Page 34 of Desecrated Saints
“What’s wrong?”
He slams the lid of a laptop shut hard enough to send papers flying. “Augustus’s hard drive was wiped by remote override. I’ve been trying to get it back, but there’s nothing I can do. Incendia are on to us.”
Hudson grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. “Not to point out the obvious, but we know they’re on to us. Our fucking faces play every night on the news.”
Kade glances at his brother and spots our state of disarray. His eyes widen, trailing over us both in a comical way. “What the hell happened to you? Did you get mauled by a bear out there?”
“I fell over,” I lie easily.
Snuggled up on the sofa with a movie, Phoenix throws an arm around Eli’s shoulders. He’s staring intently at my bare skin on display while trying not to laugh. Eli’s grinning at the pair of us, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. It’s painfully obvious why we’re both covered in mud.
Kade looks exasperated. “Why is your nose bleeding?”
“We both fell.” Hudson grins ear to ear.
Phoenix waves his two broken fingers that are strapped together. “I fell too, right into some asshole’s fist. Funny how often that happens around here, isn’t it? Very coincidental.”
“You should know better than to mess with Seven’s television schedule.” I dump my ruined running shoes. “He’s now obsessed with the cooking channel. I think he got bored of the nature shows. Wait until he finds the porn.”
“Are we moving on from the fact our one lead has been destroyed?” Kade exclaims.
Ignoring him, all three guys stare at me.
“What? Six years in a locked basement makes for a lot of curiosity,” I say innocently. “Who can blame him?”
Kade dismisses us all with a colourful curse. I catch the dusting of pink across his cheeks. He’s got the dirtiest mouth of them all, and somehow, he maintains this innocent-as-fuck exterior.
“Is there really no way to get the hard drive back?” Hudson returns to the topic at hand.
“Nope, I tried everything. We’re toast.”
“We’ll figure something out. That wasn’t our only lead.”
Tossing my wrecked t-shirt in the bin, I’m intent on a hot shower to ease the ache between my legs. The pair of jungle cats cuddling on the sofa are watching me closely. I don’t break eye contact as Phoenix whispers something in Eli’s ear.
Before we have a chance to investigate how many people can fit in the shower, the partition door slams open. Sadie struggles out with a duffel bag, her shock of pink hair tucked into a dark beanie. She startles when she sees us all.
“Going somewhere?” I break the silence.
“I’m leaving while Seven is asleep.”
“We’ve discussed this, we’re not ready,” Kade rushes out. “There’s still too much we don’t know. We lost Augustus’s laptop, but I’m working on a profile for Bancroft and…”
Sadie raises a palm to halt him. “This is precisely why I have to leave. The sooner, the better. Incendia will catch up to me when they find out I’m related to Jude. We’re all in the firing line.”
“But why are you leaving?” I demand.
Sadie seizes the remaining stacks of paperwork from the table to avoid answering my question. I grab her arm before she can turn away. There was a time when I considered us something akin to friends. Now, I’m not sure where her true loyalties lie.
“I’m sorry, Brooke. I have a job to do.”
“What job? Who are you really?”
“I vowed to bring Jude’s killers down. Augustus is dead, but the real monsters are still out there. Five more institutes. Incendia didn’t build itself. They killed my brother and I want justice.”
“Your brother is here. Alive. He needs you.”
She shakes her head. “Jude isn’t coming back. I belong out there, doing what I was trained for. I trust that you’ll take care of him. Hell, you know him better than I do now.”
