Page 148 of Wreck Me

“I don’t want out,” Sky told me. She broke my hold on her hands, then reached out and cupped my face. “I’ve never belonged anywhere. I’ve always been a loner, through and through. I just never found people who I fit with, who I could connect with, who’d see that messed-up side of me and accept it. But with you guys, you don’t just accept it, you relish it. You want it, you want all of me—the good, the bad, and the twisted. We all put on a show to the outside world, but beneath it we’re all outcasts who don’t do well with normalcy.” She kissed my cheek, then stepped back. “I finally fit somewhere. I’m not walking away from that.” She looked out at all three of us. “You heard my whole sordid story and not only accepted it, but supported me and didn’t judge me even for a moment. So, believe me when I tell you, there’s nothing you can show me that will have me doing that to you.”

Wow. That was a hell of a thing.

Stunned, I looked out to see Cal grinning ecstatically.

Cas was smiling too.

“Bastian?” Sky asked.

I nodded and managed, “Yeah. Okay, yeah.”

She chuckled at my speechlessness, then slipped her hand back into mine and her other into Caleb’s.

And then Cas reached around the silver frame of the mirror and flicked the hidden button.

Sky’s eyes widened as the mirror slid aside to reveal a steel door protected with a secure keypad.

Cas stepped in front of it, his back to us, then punched in the code.

A sharp beep and a whirring sounded before it inched open to reveal a set of stairs that led down into a portion of the basement that was sealed off from the rest of the house.

The motion-sensor pot lights illuminated the concrete stairs and we followed Cas down.

As we reached the bottom, he turned on the lights and the place lit up.

“Oh my God,” Sky breathed, pulling from me and Cal and walking further into the space.

I watched with bated breath as she looked all around in stunned silence, her eyes darting every which way as she took everything in.

The supply of gear on shelves lining the walls—weapons and tech. The command center on a raised platform in the middle forming a U-shape with all the monitors, laptops, and devices.

She looked to the left where dozens of frames hung on the walls of newspaper clippings referencing our takedowns. A little further along were corkboards of ongoing strategies and missions, some detailing criminal networks that needed to be taken piece by piece.

And then she walked over to the mannequins to the right of the command center.

A choked gasp escaped her as she ran her fingers over one of the hooded leather coats, then feeling out the Kevlar vest beneath.

But what drew her full attention next were the masks.

Gold and black masquerade masks that covered the mannequins’ foreheads, all the way down to just before their mouths. She peered around one of the coats and saw what I knew she would—the embroidered red design of a silhouette of a jackal, teeth gnashing.

She spun back around to face us. “You’re them,” she breathed. “You’re The Jackals.”

Caspian just gave a nod, watching her carefully.

Tension reached fever pitch, before a smile spread over her face and she grinned out at us.

“This is fucking amazing!”

Well, then.

I was high.

All right, slightly high.

I preferred to call it peaceful.

I wished the meds had kicked in beforehand, then my whole freakout running up to coming down here could’ve been avoided, the fact I’d almost stood against Cas and Cal in the process too. Seeing me have a reaction to anything, especially the kind of intense emotional one I’d had upstairs earlier still freaked them out. They weren’t used to it.

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