I let out a rough breath and decide to just cut to the chase. “Did you two know Sloan killed my dad?”
The question drops into the room like a fucking bomb, and both Levi and Rory go silent and still. They look to each other and then to Sloan, horror clear on their faces.
“What?” Rory shakes his head, his voice quiet. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“I didn’t!” Sloan snaps. He glares at me. “And she knows that.”
“You pretended to,” I bite out.
“Wait, wait.” Levi holds his hands up, his eyebrows pinched so tightly together that a little line has formed between them. “Explain. What the hell are you saying?”
Speaking in a rush, I tell them the whole story of how I followed Sloan and saw him shoot my dad. I end with the most recent revelation that my father is actually alive, still struggling to wrap my head around it as I speak.
“So for the last few weeks, I thought he was dead,” I finish. “I’ve been living with that shit, trying to fucking cope with it. And I didn’t know if you two knew or not.”
I can tell from the expressions on their faces that they definitely didn’t. They both look pissed off, and Sloan actually looks a little uncomfortable.
“How could you do that?” Levi demands, rounding on Sloan. “How could you hurt her like that?”
He means me, and I’m surprised by the intensity of his tone. Surprised that he’s choosing my side over his friend’s.
“And we’re supposed to be a fucking team,” Rory adds, anger turning his voice harder than I’ve ever heard it. “We don’t do shit like this behind each other’s backs. What the fuck, Sloan?”
“I didn’t have a choice.” Sloan’s jaw clenches. “Oscar managed to get something useful for us, but then Hugh started getting suspicious.”
I blink, taking in that name. Hugh. He must mean my uncle. There’s so much I still don’t know about that, and when I finally see my dad, he’s going to have some serious explaining to do, too.
Levi and Rory don’t seem confused by Sloan’s words, so clearly they know who the guy is. He must be decently high up in the ranks of the Jackals for them to recognize him by name like that.
“I convinced my father to let me protect Oscar.” Sloan glances at me for a second and then away. “I told Gavin if I pretended to kill Mercy’s dad, it would get Hugh off his back and keep him safe. It was the only way.”
“That’s a pretty big risk, though,” Rory points out.
Sloan nods. “Yeah, Dad was against doing it because he said it could get messy, but in the end, he agreed. But he insisted that it had to be a secret. From everyone.” He says that last part and shoots me a piercing look. “If someone leaked that Oscar was still alive, it would have been a fucking mess. I had to do my duty to my father and keep it secret.” He turns toward his friends. “Even from you two.”
Some of the defensiveness in the other two drops as they take in his words. They understand how gang shit works, I guess, and this must be part of it. Rory puts a hand on my shoulder, keeping it respectable despite my toplessness, but clearly trying to offer me some comfort.
“I’m not saying I agree with what Sloan did,” he says. “Because I think he should have found some way to tell you, but at least he was trying to help.”
“He definitely should’ve found some way to tell you,” Levi says.
“I didn’t know she knew.” Sloan’s lips curl back in a snarl. “I didn’t know she was sneaking around following us.”
Rory snorts softly, because of course that revelation probably doesn’t surprise him. He was the first one I followed.
“Okay.” Rory lets go of my shoulder and runs his hand over his jaw, shaking his head a little as if to clear it. “I think we all need to just take a step back and cool off. Maybe order some pizza or something. Mercy, you can find your clothes, and we’ll just chill out for a bit. Tension has been shitty high around here lately.”
“No,” Sloan cuts in. “Not until she tells me what she did.”
Levi frowns. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that since she snuck out and saw me shoot Oscar and thought it was real, she’s been fucking plotting against us.”
It’s another bomb dropped into the room, and Levi and Rory keep getting caught on the wrong side of the fucking shrapnel. They look between the two of us for a second and then turn to me.
“What did you do?” Levi asks, and I can’t even think about lying to him when he says it like that.
My heart skips a beat, pounding sluggishly in my chest.