we can afford something better. Brothers work in shifts—some repairing damage, some on patrol, all of them exhausted.
But we’re alive. We won.
So why does it feel like I’m about to defend myself in front of a firing squad?
I know what they’re saying. Heard the whispers in the common room. The looks when I walk past.
Where was he during the attack?
President should’ve been there.
Titan and Jackal led the charge, not Ash.
They’re not wrong to question. In their eyes, I abandoned them at the crucial moment. Let other men lead the victory while I rode off to play hero somewhere else. They don’t understand. Can’t understand unless they’ve had to choose between duty and family.
But I’m about to make them understand.
Brothers file into the meeting room. Thirty of them plus Jackal’s fifteen. The table isn’t big enough so some stand against the walls.
Ghost sits to my right, still pale but healing. Titan takes my left. Jackal stands near the door with his arms crossed.
I bang the gavel. “Church is in session.”
The room settles. All eyes on me.
