43 #4
I’m not sure if he’s trying to be funny, but I feel the strange urge to clap him on the back in that brotherly way guy friends do when they do a good job as some of Havoc’s frustration is pushed back by her amusement.
“Hmmm,” she hums in response, her lips ticking up at the corners.
And just a moment later, she’s in, the home screen coming into focus.
I can almost hear the jump of everyone’s hearts.
It’s deathly silent now, and no one dares to break that, though I do lean a little closer as Ezla looks through all the apps on Joseph’s phone. Brows pinched, she swipes to the second page of apps against the backdrop of an incredibly boring black wallpaper. Her thumb hits one immediately.
Then her face appears on the screen.
Ezla’s jaw grinds, her grip on the phone whitening when the screen mirrors that with perfect colour and clarity but from a different angle.
“Fucker,” Cooper seethes under his breath, but it’s loudened when the footage carries his voice to us as well as his mouth does, perfectly in time with him. My own mountains of fury rampage through me as I stare at that screen, balled fists shaking.
We all knew this was happening, that her disgustingly disturbed sperm donor was watching her, watching us as a result. But the evidence that’s before us so clearly, the reinforcement of the knowledge that he could see Ezla like this, with such high definition, every hour of every day . . .
“Never in my life . . . did I think I’d want to kill anyone the way everything in me wants to kill him.
” Alby’s whispered words are said through gritted teeth as he struggles to get his breathing under control.
And it’s still a shock whenever he speaks this way, because it’s definitely not common, but it’s not at all surprising that he thinks like this.
It’s one of the many reasons he and the other guys became my brothers.
They all understand the feelings within me.
Even if we have different ways of expressing our own, even when the differences in their forms are most obvious, they’re not too far from each other.
“But he is already dead. He cannot be killed again, and I do not even wish he would return so I could have the pleasure of destroying him myself. I already did that, even if I was not the one to drive the blade home as I had always wanted,” Ezla says, but her grip is trembling in contrast with her coolly composed tone.
“I would change nothing about the way he ended. I am glad that it was you, Cooper. I am glad that we both ended each other’s . . . torment.”
Swallowing hard, a sheen I know I’m not mistaking glosses his dark brown eyes. “Me too, Vengeance,” he murmurs roughly, bringing a hand up to smooth his gloved thumb over cheekbone. “Me too.”
Out of nowhere, her head jerks up slightly and to the left, and her hand whips out so fast I can barely track it.
Tiger jumped about a foot off the ground, but now everyone’s frozen in place as we stare at Ezla’s closed fist. “Did you . . . ?” He can’t finish his wide-eyed question as we all glance down at the phone in her other hand. The screen is black, Tiger’s whisper through the device almost inaudible.
Cooper blinks. “Did you know you could catch them?”
“I knew I would have to be fast if I did. I learned quite a bit about the hidden cameras in the Avri labs recently, yet never enough to form a solid plan about how to be rid of them.” She reveals, “During the Games, they are designed so that only two can be focused on a person at once, allowing for different perspectives for the audience while ensuring each Player gets the spotlight by interacting with each other; they sense when others are nearby and will not focus on an individual if it picks up on two cameras already focused on them.”
“Clever,” Scotty murmurs. “I’m guessing they’re also smart enough to avoid quick movement, then. I’ve never felt anything bump into me that I couldn’t see during a Game or otherwise, and they can definitely move swiftly enough to keep up with our Avri tribikes and jets.”
Havoc hums absently. “Yes. But even cameras can be caught off guard.” Then she adds to her previous words, “Because of this knowledge, I had considered asking for some of our own cameras, as, if this applied to all of them, I would assume it would apply to his, and they would turn away from us. But then I was not so sure, as his most certainly did not switch from person to person as the others would, which is already an important part of their normal function crossed off the list. I did not want to risk there being any others.”
“So smart, my Havoc,” I rumble, fingers tingling with the urge to touch her, to pull her into me, but I know now isn’t the time. And with Joseph finally gone, we have all the time in the world to do everything we want to together.
Another vague sound of agreement as the thumb of her free hand taps at the screen again. A screen that splits in two, one half now showing the back of Tiger’s blond head.
Whipping around in an instant, he darts out with lightning-fast speed.
“Dang it! I swear I had it!” Features displaying a deep pout, Tiger turns to face us again while we glance back and forth between him and the screen that now seems to show a perspective from further back, the camera evidently having darted away.
Ezla appears contemplative. “I would suggest we need to increase the difficulty of your training, but we no longer have a need for that.”
Tiger’s lips pop open in an O shape. “Oh yeah,” he breathes in amazement.
I don’t know what’s so fucking good about that.
“But we’ll still do stuff like that, right?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I say in a low tone, “Want you to toss me about, Havoc. I love training with you.”
“Any of you who want to, yes.” Her stunning eyes now on me, Ezla tells me, “I would very much miss that too, so do not worry, my beast. We will continue whatever you would like from our sessions.”
I lick my lips, already aching as I imagine all we’ll do together. “Thank you, Havoc, baby. I can’t wait.”
“Right. That’s all great.” Cooper speaks with a frown, and I try not to glower at him, because he doesn’t seem all that interested in the conversation.
But the scowl on my face does appear for another reason as my anger rages back to life at the reminder of the man that died in this room when he asks, “So what now? And what about the . . . the videos?” Nausea travels from him into the bond along with the just-as-ever-present storms of fury, but he somehow keeps his voice relatively calm as he continues, “Do you want one of us to look? We can delete them all for you, HC. You don’t have to look at them. ”
“I would not want you to see that either.” Ezla’s reply is as stiff as it is instant.
“Both because I do not like the pain I know it will put you through and because I cannot stand the . . . the . . . I do not want anyone to see that,” she grinds out, her grip clenching even further around the phone in her hand.
“It is sickening. Humiliating.” Scotty places a hand on her back, and I can’t stop myself from wrapping an arm around her waist with a low noise that contains the supressed version of the ruckus within me.
“I . . . I can only hope the thumbnails are not too bad.”
“We’re not going to push you, Love, but just know that you don’t have to do this alone. We’re right here. We’ll always be right here.”
Ezla swallows thickly. It’s completely still and soundless for a short while before she says, voice unusually quiet, “I am not sure what I want other than you. I still find it difficult to understand all my thoughts and feelings when I am around you. Please just . . . find and pick out my answer from my mind.”
A fist squeezes around my heart to mimic what I can feel from the other guys.
Holy fuck do I love this woman.
I don’t hesitate to do as she asked, and I know my brothers are doing the same, searching her mind and the undeniable chaos within it that I push into with her permission.