Page 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jolie

The pain feels like I have taken a bullet to my brain, scooped out its contents, and shoved them back inside. A sharp sting to my leg has me gasping.

“Shhh, Tenshi.”

“Creep,” I whisper.

Memories of a boy with obsidian eyes and the smile of a fallen angel fill my mind. I smile, remembering the connection we had. He was my protector, the one who would wipe away my tears when the days were hard and whisper Japanese in my ear to soothe me. I remember calling him Creep and he called me Tenshi —Angel.

My eyes fly open, and it is no boy sitting beside me, but the man has the same eyes and smile. Only now his face has matured, and he has tattoos tracing one side; I want to reach out and ask why he marked his beautiful face. He has also added a nose ring, and a ring fits snug around his plump bottom lip.

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

“Scared, confused, and like I have been hit with a sledgehammer.”

“Do you remember?” he whispers, seeming almost vulnerable, needing this to be the case. I nod, and he immediately leans over, capturing me in his arms and pulling me close. I freeze at his sudden contact, and he pulls back. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s just a lot to process and things are still fuzzy.” My stomach growls and suddenly I’m starving.

“Do you want to start with breakfast?” Food sounds great right now, so I nod.

I came here with so many questions, and now I have so many more. All of my memories are supposedly back, so they might hold the truth.

“Let’s get you fed,” he says, standing and holding out his hand.

I take it, and more memories of him surface. Me sneaking off from my studies to watch him train, his lean body clean of tattoos. Staring at a fresh brand on the back of his leg when he had his shorts tucked up. It was red and angry looking.

I shake that last image off and slide out of bed. The sight that greets me in the kitchen is jarring. Chester and Kai are cooking and notice me walk in. Memories surface of Kai getting frustrated because I couldn’t pick a lock, and Chester teaching me how to make a fart bomb so I could steal a teacher’s laptop and get Marlow to help me change my grades.

“Good morning, princess.” Kai smiles, plating up some bacon.

“Morning. Where is everyone else?” I ask, taking a spot at the breakfast bar, and Creed sits down on my right.

“Trace had to be taken back before anyone knew he was missing, and Brennan has driven the others home, so you weren’t overwhelmed as soon as you woke up. He will be back to pick you up soon.”

“Thank you,” I say. “Can anyone tell me why I’m not freaking the fuck out right now?”

Chester adds some poached eggs to my plate as Kai adds the bacon and toast. Creed’s arm is pressed up against mine, like he needs to feel me to know I’m here.

“Right now, it’s probably because you have enough calmative in your system to tranquillise a horse,” Creed jokes.

“Mostly it’s because that is how we were created,” Kai explains. “Have you noticed that you don’t react how others would in situations?”

“You mean like when I found out that Brennan and the guys probably were involved with mine and Trace’s kidnapping, but I still fucked them anyway?”

They all look at me with murderous glares, so I try to smooth it out with, “Or like right now, how you all look like you want to murder me, but I’m not actually scared of you.”

“I’m going to kill them all,” Creed snaps, moving from his chair to stalk from the room and slam the bedroom door.

“Please don’t let him kill Marlow or Brennan, I haven’t slept with them yet.”

Jesus, I did it again.

“Yet?” Chester asks with a raised brow.

“Yes, yet, because I don’t have to explain myself. Up until last night, I didn’t know who any of you were and none of you know me anymore. I’m not that innocent little girl you all remember, and I will never be her again, so please just drop it.”

“And there is her fire,” Kai laughs. “Good to see you’re still as bossy as ever, always knowing what you want.”

The bedroom door is thrown open, and Creed comes striding out with a handgun. I don’t think, jumping from my chair to stand in front of him. “Hold up there, killer. No one is dying today.”

“Yes, they are,” he retorts with malice in his tone.

“No.” I poke him in the chest. “They.” poke . “Are.” poke . “Not.” poke

He stares at my finger as if he wants to rip it from my body and eat it. “They took advantage of you.”

“Actually,” Brennan says from the front door. “They were all warned to not sleep with her because Jolie knew what she was doing, using her body to extract information from them. While she didn’t have any memories, she still had her training programmed deep inside her. She just found the easiest way to exploit their weakness, and she knew from day one what that was.”

I shrug. “They made it so easy.”

I had been keeping all that information and knowledge stored away in case I needed it. Now I know without a doubt I’m their weakness.

“One of your specialties is finding what makes a person vulnerable and preying on that, using their weaknesses against them.”

“Knowing that would have made my life easier the last couple of years, especially when the foster brothers liked to try to sneak into my room at night. Especially the one from two placements ago.”

“He’s dead,” Chester simply states.

I turn to look at him while Creed smirks, like he is waiting for recognition. Kai just smiles.

“Very. Slowly.” Creed adds.

“Couldn’t happen to a better person. Another thing, how come your drugs work on me? Nothing ever works.”

“It’s because your body perceives the mainstream stuff as poison, so it has zero effect on you, but everything we use is made specifically for us.”

“So, what happened when I went to that party and got wasted?”

“They are not like us, and how they got their hands on our gear will be determined soon enough. The boys will take care of it when the time comes,” Brennan says.

“Who is not like us? And what did they do?” Creed asks, ushering me back to my chair and taking a seat beside me as he looks me in the eye.

“Some guy named Aston and his friends,” I say without hesitation.

Creed stares at Brennan, and they exchange a look that says they will talk about this later.

“Hey, what the fuck was that?” I snap, realising I just told him without questioning why he asked.

Creed laughs. “You still can’t lie to me, Tenshi.”

I flip him off and jump down off the kitchen stool, having finished my food between talking. A memory flashes back of Creed being the one to talk to me, because while the others would know I was lying, I could never actually lie to him.

“Well, I guess Brennan is here to take me back to the Myers, so...” I don’t really know what I should say.

“We’ll see you at the gala,” Kai says with a flirty wink.

“Ok, see you then.” I wave to them all.

Brennan walks me to his car in silence.

We head out, and after we’ve been driving for around five minutes, I recognise where we are.

“You can’t be serious.” I sigh, shaking my head.

“What’s wrong?”

“You weren’t visiting your grandmother that night—you were visiting Trace.”

Brennan nods. “Funnily enough, it was the safest place to keep him. Me being seen out here was valid since the test zone is just there.”

“Yes, the test zone that I was dumped into,” I snark, making Brennan realise no one has told me about that yet.

“Everyone who gets found after being kidnapped, or new recruits, has to run the test zone. It’s just how it is, and what we had to do to ensure that Mr Z didn’t think anything was up.”

“And here I was thinking you were a good cardigan-wearing young man who visited his poor grandmother on Friday nights.”

Dark clouds roll in and thunder rumbles in the distance, bringing a forgotten memory to the surface.

Stamping my feet, I whine before sitting on the spot with my legs crossed. “I don’t want to learn! I want to train with the boys.”

“The boys have done their homework, Zircon. Where were you?” Brennan questions, bending down to my level.

“Watching,” is all I say. I wish they would see me as a grown-up. I might only be twelve, but they are only four years older than me.

“Watching what?” Brennan is the smart one; he always has his head stuck in a book.

I caught him reading romance novels once, he even sneaks me in some when I’m good. Mr Z doesn’t like us wasting our time on unnecessary reading. We need to spend all our time on our special skills, but I don’t know what mine are yet. I’m good at a lot of things, but not great.

“I was watching Case and Kai open those safes and Kai got mad that Case opened his first. He was pissed like I am. He thinks he isn’t great at anything too.”

“Zircon, you know Kai is great. He is better than grown men. Case is just faster—his memory of the material is better because he studies.” He eyes me for a long moment, then continues. “You don’t realise how much of an asset you are. You can find someone’s weakness within minutes of meeting them. That can assist us with missions when you’re older, but only if you practise.”

“But that isn’t cool. Case can see in the dark, Marlow is like a supercomputer, and Laughn can be electrocuted and feel nothing. Davis can tell when people are lying, and Boston is super smart—he remembers things from when he was a baby. I can’t even get drunk.”

“When did you try to get drunk?” he snaps.

“With Team Saint. They had a party and they let me go. They all got wasted, and I felt nothing. My life sucks,” I huff.

“Who was your handler on duty?”

“That new guy when Mr Z had everyone else busy. Team Saint had some sleeping pills. He slept for ten hours solid. I thought he was dead.”

“Jolie, did you hear me?” Brennan asks.

I turn to look at him, clearing the memory from my mind.

“Huh,” is all I say, stunned by this revelation. The guys all have abilities—how weird—and missions... I wonder what that is all about.

“I said, I told my mother that Sinclair had a bad break-up, and that is why you were gone all night. You cannot tell anyone you have your memory back. I can’t stress that enough.”

“I’m not sure it’s fully back yet anyway. Things are still coming in flashes and waves.”

“I wish I could tell you it will be over soon, but since we can’t be sure, just let me know if you have any side effects and I will get Chester to help.”

Rain patters on the car window as we approach the Myers house and lightning flashes across the sky. There is something so majestic about storms, and I can’t help but love them.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything,” he says.

“Was there always a connection between all of us? When I came here, all I wanted was to find Trace, no matter what it took or who I hurt. But once I was here, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and I know now one of my abilities is not overreacting.”

“I wouldn’t say overreacting is the right word.”

“Whatever. But I feel it, this pull, and I gravitate to each of you.”

“Yes, you will always have that with us all. It’s in our DNA—we are all linked to you. You shouldn’t be linked to my team, but for some reason, you always have been, and we aren’t exactly sure why.”

“How did I manage ten guys as a thirteen-year-old?” I question, because in reality, juggling ten guys is just plain baffling.

“You had us all wrapped around your little finger, and you knew it.”

I smile. Ten guys when I never even wanted one to stick around... though maybe it’s why I lose interest fast. One guy isn’t enough to hold my attention since these ten are literally programmed into my soul like I’m a freakin robot.

The beginning of a headache forms behind my eyes, while I try to wrap my mind around this clusterfuck.