Page 94 of Sloth
“You have twenty-four minutes and thirty seconds before the bomb goes off.” The sexless timbre of the voice was unmistakable as their eldest sister. “If anyone but Sloth approaches him, I’ll sniper shot them.”
“It will take us at least ten minutes to get down there,” Sloan said, surprised her voice wasn’t shaking. “I need more time.”
The call ended.
Sloan’s fury broke loose. Red crowded her vision. She shook with bottled rage until it bubbled up and she screamed. She hurled the cell at the wall and watched it break into a million pieces.
Her brothers swiftly lifted their hoods over their heads for protection—hoping to insulate themselves from her ability, but screw them. She had it leashed. She did.
“Calm down, Sloan.” Parker’s dark brows drew together.
“Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down,” she shouted at him.
Griffin and Evan both tensed and shared a look.
She knew that look.
She goddamned knew it. They thought she was being hysterical. They thought she couldn’t handle this.
Wyatt entered the room, stalled, and slowly tensed as he scanned them all. Immediately, he looked to her brothers for direction. Not her. He thought Sloan had messed up. She could see it in his eyes.
Screw them.
With a profound sense of deadly purpose, she stood, and she stood tall. She planted her palms on the cool glass table. She met each of her brother’s individual gazes.
“You think I’m going to lose it again, don’t you?” she accused through clenched teeth.
Parker lifted his chin slightly. “Your recent track record isn’t inspiring, Sloan.”
She gasped an almightymotherfucker-you-did-not-just-say-thatgasp. Her eyes snapped narrow.
“You can all suck it.” She rounded on Wyatt, slowly edging closer to her, and pointed at his face. “Especially you! I’ve spent the past fortnight training, working on my ability, and fighting to find my mate. That’s the only track record you all need to worry about. No… you know what? How’s this for a track record? How’s this for control!”
She knew she had no time. She knew she was doing exactly what they accused her of, but she couldn’t help it. Using the technique Tony had taught her, she conjured the vision of that nail file stabbing into her palm. Then she fired that pain at Wyatt. She fired it at Evan. And she fired it at Griffin and Parker. It all took mere seconds. Each of them grunted in varying degrees until one by one, they tensed, squeezed their eyes shut and groaned as they doubled over.
“And for the record, that’snotme losing my shit. That’s me teaching you mansplainers tothinkbefore you speak.” She wrenched that pain reflex tighter, feeling satisfied at their grunts of surprise. “Next time you accuse your sister of being lazy or not pulling her weight, you’d better open your eyes first. If any of you had looked beyond your own male pride, you’d have noticed I’d been working my ass off to get my skills under control.”
A slow clap came from the hallway and Sloan instantly let go of her hold on her brothers.
It got louder. And louder. And then Mary entered, a broad grin on her face. “Mija, I’m proud of you.”
Parker cleared his throat and straightened his uniform.
Wyatt had the decency to look ashamed. Evan and Griffin avoided her gaze.
But Mary was the epitome of motherly pride. She stared her sons in the face, coming to land on Parker. “I think you owe your sister an apology.”
A mumbled chorus came at her, then Wyatt came to Sloan. “Mary’s right. We all owe you an apology. Especially me. And I will—after we get to Max.”
“You’re right. Shit.” Then the panic set in. Max. The bomb.
The truth was, Sloan’s little display of power was full of false bravado. Yes, she could manage her powers, but she was out of ideas.
“Sorry,” she bit out and braced herself on the table, breathing hard. How the fuck was she going to get Max out of this? What if she’d just wasted the precious seconds she needed to save him? She squeezed her eyes shut, but the sight of his despairing face was there, front and center.Max. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Signal jammer,” Flint said, jogging into the room. “That will stop her remote detonating.”
“Signal jammer?” But the hope was short lived as something came to her. “There’s a hardwired timer on the bomb. That jammer won’t work. It will disrupt everything within the radius, even emergency services.”
