Page 87 of Wayward

“Easton.” Haley touches my arm, and I look up. The security guard is back, muscling his way between Calvin and Dante.

“You all need to go,” he says.

“We’re sorry. They’re old friends,” Haley says.

“If one of my mates grabbed me like that, he wouldn’t still be my mate. Off you go.” The guard points to the door. Outside the window, across the street at the Saint Redmond, there are now a lot more people and a lot more police. “Here you go. You can go be a giddy aunt outside.” The guard unlocks the side door and motions us out. Haley’s the first to go. Calvin and Dante are right there with her.

I’m glaring at Brick, seething. He’s vermin, hurting my father and sister at the same time. I don’t care what excuse he has. What excuse Candy had. That she felt threatened? Fucking bonkers. Zane’s beside me, but Sam’s over my left shoulder.

“You, too. Out you go,” the guard says, and I assume he’s talking to me as I step out onto the sidewalk. But the older man is leaning over the table with Bri and Brick.

Bri holds up her hands. “We didn’t do?—”

“Save it for the coppers. You’ve not bought a thing, and you’ve been yappin’ too long. Out. Plenty of coppers out there in front of the swanky Saint Redford—go cry to them.”

And with that, all of us are out on the curb. The door slams shut behind us.

Bri puts her hand on my shoulder, and I jump back out of her touch. “Give him the— What are you doing? You can’t read that! It’s addressed to Rocky,” Bri cries at Sam.

“It wasn’t sealed, and you need to— No, fuck it.” Sam shoves the unfolded paper into his pocket and swings his fist in a perfect right jab into Brick’s face. There’s a snap, and Brick screams.

“Holy shit, holy shit.” Brick clutches his nose. “You hit me. He hit me.” Blood drips between his fingers onto the sidewalk.

“You better get moving before the rest of them read that fucking scribble.” Sam takes a step toward Brick, and Brick backs away, holding his nose.

Bri’s screeching. “Why did he do that?” She turns to me and then to Brick. “Why did he do that?”

“He’s nuts, feral.” Brick shakes out his hand, and droplets of blood fly onto the pavement.

“Sam?” Haley’s eyes are wide.

I look between Sam and Brick, wishing I was the one to do it. And I don’t even know what the letter says, but I trust the fuck out of Sam, and there’s no way he would have done something like for no reason. There’s damn straight more to it than Brick sleeping with Candy.

Fuck my promise. I punch Brick in the gut. The wind rushes out of him, and he holds his stomach. I want to do it again. But I step back.

“Let’s go,” Sam says, nodding across the street. “Now.”

Sam takes Haley’s hand, and we make our way across the side street to a larger crosswalk leading to the Saint Redmond.

“What the hell, Sam? That’s something the Viking would do. Nicely done,” Dante says. “What does the letter say?”

Sam stops short of crossing the street and glances back at the side door of the café, but Brick and Bri are already gone.

“Let me read the letter,” I say.

“Not now. I don’t want any of us to be tried for manslaughter. We need to get over to the hotel. We still have a plan to follow through with.”

I want to see the letter. But it’s in Sam’s pocket.

“Later. Later,” he states a second time when I take a step back toward the café. He puts his hand on my shoulder. “We need to get across the street.”

There’s an officer directing traffic that has come to a standstill. The crowds are getting larger. Many demonstratorsand even some of the forum attendants leaving the hotel have noticed us. And two beefy private security guards are making their way across the sidewalk toward us.

“Fuck. Incoming,” Calvin says.

“We wanted to draw attention to ourselves. Just not like this.” Zane’s back goes straight, and he steps in front of Haley.

But then the guards part, and my dad’s behind them. He’s using a cane to walk.