Shit. I jerked my hand down and stepped toward him. “Nathan?—”
“We’re leaving,” he said, announcing it like he needed to convince himself. He rushed to Cross and gripped him under the armpits. “Get up.”
Cross moaned as Nathan hauled him to his feet. Blood dripped from the cuff of his shirt. He staggered, his face the color of chalk. “Call the cops,” he said in a thin voice. “Nathan. Call the?—”
“Later,” Nathan said, dragging him away from me. “Shut the fuck up, and let’s go.”
The wolf in my mind faded. The pressure in my mouth went with it. When I ran my tongue over my teeth, they were blunt and ordinary.
Cross stumbled, his good arm slung over Nathan’s shoulders, his broken one clutched against his chest. Nathan half-carried him across the patio in a lurching, graceless shuffle, Cross’s sneakers dragging against the pavers. Neither of them looked back. They rounded the corner of the garage and disappeared, and a few seconds later I heard a car door slam, then another, then an engine turning over and tires on the driveway pulling away fast.
Then nothing.
Silence held. It was just me and the fading sunlight and the awful, hollow emptiness that follows a really bad decision.
“Later,”Nathan had said. They were going to call the police.
I turned and went inside. My hands started to shake, and it took me three tries to punch Jesse’s number into my phone. He answered on the first ring.
“Caleb.” His quick inhale was sharp over the line. “What’s wrong?”
I pressed my back against the kitchen wall and slid down until my ass hit the floor.
“I’ve done something,” I said.
Chapter
Twenty
JESSE
Caleb’s panic hit me the second I pulled down the street. The sour, urgent emotion intensified as I parked in the garage and rushed inside.
He’d given me the basics over the phone, so I knew he was physically okay. But my wolf wouldn’t settle until I saw it for myself.
I sensed him in the bedroom, and I took the stairs two at a time and charged down the hall.
He stood over the bed, jamming clothes into his duffel bag. I stopped in the doorway, my attention falling on a bath towel spread over the carpet. Pieces of shiny metal covered the surface. A hammer lay next to it.
“I crushed the AirTag,” he said. “With a hammer from the garage. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to?—”
“It’s okay,” I said, crossing the room and gripping his shoulders. “Did you shift? Did they see it?”
Misery descended over his face. “No, but they saw my knuckles heal. They’re going to call the cops. Aiden Cross has it out for me. He won’t let this go.”
Anger tightened my chest. I released him and headed for the closet. “We can’t stay here.”
He followed me. “Where will we go? Albany?”
The anger flared higher, carrying a heaping dose of self-loathing with it. None of this was Caleb’s fault. It was mine. I’d been a coward. Worse, I’d been selfish, convincing myself I needed to wait for a better time to tell him the truth. But there was never going to be a better time, and I’d always known it.
“Jesse?” Caleb prompted.
I swung around, and he was right on my heels. “Pack light,” I said, hearing the growl in my voice.
He stayed put, a frown creasing his forehead. “If we go to Albany, my parents could still?—”
“We’re not going to Albany,” I snapped. “We have to leave the country.”
