Page 183 of The Reluctant Hero

Another one. Another absence of the law. This isn’t mafia territory. This is vigilante justice. The exact same type as what I’m indulging in now. And big Matthias has been collecting them like an army of baby assassins that got spoon-fed hate and violence as a daily diet.

That’swhy Cade hates me. He thinks I used Gabriel for money, and even though I didn’t threaten his life, to Cade, it would only be a matter of time before I became what he destroyed. I can see Janine and her friends through his eyes now. Disgusting parasites that use men for their own gain. He thought I was cut from the same cloth. He’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop and reveal my real intentions with them.

“We’re all the same here. Shaped by loss and hate. I don’t mind what I’ve become. It has its uses. Cade minds. He disgustshimself for his actions. How Matthias found him, I don’t know, and he’s never said. Perhaps they ran in the same social circles. I doubt Cadey had any idea how to dispose of a body in those early days. I don’t know about the others. They’ve been at this years longer than I have.”

“Everyone lost someone?” I ask in a deadened tone.

Jake makes a thoughtful sound. “My information on the rest is spotty at best. They keep to themselves for the most part. Mikael and Ace were handpicked guards for Matthias before Gabe took them out of heavy duty. They’re especially close because of it. I have been able to gain a few details but some of it is an educated guess. I know Mikael lost the uncle who raised him. A pedophile kidnapped him, and his Uncle came to the rescue and didn’t make it. He wasn’t missing for more than a few hours before his Uncle tracked him down on his own.Hours. The police wanted to wait for a required day to begin an investigation. I think Mik saw the whole thing go down. He wasn’t born to be a victim. He’s a predator through and through. That man never stood a chance. A threat to himself, Mik could handle. Killing his Uncle made the monster hidden inside come out to say hello.”

It’s hard to imagine Mikael as young and vulnerable. That’s why he’s so withdrawn. Even if the pedophile only had a few hours with him, I doubt he wasn’t hurt in some way. Bile churns in my stomach. Before I can gather myself from all the punches, Jake keeps going.

“And Ace? His younger sister. A night out with friends, drinking too much and dancing. They let her walk home alone, content that she wasn’t driving. She was gang raped and left to bleed out in an alley. They tell stories about the police being unable to find all the body parts. His mother committed suicide directly after the funeral.”

I remember his unrelenting rage when he found out about my little party with South and Shade. It hits so differently now. I doubt I wouldn’t have yelled at him regardless, but it makes that whole interaction painful to think about in a whole new way. And his mom. He’s been trying to comfort me in the ways he knew worked for her, and I’ve been resisting it with everything in me.

I’ve been pushing buttons I had no idea were there from the very beginning.

“And Gabe,” he sighs deeply with a quick glance at me. “A life filled with the sight of his mother’s death. He never speaks of it. I know no details. Idoknow that Matthias blames him for not acting that night. For not being like one ofus. He’s quite vocal about it, no matter who is present. Not to mention that his father ran through money-hungry women like water until his recent marriage. Quite a bit like Cade’s life with a decent woman at the end instead of a death trap.”

Jake doesn’t know about Gabriel’s grief? And he told me. In a limited way, but still. He opened up a wound even further than it was and let me see it. Willingly. What does that mean? He wouldn’t do that for an act.

Jake sucks his teeth for a second, the sound bringing me out of a deadened stupor.

“Gabe saw us floundering. Each of us had given up at some point on surviving the grueling tasks we were sent out on. He snatched us up and offered us a safe haven from his father’s manipulations. A chess master playing behind the scenes to maneuver us all into safety with hardly anyone the wiser. He’s saved plenty of us and allowed us the opportunity to live as normal people as best we can. I knew that wasn’t in the cards for me so I remained at his side. He has my loyalty. He’s filled a room in my heart. They all have.”

I feel sick at the onslaught of information. But not with grief or horror. In cold, relentless rage. The emotion eclipses everything else until I watch Jake’s character on the screen get knocked out for the final count. I won one round out of I don’t know how many. I’d usually crow about the victory, but it’s hollow.

“Button masher,” he teases with a crooked smile that’s real.

“Why are you telling me this?” I whisper, the controller heavy in my limp hands.

“So you understand us. The betrayals and lies. We’re covering each other, some more than others. You build a type of loyalty that’s hard to bypass. We are each more than capable of dealing with threats and we all think that knowledge will bring you some comfort. They chose well framing you for the theft. Between Cade’s experience and Gabriel watching his father go through gold-digging women as a man possessed, you gain a certain perspective of the female mind. It boils down to money. I wonder if they had inside knowledge or if it was a blind guess when they framed you.”

I make a disgruntled sound I can’t describe and start up a new game.

“They have obvious wealth, and women want it. Never them. Always the money. I find it odd that no men have been ousted for the behavior, don’t you? They’re just as prevalent.”

“Movies,” I mutter back, an itch of a thought teasing my brain.

He nods with a frown. “Detective novels.”

My thumb freezes over the buttons, allowing Jake to KO me with a single hit.

“You aren’t even trying,” he mocks me.

I can’t answer him as realization pulls me under. With my name on the account, it will look like I’m the mastermind. Ialready figured that out. If I’m supposed to be the patsy, then there’s going to be more. A lot more.

It will also push this group over the edge to find any of it out. My innocence didn’t matter to them in the first go-round. I don’t see this one ending any better whether Jake chooses to stand up for me or not.

And I know just how vicious they can all be with shocking detail.

The knowledge is like a brick in my stomach.

“You’re hiding something. Tell me,” Jake sits up with a frown, the game forgotten as he tosses the controller to face me.

My eyes narrow on him. I can’t go back to the head-in-the-sand version of myself anymore. He just gave me an entire list of reasons why that would be a bad idea. I’m dead meat no matter where I turn. And I’m currently shacking up with a new set of executioners. How am I going to get past them and dodge whoever else is out there looking for me? They may not be on team Blake, but this is just as bad in a whole new way.

“You don’t get it yet,” he accepts the lack of an answer with grace. I’ll give him that. “We kill the guilty,meine Seele. There will be no escape for any threat to you. Point me in a direction, and I’ll go.Anyof us will. I won’t be jealous.”

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