Page 80 of Darling Wildfire
He leaned back and crossed his ankle over his knee.
“Good teams—the teams that really excel and get everyone out alive—they assimilate, they work to capitalize on the individual to achieve cohesiveness. They work off everyone’s strengths and fill in the weaknesses. Vyper was not capable of doing that.”
As North was talking, Preacher was slowly losing his scowl. He couldn’t deny North had a point and while the cop in Preacher probably would always despise taking the rules into our own hands, he was logical and could see the appeal, and the necessity, of what North spoke about.
“I can’t promise I won’t kill someone like that again,” he said dryly. “But Icanpromise that I will do everything in my power to get myself and the people around me out alive. Because, Preacher, this is all a means to an end. I want to survive so I can get out of here and make Vetticus regret ever even knowing my name. Is it a game? Sure. But survival is more important and when it comes to that, we play by our rules.”
Preacher was silent, regarding North with less of a scowl and more like he was trying to decide something. After a breath, he nodded once and sat back in the chair.
“Alright,” he said begrudgingly. “My trust has to be earned and I can’t say after today I’m there yet…”
“I expect nothing less,” North said.
A commotion near the door had all our heads turning in that direction as a guard entered dragging the woman from the game behind him. She was now clean and instead of red paint she was wearing a red bra and panty set. She looked young and in shock but her eyes were glassy, making me think she might also be drugged.
“Reward for winning today,” the guard said before dropping the girl in the middle of the room.
No one spoke. We all stared at the girl who was kneeling on the rug and trembling. I sighed and ran a hand over my face.
“This is fucked up,” I muttered as I stood up. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
I watched her eyes jump to me and trail warily over my naked chest as though I was going to jump her at any second.
“Lana,” she murmured just loud enough to be heard.
She pushed a brown curl off her face and wrapped her arms aroundherself, goosebumps breaking out over her skin. I walked over to my bed and picked up my sweatshirt and handed it to her. She looked up at me, the fear so potent I could feel it coming off her in waves, but she slowly took the sweatshirt from me and put it on.
“What does he expect us to do with her?” Preacher demanded.
“I’m your—you know—reward,” she said quietly.
“You mean—does he expect us to fuck you?” Preacher asked incredulously.
Lana nodded, her lip trembling as she looked up at me again.
“Jesus—” I muttered. I ran a hand through my hair and looked over my shoulder at the others.
“The winning team gets me for the night,” she murmured.
39
ATLAS
I scowled at the implications of Vetticus dropping ourprizeoff for the night.
I knew I wasn’t going to touch her and based on the looks on Nyx and North’s faces; they weren’t either. I stood up and walked over to my bed, sitting on the edge facing Nyx. I watched North get up and head to his bed too.
“I’m not going to touch you,” he said. “Can’t speak for the others though.”
He laid down on his bed and closed his eyes, throwing an arm over his face and effectively shut everything out. He’d been everything I knew he’d be today during the job. Fearless, bold and lethal—like he’d told Preacher, he took our strengths and used them to his advantage instead of trying to mold us into what he wanted. A true leader and I was happy to follow him. I’d already grown to like him and trust him but after today, those feelings had grown tenfold. There was no going back—we were bonded by blood now and the way we all worked together had been a beautifully dangerous thing to behold.
“I’m not going to do anything either,” Nyx said. He leaned his head back against the wall behind him and looked over at me.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “I’m not touching her.”
My heart ached at the thought of everything Vetticus had taken. I missed my partners terribly and thought about them every day. Nyx must have seen the despair in my eyes because he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and faced me fully.
“Where’d you learn to shoot like that,” he asked.
