Page 59 of Equilibrium
“Yeah, me. What are you doing?” I walked toward them, refusing to look at Storm who started mumbling on the floor, finally noticing me there. The hulk kept quiet, looking at me in that I’m-gonna-fuck-you-up way. At this point, I should probably start making a waiting list of all the people that wanted to either kick my ass or see me dead.
Might need to hire a hostess for that. Maybe Zoe could help me?
“Are you deaf?” I propped my hands on my hips, standing a few feet away from him. “Or do you need me to repeat the question?”
Atlas stood behind him, and if looks could kill, I would probably be a dead woman right now. I had no idea what their problem was, or why all the other members just stood on the side while he kicked the shit out of Storm, and I didn’t exactly care. If I didn’t have to, I didn’t want to witness any violence.
My whole life was already filled with it, and right now, my mood wasn’t exactly the friendliest one.
“Do you have a death wish, little girl?” If I had a dollar for the number of times one of the meatheads called me a little girl, I could afford the therapy I obviously needed and a house in the Bahamas. “Get out of here. This is not a place for women.”
My eye started twitching at the blatant chauvinistic comment and the snickers that sounded around me from the rest of the meatheads that obviously had the same opinion as the idiot in front of me.
“Would you like to repeat that, buttercup? But try using some big words. We’re not in kindergarten anymore.”
Ooh’s and ah’s came from all sides, and I must say, I felt just a little bit better. One thing that always pissed me off was men always putting women down, just because we were physically smaller, because we were women, and because they thought we couldn’t handle the shit life would throw at us.
Joke’s on them because women could handle a lot more than men could even dream of.
He stepped away from Storm and walked slowly toward me, drilling a hole into my forehead with his eyes. From the corner of my eye, I could see Atlas pulling Storm up, and Indigo, fucking Indigo, finally approached them to help. Creed finally appeared and I wondered where he went if I managed to get here before him. Was he taking a piss?
His eyes widened seeing me there, but I focused my attention on the hulk in front of me.
“Ophelia Aster.” He rolled my name around his mouth, tasting it, playing with it. “Are you as lethal as they say you are?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.” Two more steps and he was right in front of me. I had to crane my neck to look at his face. “Wanna test it?”
He seemed to contemplate it for a moment, reading me, gauging my reaction, but after a tense minute, he grinned.
“I like you.” The feeling definitely wasn’t mutual. “I just hate where you came from.” That feeling was absolutely, one hundred percent mutual.
“Welcome to the club. I don’t like it either.” There was nothing there to like. Every single thing I ever loved about my birthplace, about my family, they managed to destroy it. So yeah, if these people wanted to judge me because I came from that family, I couldn’t stop them. I knew what we did and what this last name I carried around stood for.
I knew about the atrocities my father committed, about the atrocities I committed as well. Even hell wouldn’t want us.
Silence stretched around us until Storm finally decided to rejoin the party and start behaving like the president.
“No, wait.” He wobbled on his feet, which would’ve been almost adorable if it wasn’t for the fact that he allowed this guy to kick his ass. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to hurt more—Storm for allowing it to happen, when I knew full well that he could defend himself, or this idiot standing in front of me for attacking him in the first place. “Don’t touch her.”
He wasn’t touching me, but it was cute that he suddenly decided to defend me.
“She had nothing to do with this.”
The man laughed, but the mischief in his eyes told me he was going to play. He saw something I didn’t, and when his hand wrapped around my neck and he turned us to face Storm, I knew exactly what it was.
I didn’t know when or how or why, but I was Storm’s weakness. That day with Creed, he would’ve killed him because he attacked me. And now, after that beating, he cared more about me being unharmed than himself.
Storm’s eyes blazed with fury as the mountain behind me started inching backward, moving us away from him.
“Don’t even fucking think about it, Hunter.” Ah, we have a name, ladies and gentlemen. “She has nothing to do with any of this. Leave her out of it.”
“That’s really cute, Prez, but I think she does. We are in this newfound mess because of her.”
Because of me? I didn’t do anything.
“And I’m not sure if I want to go to war just because she has a nice pair of tits.”
“You guys are assholes,” I interrupted.
