Page 81 of Equilibrium
We were all sitting around the table in the backyard of the clubhouse, with me perched on top of Storm’s lap, Atlas on our right side and Creed on the left. Indigo was on the other side of the table, with his arm around the chair Zoe was sitting in. Even Hunter joined us today. Nova, a new bartender who started working a week ago, was on the other side of Indigo, scowling at Creed who kept trying to get her attention.
It’s been almost three months since the whole visit to The Renegades and me being at the club, and I had to say—I never expected to feel this at peace. Turns out, Storm had a house not too far away from here, still completely unfurnished but with a direct view of the ocean. A couple of his guys were sent to Mexico, to try and find out as much as possible about Maya’s whereabouts, but so far, we hadn’t had any luck.
I knew now how foolish it would’ve been for me to go there blindly, with no real backup and no proper information. The only thing we knew was that she was held by the Carrillo Cartel, one of the largest cartels in the region. If we didn’t want to start a war with them, we had to tread carefully, especially since I didn’t want to alert my father of what we were planning to do.
He had connections all over the world, and if he sold Maya to one of those mongrels, he most definitely kept in contact with them.
Strong fingers pressed against my waist as Storm’s breath tickled my ear. “Sunshine? It’s your turn.” All eyes were on us. Atlas was smirking, Indigo scowling—no surprise there, right?—and Zoe looked like she needed to pee as she wiggled in her chair.
“Truth,” I responded, followed by a bunch of groans from the rest of the guys.
“You are boring,” and, “Little coward,” sounded around us.
“Shush everyone,” Zoe warned. “Hmmm, truth.” Storm started kissing behind my ear, my neck, burying his face into my hair.
“You guys are almost disgusting,” Nova groaned. “There’s a room upstairs with your names on it.”
“Shush it, Nova.”
“Okay, I know!” Zoe exclaimed. “Kiss, kill or marry.”
“The what?” I stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Kiss, kill or marry. Which of the guys here, excluding Storm—”
“No,” the man in question protested.
“Shut up, Stormy.” I laughed, earning a soft bite to my shoulder.
“So, as I was saying.” Zoe cleared her throat and started again. “Which of the guys around this table would you kill, which one would you kiss, and which one would you marry?”
“Dude, there are four of them here, excluding Storm, and out of those four, only one of them would survive.”
A chorus of voices erupted around us, with Creed being the loudest one, because we all knew which part would go to him.
“What are you guys doing?” Felix, Atlas’s brother approached us just as Hunter started bickering with Atlas, throwing napkins at him.
“Ophelia is choosing who to marry, who to kill and who to kiss,” Zoe responded, her eyes sparkling with interest. Oh-ho-ho, I didn’t see that one coming. Little ZoZo liked Felix.
“So, what’s the answer?”
Storm sat straighter, tightening his hands around my waist as if to remind me who I really belonged to. Not that I could forget. This whole relationship-y thing was much appreciated by my vagina.
“I would,” I looked at Indigo, “kill Indigo.” Everybody started laughing at that. “Definitely kiss Felix.” Storm kept groaning behind me as I started laughing. “And of course,” I placed my hand on top of Atlas’s, “I would marry Atlas, my one true soulmate.”
“Okay, that’s it.” Storm stood up, lifting me with him. “No more truths, dares, or whatever the fuck.”
“But we were just getting started,” Zoe cried out as Felix brought a chair, placing it next to Nova. “Don’t take my Ophelia away.”
“She’s not your Ophelia,” he grumbled, keeping me close to him. “She’s mine.”
Such romance today, mushy feelings, whatever the fuck, but I liked it. He entwined his fingers with mine and started pulling me away from the garden, leaving the chorus of cheers and laughter behind us. I had to ask Zoe about that whole thing with Felix, and I fucking wanted to know what was going on with Atlas and Indigo.
I apparently became a nosy motherfucker when I wasn’t busy killing people and drowning in my own grief. Truth to be told, it felt good not worrying whether somebody was going to kill me in my sleep. There was only one thing still bothering me, minus the whole Maya situation.
Since two weeks ago, Storm seemed distant. I didn’t want to think about bad things or overthink this whole situation, but he was hiding something—phone calls he didn’t want me to hear, meetings with guys I knew nothing about. He was slowly pissing me off. And he didn’t wanna talk about it. He didn’t want to admit that something was wrong, even though my gut was telling me that there was something extremely wrong.
I was trying to enjoy all these new things—him, Zoe, Atlas, even Indigo started growing on me. More like fungus, but still, he was there. The day after we came back from The Renegades, a doctor paid us a visit, checking Storm’s cuts and bruises, and scolding us because I fucked up my finger—again. It was healing, that’s what mattered, right?
