Page 160 of Silver Elite

“Cross…”

And that’s when we hear his name traveling down the hall. A singsong voice.

We both frown. It suddenly registers. The silence. I can no longer hear laughter or music from the makeshift arena.

All I hear is, “Cross…Where are you, Cross?”

He sets me down. His lips are swollen from our kisses, but I can tell he’s no longer here with me. Frowning, he stalks toward the corridor.

I hurry after him. His stride is long, purposeful. He’s out of sight before I even step into the main room. I push my way through the eerily quiet crowd. When I reach the ledge, I peer down and spot him in the pit.

Roe.

He brightens at the sight of Cross, who’s emerged from the crowd several feet away from me.

“There you are, Captain.” Sarcasm drips from each word, especiallyCaptain.I think he’s on stims. He’s always on stims.

Cross doesn’t answer. He stares five feet below at his younger brother, waiting.

“I’m calling you out,” Roe taunts.

“Are you now?” Cross mocks him.

The room is deathly silent. I notice a lot of wary, perplexed faces. But I know what’s going on.

Roe’s pissed about Elite and looking to take it out on his brother.

“We haven’t knocked each other around in a while. Not since we were kids.”

“Probably best to keep it that way,” Cross says evenly.

“Nah. I think we’re long overdue.” Roe’s eyes gleam, and suddenly he’s addressing the crowd. “Captain of Silver Block, everyone!” He waves his arm in an extravagant flourish. “Come on, give him some encouragement.”

Not a single person utters a word. They all feel the tension. It hangs over us like a storm cloud.

“Get down here, brother,” Roe says, and I shiver at the sheer depth of the hatred darkening his face.

This is something that’s been brewing between them for a long time. Their whole lives, probably. I remember the resentment lacing Roe’s voice in the railroad car.You don’t know shit about my brother. Either of them. You didn’t have to grow up with them.

Cross is four years older than him. I wonder if Roe idolized him when they were kids. I wonder how Cross responded to that. I wonder if Roe’s warning to Ivy during RTI was not about her, but himself.

You loved him too much. He doesn’t want to be loved that hard.

“Are you scared, brother?”

I see the moment Cross resigns himself to the fact he needs to do this. Roe won’t stop. He’ll stay down there all night if he has to.

Cross’s gaze flicks my way. Then, without another word, he heaves himself over the ledge and jumps five feet into the pit. His boots collide with packed sand.

“You really want to do this? Let’s do this.”

He doesn’t strip off his shirt. Doesn’t do anything but stand two feet from Roe and wait.

Roe frowns.

Then he charges at his brother.

Cross releases a right hook that catches Roe in the eye, followed by a jab so fast I would’ve missed it if I’d blinked. Roe barely has time to react before the second blow lands squarely on his jaw, sending him stumbling backward.

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