head was pounding again, and the air was freezing. It took forever to find his voice.
“You can’t,” he said.
Michael’s voice was impassive. “I can’t what?”
“You can’t take me home. My grandfather—” His voice almost broke, so Hunter just stopped talking. His keys were cutting into his palm, and Casper nosed at his free hand.
Michael waited for a moment, then said, “Get in. You can come home with me.”
God, that would be worse. “No way.”
“Look, just take a few hours to get it together, and I’ll bring you back for the jeep.”
Hunter just stared at him.
Michael opened the cab of the truck and whistled through his teeth. “Come on, doggie.”
Hunter expected Casper to stay at his side, like always.
But his dog leapt into the truck and lay down on the rear bench, his tongue lolling out. He looked at Hunter as if to say, Stop being such a baby.
So Hunter sighed and climbed in after him.
CHAPTER 9
“So let me get this straight,” said Michael. “Calla trashed your place and said she’s going to burn houses down until you bring Guides here.”
“Yeah.”
“And then she told Vickers that you roughed her up.”
Hunter set his jaw. “Yeah.”
“Well, there haven’t been any more fires—yet. Gabriel downloaded a police scanner app or something and he’s been keeping tabs on it. The fire marshal thinks the real arsonist is behind bars, so they’re not expecting more. But I’ve got a bigger question. Why you?”
Hunter looked at him. He hadn’t said anything else about his grandfather, and he was glad Michael was focusing on Calla’s role in this mess. “Why me?”
“Yeah.” Michael shrugged. “Why you? If she wants Guides here, they’ll come eventually, right?”
“That’s what Bill said, too.”
“You told Bill? What did he say to do?”
Hunter snorted. “He said I made my bed, so I should lie in it.”
Michael made a disgusted noise. “What a dick. I don’t even know what that means, but it pisses me off.”
Hunter blinked, surprised at the vehemence—and a little shocked that Michael would take his side. “He said I should have killed Calla when I had the chance.”
“What a coward. He didn’t help pull those kids out of the library fire. You and Gabriel did. He’s the frigging Guide. If he wanted her dead, he should have gone and taken care of the problem himself.” Michael hit the turn signal a lot harder than was necessary. “So frigging typical, setting someone else up to do his job. Is that what this is about? The hell with him, Hunter. Seriously. Fuck him.”
It had been so long since someone had taken his side that Hunter had forgotten what it felt like. Some of the tension that was coiled around his chest slipped free.
“But he’s right,” he said. “I should have just shot her.”
“You’re a kid. You shouldn’t have been there at all, and you definitely shouldn’t be expected to kill someone. Jesus, I want to drive over there and shake some sense into that guy.”
Hunter didn’t know what to say to any of that, so he just looked out the window again.
After a moment, he said, “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
Then he added, “I did shoot someone once.”
Michael glanced over, but he didn’t say anything.
Hunter realigned the rocks strung along his wrist. “The father of a girl I went to school with. Her name was Clare. He was beating up her and her mom. I hit him in the shoulder.” He paused. “My dad—he was disappointed I didn’t kill the guy.”
“Your dad was disappointed that you hadn’t killed someone?”
“Maybe disappointed isn’t the right word. He used to say that being a Fifth means it’s too easy to want to help people—even people who aren’t doing the right thing. He’d tell me that to become a Guide, I’d have to learn to overcome that.”
“No offense, Hunter, but I’m glad you didn’t.”
Hunter gave him half a smile, but it was grim. “Because otherwise I’d have shot you in the face when I came here to kill you all?”
Michael didn’t smile back. “No, because that sounds a whole lot like turning off your conscience. Who gets to decide right and wrong? You?”
“It’s not turning off your conscience.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just not.” Hunter made a frustrated sound and glared out the window again. “You don’t understand.”
“I’m not judging you.” Michael paused. “You’re talking about life and death here, Hunter. One of those, you can’t undo.”
As if he hadn’t been thinking of his father and uncle all day. Hunter didn’t say anything.
All of a sudden, he wanted to get out of the truck at