AllFreeNovel
Share Us
TWO
Julius
We sataround the dining table, Blaze’s usual spot filled by Dess as he squeezed in at the corner, too close to Garrison for either of their liking. If I had to hear another second of bickering from them…
“You eat so much pasta that you smell like it,” Garrison chided, taking a bite of his chicken.
My mouth became a thin line as I awaited Blaze’s comeback.
“You eat so much chocolate that… you know what? You don’t smell like chocolate.” Blaze smirked. “You smell like a heaping pile of dog—”
“You both fucking stink,” Dess cut in, her mouth full as she spoke. My spine straightened as she said it, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. Having someone else break up the constant heckling between them was a blessed relief.
She looked at me with a glint in her dark eyes. “Don’t think that you smell any better.”
Everyone looked at Dess for a moment, and she smiled at us. “Talon’s the only decent one here, isn’t that right?” she added, giving him a wink.
Talon, for all it was worth, looked pleased with her announcement. He continued eating with a hint of what might even have been amusement on his face, but he didn’t reply.
I looked around the table again, noting the homey feel that had settled over our group even with a relative stranger in our midst. Of course, the truth was that Dess barely felt like a stranger now. We knew who she was on a level she’d shared with almost no one before, and the same for her with us. I didn’t need to watch her from the corner of my eye every few seconds, checking for hostile moves.
It was so much better this way, having everything straightforward and clear. It would make our jobs easier, and we’d be able to help her more when we weren’t blinded by lies.
Dess stood up from the table and took her plate to the sink. Now that I knew what she was—what she’d been trained to do—I could pick up on the strength and agility that marked even the simplest movement, every motion she made deliberate and coordinated. Everything about her screamed “dangerous” if you knew how to look right.
But there was still so much about her that none of us knew, her included. So many things about her past that could prove more dangerous than she was.
Who was she? Who was after her? We could obviously expect further threats to arise, but where and when and to what extent?
Not knowing how to prepare left me on edge. I dealt in certainties and absolutes, planning our missions and our overall security down to the smallest detail. Anything left to chance could pop up and bite us in the ass at the most inopportune moment.
I didn’t have much choice, though. The only other option was turning her loose, which she didn’t want… and neither did I. Every particle in my body said both she and we were better off with her among us.
I wanted to help her.
The thought of those people wrenching her from her family and forcing her to become their murderous tool brought a bitter taste to my mouth. Fury flared to the surface at the memory of the fight in the sewers this morning, when her former trainer had sicced all those men on the woman she’d raised since early childhood. I’d like nothing more than to rip through every person responsible for Dess’s imprisonment, and I’d be counting the days until we found them.
My hand dropped to the military-issue Beretta M9A1 at my hip. The feel of the cool, smooth metal settled my nerves, even though there was no one in front of me to shoot just yet.
“I think we need dessert,” Blaze said, cutting off my train of thought.
Dess laughed lightly as she rinsed her plate at the sink. “Do we? Let me guess, you have a sweet version of pasta for that.”
Blaze snorted. “If only. How’s this for an idea? We have ice cream, and I know that Garrison keeps a tub of chocolate syrup in here somewhere. To celebrate your newfound freedom, why don’t I whip you up a chocolate milkshake?”
I doubt any of us had failed to notice Dess’s enthusiasm for all things cocoa-related. Her face lit up the second Blaze mentioned the syrup. But as he finished his suggestion, an uneasy twitch ran through her slim frame. The eagerness in her expression dimmed.
“That’s all right,” she said, her voice oddly stiff. “I’m actually pretty full.”
I studied her for a second, my brow furrowing with confusion, before it hit me.
In the videos, her bitch of a trainer had used the phrase “garlic milkshake” to completely control Dess as a child. She must have unpleasant associations with that combination of words—and maybe with each of them on their own as well. Very unpleasant, if it’d shaken her adoration for chocolate.
“Thanks anyway,” Dess added quickly, and headed to the exercise room that’d become her honorary bedroom in the apartment. Blaze started after her, puzzled and apologetic. “But… she loves chocolate,” he murmured to himself after the door shut behind her.
Garrison scoffed and cuffed the back of his head lightly enough for the gesture and the words that followed to come across more teasing than hostile. “For someone supposedly so smart, you can be one dim motherfucker.”
Blaze scowled, and I stepped in before they got going again. “You remember what her control word was at the household?”
