Gray and Theo managed to wrap the deceased man’s body in a couple of sheets and carry it to the house next door. The location had been decided on after a short discussion on the best place to leave the body. Theo had argued that it’d be disrespectful to the dead to leave him exposed to the elements in the back yard—a favored suggestion of Remy’s, who still smarted over the scare she’d gotten earlier—so the others had left it to him and Gray to move the man to the empty house next door.
Theo wiped his forehead with his jacket cuff once he and Gray offloaded the corpse onto the flowered couch. “Bastard was heavy, wasn’t he?” Gray asked, panting as he dug into his jacket pocket for his inhaler. His words were casual, but Theo could hear a faint tremor in his voice. Gray had yet to get over his fear of dead bodies, something Theo had worked out of his own system while working as a paramedic. Some things never changed.
“Don’t call the dead names,” Theo admonished. He wiped at his face again and motioned toward the door. “Now come on. The others are waiting, and it’s almost completely dark outside.”
The two men stepped out of the house and headed to the cracked sidewalk, Theo’s senses on alert for anything unusual as they walked back to the house in which the others hid. Gray was silent, his hands stuffed in his pockets, obviously relying on Theo to keep watch. Sometimes, despite his intelligence, Theo wondered just how smart Gray was. He did a lot of things absolutely stupidly, like relying on others to ensure his safety instead of only counting on himself. But maybe that was just a reaction to being out with Theo; maybe he counted on Theo having his back more than the others.
“So what happened with you and Remy?” Theo asked. He scanned the road beside them for any approaching dangers. Everything was quiet and still, though; Theo didn’t think they’d have much to worry about in this area. He shifted his eyes back to Gray, but Gray was giving him a look so ugly it could have soured milk. Theo gritted his teeth and added, “Look, Gray, I can’t help you straighten out whatever the hell you’ve managed to cause now if I don’t know what’s going on.”
Gray heaved a sigh and shook his head. “Theo, it’s not something remotely fixable,” he argued. “I fucked up, okay? I found them together, and I overreacted. My temper got the better of me. I’m not with her, and I’m not supposed to care who she is with. It’s none of my fucking business. But I made her business the group’s business, and now she hates me, and it’s probably going to cause problems with group operations from here on out.”
Theo clapped Gray gently on the back and paused in mid-step to look at the house they approached. “I doubt it’s as bad as that, Gray,” Theo said. “Give it a week or so. Everybody will have forgotten about it then.”
“Except Ethan and Remy, and they’re the ones whose view on it really matters,” Gray argued. “And somehow I doubt we’ll all even be alive in a week.”
“If that’s your stance, then you shouldn’t worry about it,” Theo pointed out. “Because if we’re all going to be dead in a week, it won’t matter that you two got into a fight over Remy. None of us will even be alive to care.”
Gray nodded slightly to concede the point. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said softly. “Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, though.” He ran a hand through his dark hair and looked at Theo with wide eyes, appearing several years younger than his current twenty-three. Theo was reminded of when Gray was a teenager and would come to him for girl advice; that time in their lives seemed like a century ago. “I don’t think she likes me, Theo.”
Theo scoffed and shook his head. “She likes you fine, Gray. Everybody here likes you. You’re a great guy.”
“No, she doesn’t. They don’t,” Gray tried to correct him. Theo squinted at him in the fading evening light, trying to decipher the expression on Gray’s face. He was largely unsuccessful. “They all think I’m an asshole. A useless fucking tool who always has to have his own way.”
“Man, you really have been kicking your own ass over this, haven’t you?” Theo observed. He gave Gray’s shoulder a squeeze. “It’s not really that big—”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Gray interrupted with a firm shake of his head.
Theo let go of Gray’s shoulder and put both hands up defensively. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll leave you alone about it now.” He started to walk toward the house again, his feelings hurt over Gray’s refusal to confide in him. His younger brother used to talk to him about everything. Ever since Michaluk had caused them to throw their lot in with this group, though, his confidences had all but stopped, and now he was more secretive than ever. Theo wasn’t sure he liked the changes he’d witnessed in his brother; it just wasn’t the Gray he knew.
The two men were nearly back to the house when Theo glimpsed one of the most welcome sights he’d encountered in months, enough to raise his spirits and make him feel that much better about the situation they were in. It wouldn’t make up for Nikola’s loss—nothing would—but it would certainly help with their moods. Theo put an arm out to stop Gray, nearly clotheslining the shorter man as he rested his arm across his chest. “Is that what I think it is?” he asked, almost breathless with excitement.
Gray followed Theo’s eyes and squinted, approaching the white lattice crate that butted against the side of the house. It was approximately the size of an air conditioning unit, and if it was anything but what Theo thought it was, he seriously believed he’d cry. Gray, thankfully enough, gave Theo a hesitant nod in response.
“I think it might be,” Gray said. He shoved his handgun at Theo to hold and climbed on top of the box, working at the padlock with the thin screwdriver Cade had loaned him. It took some work, but Gray finally snapped the lock open and tossed it to the grass. He dropped down from the box and flipped the lid open, leaning to look inside. A grin spread across his face.
“It is,” Gray confirmed excitedly. He fiddled with a cap on the top and managed to dislodge it, leaning to shine his flashlight inside. “With a full fucking tank. It could last us all night, easily.”
Theo resisted the urge to let out a whoop of excitement. “Let’s crank this fucker up, then!” he exclaimed.