Page 66 of Fangs
Mac took a ring of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Warmth washed over me, and I looked at the low fire burning in the woodstove in surprise.
“You’re keeping this place heated?” Lee asked, his voice curious.
“Gotta keep the water pipes from freezin’,” Mac replied, adding more wood to the fire.
“Ahh, sure,” Lee said, slowly turning in a circle to survey the space with me still in his arms.
“Put me down.”
He carefully set me on my feet. Pieces of half-dried mud flaked off my body and onto the floor, and I grimaced as I touched the stiff side of my hair. I walked over to the woodstove and huddled next to it, shivering. Mac disappeared into an adjoining room, and I heard water turning on.
Mac returned, striding directly to where I stood by the fire. He stopped in front of me, studying me with his sharp eyes. “What happened, Em?”
What happened?I just found out the one person in the world I thought I could implicitly trust possibly lied to me and set off the horrible chain of events that led to my miserable fucking life.
“They met Lana,” I said instead, my voice dull. “That’s how they found me.”
Mac turned to look at Lee. “You talked to Lana?”
“Guess Wolf told you about that?” Lee asked.
Mac swore under his breath. “What did she say?”
Lee glanced between us, but when I didn’t volunteer any information, he sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Well, she said Ember got her brother killed, and these are her words, not mine, but she said Ember ‘fucked her way into the Vault’ and got her exiled?—”
Mac barked a harsh laugh, interrupting him. “Are you fuckin’ serious?”
“That’s what she told us.” Lee shrugged.
Mac looked at me expectantly as if he thought I would set the record straight, but I just sank to the floor in front of the wood stove. Wolf hadn’t mentioned that bit about me fucking my way into the Vault. I wondered who she was telling people I fucked. Mac? Trey? Madame? Nausea washed over me.
“Em,” Mac growled, “please tell me you told Wolf what really happened.”
I stared at the flames, wishing I were anywhere else. The only thing worse than feeling this grief and emptiness was the embarrassment over feeling it. Iknewit was ridiculous to lie in the mud next to a grave. Iknewit was fucking dumb to let my brother believe lies about me. Did they think Iwantedto be like this?
Mac dropped to a crouch, his eyes flashing as he grabbed my arm. “Godsdamnit, Em.”
“Hey,” Lee moved closer, “Mac, you need to take a minute?”
“You can fuck off,” Mac snapped at him. “You have no fuckin’ idea what’s happening here.”
“So explain it to me.”
“You want to know what happened with Lana?”
Mac was on his feet, toe to toe with Lee, before I could blink. Mac was a good five inches taller, but Lee held his ground.
“Her brother disobeyed a direct order from me in a firefight and got himself shot. She blamed Em even though Em had nothin’ to do with his death besides just fuckin’ being there. Against her will, I might add. I tried to help Lana work through it, but instead, she fuckin’ hired two men to attack andrapeEm.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, wrapping my arms around my legs as Mac continued.
“SoIexiled her. Lana took an oath to do no harm when she joined my crew. She fuckin’ knew the consequences.”
The silence seemed to last a long time. I laid my forehead on my knees. My mouth tasted like mud.
“Can I tell Wolf what you just told me?” Lee finally asked in a low voice.
“Somebodyneeds to,” Mac snapped.
