R I L E Y

The others filled me in on the events that had taken place since I'd been in the hospital. Apparently, Hunt wanted us to stay at the compound until he went over some weapons blueprints that Jaxon had found. It worked out perfectly because my concussion was going to cause me to not do much for a few days in order for it to properly heal. Also because Benny was still blackmailing me to give him that information he'd wanted. I knew that I didn't have enough dirt on my teammates to assuage his desire to harm my old orphanage. At least not yet.

I hated myself, hated the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought about what I'd already done and what I'd have to do. Kane and Finn had been easy to dredge information from. The others—namely Jake and possibly Delphinium—would be more difficult to question.

"What happened to the man that attacked us?" I asked Kane as we all sat around the dining room table.

"He's gone. He can't hurt anyone anymore."

"'Gone' meaning dead?"

He gave me a dark look that I took as an indication that I was correct. Had Kane killed the intruder? I'd only ever seen him as serious and quiet; it was hard to imagine him ending a life. Finally learning about what had happened to his brother was changing him, and not for the better. He had been one of the only people in our crew that hardly conducted criminal activity. Now, he was becoming more and more dark with each day.

Deciding to push my worry for him aside until later, I addressed the rest of the people at the table. "Hundsen sent this man to the compound. If he was able to get in and cause this much damage as just a warning, then imagine what he could do when he finally unleashed his full fury."

"He doesn't want all of you," Jake said. "He wants me. Hundsen is just willing to take out as many of you as possible, thinking it will make me weaker and unprotected."

I raised an eyebrow. "And will it?"

"Don't be stupid, of course not."

"You know what I think is suspicious?" I asked, a hand on my hip. "The fact that you've never told us why Hundsen is so set on killing you in the first place."

"You know what I think is suspicious? The fact that you only want to know now, of all times. Why not before?" His tone and expression were cold, as always, but I didn't flinch.

Shit. He had an idea that I was up to something. I knew that getting information from Jake would be difficult, but I hadn't expected him to catch on to my deception so quickly.

"Before, I was hardly involved. He only captured us so that he could sell us to someone else. It wasn't as personal. Now it is. He's coming after us to hurt you."

He scoffed. "Trust me, I'm not hurting."

I couldn't say the same thing for myself. My head still throbbed from my injury.

Unfortunately, Jake got up from the table and left, leaving Delphinium, Jaxon, Kane and I alone. Now it was time to work on the assassin. I hated myself for it, knowing that she already had her hands full with Imperium being back. But I had to. I knew that Benny would not be satisfied unless I gave him something about her. But once she gave me adequate information, I could glean the bare minimum that Benny would accept and only give that to him. Or I could work the information to our advantage...

"He's hiding something," I said to the others, knowing that we all were.

"Jake always is," Delphinium stated, waving her hand dismissively. But she was too.

"Whatever Jake did to Hundsen last week, it's made him even more hungry for our blood. When you three went upstate last week, where exactly did you go?"

Delphinium shared a glance with Jaxon. "We went to Hundsen's second home."

"What did you do, burn it to the ground?" Kane asked suspiciously, speaking for the first time.

"No." Delphinium spoke slowly, like she wasn't sure how to put it into words. "He killed Hundsen's wife."

Kane's eyebrows shot up. "He did what?" My reaction was the exact same.

"Well, only sort of," Jaxon said, trying to clear things up but only succeeding in making them more confusing.

"That's why he's after all of us now? Because Jake murdered Hundsen's wife, of all people?"

"Hundsen, one of the most powerful men in the criminal underworld, the man who commands an entire army of thugs. And Jake killed his wife."

"He knows what he's doing," Delphinium spoke, not seeming to fear anything about this situation.

Jaxon nodded. "I've known Jake a long time. If nothing else, he's a bad enemy to have. Hundsen only attacked the compound because he wasn't here."

"Right," I said, gesturing to Jaxon in fake realization, "I keep forgetting that you and Jake knew each other before Hunt kidnapped us all."

"Yeah." Jaxon suddenly became slightly more stiff and I didn't miss the flicker of some unknown emotion that went across his face right after I'd made that statement.

"How did you know him, again?" I did my best to sound politely curious and not like I needed this information so that Imperium wouldn't go after my old home.

"We were two young criminals, both wanting the same thing. Was it any wonder that we befriended each other?"

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. "Oh God, were you a member of the Club too?" I'd come for information, but now I was simply curious for gossip's sake.

But Jaxon shook his head. "I was never an official member. Jake and I did business in the past, but it was nothing major."

He was leaving something out. I could tell. He'd be a good liar except for the fact that he looked so uncomfortable.

But I wouldn't push him. Not now. If I asked him any further questions, he'd know that I was prying.

Jaxon and Kane both abruptly got up from the table—Jaxon not wanting to talk any more about his past and Kane not wanting to be around Delphinium, leaving just the assassin and me.

"Boys," I murmured to her, shaking my head. She only gave me a small smile, quietly agreeing.

I took in her mysterious face, her luminous skin and watchful eyes. "Are you okay?" The question was just for the sake of getting information out of her, but I meant it.

Eyes narrowing, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean...everything, lately. Gigi turning against you, Benny's capture, Imperium's rise. It seems like you're more...alone than usual." Even if she really did kill Gigi's mother, even though she had abandoned Benny back at the fortress, there was no doubt she'd been through too much. I could at least sympathize with that aspect of her.

"I'm fine. I've been though worse and lived."

I cocked my head to the side. "Yes, but that doesn't mean that you're not hurting." As soon as I stopped talking, I desperately hoped that I hadn't pushed her too far. She was skittish; I knew that if she thought I was a threat, she'd shut down completely. So I kept the concerned look pasted on my face.

Her eyes bored into me, trying to figure out what exactly I wanted. When she didn't give me an answer, I changed the subject. "You know, I've been alone most of my life too. Whether it was because I was an orphan or because I had these unexplainable powers, I just felt...alienated from everyone else, the normal people."

Delphinium nodded slowly, her gaze somewhere in the distance. "Me too." I kept my face a mask of caring sympathy, but a surge of triumphance rose in me. I hadn't been expecting her to answer at all.

"Sometimes it's like...It's like I'm being swallowed whole by it. My past. The things I endured. And for the longest time, I thought I was alone, but then I realized that everyone here is the same. You included." I chose my words wisely, saying only what I thought she could relate with. If she knew that there was someone who understood her, then there was a greater chance she'd tell me something I really needed to know. I wasn't sure what I was searching for in her, but I'd know when I heard it.

Her brows furrowed. "What happened to you?" She was coming out from the shield she used to protect herself with.

That rendered me wordless for a few seconds. It hadn't come completely out of the blue but that didn't mean that I wanted to say it. "I...I was an orphan my whole life. I never knew my parents. The thought that they'd rejected me and thrown me away like trash ate away at me." I wanted to stop there, stop spilling my brain to her, but she kept watching me expectantly. The words kept flowing. "I hated them, hated my caretakers, hated everyone. In my pain, I resorted to...things like theft and robbery. It made me feel better to take rather than have things taken from me."

I felt odd as I looked back up at her. I'd come here to get information from her, and instead I'd spilled my innermost feelings. But just as I'd done with Kane, I needed to make her feel compelled to say something back.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I'm sorry that happened to you." I shrugged, pretending to look demure. "When Hunt first brought us together, I thought...I thought I was the only one here with demons. Now I know that we all have our own."

I pushed away my memories of the lonely children in my old orphanage. "Who do you have?" I asked suddenly, partially because I needed to know, partially because I was genuinely curious.

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Before Imperium, before all of this, who was there for you?" Did she have a family that none of us knew about? Had she been a normal person before Imperium had enslaved her?

Her mouth opened and closed as she looked for an answer. "I had a family. But they're gone now."

I felt sick to my stomach. Now it was my turn to say, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know." But her reply had only brought up many more questions.

I figured that all this newfound data would be enough to assuage Benny. I hated myself for doing this, for bending under his blackmail, but we didn't have to be the victims here. I had what he wanted, not the other way around. If I played my cards right, I could have the upper hand.

Now all I had to do was wait until I saw Benny again and we would finally get something out of him.