“He’s fine Marissa. I sent a team to watch over him and your aunt. They’ve contacted me and let me know that everything was quiet.”
Quiet didn’t mean anything. Everything was quiet when they had broken into Dean’s house and tried to kill me. Shay’s house wasn’t nearly as secure as Dean’s was.
“I need to see him,” I told Dean. He ran his fingers through his hair. I had never seen Dean like this. He was always well controlled. He shook his head to me.
“He’s safe, I promise.”
I had meant I needed to see Dad. Maybe he knew that and hoped that if he made it look like we were talking about Shayden I wouldn’t say anything. It worked.
I looked over at the guys and could see worry on each of their faces except Zavier’s. He had tears in his eyes and pain on his face. They had heard me. They had all heard me confess to another method used to torture me.
I had managed somehow to get up off the floor and back into Dean’s chair. I was wringing my hands when I looked back at Dean. “Don’t make Braydon leave me. Please?”
He closed his eyes a minute.
“I really need him to do this but I’ll give you a week okay. That’s the best I can do Princess.”
I felt selfish for that request. I had no idea what Dean was sending Braydon out for. It could be to take out someone that was hurting innocent people. If it was, it made me just as much as a monster for asking.
I turned back to his desk to look for the paper but it was gone. There was one major rule when it came to this job. Tell no one but one person where you are going. It had to be someone you could trust. And it had to be someone that wouldn’t tell no matter what. I knew better than to ask.
“Will others be killed if he doesn’t go?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. He just stood there staring at me. After a couple of minutes he said something that surprised me and put fear in me.
“You tell me everything that happened those two days and I’ll tell you everything about his orders.”
I stood and the chair went flying. I backed up and bumped into his bookcase knocking over pictures and trophies. I turned to straighten them out but Sage grabbed my hand and looked at me.
“It’s alright. We only want to help you.”
To everyone else my guys were jerks most of the time. It was hard to get in with them. But to me they were sweet and caring. Sage was my funny perverted sometimes corny carefree friend. Zavier was the shy type. He didn’t talk much except to me and he would tell me everything. Gabe was the serious type, never wanting to goof off but always laughing at the stupidest things. Lorik was the smart-alack that gave you a hard time over everything but when it was just me and him, he let his defenses down.
I could trust them with the truth. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was they would not only never trust me again, but probably never want to speak to me again.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“Are you a coward?” Lorik asked.
“Yes. I’m a weak coward.” The statement made everyone in the room give me a look of pure shock.
Braydon stood and addressed me. “There is nothing you can tell us that will make us think any less of you.”
“You can’t say that. You don’t know.”
“Then tell me!” he screamed. “Tell me what the precious princess could have done that would cause her flock to turn away from her?”
He had never spoken to me like that. At first it hurt but then the pain turned to anger.
“Is that what you really want Braydon? You want to hear what really happened?” He nodded his head and glared at me.
“Fine, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Everyone moved away from me to give me room to breathe. I moved the chair out of my way and paced back and forth.
“As I said they tortured me from the moment they put me in the chair. But it was uh, after that they chained me to the floor in the same position you saw earlier. Again they beat me. They threatened to cut my tongue out. They used a dropper to drop blood in my eyes. They talked about raping me. Not by just one of them. They took pliers to my nails breaking them down the center so that if I tried to clinch my fists they bled and hurt.”
I looked out the window and thought about everything that had happened. How could they make me relive this? “While I was chained they would talk about all the things they had done to other girls. They were trying to scare me. They would come up behind me and touch my arm or something to try to make me jerk.
They didn’t like that I didn’t. So they choked me until I passed out. When I woke again that was when I was on the table. Things got worse. The metal pipe they used to break my jaw was used on me again. They started at my feet and would hit me. I don’t know if they were trying to break bones or just trying to make me scream. Either way they stopped before reaching my neck. That was when they started cutting me. I still didn’t make a sound but I was biting my tongue so hard I thought I was going to bite it off.
After cutting me up they left the room for a little bit. I guess they were trying to come up with something else. Which they did. They had gotten my phone. I had forgotten and left it on my side. I heard them pressing buttons and then Sage talking. I thought they were on the phone with him. I didn’t know they had hacked into my voice-mail. They started laughing because that was the only thing that made me react. They didn’t break my wrist. I did trying to get lose.”
“You broke your own wrist?” Zavier asked me.
I nodded to him. I watched as he came over to me. He stood in front of me and reached out a hand.
I was trying hard to stop the shaking but it wasn’t working so I grabbed a hold of Zavier to continue standing.
“Sage was saying that he was at my car looking for me. Then I heard them saying that they didn’t need any more than that. They were sending out men to get him.” Now tears were pouring down my face and Zavier had to hold me up. They would hate me if they ever found out the truth.
“They left the room and came back around an hour later. He had pulled the hood up partially so I could see. They had made it look like they had Sage. There was a hood over his head and he was struggling. I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t get loose. I was forced to watch as they smacked him around. I was screaming and begging them to stop.”
I looked over at Braydon and could see the pained look on his face. My breathing picked up. I would rather them hate me for this lie than for them to know the truth. No matter what they didn’t need to hear it.
“I broke.” My voice squeaked as I said those two words.
For a few minutes that was all I could say. The sobs that took over wouldn’t lessen. I hated lying, especially to them.
When I finally felt a little composed I looked up at the guys. “I’m so sorry. I betrayed you. I didn’t know what else to do. He was..he was going to kill him in front of me. I mean, oh God, I can’t get it out of my head. I couldn’t let it happen. I broke. I told him my name. It was after that they left and Braydon showed up.”
I looked at the floor I couldn’t bring myself to look at any of them. I didn’t want to see how much they hated me. As an assassin I wasn’t supposed to break for any reason, not even death.
“Marissa, you didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t imagine any of us allowing the other to be killed. It doesn’t make you weak.”
I looked at Zavier. He had tears running down his cheeks. The distant and painful look in his eyes let me know he didn’t exactly believe me but he held onto me never saying anything to anyone.
“Marissa, why didn’t you tell me?” Braydon asked.
“When you let me loose the only thing on my mind was getting to him and killing the guys that had done this. Only when I didn’t find him, I realized I’d been tricked.”
“And you think this makes you weak?” Dean asked me.
I nodded to him as he walked toward me.
He circled me before stopping and staring into my eyes. “Are. You. weak?” h
e asked through gritted teeth. I nodded my head.
He hovered over me causing me to lean back. He was furious. “I don’t allow weakness in this academy. Again I ask are you weak?”
“I don’t deserve to be here,” I said but kept a straight face. I wouldn’t cry at what he was doing because I deserved it. He spun me around and forced me to look at all the guys. They each had tear trails on their faces.
“Rissa tell him you’re not,” Sage was saying.
I refused and Dean grabbed my hand and started bending it backwards as he almost broke my elbow.
“Did you give your father’s name?”
“No! I would never do that. I told them I was adopted and didn’t know who my real parents were. I would never let anyone hurt my family.”
“Then what makes you think you’re weak? Have you not heard these men here telling me to stop? Or begging me not to hurt you?” Dean asked through gritted teeth.
I nodded my head.
“Even I would have done the same. That doesn’t make you weak. It means you have a heart. And that is something I hope you never lose.” Dean said as he let me go and pulled me into a hug.
Braydon stepped up to me. “You realize at the age of sixteen, none of us had ever been through even a small part of what you went through. I would probably have broken sooner than you did.”
“So you guys don’t hate me?”
“You may have broken but you didn’t give them the complete truth. I’m sorry for being mean to you earlier. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
Braydon had tears pouring down his face as he pulled me from Dean and into his arms. I looked around at the guys as I listened to Braydon’s heart pound. It was hard to control the guilt I was feeling.
When I glanced up at Braydon he kissed my forehead. “It’s alright,” he told me. I went to each of the guys and held them to me for a few minutes. I listened as Sage begged me not to blame myself. The pain I was seeing in their eyes was hurting me more than anything. I wanted so bad to scream that I lied because I couldn’t stand them all looking at me like that. The guilt they thought I held for not stopping his torture was guilt from the looks they gave me.
I got myself under control and turned to Dean. He was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. The room became still. I didn’t know if everyone was holding their breath or if they were just making sure it didn’t make a sound. We all waited.
“I was sending him to find out what happened to your father. I’ve tried reaching your uncle but I was unable to get in touch with him. He is the only one left to notify. As far as I know there shouldn’t be a reason anyone else will be killed, so no there isn’t any danger necessarily, but I need answers.”
“Is that why you asked me if I gave his name? Do you think someone from the camp got out and started tracking us down?”
“It had crossed my mind, but no I don’t think that’s what is going on. I can offer you a few days with Braydon but after that I will require him to go.”
I wanted to offer or beg for him to send me instead but I knew he would never go for it. He would say that I would be in too much danger trying to find out what happened.
I turned to Braydon. I really didn’t want him to leave me. Living without him would be too hard. He was the only one that kept me even remotely calm. Without him here I wasn’t sure how I would survive.
“Use a disguise and hurry home to me, please.”
Two days past before Dean sent for Braydon. I watched from the window in our room as he climbed into Dean’s SUV. Lorik had pulled it around after checking it to make sure it hadn’t been tampered with.
Braydon slung his duffel bag into the passenger seat, looked over at me and motioned with his hand that he would call me. I blew him a kiss and watched him drive away, taking my heart with him.
I woke the next morning and looked around the room. I was alone. The boys had gone to Dean’s office for some discussion that I wasn’t privy to and didn’t wake me before leaving.
Normally I like to be alone. Today however wasn’t one of those days. Nor was it a day I wanted to be stuck inside.
I grabbed my headphones and walked to the kitchen so Braxton wouldn’t see me. I opened one of the windows and stood on the ledge and shimmied out. I looked behind me to make sure no one was watching and then looked around outside.
I used one of the small trees that were planted between the window and bench as leverage. I jumped off it and hit the window with my foot making a loud bang. I didn’t care. I knew it would be heard but I wanted to get out of that room.
I made it onto the metal canopy that covered the sidewalk. I ran across it and climbed the best I could to the roof of the library. I knew I shouldn’t be out here but I needed air. I needed to think.
When I saw the ladder to the main roof of the school, I climbed it and walked across to look down upon the football field. I stood there staring down for a few minutes when I heard a voice.
“You really shouldn’t be up here.”
I turned to see Zavier standing there. He had his hands in his pockets. The look on his face said he understood but also knew the dangers.
“I needed air,” was the only response I could give him.
I love Braydon with all my heart but there was something about Zavier. He was tall, had broad shoulders but was nothing but muscle. His hair came down to his shoulders with a slight curl. I loved how it got in his eyes. It made me want to move it out of the way just so I could run my fingers through it again.
I had been in love with Zavier at one point. I had never told him though. I had just made up excuses that I had kissed the others so that meant I got to kiss him too. He never refused me either. I looked at his plump lips and realized I was biting the corner of mine. When I glanced up he was looking at my lips.
His eyes met mine and I wanted to get lost in his. I had heard people say they had seen others with eyes that looked black but Zavier’s really were. You couldn’t tell where the pupil started or stopped. I loved them. I knew it was weird but to me as long as I saw myself in his eyes, it was like I was in his head. That he thought of nothing but me. He smiled like he knew what I was thinking.
“You need to go in,” he stated but his smile never faltered.
“Why? You’re here to protect me.” Gah was I flirting with Zavier? I should be ashamed of myself but I couldn’t stop. I imagined kissing those plump lips, feeling his strong arms around me. Yeah, he was hypnotic.
“That may be, but I don’t want to take a chance,” he responded and I didn’t get any more out of him because at that moment, Dean appeared and was pissed.
“In the building now!”
My eyes widened and I took off across the roof, put my hands on the side of the ladder and slid down. I ran across the library roof, jumped and landed in a crouch on the canopy. I then attempted to jump to the ground but landed in Braxton’s arms.
I gasped when I looked at him. I had forgotten how much him and Braydon looked alike except for some reason Braxton had shaved his head almost bald. Braydon may have been a little taller but being in Braxton’s arms like this I couldn’t really tell. He did however, have more muscle over on him. It was like landing on solid rock when he caught me.
“Do I need to call him and tell him you’re flirting with danger?”
At first I thought he may have known I had flirted with Zavier but then I realized he meant being outside in general. I shook my head and tried to get down but he only threw me over his shoulder and carried me in the building.
Dean wasn’t the only one pissed. From the looks of the guys I would be on their short list for a while.