“GEEZ, SHE’S HEAVY,” Sevastyn complained as he readjusted the girl who was slipping from his hold.
“Don’t drop her,” Mikhail warned. “I didn’t just save her for you to go and give her a concussion because you weren’t strong enough to carry her.”
“I’m training to be a surgeon, not a heavyweight champion,” Sevastyn replied. “I don’t carry her weight when I work out and I’m not as disciplined as you. Maybe you should carry her instead.”
“He already had to carry her the four kilometers it took to get to his getaway car, with the threat of exposure and possibly death hanging over his head if any of Valentijin’s men found him,” I responded with amusement.
“Fine. But do you have to play on my natural apathy for human beings? I was just joking,” Sevastyn replied.
“No, you weren’t, and you’re the only one of us with a heart,” Jarek threw in, joining the mix. “I’ll go find out where her brother is, wait here,” he ordered as he broke into the mansion.
“Well, maybe if Mikhail didn’t knock her out then she could have gotten here under her own steam,” Sevastyn winged lightheartedly. He was the weakest of all of us. He also wore his heart on his sleeve, and he always tried to fix what was broken even if there was no chance that it could be fixed, sort of like how he tried with the three of us. He was good…better than us. We had tried to get him to leave once but he said he stayed with us because he was one of us. The subject had been closed after that, but no one was here under duress. If any one of the men wanted to leave then they were free to at any time.
“You know we have to limit exposure, Sev,” I played along good-naturedly. “Plus, I’m sure the last thing Mikhail would want is for her to try and hunt him down to say thank you for saving her life. Remember our last conversation? Mikhail hates sappiness. And we don’t want him going back to his family, leaving us one man down,” I mocked.
“Shut up, you are my family, you bunch of heathens,” Mikhail reluctantly smiled.
“Alright, I found him, he’s in his royal blue room of pain. You get to see it after all, boss,” Jarek whispered, making Sev jump. Jarek was fast and deadly, and if he came after you then you were guaranteed to be a dead man. His prey would never hear or see him coming.
“A little warning next time, please,” Sev grumbled.
“Why do we keep you around again?” Jarek asked.
“He’s the check and balance to our crazy. He keeps us from getting out of hand, oh, and he stitches us back up when we get hurt. He does come in handy,” Mikhail admitted. “So you’re going to have to stop scaring him with your sudden movements, you might just scare him to death one day,” he taunted.
“Alright, that’s enough. We’ll revisit the subject later, and besides, I’m eager to see the room,” I said, “Jarek, lead the way,” I gestured with my left hand.
He gave me a royal bow like he was a court jester, “It would be my pleasure, boss,” he sang.
We followed him up two sets of stairs, then through a dressing room with lots of wild clothing. I gave Mikhail a look of disgust that he returned with a grimace; Zack had quite the eclectic taste for leopard spots and zebra stripes. I hoped, at the very least, that he only ever wore those suits for dress-up parties.
Zack’s back was turned to us as we walked in, and I had to give it to him, the color was royal blue. He was cleaning some piece of equipment that I’d never seen before and I didn’t want to know what it did.
“So, what do you get up to in here alone?” I said breaking the silence.
Zack almost flew a foot up in the air, and I smiled as I heard my men chortle.
Zack swore beneath his breath as he turned to face us, “I was preparing the suspension bars for use tonight,” he said, justifying his weird behavior.
“Oh, so that’s what that is. I prefer my women to be writhing freely and willingly underneath me,” I smirked.
“I believe this belongs to you,” Sevastyn interrupted, stepping out from behind Mikhail where he was hidden.
“Terra,” Zack gasped, hugging her to him. “What did you do to her?” he said, placing her on the bed, which I hoped was sanitized for her sake, and felt for her pulse with fear. “I asked you to bring her back unharmed!”
“Calm down, I only injected her with a knockout drug, there are no side effects. We checked her medical records and made sure she’d have no negative reaction to it. She’ll be out for another hour. When she comes to she’ll be back to normal,” Mikhail replied before I could.
“Thank you, I can’t believe you did it! I’ll be forever grateful,” Zack said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, just don’t try and hug me,” Mikhail warned.
“Hold onto that gratitude, Zack, because the time to pay up is now,” I said tossing him a file, which he just barely caught.
“What’s this?” he inquired.
“There’s a student who will be taking your father’s class this semester. I know all about his teaching methods and how he tests his students by giving them each a patient to treat. I want your father to make sure that the student listed in that file by name will be paired with the subject I’ve picked out. He’s currently not in the program but your father sources the subjects from the same place where the subject is being treated. I have both the student and subject’s details in that file,” I instructed.
Zack swallowed, “I’ll give it to my dad, but I can’t make any promises.”
“We gave you back your sister, and we can take her back and give her to the Valentijin mob anytime,” I growled as I advanced toward him and pinned him to the wall.
“Okay, okay, I’ll make it happen,” he whimpered, bending his head in supplication.
“Good, that’s what I like to hear. I’ll give you a call in twenty-four hours’ time to make sure you’ve gotten it done, be ready.”
“WELL?” I ASKED, never one to answer the mobile with a hello.
“I gave the file to my dad,” Zack replied. “He said he’d make sure the student was paired with the subject. It didn’t take too much convincing; he was grateful for what you did. And he also said to make sure nothing blows back on him because he loves his job.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I replied, grinning.
“We’re even n–now, right?” he stuttered.
“Yes, we’re done,” I replied, ending the call.