territory would give him a place in that. And now Bill’s convinced he wants to carry on, plus now he wants revenge for Sam’s death.”
There was a short silence; I waited it out this time. Matthew was probably having the same WTF reaction I’d had a few minutes before.
“That piece of shit motherfucker,” were the first words out of Matthew’s mouth. He blew out a breath loudly enough to make a rushing sound on the phone. “He dies twice, and still manages to cause trouble afterwards.”
At least he believed me about that part. “I’m not involved, Matthew,” I said, trying to forget how he’d told me he liked the way I said his name. “I don’t want some new world order created by Jonathan Hawthorne’s fucked-up allies any more than anyone else who’s not batshit insane.” Matthew huffed a laugh, which I chose to take as him believing me. “And I want Parker dead. That’s why I came to the Kimball territory in the first place. Then I talked to Colin, and I found out about this.”
“And Colin Kimball’s just — ready to betray his own father. Just like that.” His skepticism was nearly tangible, floating out of the phone. “I didn’t know you and Colin were close.”
Matthew spat Colin’s name like it was something disgusting that he wanted out of his mouth. What the fuck was his problem? He’d been trying to make peace with the Kimballs from the get-go. He wasn’t the type to hold grudges if it was more practical, or more politic, to let them go. And Colin hadn’t been the driving force behind anything that had happened. Matthew had to know that.
“Colin’s ready to help his father avoid doing something really fucking stupid. Even if that means going against Bill’s plans.” I glanced up at Colin and raised my eyebrows; he nodded emphatically. Good. I wasn’t just putting words in his mouth. “He’s not your enemy, Matthew.”
“Right. And he lets you speak for him?” There was that tone again, like he was accusing me of something I didn’t understand.
I bit my lip, hard, and then released it, letting the sting ground me before I answered. Carefully. I had to choose my words carefully. “He thought you might not listen to anything a Kimball had to say right now.”
“Yeah. Listening to him is tied with how little I think I should listen to you. Fine,” he went on before I could argue, “let’s say I believe you that you’re not setting me up somehow, even though we both know how that went last time. I need to talk to Colin directly. Hand him the phone, please.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it in disbelief for a second. That was it? No Thanks for warning me, no Are you sure you’re all right, no Thanks for taking that fucking spell off me before you left instead of killing me, which you totally could’ve done and no one would’ve been able to stop you? Fucking seriously? A curt dismissal. Hand the phone to the alpha present, please, so I can talk to an equal.
My cheeks burned with humiliation, and I swallowed down a lump in my throat. I always felt like this when I was angry, dammit. It had nothing to do with longing for something I wasn’t going to get.
I held the phone out to Colin. “He wants to talk to you.”
Colin took the phone, and I crouched down by my bag of magic tools, listening with half an ear. I sorted through, making sure I’d have everything I needed for…well, honestly, I was stalling and making myself look busy.
But it was good to be prepared.
“I don’t want any more deaths,” Colin was saying, his tone uncharacteristically serious. “Except Taft. That fucker can burn as far as I’m concerned.” A pause. “Yeah, that too. But you should’ve heard the way he was talking about Jonah.” He sounded royally pissed, and in spite of everything, it made me smile. The smile fell away when he said, “Fine, fuck, I won’t kill him. I just don’t want anyone else to die.”
Matthew was telling Colin not to kill Parker? Fuck him. Fuck him sideways. My eyes burned, and I shoved a coil of string back in my bag with more force than necessary, breaking a piece of chalk in the process.
Fuck. I tidied up the pieces, my hands trembling too much to fish the smaller bits out of the bottom of the backpack.
I’d missed a