Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (14 page)

‘
No,’ Brian turned, his face pale. ‘I don’t mean that. Anna, I
know where your brother is.’

Anna
flew to her feet.

‘
I found him,’ Brian concluded.

The Rush

Anarchy erupted. Anna’s voice
merged with Chris and Paul’s as the shouting match got under way. I
stared speechless. Brian’s information could be it, the very thing
that could lead me to my father. Desires and hopes flashed through
my mind. Stopping my father, getting some semblance of normal life
back,
removing the threat to us all… It wasn’t going to be easy,
but if we could pull it off, if we could move on the information
before it was too late…

‘
You’re nuts!’ Chris
screamed.

‘
This is what we’ve
needed!’ Paul chimed. ‘This could finally be over. We need this to
be over!’

‘
If you think we are seriously
going to sit on
this,
Chris, then yeah, you are nuts!’ Anna replied.

Brian rocked nervously in his chair, while
the shouting continued. Jessica had taken up a passive position
beside Anna. The vein in Chris’s neck popped, and Paul shook,
dripped with sweat and gritted his teeth. Each of them was right in
some way. Chris was a forward thinker, prepare, perfect and attack.
It was logical, rational and all the other things that go with a
good plan, but we didn’t have the time. Who knew how long the
information would be right?

I waded into the argument, and everyone
hushed, turning their gazes at me. Anna pleaded with her eyes,
Chris glared with his. Brian took up interest with his shoe, and
Paul almost hopped from one foot to the other at light
speed.

‘
Anna’s right,’ I said,
trying to sound reasonable, but Chris threw his hands in the air,
and with a roar, knocked a lamp and lion ornament from a table.
‘Chris! We don’t live in a world where time is a luxury
anymore.’

‘
Are you fucking kidding me?’ he
replied. ‘You want to rush into yet
another
trap? Are you stupid? With a pregnant
woman?’

Anna bristled, but Jessica cut
in.

‘
Chris is right on this,’ she
said, ‘Anna, you’re not seriously considering this are
you?’

‘
Of course she is!’ Paul
shouted. ‘This is her brother we’re talking about. It’s our lives.
We could end this, get our lives back.’

‘
You’re naïve if you think
it’s that simple, idiot,’ Jessica spat.

Paul’s face burst with colour. The red
turned purple and he stepped forward, but Jessica didn’t flinch,
she held her ground and bore down on him.

‘
What the fuck do you know
huh?’ Paul whispered. ‘You tried to kill us!’

‘
If you don’t back off then
I might just finish what I started,’ Jessica replied, her voice
deadly.

‘
Enough,’ I growled, rubbing the
molten headache that had appeared between my eyes. ‘They’re right,
Anna. I can’t have you in this.’

Anna recoiled like I’d slapped her.
The pain on her face ripped at my insides, and our previous
conversation passed through my mind.

I’m failing
him
, Lucas.
I’m failing him.

We slipped into a
tension-
filled silence. We barely took a breath, Anna’s eyes boring
into mine before I had to look away. My mind tangled with itself. I
knew Anna going was a terrible idea, but how could I stop her? It
wasn’t my right or choice. If it was someone I loved, nothing short
of death would stop me. I brought my eyes back to hers.

‘
You can’t stop me,’ Anna
growled. ‘You can’t.’

I sighed, and Chris sensed my
weakening resolve.

‘
Think about your baby for
Christ sake!’ he fumed. ‘You have to care about that don’t
you?’

Anna spun and her palm slapped Chris’s
face. The sound bounced off the walls, a horrible and hair raising
whack that even made me flinch. It was like thunder.

‘
Don’t you
ever
question my love for my baby,’ Anna
whispered as Chris cradled his cheek in surprise. ‘And don’t
you
dare
tell me not to go after my brother.’

Tears welled in her eyes, and she
pushed out of the group and walked to our room. Jessica followed
her, and I sat down heavily on the couch they’d vacated. My heart
beat frantically against my rib cage, hope, fear, desperation and a
variety of sickening emotions plagued by mind.

‘
Lucas…’ Chris
said.

‘
She’s right again,’ I
replied, refusing to look up from the floor. ‘All we can do is help
her and keep her safe.’

Chris looked ready to say more, but he
flew past where I sat, and without looking, I heard the door to his
room slam shut. It wasn’t long until a jittery Paul walked over to
Brian, and whispered in his ear. Brian’s face sank more than I
thought possible, and he nodded, stood, and both of them left. Did
our resident addict need a fix?

I was alone. The rush of feelings was
almost too much, and I could feel the tears threaten to well and
fall. How could we be so divided? I could hear the reasonable voice
in my head, telling me I was stupid, telling me I was reckless. It
was right. I knew it. But for some reason I couldn’t quite pinpoint
properly, against all of the logic my brain hit me with, I would
still go after Anna’s brother. I would still hunt down my
father.

*

The sunrise was beautiful, as if fire
burned on the horizon. Anna and I sat there, watching the view in
silence. Neither of us could sleep, and after a while, I leaned
over the gap between our plush chairs and took her hand. She
squeezed, and took a deep breath. I looked over at her, gazed into
her blue eyes.

‘
I don’t think I could
handle anything happening to you,’ I whispered.

‘
I know,’ she replied. ‘But
I can’t stay out of this. I can’t.’

I nodded and sighed.

‘
Look at the pair of us,’ I
chuckled, ‘two crazy idiots with a death wish.’

We stayed there for hours, just watching
the sun crawl into the sky. We watched the early risers walk the
streets and drive their cars. Eventually rain began to pelt the
windows, and the sun sparkled through the hundreds of drops. At
around six that morning, Chris slouched into the room, his lips
pinched together, and his eyes avoided ours.

I got up and wandered over.

‘
I need to speak to you,
now,’ Chris said before he turned and left.

I sighed and followed. We walked through
the vacant and dark main room, passed through Chris’s bedroom, and
walked into the adjoining gym. I didn’t want to train; I didn’t
have the heart for it. Chris stopped in the middle of the room, his
back towards me.

‘
I know you all think I’m
trying to bury our heads in the sand,’ he whispered. ‘But you’re
all young. You’re all naïve. You need to quit acting like a child
and grow up.’

A burning sensation flared in my
stomach. He was insulting me!

‘
I thought a lot last
night,’ Chris continued. ‘I thought a lot about why we, me and you,
keep butting heads, and I finally figured it out. We’re both trying
to be leaders, both trying to run this group. Only, I’m not sure
you’re capable of protecting them. I tried to reason with you, I
tried to get you to think about what you’re doing, and you just
don’t listen.’

Chris turned.

‘
You saw what happened in
Greystone when more than one of us wanted to be a leader,’ Chris
whispered. ‘It almost destroyed us, and here we are again, on that
same ledge, ready to fly off it. I won’t let that happen, not this
time. I’m sorry.’

I wanted to defend myself, to shout and
scream and throw myself at him, but I couldn’t think of a
reasonable defense. Was he right? Maybe he was, but it didn’t
matter. He couldn’t stop us. He was right about himself, burying
his head in the sand was exactly what he was doing. He no longer
had the fire his wife’s death invoked. He wanted to run and hide
like the coward he was.

I was about to say as much when a
click behind my head brought me up short. It was the unmistakable
sound of a gun. I gasped and narrowed my eyes at Chris. He avoided
my gaze, the shame in his eyes hard for him to hide. It pissed me
off.

‘
Sorry tough guy,’ Jessica’s
voice came from behind me, ‘but Chris is right. Anna needs to be
protected, even against herself. What she wants right now doesn’t
matter.’

I gritted my teeth and squeezed my
eyes tight. Time and time again people underestimated me. My
father, Chris, Jessica, Paul, on and on it went. I would show
them.

I spun, using the speed
I’d
earned
from the horror we’d been through. I brought my arm up,
pushed the gun from my head, and grabbed Jessica by her collar. I
didn’t stop, I heard Chris move into action, and I continued my
spin, lifted Jessica from the ground and threw her at Chris. They
both smacked together and fell to the floor. Before they could
untangle themselves, I snatched the gun from where it had dropped
from Jessica’s hand and took aim.

I fired, and a feathered needle slotted
into Chris’s neck. Before I could move my arm, Jessica had rolled,
bounced to her feet and kicked the gun from my hand. I didn’t need
it anyway, and when she pounced with her fist angled at my chin, I
caught her. She dangled there in my grasp, and using my strength, I
chucked her the length of the room and she hit the
floor.

‘
Lucas!’ Anna’s voice came
from the doorway behind me.

I didn’t turn around, but advanced on
Jessica. She tried to get back to her feet, but I took her legs
from beneath her, grabbed the gun, and fired a dart into her neck.
She gritted her teeth, and if looks could kill, I’d be dead.
Finally, she slumped, and to be safe, I fired again.

I turned to Anna, horror on her face, and
felt the drowning waves of guilt lapping at my mind. I pushed them
away. I had to do it, I had to. We couldn’t let anyone stop us,
even if that anyone was one of our own. I grabbed both Chris and
Jessica, dragged them over to one of the exercise equipment, and
started to search for restraints. I brushed past Anna and headed
into the empty main room, returning with more rope like what we had
used before.

I sat the two unconscious bodies up, back
to back, and then tied them together. I hoped that, even with
Jessica’s Houdini skills, tying her to Chris would make it more
difficult. I then tied them to a treadmill, double checked my knots
and tightened them. I sighed once I’d finished, and couldn’t stop
my sweat-laden hands from shaking.

‘
Lucas…
’ Anna whispered.

‘
They were trying to stop
us,’ I replied, my voice barely audible. ‘They tried to stop
us!’

I fled from the room, Anna fast on my
heels. It had to be done, right?

‘
Where’s Brian?’ I asked,
searching the War Room frantically.

Anna shrugged, and I moved towards the
door to the corridor. I crossed the divide, and barged straight
into Brian and Paul’s room. I stopped in my tracks at the scene
before me, and Anna gasped; her hand flew to her mouth. Paul was
propped up in a chair with spit sliding down the side of his mouth,
a needle hanging from his arm.

Brian was a few feet away, his
forehead creased as his hands rubbed away sweat. He looked up
surprised, and stood.

‘
Brian?’ Anna
said.

But Brian couldn’t speak, and we
didn’t have time.

‘
Is he alright?’ I
asked.

‘
Yeah,’ Brian
whispered.

I walked over and grabbed Brian by the
shoulders, maneuvering him from the room, and back into ours. I sat
him down at his computers, and booted them up for him. He looked at
us without a word, and then searched the room with his
eyes.

‘
Where’s Chris and
Jessica?’ he asked.

‘
Give us the address,’ I
replied.

Brian didn’t budge, but looked at us
dubiously, his eyes slightly narrowed. They shot from my face to
Anna’s, and eventually he started to fidget.

‘
I think we should wait for
them,’ Brian said.

I nodded, and then shook my head. I opened
my mouth but no sound came out. We had to go, before they woke. I
left the room again, walked in on Paul’s slumped and high figure
slowly sliding on his chair. I passed him, and found the table of
weapons. I sat the tranquilizer down, picked up a heavier black
metal, and slid a clip of bronze-coloured bullets into the gun. I
hesitated for a second, before making my way back to
Brian.

Both he and Anna looked up once I’d
returned, and both dropped their gazes to my new weapon. Brian’s
eyes widened, and with a sharp intake of breath, he spun in his
chair and started typing. I fidgeted, I itched and
paced.

‘
This isn’t smart,’ Brian
whispered.

‘
Just give me the address, Bri,’
I replied.