Nonplussed, Gabriel stared after him. “For what?”

His brother paused with the door halfway closed. “For coming home. I’m glad you did.”

Then the door clicked shut, closing Gabriel in.

And closing his brothers out.

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 25

Saturdays usually meant landscaping work with Michael. The hell with that.

Since he had the car keys, Gabriel was out the door before anyone else was up. He threw the duffel bag in the backseat, just in case. Nick could use those college-bound brains to figure out a way to get around.

Gabriel grabbed a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin’ Donuts, but that didn’t kill any more than fifteen minutes. He decided to test the bounds of friendship.

Do you want to practice today?

Hunter’s return text took a minute.

Are you seriously texting me at 6 am?

Gabriel smiled.

Thought you might be up for a 10 mile run before we light hay bales on fire. Go back to bed, slacker.

He set the phone down and took another sip of coffee.

His phone chimed almost immediately. Gabriel glanced at the display and nearly choked on that sip.

Sounds good. Give me 15 mins.

They ran on the B&A Trail, a paved track that stretched from Annapolis nearly to Baltimore. This early in the morning, it was mostly deserted aside from a few lone cyclists and joggers out to take advantage of the chill in the air.

After the fourth mile, Gabriel glanced over. Hunter had looked a little bleary eyed when he’d picked him up, and he hadn’t said much in the car, but he was keeping up without any trouble.

Then again, they weren’t breaking any records. “You know, I was kidding,” said Gabriel. “We don’t have to run ten miles.”

Hunter didn’t slow. “What, you’re tired already?”

Gabriel was, a little. He’d run hard yesterday, and he was going on his third restless night.

“Just making sure you can keep up. Thought you might have had a late night with Calla Dean.”

A wry glance. “Don’t worry.” Then Hunter stepped up the pace.

Bastard. Gabriel pushed to keep up. He was fit. He could do this, no problem.

“You know,” he said, “Becca tried to talk to me last night.” He glanced over. “About the fires.”

“She tries to talk to me, too.” A pause to catch his breath. “She wants to know if I know what you’re doing.”

“What do you tell her?”

“I tell her you suck at Xbox.” Another pause, another break for breath. “I think her dad’s putting pressure on her.”

“Because of the Guides?”

“Yeah. But we’re being careful.”

“Are you worried?”

“Does it matter? I can’t sit around doing nothing. Could you?”

Gabriel thought about that for a minute. “No. I couldn’t.” Then he had to shut up, because Hunter stepped up the pace again.