Page 39 of Heart of a Villain

TEN

The marathon guess hadn’t been far off.

On the way, Dez had referred to their training as part of an obstacle course, but as Adrían studied what lay before them, it looked nothing like what he generally had in mind when he thought of an “obstacle course.”

The guys’ families sat on blankets on a grass field facing a jumbo screen. Out of habit, he looked for Sayeda.

“She’s not here yet,” Dez said. “She’s with Mo.”

“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s an obstacle course.”

The grim reaper waited for his victims among the different contraptions, yet unmistakable excitement buzzed among the group. Why Central chose them for their assignments wasn’t much of a surprise. The surprise was them thinking they could go back to a “normal” life at any point before the age of seventy-five.

“Trust me, it’s easier than what Dez usually sets up for training,” Mike said. “Here, the elevation is normal.”

“Plus, there’s not as much of a chance of death, and Tayler’s here,” Julien finished. “Oh, is she feeling better?”

Gage looked over at their small congregation of spectators. Thandie was sitting between Ari and Xara, chatting away. Theo, Grey, and Monroe chased butterflies. Josiah examined something in the grass, Aleksi and Ty standing next to him with one hand each on Josiah’s shoulders. Mikey wasn’t surefooted enough yet to run, and it continued to blow Adrían’s mind how normal it all seemed.

“Yeah, she’s feeling better,” Gage said. “We think it’s just her immune system still getting reacquainted with the hospital setting.”

Dez, Mike, Julien, and Joel exchanged a look of skepticism. For once, instead of studying Wren, Thanasis studied the obstacle course.

Thanasis, who was only five years younger than Giorgio, had also spent his childhood years going through the same kind of poverty-as-torture upbringing as Giorgio. Like Giorgio, the man who’d cursed them with half his DNA had a tendency to pick favorites. Those favorites then became the collective enemy of the rest of the brothers. Also, like Giorgio, a fire destroyed the shack the boys had called home, but in Thanasis’ case, he wasn’t the arsonist. He was, however, the fire’s only survivor.

“Everything’s all set up,” Mo announced, approaching them.

Lee and Trevor trailed her.

Adrían greeted what was left of Omega. Trevor, he saw regularly because Lilly lived and worked in Sweden. They didn’t know what Lee did whenever he went off or where he went, but he was never hard to get in touch with. Despite being more skittish than a mouse at a cat café, Lee was so reliable that they could use him as an alternative to a clock.

“Hey, Adrían,” Mo greeted, giving his forearm a squeeze that he figured was supposed to be reassuring.

But it didn’t put him at ease.

When he asked Trevor and Lee if they knew what the three of them were getting themselves into, they both had as much information as he did—next to nothing.

Gage and Dez started off.

The rest of them, including Mo, followed.

They climbed a rope ladder high enough to double as the straps on Jesus’ sandals, which deposited them onto a wide, flat wooden platform. It was there that he found Sayeda peering over an edge she was too damn close to.

“Hey,” he called, walking over. “Step back.”

“It’s so high.”

“Sayeda.”

She slinked away.

Mo positioned herself in the middle of their haphazardly made circle. “Good morning,” she began, smiling as though they weren’t only a few meters away from kissing the clouds. “This is day one of your training. Over the next,” her voice lowered to a mumble before rising again, “you guys will be going through a series that Dez likes to call ‘the inquisition.’”

“Over the next how long?” Lee asked.

Mo mumbled again.

---