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PJ wasn’t cowed by the man. She stood toe to toe with him, her chin held high, her nostrils flaring. “Is that a threat?”
“Not so much a threat as a warning. In this camp, we have rules for a reason. It’s not been that long since you were a recruit. No one is above them. Not even a trainer.”
“I know the rules, and I follow them,” she said. “Do you?”
His eyes became slits. “Don’t question me, recruit.”
PJ held his gaze for a long moment. Finally, she said, “If we’re done here, we have work to do.”
“We’re done.” Tiberius stepped to the side, allowing her to pass.
When Judge moved abreast of Tiberius, the idiot reached out and grabbed his arm.
Immediately, Judge brought his fists up, and his lips curled back in a snarl. “Get your hand off me,” he growled.
Tiberius’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “Watch yourself, recruit.” He released his hold on Judge and stepped back.
PJ touched Judge’s arm. “Don’t waste your energy. We have a long day ahead of us.”
Judge stood for a moment longer, holding Tiberius’s gaze.
The other man broke the staring contest first and turned to PJ. “Make sure he’s in the indoctrination sessions. He needs to learn his place in The Chosen Way.”
“He’ll be there,” PJ said and walked away.
Judge followed, keeping Tiberius in his peripheral vision. He didn’t trust the man. Hell, he couldn’t afford to trust anyone inside the TCW camp.
As he followed PJ, his gut told him he could trust his trainer. Why, he wasn’t sure. She was up to her eyeballs in assassins, and, if she’d been there long enough, she had to have proven herself in order to be considered capable of training others.
His gut had always been spot-on, saving his ass in more situations than he could count. Was it faulty now? Could he trust an assassin?
Time would tell.
Chapter 5
PJ willed her heartbeat to slow. She’d never admit it or let it show, but she had been shaken by their encounter with Tiberius. The man made her skin crawl.
When they’d had multiple camps, she’d only run into him on an occasional basis. He oversaw the governance and training of the recruits and had the closest connection with Augustus. If anyone knew the identity of the man in charge, it would be Tiberius.
He'd been the one who’d come to their camp after the woman they’d called Fly and her daughter had stolen a truck and rammed through the gate. He’d come down hard on The Commander and the other leaders, demanding to know who’d set off the explosion and unlocked the barracks door, allowing the mother and daughter to escape their building.
They’d all assumed she’d managed to get out on her own. And that she’d been the one to set off the explosion that had created a diversion long enough for her to get herself and her daughter out.
PJ had expected them to call her in for questioning. They hadn’t. Once the mother and daughter had left, the camp’s location had been compromised. She could’ve led the authorities back. They’d had to pack up and leave that same night and move to one of their alternate locations.
That location had also been discovered and overrun by a group of former military special operation types, who’d banded together to create a security agency called the Brotherhood Protectors. The Protectors had captured the men in charge in that raid but not the founder and head of The Chosen Way. He and Tiberius hadn’t been at the camp when it had been overrun.
PJ had escaped only because she’d been on a run outside the wire when shit had hit the fan. Several others, including Wiley and some other lower-level leaders, had managed to scatter into the woods, avoiding capture.
She’d had the choice of allowing herself to be captured by the Brotherhood Protectors. So many times since that day, she’d second-guessed her decision to reconnect with The Chosen Way.
But as long as Augustus was free, he could follow through on his promise to come after her friends and family if she defected from TCW. She couldn’t put them at risk. Her life had officially sucked before she’d been abducted. Now that she’d assassinated a few men, she was a criminal. A murderer.
If she escaped and went home, she’d always wonder if the authorities would catch up with her. If not them, then she’d have to worry about another assassin sent by Augustus. Only the assassin wouldn’t be after her alone. He’d come for those people she loved and kill them first to make her suffer.
Then she’d wish she was dead even more than she did now.
Death would release her from TCW. She’d considered suicide after she’d completed her training and had been given her first assignment. She’d never killed a living thing in her life.
