Hunter fell silent again, pulling his jeep onto the main road. But after a while, he glanced over. “Maybe we’re going about this all wrong.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re a sports guy. You don’t just go out and play a game—you practice, right?”

“This isn’t a game, Hunter.”

“Still. Practice makes perfect.”

Perfect. It made Gabriel think of Layne. He pulled his phone out of the center console.

No messages.

He sighed. “So what are you saying? We should go set a house on fire for practice?”

“No, not a house. We’d start smaller than that.” Hunter glanced away from the road. “My grandparents have an old barn at the back of their property. It’s full of old hay bales, the lawnmower, stuff like that.”

Gabriel stared out at the road. He and Nick used to go down to the beach to set things on fire. Gabriel would always try to drive the fire as high as he could, to incite the flames to burn as much as possible.

He’d never tried to draw flames back, to convince them to settle.

Hunter hit him in the arm. “Come on. Do I really need to convince you to play with fire?”

Gabriel smiled. “No. You don’t.” He paused, noticing they were pulling into the Target parking lot. “Where are we going?”

“You sure can’t go home looking like that. I’ll go in and get you another pair of jeans. You have any cash?”

Gabriel pulled out his wallet and found a twenty.

Hunter shoved it into his pocket and jumped out of the jeep. He left it running. “Don’t steal the car,” he called.

Gabriel smiled.

He missed his twin—almost to the point it hurt.

But it wasn’t so bad having a friend either.

Michael was waiting on the front porch when Hunter pulled his jeep up the driveway.

Gabriel swore under his breath. He’d killed time at Hunter’s house, splattering zombies on Xbox again after grabbing a shower. It was after eleven now, and he’d hoped his older brother would be in bed.

“Problem?” said Hunter.

“Stick around. I might need a getaway car.”

“Want backup instead?”

Tempting. Gabriel hesitated.

Michael stood up from the porch chair and came to the top step. The light by the door had been replaced, making his hair shine and keeping his face in darkness. “Get out of the car, Gabriel.”

Hunter hadn’t even put the jeep in park. “Your call.”

Gabriel heaved a sigh and grabbed the door handle. “Go home. I’m sure as hell not bringing you down with me.”

But when Hunter was backing down the driveway, Gabriel felt very alone facing his brother from the sidewalk.

He set his shoulders and tried to play it easy. “Why’d you wait up? Think Hunter was going to get fresh with me?”

“Where were you?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Grabbed a burger. Hung out.”