Red Rider's Hood by Neal Shusterman Page B

the table toward me, like a wild animal stalking his prey. Part of me wanted to turnand run, but a bigger part of me wanted to stand my ground.
    When he got to me, he sniffed the air around me, once, twice, three times.
    â€œI smell fear,” he said with a quiet intensity. “But not nearly enough.”
    I sniffed the air around him. “I won’t tell you what I smell.” It was something like a locker room, and something like a zoo. I’m sure he knew it. I’m sure he was even proud of it.
    â€œYou should be wetting your pants in terror, Little Red, but you’re not.” And then he grinned. “You’re just full of surprises.” He reached out his hand. I thought he was going to hit me, but instead, he leaned over the pool table, scooped up the car keys, and slipped them into his pocket. Then he turned to Loogie. “Bring Red a cue stick, and rack them up for a new game.”
    Loogie sucked up some snot and did what he was told.
    â€œIf you win, I let you live,” said Cedric. “If you lose, I get to kill you any which way I like.”
    â€œWhat if I don’t want to play?”
    He smiled, but it looked more like an animal baring its teeth. “Not an option.”
    With Cedric’s whole pack between me and the door, I didn’t have much of a choice. I was a pretty lousy pool player, but I could put on a good show, slamming the balls hard, once in a while sinking them into a pocket I wasn’t aiming for. The others watched our game, grunting their approval each time Cedric sank a ball and sneering each time I missed. For a few minutes I let myself get so absorbed in winning that game, I had forgotten why I had come, and what I intended to do.
Theplan, the plan,
I told myself. Even though my life was on the line, I had to get back to the plan.
    â€œMy grandma’s preparing to hunt you down,” I told him.
    â€œTell me something I don’t already know.”
    â€œYou tell me something first,” I said. “Tell me why you let me and my grandma live.”
    Silence from the whole gang. Cedric only shrugged. “We didn’t let you live. Little kids and old women just aren’t worth the time it would take to get rid of.”
    â€œYeah, and after we threw youse down there, the basement reeked of wolfsbane,” said Klutz McGinty, who was about as stupid as he was clumsy. “Ain’t no way we was goin’ down there after that!” Cedric threw him a look that could have spoiled milk, and Klutz looked down at his oversize feet, shutting up.
    â€œI think you’ve got a much better reason for letting us live,” I said. “A reason that you’re not telling anyone.”
    â€œAnd what might that be?”
    â€œRevenge.”
    Cedric kept his expression cold and hard to read. “Keep talking,” he said.
    â€œYou could have just taken the money, but you didn’t—you took my car as well. When you took my car, you knew I’d come looking for you. You
wanted
me to find you. You even parked it out on the street to make sure I would.”
    By now the others had uncrossed their arms, and had moved a little closer, listening intently.
    â€œYou
wanted
me to come,” I said, “because you figured you could get me to turn. You could convince me to join the Wolves. And wouldn’t that be the ultimate revenge on mygrandma? Taking me in, and turning me into…one of you.”
    Looking at Cedric, I couldn’t tell whether I had gotten it right. Maybe that had been his plan all along, or maybe not. But one thing was certain—now that I had said it, it was his plan.
    Five of my balls were still on the pool table, and Cedric had only two more to sink. He took aim, then suddenly took a completely different aim, and made the only move that would end the game in a single shot. He put the eight ball in a corner pocket. It was an automatic loss.
    â€œYou win,” Cedric said.