“Not without missing your meeting with Sam and Jared.” Before he could point out that there was no meeting, I added, “Go see them and get that out of the way. I should still be here when you’re done, but only if you don’t take too long.” I closed the door, hoping he’d read between the lines, and turned to face Lenox. “There.”
The asshole gave me a faint smirk. “Excellent. Now … inject the poison into you.”
Not likely. “What happened to Brook was awful, Lenox. Tragic. And I know you must be—”
“You know nothing,” he spat, his eyes flaring. “He would have been mine, you know. But he wanted more than the occasional bedroom companion, and I didn’t wish to complicate things. So we ended.”
I almost gaped. Shit, I had not seen that coming.
“I couldn’t give him—no, that’s not true, I wouldn’t—give him the things he wanted,” Lenox went on, his tone clipped. “But I resolved that I would watch over him. I swore I would keep him safe. It was all I could do. And if I’d been on that mission, he would be alive. But Quinlan wouldn’t allow me to go, and Ivan didn’t watch Brook’s back as he should have. Now Brook is dead because of them. So no, it was not a tragic accident. They are at fault, and they will pay. But that’s not going to happen until you’re out of the picture, because you keep ruining my plans. Now, pick up the fucking syringe.”
I slowly raised my hands in a gesture of peace. “Okay.” I slowly padded over to it, naturally in no rush, and lifted it from the carpet.
Lenox grunted in what might have been approval. “Now get it over with.”
Jared materialised a few feet behind Lenox. Relief damn near felled me. Jared wasn’t alone. Sam and Cassie were with him.
Lenox stiffened, his eyes going wide in both shock and horror. “W-what’s happening?”
Well if I had to guess, I’d say Cassie was inside his head, because he’d otherwise have slit Ursula’s throat and bolted. Instead, he retracted his claws.
He watched, his eyes still gleaming with horror, as his arms released Ursula, who darted away from him and plastered herself to the wall.
The others then closed in on him, and he swallowed hard.
I smiled at my friend and squad member. “Thanks, Cass.”
Her mouth curved. “Never a problem, sweetie.”
Sam cocked her head at Lenox. “Well this wasn’t the best idea you’ve ever had, was it? That’s the thing about being AWOL. You don’t consider everything. Like that one of my squad would for sure outsmart you.”
He began ranting at her, demanding to be released, calling her every name under the sun.
Catching sight of the syringe in my hand, Sam frowned. “What’s with the needle?”
“He filled it with his poison,” I explained. “He wanted me to inject it into my system.”
“Ah, I see.” Sam took it from me and moved to stand directly in front of him. “I know you’re immune to the effects of the poison, I’m just gonna do this for the fun of it.” She stabbed the syringe right into his eyeball, and Lenox let out a guttural cry of pain.
I recoiled because ew. The needle bopped from side to side as he frantically moved his eye as if he could dislodge it.
Sam nodded, as if satisfied with the spectacle. “I can’t tell you how warm and fuzzy your pain is making me feel right now.”
Jared snickered, shaking his head.
A fist pounded on the front door. “Paige! Open up!”
“I let him know you’re fine,” Jared told me, no doubt meaning he’d telepathed Max. “He needs to see that for himself, though.”
Sam sighed at me. “You’d better let him in before he has a hernia.”
The moment I opened the door, Max barged inside and cupped my head. “You all right?”
“Of course,” I replied. And then his arms were tight around me, his face buried in my neck, his body all but humming with relief, rage, and a lingering panic. He was hugging me like he hadn’t seen me in years, and all I could do was hug him back.
“Fucking prick needs to die.” Max lifted his head. “Where did he—What the fuck, Coach?”
I felt my mouth quirk at his reaction to the sight of a still whining Lenox, whose eye still sported a syringe.
“I think it suits him,” said Sam. “Some might say I should have a little sympathy for you, Lenox. I heard a little of what you said about Brook, so I can understand why you lost the plot, but it’s no excuse for anything you’ve recently done.”
I frowned, wondering how they could have heard. Jared must have noticed, because he then spoke.
“We teleported to your balcony first, not sure where you’d be and worried he’d spot us and get away before Cassie could thrust into his mind. When we realised where exactly you were and that his back was to us, we made our move.”