Yale
The question I’ve been asked most in my life is if I ever wish I wasn’t a triplet. When you’re kids, it’s cute, and everyone admires how close you are. As you get older, people ask if you’re jealous, or competitive, or if you want to be different.
Truthfully, I don’t know who I’d be without them. I’m not one whole person, I’m a third, and I’m more than okay with that. When we’re together, I’m complete, and isn’t that how family is supposed to make you feel?
I’ve never felt the need to compete with Xavier or Zayden.
They were always a little bit bigger, a bit rougher round the edges, more eager to get into scraps than I was.
As I got older, I worked for my muscle and my strength, but the main reason I did it is because I wanted another thing to bond with them over.
They liked lifting weights, so I learned to like it, too.
What people don’t get about my brothers and I is that it isn’t a fear that you’ll blend in. It’s a fear that one day you won’t. That the people who have been by your side your entire life suddenly won’t be there, and more of the spotlight shines on you.
I hope that day never comes.
Our bond has always been as steady and reliable as my heartbeat, so I was surprised that when I first met Silence, I was drawn to her in a similar way. She was another piece of us.
Eventually, we went from a third to a quarter, and it felt right. It always has.
Resting my shoulder against the doorframe, I watch Silence sleeping, Bullet stretched out at her feet. This was how I realized I loved her—she was sleeping, and I was watching her, hypnotized by the rise and fall of her chest and the way she’d sometimes sigh or smile in her sleep.
I never needed to tell Zayden that I loved his wife.
He just knew. He never judged me for it, either.
I suppose out of everyone, he understands the most, because he loves her, too.
And he knows I’d never act on it, which is why he felt comfortable enough to share her dream and so much of her time with me.
And why when he catches me watching her sleep, there isn’t a flash of jealousy in his expression. “She okay?”
“Sleeping like a baby.”
“Good.” He nods toward the end of the hallway, and we go into the spare room where Xavier is sleeping. It reeks of vodka, but I can’t blame him given the pain he must be in. “X, wake up.”
“Fuck off,” he mumbles.
Zayden flicks our brother’s nose. “Wake the fuck up. We need to talk.”
Xavier growls. “I was stabbed. Can’t I get a few fucking minutes of peace?”
“We need to discuss where we’re going.”
I sit on the other side of the bed, propped up by pillows, and as always, Zayden stands. Xavier opens his eyes and groans. “Why would we leave?”
“Because this place isn’t kitted out to prevent Ryker from getting close,” Zayden says. “My priority is taking Silence somewhere safe. It’ll give us time to find out more about this fucker and take him down.”
Xavier pushes himself up on his elbows. “Now that is a plan I’m on board with.”
“Yale? What do you think?”
I shrug. “It’s what we’ve always done, right? Keep moving to survive.”
“That isn’t really an opinion,” Z says. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
This is my side of our work. When Zayden found the Agency, we were only nineteen, and I was reluctant. I wasn’t a fighter, definitely not a killer, and I didn’t know where I’d fit in. It was a place to go, Zayden had said, even if the price was our souls.
Our trainer, Drago, could’ve tossed me aside. Instead, he saw my potential. I’m smart, I’m logical, and tech has always been something I’ve taken to. In school, while I was failing math and testing my lungs in phys ed, computers held my attention.
I was still trained to the same level my brothers were, I had to be to survive, but what came to them naturally took me months of practice. So, when we finally graduated and there were only five of us left in our recruitment, I was happy to step back, open a laptop and plan instead of punch.
“It’s the right thing to do,” I say. “We have basic security here, but if Ryker is as advanced as he seems, we’ll fold quickly. He also has a massive advantage, because we don’t know what Grant told him. Our chances of surviving are higher if we go to one of the safe houses.”
The door is nudged open, and Bullet appears. He jumps onto the bed and sniffs Xavier’s face, sneezing once he gets a nose full of the vodka, I imagine. He lies down on me instead.
“We just need to figure out which safe house,” I say, stroking the dog’s head. “And then leave tonight.”
“Good plan.” Xavier yawns and gives us a thumbs-up. “Wake me up when you’ve decided.”
As Xavier drifts back to sleep, Zayden and I run through the seventeen properties we own across the country.
They’re all fully stocked and waiting for us, but two are occupied by recruits who are lying low after high-profile kills.
It’s mandatory to take six months out when we’re assigned someone of importance.
Other properties are on the East Coast—too far to travel, especially if we want to remain close to the Agency. We might need resources if push comes to shove, so distancing ourselves wouldn’t be smart.
“There’s the Brat’Ya Manor House,” I suggest, turning my laptop on my knee to show Zayden.
Bullet is curled up against Xavier’s back, snoozing.
“It looks run down to hell, but it has the panic room and features other places don’t.
This is the biggest, too, which means even if we’re found, we have more chances of getting out through the tunnels. ”
The Brat’Ya Manor House was owned by a Russian Pakhan in the nineties.
He was given a life sentence, but bribery had him carrying that out under house arrest, so he frequently made his way out of the property using coal tunnels.
He lived a pretty wild life in that house, according to the stories.
When he died, we snatched it up, buying it through a shell corporation.
We’ve only visited once or twice, but I remember it being creepy as hell.
“Okay.” Z nods. “How long’s the drive?”
“Six hours, if we leave now. We can beat rush hour and be out the city, but we’d have to move fast.”
“Then let’s move.”
Instead of waking Xavier, I go over to my house and pack our things, only taking essentials, including extra battery packs for my laptops and any equipment I’ll need to check the security systems.
By the time I’m back across the property line, Z is carrying a sleeping Silence and placing her in the back seat of the car, with Xavier and Bullet just behind.
“I need to grab my jacket,” I say, but as I’m about to head inside, my brother takes my arm.
“No. We’re going now.”
He closes the door, and I watch him round the hood. “Why?”
“Because Grant is dead, and I didn’t kill him.”
“I don’t get it. How can he have all this access?
” I whisper to Zayden, trying not to wake Silence or Xavier.
The house is way beyond our rearview, but my foot is still heavy on the gas.
“I know the systems were new, but … to get in and out of the house without us knowing? We were upstairs, for fuck’s sake. ”
Zayden stares out the window, quiet, tense. It’s not often that he doesn’t have control, so I understand his unease.
“I don’t know, but Grant’s wrists were cut. Unless he managed to get that glass himself, it means someone was in our house. Why not attack us there and then? And why does he want us so badly?”
I shake my head. “The reasons most people target others for. Money, revenge. Power.”
“Or all three.”
I glance back at Silence. She’s curled up, a blanket over her, fast asleep.
Her adrenaline has likely worn off and she’ll be beyond tired.
I feel on the brink of exhaustion too, but fresh life is pumped into me when I once again note the bruises developing on her face.
She cracked her nose back into place with barely a wince, but she’ll have black eyes for a while.
“There’s no point in dissecting money or power. It’s obvious why people want that. How about revenge?”
Zayden rests his head back. “The list of people we’ve pissed off is endless. And that’s not even including the people who have wanted a piece of the Agency for years and won’t like that we were handed that power.”
Refusing it would’ve been foolish. We couldn’t turn down the chance to own something so sought after. Another practical decision analyzed by me down to the minute detail, and one I’m now regretting.
“He said he’d waited years for this moment. That narrows it down a bit.” I tap the steering wheel thoughtfully, merging onto the freeway. “Maybe he knew one of our hits. A partner, maybe? That could explain his interest in Silence. Wife for a wife.”
“Maybe,” Z hums thoughtfully. “Hopefully Cleo can come up with something, and while she’s doing that, we plan how to eliminate the fucker.”
Refocusing on the road, I exhale deeply. “And fast.”