Page 92 of Equilibrium
“Storm.” I could feel his frustration over the phone. “What if she asks where you went? Huh? She is not some club bunny who will be satisfied with the simple,oh they just went for a run, answer. Trust me. I know Ophelia. I knew her way before any of you had a chance to meet her. She is ruthless, she is relentless.” He took a pause. “Now that I think about it, she is exactly the same as you. Mark my words, she will feel betrayed.”
“Well, I thought that my enforcer would be able to deal with her while I’m out trying to save all of us.”
“You are not fucking listening to me, Storm. When she finds out about your involvement with Logan and the deal, about your plan for Nikolai, she will go crazy. Well, I mean crazier than she already is.”
“Careful, Creed.” I gritted my teeth. “You really don’t want to talk about her like that.”
“This will end bad, Storm.”
“And I’ll fucking deal with it!” I roared. “I’ll handle Ophelia, but I need you all to stop being paranoid idiots and concentrate. Keep her occupied. I don’t know, do the barbeque earlier, whatever you wanna do.”
“Okay. Fine. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”
Atlas stopped next to my bike with an impatient look on his face. Yeah, I fucking know. But whenever Creed started PMS-ing that meant somebody had to calm his ass down. And that somebody was usually me.
I nodded at Atlas before he turned his back on me and started walking to the entrance.
“Creed, I have to go. I’ll call you later, okay?”
I didn’t wait for an answer before I pressed the button on my helmet and dropped the call. This church felt like an imposter in this neighborhood, like something out of a Tim Burton’s movie.
It was dark, years and years of storms, sand and wind etched into its facade, and yet it still stood.
This is where they butchered them all. This is where the blood had been spilled the most. Where the cries of those children were muffled with the blades of their knives. Where mothers begged for mercy, and fathers kept quiet because they knew there was nothing they could do.
They took innocent people. Family members that never even wore our cuts, but they took them anyway. They slaughtered them like animals, letting their blood flow over the floors of this church.
This wasn’t a holy place. This was a gate to Hell.
So when I took a deal, when I agreed to help Ophelia as the Albanians asked, when Logan came to me and asked me to bring her to him, I only found it fitting that this church would be the final resting place for the one that gave the order. For the one that sent their soldiers to kill our people.
Kieran Nightingale.
He loved to pretend that he was a knight in a shining armor. He liked to pretend that he was a savior. What a fucking joke.
At least I knew what I was, and I accepted it a long time ago. They always wore these perfect little masks, trying to fit into society. Ophelia didn’t.
Ophelia knew who she was, just as I did. Ophelia knew that when the knife was in her hand, she was the most lethal force they ever made. And I’ve seen the betrayal in her eyes. They left her.
Her own family left her, and when she plunged that knife into Kieran’s chest, I wanted to take a picture of it and keep it forever. We still needed to talk about him and her feelings for Kieran, but with that talk I would have to talk about my demons, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready yet.
What I did know was that there was so much pain in those ocean eyes, and I knew she loved him. There was a painful history there, and if I had to guess, their families were somehow involved. Her father, his.
Maybe Kieran wasn’t a monster. Maybe he was just like us, just made to fit into their little world, his mind twisted, corrupted, pulled to the sides he didn’t want.
None of us belonged here. Homes they told us we had, they weren’t homes at all. Those were not families. My own sold me, theirs turned them into machines.
I would’ve felt sorry for him if he hadn’t gone against my own. I would’ve felt bad for what happened two weeks ago, if it wasn’t for the fact that his word was the one that doomed my people. Innocent people.
I was positive that Logan knew what happened here, but it wasn’t like he cared. I’d observed them over the years. He didn’t care about his sons, about his family. The only reason those three men lived for this long was because he needed somebody to take over this sick empire he’d created.
The same way Nikolai did. I only wondered who was going to be Nikolai’s heir now that his son was gone, and Ophelia was lost to him. Was he going to look for her now? Would I have to protect her against him as well?
“Are you coming?” Hunter stopped next to my bike, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want to be here longer than necessary.”
And I understood why. His wife and two daughters were butchered here. Two little girls that didn’t deserve that. Neither did his wife.
And he couldn’t save them. He was too late to save them.
