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Drawing in a heavy breath, I dig my fingers into my eye sockets, while my brain does mental gymnastics, twisting and contorting, trying to wrap itself around what the fuck he was doing. He has more sense than this. Zeke has to have lost his damn mind. He shouldn’t even have had that thing anymore.
Once we were certain that Hannah had all evidence of us taking on the Syndicate wiped clean, Travis instructed Zeke to destroy the drive. We didn’t need whatever was on it anymore, because our involvement with them was finished. Ties severed. The world of the Syndicate wasn’t one that the Brotherhood or the Reapers wanted any part of, not if we were going to keep our respective organizations safe.
Spencer was finally out of danger, and we had no other ties to that society. No other reason to hold on to anything having to do with them. We were free and clear. So when I walked in on him smashing the same bright green drive that Spencer had handed over all those months ago, the emotions inside of me all clashed together like a thunderstorm inside of my chest. Anger, betrayal, confusion, everything settled in all at once, and I hate what these feelings are doing to me.
Then he looked into my eyes and he lied to me.
“What the fuck are you doing Zeke? You were supposed to destroy that drive months ago!” I pace back and forth across his bedroom floor, wearing an erratic pattern into the carpet.
“I know,” he mutters under his breath, never looking up to meet my gaze.
“Why? Just tell me why,” I plead, sitting down on the bed next to him. My left leg bouncing with nervous energy. I need him to tell me something, anything that makes sense. Because you betray the Brotherhood, and you die.
That can’t be what happens to Zeke. This isn’t how our story ends.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I swear I hear him sniffle, but I can’t see his face.
“Anywhere Zeke, start anywhere.”
Taking a deep breath, he looks up at me, tears streaming down his face, nose turning a bright shade of red.
“I - I had a sister, Riot.”
“What?”
“A sister.”
“Okay,” I nod. Suddenly very unsure of where this is going, because I thought I knew everything there was to know about the man next to me.
“Ellie. She was everything, Riot. She was my whole fucking world. All we had were each other, and it was my job to keep her safe. You get that right?”
“Zeke, this doesn’t make any sense. I thought you had no family, just foster homes?”
He nods, swiping the tears away from his face with the back of his hand.
“It was just foster homes, but it wasn’t just me in the end. It was me and my foster sister, El. Us against the world.”
Softening, I reach out and grab his hand, lacing his fingers between mine.
“What happened? And what the hell does this have to do with the drive Zeke?”
“Everything,” his shoulders fall as he huffs out a sigh. “The last foster home we were in. I was 14, she was 12… Our foster father, he was a typical piece of shit. He left me alone, but it got so bad for her. He fucking… he did shit to her, every goddamn night. Then one really bad night, he had invited someone else over too… I - I never asked her, but I think that night, they both… I don’t know. But when I snuck out of my room to check on her, I overheard him talking to someone, and realized it was worse than we knew.”
“What happened?”
“He was talking with some guy. Riot, I swear, I… I didn’t know. When I agreed to help you guys I didn’t fucking know,” his tears flow faster and his chest is visibly heaving as he rushes through his words in a panic. His chest rising and falling so fast, that I know he’s struggling to breathe.
“Slow down Zeke, didn’t know what?”
“He was talking to a man named Grant. Grant Maddox.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. He was, he was making plans for Ellie. He was going to sell her. I - I thought I was hearing shit, ya know? I thought it had to be a dream, because that kind of thing just doesn’t actually happen. That’s like something you see in a movie. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t a dream. I - I tried to get us help, but she just couldn’t wait. One night, we ran… She fell behind. Just for a moment Riot… Her hand was in mine. I had her, I fucking had her, and then…”
Reaching out with my free hand, I wipe his tears away with the pad of my thumb, as he turns his head, leaning into my touch.
“They got her. She screamed for me to run, and I was going to help her. I swear to god man. I was going to help her. But there was another man there, and I fucked up. I ran. I just kept on running. I never saw El again. It was all my fault. All of it.”
