Page 2 of Wrecked

“It’s my life.”

Crow made a derisive sound in his throat. “You really need to give Erebus a try.”

“Why?”

“It beats being a degenerate.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say, but the kid’s aggressiveness rubbed Crow the wrong fucking way.

“Fuck you. What I do is none of your damned business.”

“What do you think of this?” Real asked, bringing Crow back to the conference room and it took him a moment to realize Real was speaking to the man standing at the end of the room.

Every pair of eyes turned to the man in a black three-piece power suit, who had yet to say a word.

William Caldwell’s steel blue eyes held Real’s across the room. Caldwell was forty-three this year and one of the youngest to hold the office of Secretary of Defense.

Caldwell was in charge of Genesis and hence this training facility, so it was the man’s call as to whether or not they would bring in someone without military experience.

Almost all of the personnel at Nightfall Drifter’s Ranch were current or former military and Crow couldn’t see the SecDef changing that rule.

The main exception to the rule had been for Jagger, who was former CIA.

“Can we make it work?” Will asked Real.

“Seriously?” Crow asked and Real snapped him a dark glower.

“Shut your mouth.”

“Sorry, sir.” Crow grimaced.

“What’s your hesitation, Crow?” Will turned to him and Crow shifted in his chair.

“Like Savage said, he’s a foul-mouthed rebellious teenager,” Crow muttered.

“Does he have the skills?” Will asked him.

Crow couldn’t deny that Rebel was skilled, one of the best at knives and guns. The kid was also fair at hand-to-hand street fighting, but could use a lot more training.

“Yes, he has the skills, Solomon made sure of that. But he’s a loose cannon with a lot of anger issues.” Crow sucked in a deep breath. “And some memory loss.”

“Memory loss?” Will asked with a puzzled frown.

“Yeah, he doesn’t remember his childhood before Solomon and Tanis. He only remembers what his mother has told him about it.”

And Crow only knew that because he’d overheard Rebel share that tidbit with Boston. Boston was another young assassin that had come out of the fucked up world of Solomon and Tanis.

“Rebel had been sold off by Solomon to Tanis,” Savage told Will.

“Solomon created a tornado of shit,” Will muttered, his voice hard. “We owe these boys a fighting chance, especially the worst ones.”

Nobody around the table could argue with that and silence settled over the room for several moments until Will spoke again.

“So, let me ask you again.” The SecDef turned his gaze to Real. “Can you make it work?”

“There’s that property with the cabins just past the north pasture. We could build something there to house the worst of the worst,” Real said slowly as if thinking aloud. “I don’t want them mixing with what’s going on here until they are tested and acclimated.”

Will nodded and squinted at Real. “I don’t want them joining Genesis per se, but bringing them here and getting them ready to join Erebus would be doable.”

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