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“Enough!” This forceful voice surprised me the most, mainly because I didn’t recognize it. “I know tensions are running high, but we need to keep our crap together. Now how is it going with the police?”

My mouth - well, my mental mouth because I totally wasn’t going to move - dropped open when I finally placed that voice. The last few times I’d heard it, it had been nothing more than a timid murmur, but that husky timbre was unmistakable.Tamson.

Who would’ve thought that shy boy had a bossy streak?

Maybe he just behaved like that around me. After all, I was a girl. Or maybe, just maybe, I had gotten him completely wrong. For all I knew, he kept a house full of playgirls bending over to please him. Literally. Because, you know, in this fantasy Tamson was a kinky son of a -

Focus, Adelaide!I mentally scolded myself.

I concentrated once more on their conversation.

“...under their thumb,” Ryder was saying, irritated. “The fuckers laughed when I called.”

Laughed? Who did they call? Hopefully it wasn’t the police because they were-

“Crooked cops,” Ronan sneered.

Yup. What he said.

I made the idiotic mistake of calling them once, after a particularly bad beating. My arm had been broken in more than two spots, and I had a punctured lung. The doctor of the resort, an aging, malicious man who was blinded by this loyalty to my parents, had announced that I was lucky to be alive.

As if it weremyfault my dad decided to beat me.

So I had called the cops. I was many things, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take chances with my life. The conversation started off simple enough until I had given my name and address. All at once, the operator declared there was nothing she could do to help me and hung up.

Not even an hour later, D.O.D. punished me for attempting to get in contact with the authorities.

“I agree with Declan,” Asher said. “I don’t give a damn about our supervisors. We need to change the mission. All in favor?”

A chorus of “ayes” rang out.

What mission? And what supervisor?

I wanted to yell at them for not providing more information. What’s the point of eavesdropping if you don’t understand half the conversation?

But as my mind spun, drowsiness threatened to pull me under. The darkness was alluring and seemed to be calling for me.

I answered the call and allowed it to consume me.

* * *

The next timeI woke up, I was actually able to open up my eyes.

The first thing I noticed was that I was in a hospital - the resort’s hospital, no surprise there. The familiar white walls and pungent aroma of bleach made the room unwelcoming. How many times had I been here? It struck me deep when I couldn’t recall the exact number.

The heart monitor still beat its annoying tune, and someone still sobbed nearby.

What the actual -?

I twisted my head, a surprisingly painful movement, to see Calax in the chair beside my bed. His large frame looked awkward in such a cramped, tiny space, and I wondered if he had gotten stuck.

He held his head in his hands, and his body shook as sobs racked his body forward. It didn’t make any sense. Giants didn’t cry. He should’ve been smiling or licking blood off his fingers or lapping up intestines...

Calax’s eyes flickered towards me.

Whoops. Must’ve spoken that aloud.

“You’re awake,” he said breathlessly. “How do you feel?”