Page 85 of To Hunt A Wolf
“What are we going to do?” I ask, desperation leaking into my voice.
“We’re going to give him what he wants,” Jadick says.
I watch him, skeptical and wary about what he actually means.
“And what’s that?” I ask.
He shrugs like it’s nothing and says, “Me.”
“So, you’re going to challenge him?” I say.
“Don’t be naïve, Mac. It’s a trap.”
“So, then what—?”
“Relax. He’s showing his hand like I said he would.”
“And what hand is that?” I ask.
“He’s obviously decided I’m more valuable to him than Kari. Now we know he’s willing to do anything to get to me. We can use this.”
Jadick sounds so confident, so smooth. I’m not sure whether to find comfort in that or be even more worried about how this will end.
Levi is tensely silent and hasn’t taken his eyes off the fire for long enough that I wonder if he’s hypnotized by it—or maybe he’s that determined to tune us out.
“So, you challenge him then,” Tripp is saying when I force myself to tune back into the conversation, “winner becomes alpha.”
“If it were that simple, I would have challenged him the moment our father died,” Jadick says.
“Jadick’s right,” Levi says, finally joining in the conversation though he doesn’t look at me. “Thiago has no honor. He won’t fight fair.”
“Then neither do we,” I say.
My mom nods because, in this, we agree.
Jadick merely grins.
“You have an idea,” I say.
“Of course.” He glances between us all, and I can see that he enjoys keeping us on the hook like this.
“Well?” my mother demands. “Spit it out.”
“Thiago will be expecting a direct assault because he knows wedohave honor,” Jadick says. “Instead, we use the Jades to infiltrate the city. I have a small contingent of men still loyal to me there. Informants, soldiers—they’ll help. We’ll neutralize the men we already know my brother will have positioned out of sight, ready to shoot us in the back.”
Levi doesn’t answer. Something’s wrong. I can see it every time he looks at Jadick. I just don’t know what.
“We don’t have the numbers,” Tripp says, shaking his head to dismiss the idea. “We were already outnumbered before, but we lost too many in the attack. Not to mention morale… We lost women and children, man.”
His quiet outrage speaks volumes. I can feel the heat of my own fury coursing through my veins. I remember the faces of those I watched fall as the hangar caved in around us.
“Then we’ll get the numbers,” Jadick says.
He’s still so calm, and my rage points at him now.
“From where? And when?” I demand.
“Vicki has mafia contacts,” Jadick says, “And I have some friends in Hawley pack who might—”
