Page 10 of Oblivion
For Storm.
For all those people that The Syndicate fucked over.
The nurse manning the reception just looked at me as I passed, not trying to stop me this time. The last time I came back this late, they didn’t want to let me in, but I’d managed. My boots squealed against the marble floor, and I paid no attention to the people passing next to me. I had only one goal, and that was to get to the sixth floor without anyone trying to talk to me.
I was still full of rage after that encounter with Vincent and Kieran, and I had to stomp it down before getting to his room. With my luck, Indigo would no doubt be in front, and I was too tired to deal with him tonight.
The volatile relationship between the two of us would always stay that way, especially after he tried to attack me a month ago. Which in the end, only ended badly for him—Atlas wouldn’t even talk to Indigo anymore. I would be lying if I said that it didn’t make a small part of me happy seeing Indigo distressed over such a thing.
“Look who’s back,” a familiar voice piped up behind me just as I was about to step into the elevator.
God-fucking-dammit.
“Indigo,” I groaned, turning toward him with one leg inside the elevator. “What a pleasure.”
“I would say the feeling is mutual, but I don’t have time for small talk tonight.” He looked raged, weary, but the two coffee cups he held in his hands made my mouth water, and I almost forgot how annoyed I was at him. “After you,” he said, coming closer to me and pushing me into the elevator.
“Is that for me?” I asked, stepping fully inside. “Because I must say, if you have coffee for me, then I might even be willing to listen to whatever you have to say.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “It actually is. It’s a, well, a temporary truce, for all our sakes.”
“A truce?” I laughed. “I thought you didn’t know the meaning of that word,” I murmured, taking one of the cups from him.
Indigo pressed the digit for the sixth floor, on the panel inside the elevator, and as we started ascending, he turned toward me with a look that I didn’t like all too much.
“What’s going on?” I asked, sipping my coffee. “It must be something serious if you’re willing to talk to me.”
“Atlas told me you’d be heading back tonight, and I realized it was about time for the two of us to have this talk.”
“Oh, really?” I scoffed. “And how did you come to this conclusion? Was it between trying to kill me for something I didn’t do or because Atlas won’t talk to you anymore?”
“I fucked up, okay?” He grunted. “But you have to understand—things weren’t really going well for you, and it seemed as if you sent Nikolai to us, wanting to kill Storm. He’s my friend, my brother,” he mumbled. “Seeing him in that state, unmoving, with you screaming over him, it set me off. It made me realize how short life really is, and I don’t know, I just snapped. I snapped at you, and I’m sorry.”
“Wow.” I was officially shocked. “Did that just come out of your mouth?”
“You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”
“No, no.” I smiled. “Keep going. I like hearing you apologizing to me. Although, it really isn’t necessary.”
“It isn’t?” He frowned. “I thought you—”
“Hated you? Indigo, I’m the type of person that hates herself until twelve in the afternoon, and after twelve, I hate everyone else. So, I don’t really hate you. I merely dislike you, and you get on my nerves. But you don’t deserve my hate when, if I were in the same position, I would’ve done the same.”
“You would?”
He was so fucking confused by my reaction, and I must say, it was almost cute.
“Is this why you wanted to talk to me? Because I must say, it could’ve waited until tomorrow.”
“Unfortunately, this isn’t the reason. It was more of a prelude to the real shitshow that’s happening.”
I looked up at the numbers slowly changing on the screen above the panel of buttons, and something told me that whatever was about to come out of his mouth, wouldn’t be very good.
“Keep talking, Indy. We don’t have all night.”
“It’s The Syndicate,” he whispered, leaning toward me. “We found out who they were working with, and you know, the Red Manor.”
“Who?”
