Page 124 of Equilibrium
“What’s going on here?” Kieran’s voice penetrated through the air and I removed myself from Cillian, wrapping the blanket around my body.
I wanted to tell him what was going on. I wanted to, but I promised. Cillian’s eyes were pleading with me, and I knew that this wasn’t something I had to reveal. Kill was an adult and just like I had to, he had to deal with his demons. I just hoped that he wouldn’t be too late to realize that he didn’t deserve to die.
“Usual.” I shrugged. “Kill was hogging the blanket and well, I am a bitch that doesn’t like that.”
He kept looking between the two of us and it was obvious he wasn’t buying my story.
“Where did you go?” I tried redirecting his attention to something else. I wasn’t going to be the one that would reveal Cillian’s secret, but I hoped for his sake and his brother’s sake that he would come clean sooner rather than later.
“I brought us some food.” He lifted the bag he was holding in his hand. “I thought that you two might be hungry, so I just did a quick run for it.”
“Sweet. I’m actually starving.” I really wasn’t. The mere thought of food made my stomach churn again, but snitches get stitches and all that crap, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near these two when they finally had that conversation.
I stood up, leaving a naked Cillian on the ground. I managed to locate my pants, thrown haphazardly on the floor, all the while ignoring the mocking pain from my left thigh, and the mark Storm left there. We never said words, we never placed any labels on what was happening between us, but we didn’t have to. What was happening between us was more than just meaningless sex.
“We need to talk, Ophelia,” Kieran said, keeping his distance from me.
If I had any worries about how he would react to what happened last night, this was my reassurance. He knew that this was it. This was our last goodbye before we both went our separate ways. I was worried he might start with the whole I-want-you-back speech and I was glad we were both on the same page.
“Right.” I answered, turning my back to him. “Let me just get dressed.”
I lifted the pants from the ground and pulled them on, gritting my teeth as the fabric dragged over the sensitive skin. I scanned the room for the tank top I had on yesterday, locating it next to the desk. I walked to it and took it off the floor, shaking off the dust and put it on.
Cillian scurried out of the room taking his clothes with him, and I wanted to follow him. I wanted to talk to him about what was going on. I wanted him to ask for help. There was no shame in asking for help, although the world we lived in often made us think that asking for help made us weak. In reality, it made us strong, but he didn’t know that right now. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to kill himself by trying to run away from the demons in his head.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just generally tired, I guess.”And feeling like I am about to puke, and your brother has a terrible, terrible secret, but I am all good.
I sat on the ground and Kieran followed after me, dropping the bag between us.
“Phee—”
“What do you have there?” I didn’t want to talk about last night, and I could see it in his eyes. He did. So much for us understanding each other.
“There’s a ham and cheese sandwich for you and a banana. They didn’t have any croissants at the gas station so I hope that this would be okay.” I expected my stomach to recoil again, but as the smell of fresh bread wafted to me, my mouth watered, my stomach growled, and I prayed I wasn’t going to start puking halfway through this meal.
“It’s more than okay.” I dug into the bag, taking a hold of the sandwich. “Thank you.”
Silence descended around us, and without Cillian here, we didn’t have a buffer. I didn’t have any kind of shield. He studied me for a moment before he too took a sandwich from the bag, leaving another one inside for Cillian.
“You wanted to talk?” I asked him in between bites. “Last night you mentioned something about Storm. What was it?”
He seemed to contemplate answering for a moment. I knew that Storm wasn’t his favorite person, but if Kieran had answers that could clarify some of the things that had been happening around me, I had to know.
“Yeah, ah.” He looked around as if he expected someone to be listening. “Do you know anything about Project X?”
It was the name on that folder and the same name that he asked me about back in their mansion.
“I already told you back in the mansion, I have never heard about it.”
“Shit.” He uncapped the bottle of water and chugged half of it in one take. “This is going to be uncomfortable.”
“Why?” I didn’t like the look on his face. Kieran was never one to worry about the things he had to tell me, so why now?
“Project X is a sex trafficking ring, Ophelia.” I’m sorry, what? “When we kidnapped you, our father wanted to know if you knew anything about it. Of course, we wanted to kill you at the time, so we didn’t exactly question it. Turns out that both of our fathers are involved in that shit.”
“Holy fuck.”
