won’t be,” I said, even though I was pretty sure Raven was right. It was just hard to bring myself to care about church when Dante’s absence was weighing on me like a stone in my chest.
“What’s going on with you?” Logan asked gently. “You’ve been doing this all week.”
“Doing what? I’m not doing anything.” I really, really didn’t want to have this conversation, but from the look in Logan’s sharp green eyes, I knew it was happening whether I wanted it to or not.
“Exactly,” Logan said. “You’re not doing anything. You’re sleeping all day, or just hiding out in your room, not even going to class. And when I do see you, you look terrible.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically.
Jonah rolled his eyes. “He means we’re worried about you.”
“Come on,” Raven said. “Just talk to us. We can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going on.”
“I just hate that I’m stuck here doing nothing when I could be in Junee helping,” I admitted with a sigh.
“Why aren’t you?” Jonah asked.
The question hung in the air. I pulled the bedspread back over my face, but I could still feel three pairs of eyes drilling into me.
“I don’t know,” I said in a small voice. “Dante told me to go home the day of the fire—he wouldn’t let me stay, or help him, or—or do anything. I don’t know what he wants me to do.”
Logan sighed. “That dumbass.”
“You love him, don’t you?” Jonah asked.
I swallowed. But no point in hiding it now, right? Especially when it was probably over and there was nothing left to lose, no way to make myself look more foolish. “Yeah,” I said. “I do.”
When I stuck my head out from under the cover again, all three of them were watching me with careful, sad expressions.
“Guess it doesn’t matter now, though,” I said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Logan said.
I furrowed my brow at him. “What do you mean?”
Raven shot Logan an annoyed look. He poked at my leg beneath the blanket. “Listen, I have some good news, at least—the cops caught the guys that burned the place down.”
“What?” I sat up in bed, finally. “All three of them?”
“Yep,” Raven said. “We’d been running double patrols with Liberty Crew all week, but hadn’t been able to track them. I’ve been keeping an eye on the police database, though, and they caught up to them a few cities over last night. They’ve all been booked without bail. Looking like they’ll all get put away for a really long time.”
“Wow.” I slumped a little as tension seeped out of my shoulders. “So no club justice, then.”
“Not this time,” Raven said. “Maybe if they hadn’t done something as completely idiotic as firebombing a building in a small town in broad daylight, they could’ve, but there was no way of keeping the cops out of this one—and they got them first.”
“But you don’t need to worry about them anymore,” Logan said. “It’s over.”
“I guess so.” But it didn’t feel over. It didn’t feel like enough—like all those guys got was locked up when they’d wreaked so much havoc in Dante’s and my lives. In the life I’d thought we were building together. But at the same time, it was like I could finally release a breath I’d been holding. Like I could stop looking endlessly over my shoulder for them.
“Come on, get up,” Raven said. “Church time.”
With a sigh I levered myself out of bed. Raven was right—I couldn’t let my wallowing interfere with my club duties. Raven and Jonah stepped out of the room, but Logan lingered to ensure I was actually dressed and ready, and then he followed me down the stairs into the clubhouse common area.
Blade looked up from the table with a grin as I descended the stairs. “Just the man I wanted to see.”
I sat down at the kitchen island and glanced around at the inner circle with some trepidation. I’d only started attending church meetings recently—and rarely was I ever called on for anything besides votes. “Me?”
“Yep,” Blade said. “Gunnar, Priest and I have been doing some planning, and we need your help with next steps.”
I sat up a little straighter in my chair. “Sure.”
As Blade and Priest explained their plan, something tight loosened a little in my chest. It was a good idea—a really good idea—and I was proud they asked me to help make it happen, even after all the ways I’d fumbled acting as Dante’s chaperone. But I was most excited to enact the