Page 71 of Made

When I returned to the kitchen, I overheard Killian saying, “What if they object to our little joke?”

“What little joke?” I didn’t try to keep the alarm out of my voice. When three guilty-looking faces turned toward me without explanation, I repeated myself. “WHAT little joke?”

“Well.” Keir cleared his throat. “We’re doing it together.”

Yes. I was confused. “Doingwhattogether?”

“If there’s any chance the thing has been rigged, we think we raise Kagan’s chances if we help,” Keir said.

“How’re you gonna do that? And how is it a joke?” I looked from one to the next before coming back to Keir.

“Kagan has a pass based on his cellular structure,” Keir said.

“I know. I got that.”

“The thing is, his cellular structure is our cellular structure.” He made a motion to include the three of them. “Same.Identical.”

It took a few seconds for me to grasp the implication. I felt my eyes go wide and began shaking my head. “No. No. No. No. No.”

“Hold on,” Keir said.

“I am holding on. To you. And Killian. The two of you are not going. Are you completely out of your minds? If this is what you were calling a joke, then the answer is yes. You are out of your minds. That’s why it’s a good thing I’m here to tell you NO.”

“You don’t control us,” Kagan said.

Ever since Keir had introduced the idea of being controlled, Kagan had been going out of his way to assert his independence at every conceivable opportunity.

I looked at Kagan. “At times like this, I might wish I could.” I looked at my husband with pleading eyes. “Keir, you should’ve mentioned this to Max so he could tell you allthe reasons why this might be the dumbest idea you’ve ever entertained.”

With a tiny nod, he said, “I think you know why we chose to keep this to ourselves.”

“Because you know you’re being stupid.”

“No,” he said, sounding a little irritated with me.How dare he?“Because we want Max to be able to claim ignorance.”

“Very considerate.”

“I don’t mind your sarcasm when it’s funny, but I really don’t like it when it’s biting,” Keir said.

Killian cleared his throat. “You know, maybe we should…” He started to rise.

“SIT DOWN!” I said.

He did.

“How is it that you think you’re all going? Explain it to me.”

“We’re going to do exactly as Max told Kagan, but we’re going to link arms.” He sniffed. “And go together.”

“And you think that when the three of you show up, instead of the one they’re expecting, they’ll just laugh it off and compliment your sense of humor?”

“We listened carefully to the rules.” Keir raised his chin in defiance. I could already tell by the body language that I was not going to win this fight. “Nothing was said about Kagan not having help. If there’s not a prohibition, then it’s allowed. That’s how parameters work.” I gritted my teeth. His argument had merit. I knew it, but I really didn’t like it. “They can object, but they can’t change their own rules just because they didn’t anticipate a strict interpretation.”

The truth was their plan scared the hell out of me. In fact, I was so afraid of what could happen, I felt tears forming.

Seeing that, Keir’s head fell back. I didn’t think I could change his mind with tears. I wasn’t using emotion as a ploy. In fact, in my defense, I was pretending to be the adult in the room.

“Rita,” Kagan said. “If it goes badly, I will apologize and ask Esme’s captors to release my brothers.”