Unlocked (The Alpha Group 3)

Sophia seemed to be trying to tell me something. She'd gone quiet, but her eyes flicked continuously between Trey and the door behind me. I had no idea what it meant. It seemed like all the cards were pretty much on the table at this point.

I turned my gaze to Trey. My anger reared like a rabid dog in my chest, but I kept it leashed. Focus.

"You," I said, my voice sharp enough to cut glass.

He blinked a few times, then gave a shaky little bow. "Me."

The room was empty, apart from the three of us. Not that it mattered. He was armed and his goons were just a few steps away.

I studied him for several seconds. He mostly looked like himself. His smile held the same playfulness it always had, but there was something dark seething behind his eyes now too, something off. I had no idea how he'd kept that hidden for so long. "Why?" I asked.

He grinned. "That's the million dollar question, isn't it?"

"Million dollar? So it's money you want?"

"Oh, God no," he replied with a laugh. "Bad choice of phrasing, I guess. No, I may not be worth as much as you, Sebastian, but I'm perfectly comfortable. This is about so much more than that."

The motive behind the attacks had bothered me constantly. I'd never quite been able to make the pieces fit. "You killed Charlie and Aaron."

Trey nodded. "Guilty." He didn't show even the slightest sign of remorse.

"How could you do that? How could you kill your own brothers? We took you in, made you part of the family, and this is how you repay us?"

Trey's expression darkened. "I was never part of the family, Sebastian. I may have the tattoo, but I never had the respect."

I gave a sour laugh. "Respect? Seriously, that's what this is about? Poor little Trey is feeling under-appreciated?"

His jaw tightened. "Even now, you laugh at me." He gave the pistol a little shake. "Not wise to mock a man with a gun."

For a moment, I thought maybe I'd gone too far, but eventually he relaxed.

"You know, my dad used to tell me about you guys, back when I was a kid," he continued. "I know he wasn't supposed to, but he did. He used to tell me the kinds of things you did, the kind of power you had. I used to dream about the day I'd be a part of that. Then you finally invited me to join, and it was the best day of my life. I finally had a chance to prove myself. I spent the next three years busting my ass for the group, but in the end, you know what I had to show for it? The same shitty jobs and cruel jokes as when I started."

"The group is a lifelong commitment, Trey. Things don't happen overnight. You can't just waltz in and expect to be running the show."

"You did. You were, what, twenty seven when they invited you to the council? And dad was just twenty five. Not to mention Marcus. You promote that guy over me?" There was something wild in his expression now, something broken. Clearly this wound had been festering for some time. "Dad didn't invite me to the group to be a fucking errand boy. I'm capable of better. I deserve better."

"Yeah, well your dad would be turning in his grave if he could see you now." The words left my mouth before I realised I'd said them.

Trey's mouth parted in a snarl and he flung the gun upwards at me, his arm trembling. "You take that back," he hissed. "You take that back! He'd understand. He'd be proud I finally stepped up and did something. He wasn't the sort of man who let other people walk all over him, and neither am I."

"So what is all this then? Revenge? Kill a few group members and make yourself feel better?"

The smile returned to Trey's face, but it was off somehow, crooked, like I was looking at a reflection of it in a splintered mirror. "A little, maybe. But there's more to it than that. That's the problem with the group now. You don't think grand enough. Besides, I'm not the one you should really be talking to about revenge."

I cocked my head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, as much as I'd love to take all the credit for everything, I have to confess I didn't do it alone. I had a little help from someone who had a slightly more personal stake in all of this." He raised his voice. "You can come in now, babe."

My eyes darted to the door just in time to see a woman step through.

"Hello, Sebastian," she said.

My jaw dropped. It had been years since I'd seen her, but those perfect features and golden locks were unmistakable.

Liv.

For about ten seconds, nobody spoke. She merely smiled, radiating satisfaction while my mouth worked wordlessly. The sight of her made me feel like I was falling, like everything else was zipping past around me. My stomach heaved, my skin prickled, my lungs seemed frozen in my chest. A million thoughts crashed through my head. For a few moments I was actually certain I was dreaming.

"You're alive," I said finally.

Liv let out a little giggle. "As observant as ever, I see." She seemed to have actually dressed up for the occasion. Between the long black gown she wore and the elegant clutch under her arm, she looked like she'd come directly from some kind of fancy charity dinner.

I took a step towards her, my arm twitching forward ever so slightly before I stopped myself. "I saw your body."

"You saw a body. Some poor girl they found in an alley in The Cross. OD'd, from memory. A bit of decoration, some creative police reporting, courtesy of Trey, and poof," she made a fist then popped it in front of her, "I was dead."

I felt like my eyes were about to pop out of my head. Turning away, I forced them closed. "Do you know what that did to me?"

Her voice was impossibly cold. "It hurt, I imagine. I hope it did. After the way you left me, you deserved to hurt." She had the same callousness to her demeanour now that Trey did. It changed her. That feminine allure was still there, but it was hardened, tempered by years of bitterness. Two people with huge chips on their shoulders; in a morbid way, they made the perfect couple.

"I left to protect you, Liv." I gestured to the room. "To protect you from all of this."

"I didn't want your protection," she spat. "I wanted you. But apparently that was too much to ask."

I had no idea how I was supposed to be dealing with this. I'd never been so confused in my life.

"So now you're with him?" I asked. "You can't have me, so you take this insecure, traitorous little shit instead?"

Treys snarled and lifted the gun once more, but Liv raised her hand. "Easy, Trey."

She turned back to me. "Yes, I'm with him. After you left, it felt like the world had ended. I gave up my life for you, Sebastian. My dreams. Everything. And then you dropped me without so much as an explanation. When I ran into Trey one day, I was desperately looking for a friend, and at first, that's exactly what it was. But soon enough it turned into something else. He was there for me when no one else was, and so I was there for him too."