Chapter 29
The unit was playing cards when someone knocked on the door. Smiling, Damien tossed his cards in.
“I quit,” he announced. He didn’t limp as he pulled it open to reveal Henderson. “Hey, Noah,” Damien said as he greeted the blond-haired man.
“Hi. How’s your ankle?” Henderson asked, crossing the threshold.
“I told you earlier, it’s fine. Quit worrying,” Damien said, playfully pushing Henderson.
“Can I not worry about my boyfriend?” Henderson challenged. My stomach twisted viciously at the term, something sticky and heavy settling there as Damien’s joy filled the room.
“Your boyfriend has to get his bag,” Damien retorted before turning and making his way to the bunk room.
Isla abandoned her cards before chasing after him.
She had just disappeared from sight when a squeal sounded from within.
I wondered if they were doing their hip-bumping handshake production.
Patrick gathered the cards, nodding a hello toward Henderson.
Levi didn’t turn to greet Henderson, but he stopped massaging his wound.
I glanced over my shoulder to find Henderson rubbing his jaw, his cheeks pink.
“How’s his ankle really?” Henderson whispered.
“It’s healing well,” I assured him, somewhat shocked Damien had shared the information with him.
“Good. He’s been worried about it. I wouldn’t want him to miss a mission.”
Damien entered the room carrying a bag. Isla trailed behind him, perching on the arm of the sofa. “Ready.” Damien smiled.
“Great,” Henderson responded, reaching for the handle. “Ra—Williams, everything good with Hayes?”
Levi turned toward the door. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I passed him in Commander’s Hall. I haven’t seen him there in a long time. He seemed pissed,” Henderson stated.
Levi simply shrugged, his face yielding nothing. Damien tilted his head toward me, and Henderson’s eyes followed it.
“Our mission was canceled,” Levi offered up.
Henderson scanned us. “Got it. Any update on that?”
“Not from Command,” Patrick said, shuffling the cards.
“Enjoy your sleepover,” Levi said, a clear dismissal. Damien glared toward Levi, but he grabbed the door handle, pulling it open. The two of them slipped out.
“The way you act with him, you’d never know you used to be in the same unit,” Isla told Levi.
“There’s no reason to preserve what’s over,” Levi said bluntly. Isla shifted uncomfortably.
“What’s Commander’s Hall?” I asked.
“It’s an area with individual rooms for the commanders in the Force. Hayes usually doesn’t stay there,” Patrick said. Apparently tonight he was.
The four of us sat quietly for several minutes; the sound of the cards coming together rapidly filled the room as Patrick shuffled them. “Another game?” Patrick asked us.
“Not tonight, Patty,” she said, coming to a stand. She glanced between Patrick and Levi just once. Neither looked her way as she bade them good night.
Patrick stared at the doorway Isla had disappeared into. He muttered a good night as he walked toward the bunk room, his only company the half-empty bottle.
Levi and I sat in silence. I had moved a bell ago to watch the door.
Hoping…for what I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I would say if Tristian walked in.
What I’d do. My skin still ablaze, incinerating me as I stared at the door in a silent vigil.
For the remnants of my soul or Tristian’s words, I didn’t know anymore, but I felt haunted by the look in his eyes.
I had to. You asked if I wanted something. I do. I want you, all of you. I won’t lie to you just to sleep with you. You aren’t a distraction to me. You aren’t something to pass the time. Time is running out. I’m not going to spend the end pretending. I refuse to meet the end scared.
“Who are the Angels?” I asked the quiet room.
Levi paused. “Who’ve you been talking to?”
“Kaleo.”
“Was that right before you and Hayes came here?” Levi asked, putting together the pieces.
“Yeah.”
Levi’s gaze ran over me, assessing. Fierce protectiveness and loyalty blazed in his eyes. “Is this your unit? Like it’s mine? Like it’s Tristian’s? Like it’s theirs?”
I found myself seeking out signs of them among the helmeted Force members on patrol. I ran vitals on them. I knew their blood types, what their snores sounded like, what their fears and wants were…but was Unit Seven mine? Did I want them to be?
Before I could answer, Levi cleared his throat.
“Before Unit Seven, Hayes and I belonged to Unit Thirteen, the first Exploratory Unit. Hayes was the unit commander. Many thought he’d be next Force commander.
At the time, Force Commander Ande named us the Angels because we went above.
He loved Hayes, and Hayes loved him. Viewed him like the father he never had.
Gave the job of saving Haven to Hayes at only twenty-two years old. ”
“Why give it to Hayes?”
“Because Ande knew Tristian would push past the struggles many couldn’t. He always said Tristian was stronger than everyone else.”
My stomach sank at the familiarity in those words. “Kaleo and Henderson were in your unit too?”
“They were. It was Hayes, me, Kaleo, Henderson, Abbott, Conti, Balakin.” Levi leaned back, blowing out a breath. “And Burdon.”
I thought of all the times Burdon had used Tristian’s call sign, something reserved for unit members who had been above together. “What happened?”
“We had a mission above four years ago. Burdon stayed behind with Conti, which I thought was off, but that skin virus was going through Haven. You remember it?”
“Yes.” An old man telling me about his wife found me. The Ward had been overrun.
“The night before the mission, Burdon informed the unit that she and Conti had the virus. Tristian was a mess over it. They were together at the time, Burdon and him. I hated it from the beginning—didn’t trust her.
She followed all of Hayes’s orders without complaints, but with everyone else…
she was different, ambitious. She had a brother in Expansion at one point.
When he died, she became less inclined to hide her motivations. I’ve never trusted her.”
“How is she Force commander?” If Hayes was meant to be next, how did someone like Burdon get the position?
“Because she took it from him that mission. With her and Conti out, we had two spots to fill. Units don’t operate the same with fill-ins, especially back then.
Things were still fresh from the war. People still had sides.
We hadn’t learned to band together yet. Fuck, with how things are going with Taylor, maybe we still haven’t.
Maybe it isn’t in our nature anymore. Anyway, Hayes and I had been rotating night shifts.
On the third night, Kaleo offered to take the second watch. ”
“You guys trusted him?” I asked incredulously.
Levi chuckled darkly. “We were close with Kaleo back then. He was a…good friend.”
Shock bolted through me. I couldn’t imagine Levi and Tristian close with someone like Kaleo. But then I couldn’t imagine Tristian with Burdon either.
“That night everything went to hell and the Angels fell. Kaleo made his move, drawing a knife while we slept.” Levi met my eyes, and the raw anger held in their depths stole the air from my lungs.
“Balakin attacked from behind, getting Hayes in the back.” I thought of the scar I had imagined running my hands down hours earlier.
“I got to Kaleo, but things were fucked. The fill-ins were planted. It was an ambush. Henderson didn’t join in, so I yelled for him to get Abbott out.
I think Henderson wanted to fight but he’s always been a technical mind.
When Hayes killed one of the traitors and went after the others, Abbott went down.
Henderson grabbed her and took off. Hayes took down the other two as I went after Kaleo, but the fucking coward that he is, he ran when he realized four on two wasn’t enough.
We couldn’t chase him down. Hayes was injured pretty bad.
I had to wrap him up. The two of us were slow getting back.
The gear destroyed his back. I half carried him to Haven. I wasn’t nearly as badass as you.”
I clung to the edge of the sofa, ignoring his compliment.
“But when we finally returned, the guard shack was shocked to see us, acted like they didn’t expect us to be alive.
I took Hayes straight to the Ward and they ran to tell the Force commander.
Kumar told us as he stitched up Hayes that Kaleo was walking free, that Henderson and Abbott were detained. ”
“And Burdon?”
“She was the new Force commander. Our old one apparently caught whatever the skin thing was while we were above,” Levi told me.
A chill crept over my skin. I would have heard if the Force commander had come into the Ward.
It would have been a big deal. Levi cleared his throat.
“We never saw the body. They disposed of them pretty quick during that outbreak. Conti died from it too. But miraculously, Burdon was healthy.” Levi bit out the name like a curse.
“She—Burdon—” I couldn’t get the words out.
“Burdon staged a coup, making sure the person who would stand against it was taken care of above.”
“But why? She was with Tristian.”
“Burdon had been saying for a while that Hayes could run the Force better than Ande. That Ande was too cautious, cared more about saving lives than executing missions. Said he was soft, pushed Hayes to take the position. Hayes wouldn’t do it.”
“How could he stay with her while she pushed for that?”
“Hayes likes to see the good in people, said she was just committed to finding the supplies sooner. That the supplies meant more life.”
“And what did you think?”