There’s a sudden scream in my ear. I wince against the sound, even as my heartrate ratchets up.
Pandora?
“Mel!” Ares shouts. “Fuck, fuck, Kratos, we need to?—”
Is it wrong that I’m relieved it’s not Pandora?
Mel needs help, but she isn’t important. Her brothers can take care of her.
I can’t let myself be distracted.
The screens suddenly go completely dark.
“There we go,” Ezio says. He laughs. “I wonder how long everybody has left.”
Those words make my heart drop into my stomach. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demand. I grab him by the collar of his shirt and twist, yanking him closer to me.
Ezio’s laughter fills my ears. “Everybody in one building. You were going to light fires to force everybody out through one exit, right? But what happens if the fires aren’t where you planned? What happens if you’re still in the building when they start?”
Ezio punches me in the gut.
I wheeze and release him, grabbing the wall to steady myself.
“What happens if your precious Pandora Pavone is sitting in the middle of far, far too much kindling?” he taunts.
No.
I’m not going to let that happen.
Even if it means losing Allers, even if it means losing George Bouchard, I’m not.
“Get the fucking doors open!” I yell. “Get Pandora out!”
But Ares and Kratos are going to be distracted helping Mel. River is going to be distracted by Allers. Bobbi is taking care of her own agenda. And Blaze… I don’t know where he is.
Are Reaper and Fenrir able to hear me?
Can Anastasia do anything from her control room?
There are so many unknowns, and I growl and shove at Ezio with all my might. I need to deal with him, but I can’t beat him to a bloody pulp right now. I have more important things to contend with, starting with making sure that Pandora isn’t in trouble.
Ezio grabs me before I can get more than two steps away. “No. We’ll watch it all go together. Do you think she’ll scream, the way my family did? Giulio Pavone will know what it’s like to have everything stolen from him in a single instance.”
It all comes down to vengeance.
He’s never going to stop until he gets justice for his family, the same justice Pandora wants for Rachel.
My earpiece crackles, and I wince against the high pitched sound.
Ezio takes the earpiece out of my ear and tosses it aside. “You won’t want to hear that. You’ll go deaf. Especially once the entire room turns into shrapnel.”
Shrapnel.
“What did you do?” I demand, driving my fist into his jaw. It connects, surprisingly solid, the metal of my brass knuckles ripping into his skin. I smell the copper of his blood. “What the fuck did you do?”
Ezio laughs. “I didn’t do anything. You did it. All of you. You wanted to cause chaos? Well, you’ve got it. What bigger chaos is there than an explosion, with all these generations of Kappa Alpha alumni caught in the blast? And Pandora Pavone, dead center.”
The rage that suffuses me is absolute, and that urge tokillslams into me.
