57
EMERSYN
I smelled bacon. I burrowed further into the warm nest of comfort I currently floated in.
If this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up and have it ruined with cold stone or the rattle of chains.
It wasn’t until I heard the sound of someone moving around that my eyes flew open, and I jolted upright.
“Ah, there you are sleepyhead,” Seven called from the kitchenette. “Perfect timing. How do you like your bacon? Floppy? Extra crispy?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I had to still be dreaming. Seven was the picture of patience as he held the tongs and waited for my answer with his lips in a half-cocked smile.
I cleared my throat. “Extra crispy,” I said. “Please?”
It came out as a question, but Seven didn’t seem to notice.
“Girl after my own heart,” he chuckled. “G is in the shower, but he should be out shortly if you need to use the facilities before we eat.”
I climbed out of bed, more rested than I’d felt in a long time. Someone had thrown an additional blanket over me and my nerves kicked at how passed out I’d been to not even notice. I took inventory of myself as I moved over to the table, but nothing felt off.
“What time is it?” I asked as I sat down.
“You slept pretty much all night,” Seven answered.
He set down a plate piled with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon.
The door to the bathroom opened and a cloud of steam billowed out as Griffin emerged.
This time I knew better than to turn around, even though it took all of my will power not to.
I sensed him come up behind me, and a ripped tattooed arm appeared over my shoulder.
The muscles glistened with stray drops of water, and I was so distracted by the ink, I barely noticed when he plucked a strip of bacon from my plate.
Thank god I hadn’t taken a bite of anything yet or I probably would have choked.
“Hey,” Seven scolded. “I made you some too, no stealing.”
I couldn’t hold out any longer. I looked over my shoulder as the bacon disappeared to see Griffin dressed—unfortunately—in camo pants and a black t-shirt that was plastered criminally tight across his chest. By the time my eyes made it up to his face, he was almost done eating the bacon, an amused look on his face. He looked like he’d slept well too.
“Seven only knows how to make about five things,” Griffin said.
“I heard that,” Seven called.
“His bacon is top tier though.”
Seven came over and put two plates down, one for himself and one for Griffin.
“The secret is a little bit of brown sugar,” he grinned. “But, G is right—my menu is limited. I’ll have to have Nyx show me a thing or two when we get home.”
Home.
The mention of it made the food stick in my throat.
I couldn’t let myself hope too hard because the let down would be devastating if something got in the way.
Besides, I had to kill Octavius first, and I couldn’t get distracted.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to discuss my plans to kill Octavius with Griffin and Seven yet.
I assumed their answer would be no, and they would try and stop me.
Luckily, I didn’t think they’d be able to stick with me during the party, so evading them for a short amount of time was most likely going to be doable.
As though he read my mind, Griffin spoke. “We need to talk about tonight.”
He was so close the heat radiated off him, and I found it hard not to be suffocated by the intoxicating scent of him fresh from the shower. I shook my head to clear the surprisingly dirty thoughts that shot through my mind when I pictured him under the water.
Down girl.
“I can’t believe you two came here without a plan,” I muttered.
Seven shrugged. “We couldn’t risk losing you again.”
“And we do have a plan,” Griffin said. “If Rune doesn’t contact us by tonight, we’ll use the party as a distraction and steal a plane.”
“You know how to fly?” I asked skeptically.
Griffin shrugged. “My sister is a pilot. I know enough to get us off the ground.”
“I’m more worried about landing,” I said dryly.
“I can do that too,” Griffin smirked. “But, let’s hope Rune comes through and has a team on the way. I’d rather exfil by boat.”
He took a few bites of food, but I could tell he wanted to ask me something.
I sighed. “What?”
“You knew Octavius’ name,” he said. “You recognized it when Brooks mentioned it, and you weren’t surprised to find out you might be used as leverage. How?”
I continued to poke at my eggs. I didn’t want to get into all of that, but I also knew they needed to have the information. I pushed the nearly empty plate aside and sat back in the chair.
“He was our primary target.”
“Our?” Griffin asked. “You had a team?”
I nodded. “I formed a team to go after him—Vetticus and Albatron too, but Octavius ended up being who we focused on.”
They both stared. “For how long?”
I pursed my lips. “Five years.”
I could tell I’d shocked them. Seven stood with the spatula comically forgotten in his hand, while Griffin simply stared expressionlessly, as though he was trying to decide which question to ask next.
“What happened to your team?”
“Three years ago we moved on a location our intel said Octavius would be, but ultimately my team walked into a trap—” I kept my face carefully closed off. “Everyone was killed except me. I was thrown into the trafficking rings.”
Griffin’s eyes darkened and the tension radiating from him was dangerous. He leaned forward over the table.
“Vetticus and Albatron, I already know why you’d go after them,” he said. “What did Octavius do?”
The silence in the room was oppressive. Based on the look on both of their faces, they already had a pretty good guess.
“He drugged me,” I stated. “When I was a child and still with Vetticus.”
Griffin looked absolutely murderous, and the humorous edge Seven always had was gone. I didn’t care to elaborate and thankfully they didn’t ask me to.
“I see,” Griffin’s words were rough with rage. “And you’re going to try and kill him tonight.”
I met his stare. “I am going to kill him tonight,” I stated firmly.
“No,” Griffin said.
“No?” I echoed.
The word triggered an onslaught of everything I’d fought so hard to escape from with Riggs. Seven cursed under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose like he knew what was about to happen.
“We need to use the party as a distraction to escape,” Griffin elaborated.
“Sure, but first I’m going to kill Octavius,” I said sharply.
G shook his head. “Your safety is our priority.”
It was Riggs all over again. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’d said never again and I meant it. I surged forward, half out of my chair and slammed my fist down hard enough to rattle the cutlery.
“I don’t give a fuck what your priorities are,” I snarled.
Griffin stood up. “There will be other opportunities—”
I didn’t wait to hear any more, but shoved away from the table and paced the room.
My anger was a dark and insidious thing.
I’d been under the control of others for too long, and it was time I decided my own fate.
I’d fall back on my original plan—they wouldn’t be able to shadow me the entire party and if by some chance they did manage it, I’d split away—
I was so preoccupied with my plans, I almost ran straight into Griffin, who’d stepped into my path. My hands flew out and landed on his chest in surprise.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
The apology caught me completely off guard. “You’re…what?”
“I won’t say it again,” he grumbled.
I didn’t know what to do. I carefully removed my hands from his chest and looked at him cautiously.
“I don’t know what that means,” I replied honestly.
Griffin’s lips twitched, but he still looked irritated. “It means, I may have said ‘no’ too quickly.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay.”
“It’s just—” He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “We’ve searched for you for so long, Emersyn. All we want to do now is keep you safe.”
“I’m not fucking fragile,” I scoffed. “I can take care of myself.”
Griffin sighed. “I know. You’re nothing like what we expected to find. You have training, you’re a fierce fighter—”
“Did you expect someone broken?” I asked.
“Three years in the rings—and God knows what before that?” He shrugged. “We prepared for it, but you’ve been shattering those expectations left and right.”
Some of my anger dissolved, but I still was hesitant to trust his word fully.
He could say all of this and then still tell me no.
I was about to ask him flat out again, when he pulled out one of his smaller knives from his belt.
He picked up my hand and wrapped my fingers around the hilt. I looked down at it in surprise.
“I know what it’s like to run someone down. To get so close, only to fail over and over and over again.” There was an underlying fervor in his words that clutched at my own convictions. “So, if this is your chance, I’d be a fool to stand in your way.”
I nodded, strangely choked up, but he wasn’t done.
“One more thing.” He reached behind him, and Seven put something small into his hand. “You communicate. You don’t take any unnecessary risks. And you don’t rile the guards.”
His fingers brushed along my skin as he pushed a stand of hair away and slipped the comms bud gently into my ear. I couldn’t help it, my breath caught, and I watched his eyes dip briefly to my lips.
“Understand?” He murmured.
“Yes, sir.” I meant it mockingly, but when our eyes clashed something heavy settled between us and sent the temperature of the room skyrocketing to suffocating degrees.
“You kill Octavius,” Griffin said. “Then we go home.”
“Home,” I whispered the word, more like a stuttered prayer masked as a question.
Griffin smiled grimly and nodded. “Home.”