I take a long drag and blow it out, staying silent. I know Kurt doesn’t really believe it’s him. But there’s always that sliver of doubt. However unlikely, it still could be him. And if Donnieisthe one bleeding us from the inside, we need to give him enough rope to hang himself so we can know for certain.
But Donnie closes the space between them, squaring up to Kurt and pointing a finger in my direction. “I’ve been friends with him since we were kids. And I’ve spent time in that clubhouse since I was five fucking years old. I know what you do to traitors. I know I’d be signing my own death certificate if I got into bed with anyone else.” He shakes his head with a huff. “You really think I’d risk everything I’ve built, and risk my own life, just to bring in more heat? For what… extra cash? To drag more crime into this province and make my job a living hell?”
Kurt holds his stare a beat longer, then a slow smile spreads across his face. “Just had to see you sweat.”
Donnie exhales sharply and shakes his head. “Fuck you.”
I rub a hand down my face and flick the cigarette butt to the ground, grinding it under my boot. “Can we get the fuck on with this? I have a lecture to get to.”
They both turn their heads to me, but I ignore the confused looks on their faces.
“We met with Frank,” I say, folding my arms across my chest. “And he let it slip that he knows I’m against running guns.”
Donnie’s eyes flick between us. “Yeah? So?”
“So, no one outside the club knows that,” Kurt says. “Except you.”
Donnie lifts a hand and points at Kurt. “I already fucking told you?—”
“I’m not saying it’s you,” Kurt snaps, cutting him off. “I’m asking if anyone else in our pocket knows this, too.”
Donnie shakes his head slowly, looking out over the parking lot. But then he stills, and his eyes flick back to me. “I have Henry tracking the gun suppliers like you asked, and looking for any potential movement into New Brunswick. There hasn’t been anything, but… last week, he asked if I thought the Kings were finally going to make a move and run for them. And I said it was starting to sound like it was hinging on you,” he says, locking eyes with me.
“You told him Alder was holding us back from running guns?” Kurt asks in a low, cold voice.
Donnie tenses, glaring at him. “I was talking to the only other Mountie on your payroll. The one doing exactly what you asked for,” he snaps. “All I did was tell him where things stood. You think I expected him to take that and run it to Frank fucking Becker?”
“Fuck,” Kurt mutters, running a hand over his face.
White-hot anger pumps through me as I hold myself back from getting on my bike and riding through the streets of Fredericton to find that fucker and gun him down right now.
“We need proof,” Kurt says, like he knows exactly what’s running through my head.
“I’ll get proof,” I say. “He’s going to get a visit tonight.”
Donnie nods, and I see the fire blazing in his eyes… the kind that comes from knowing you’ve been used, and wanting blood for it.
“Be on standby,” I tell him, turning to head for my bike. “If he’s the rat, we’re going to need a cleanup crew.”
THIRTY-FIVE
I pullin a deep breath as I walk down the hallway towards the lecture hall, forcing myself to focus on something other than Henry and the reckoning waiting for him tonight. That has to happen under the dark, and until it’s time, I need something to calm me down.
And watching my man stand at the front of a room, sparring with students over quantum mechanics, is exactly what I need.
The door to the hall groans as I push it open, and that breath finally settles inside me when I see Cade, standing with his arms crossed as he glares at a girl in the second row with her hand raised.
Perfection.
His eyes flick towards me as I slide into my usual seat in the back, stretching out and settling in for the show.
But I’m disappointed in his shirt, which is a blue plaid button-up today. But… the fabric does pull perfectly across his chest, and he has the sleeves shoved up his forearms, so… it works.
The girl Cade is glaring at clears her throat. “But if a particle still has energy and stays inside its system, doesn’t that mean itkeeps its strength? Like… shouldn’t it stay stable as long as it’s trapped?”
Cade just stares back at her for a moment with tension in his jaw. And I shift my gaze to the slide behind him with a long, rippling line stretching across it that starts high, then fades. It keeps moving, but the shape drags lower the farther it runs, like it’s bleeding out as it goes.
“Sure,” Cade says. “If burning through everything you’ve got just to stay contained sounds stable to you.”
