Page 75 of Sloth
Leave no stone unturned.
After AIMI had checked her credentials, Sloan pushed open the heavy metal door. A few quick strides down a dark hallway, and she emerged in the underground Operations Room of their headquarters. Most of her family had gathered around the central strategy table. Evan. Flint. Mary. Parker. Tony…
And Barry.
She zeroed in on the man with predatory focus. The sin of sloth wiggled in her gut… and it still came fromhim. Shouldn’t he feel free from sin now? After all that? Confusion whirled in her mind with anguish. Her wired, scattered thoughts clashed as though on steroids. She thought she had herself under control, but her irrational fury and fears rushed to the surface.
It was his fault.
That man.
Stifling agony wrapped around her throat and squeezed. It lowered to her chest—to her heart.Max. Her Max. Her mate.
Missing.
A flash of their fingers touching through the car’s window hit her mind’s eye.
If he was dead—pain suffocated her chest, solidified in her bones. She froze, rooted to the spot, in silent torment, unable to voice her fears.
Instead, her eyes glued to the man before her. She was stupid to think she could save him. So stupid. Because of him, Max was gone. Her sweet Max who sacrificed his own happiness to go back into the field and hunt for his missing friend. Her beautiful man who deserved more than this creator of monsters ever did.
She should never have deviated from Parker’s plan to save him. Instead, she’d listened to her gut, and fucked up again.
Sloan blinked, and Barry was at the center table, chatting quietly to a smiling Flint. Her father’s happiness was a betrayal to everything Sloan felt inside. And that monster-creator was in the center of it all, looking innocent as he adjusted his spectacles on the bridge of his nose.
End his sin.
She blinked, and then her hands wrapped around the man’s throat, shoving him backward, rushing him toward the wall housing flat screens broadcasting local news reports, shaking the foundations.
She didn’t know how she’d closed the gap, or how she’d even moved, but it happened too fast and the older man responded with heavy limbs. He did nothing to protect himself. Nothing. A lamb to the slaughter… just like he’d led Max. It was Barry’s idea to rescue his daughter. For all they knew it was a trap. A well-played trap, and here he was, sitting in their secret headquarters, no doubt coaxing any precious information he could out of Parker. And then what?Who’s next?
In her periphery, Sloan vaguely heard protests from her family, but they were just obstacles in her path. Barry deserved to sleep. Sleep forever.
A feminine scream snapped Sloan’s attention to alert.
Reality slapped her in the face. In horror, she realized she’d been choking the man so hard that he couldn’t breathe. Why had no one stopped her? Why?
She let go, stumbled back, and slowly turned around. Everyone in the room was on the floor, moaning, rubbing their head or… still asleep.
Fuck.
She did that. She’d caused a room of warriors to drop with a single reckless thought. If it wasn’t for the daughterly love of the teenage girl, now crawling to her heaving and rasping father… if it wasn’t for her, Sloan would be a murderer.
* * *
“I didn’t mean to,”Sloan stuttered. Coldness crept into her body. It all had happened so fast. So goddamned fast.
One minute, she was walking into the room, intending to have a strong word with the scientist. The next minute, her hands had been wrapped around his throat, choking the life out of him, and sending every person in the room to sleep.
Get rid of the obstacles.
That’s what she had done. She got rid of anything blocking the path to end the sin she still felt sizzling in the gut of the man who was at the center of it all—Barry.
Groans came from the floor. The first to come to was Evan, dragging himself to a standing position.
“What the fuck was that, Sloan?” Evan rubbed his head. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”
Sloan covered her mouth and backed up. What had she done?
