Rage and Ruin | 2

5 | 2

F I N N

      I guided the car we'd rented down the winding road, wishing I could sew both Arlo and Jaxon's mouths shut. They'd been bickering for almost as long as we'd been in the car.

      Arlo leaned over the passenger side to glare at Jaxon. "Let me do it."

      "No."

     "Please?" I didn't think I'd ever heard Arlo say that in his entire life.

     "No."

     Arlo turned to me. "Finn, can you settle a disagreement between Jaxon and I?"

     I kept my eyes on the road. "Isn't that what I'm here for?"

     "Right," he said, not picking up on my sarcastic comment. "So answer me this, who do you think should get to detonate the bombs? Me or Jaxon?"

It was in that moment that I wished I'd picked a different group. I sighed. "Don't take this the wrong way, Arlo, but Jaxon is much less erratic and therefore, less prone to accidents."

"I'd prefer he did take it the wrong way," Jaxon suggested from behind me.

"He didn't say no," Arlo pointed out.

"Yes, he did."

"No, Finn always tries to please everyone, so he won't pick a side." My frown deepened. Was that really true?

"I'm on Jaxon's side," I told Arlo with a flat expression.

"I told you." I could hear the smile in Jaxon's words.

"Fine." Arlo crossed his arms. "I'll remember this when you two want anything from me."

Jaxon scoffed. "What would we want from you?"

"When you inevitably find yourself in a life-threatening predicament, then you'll need my help."

      "Might I remind you that I needed to join this group because you were worried that you and Finn wouldn't be competent by yourselves?"

      "I never said that," I pointed out.

      "You didn't have to," Arlo retorted. "You're too honorable to willingly do something so destructive like this by yourself." I huffed out a sigh, wishing that this assault on my character—which happened to be much less morally gray then my teammates'—would stop soon.

      "Don't make me sound so ostentatiously righteous," I protested. "I just have a more clear idea of what's right and wrong than the rest of you."

      "Oh, I know the difference between right and wrong," Jaxon said, a smug undertone in his voice, "I just often choose to ignore my conscience."

      "I don't have a conscience," Arlo stated proudly. Somehow, I didn't doubt that.

      I parked the car next to the fence surrounding the Russian weapons factory, glad that the long and argument-filled ride was over. Jaxon unbuckled his seatbelt. "I'll go in first and make sure the area is clear."

      Glancing over at the facility, I saw it standing in the middle of the area, a black mass below the dark, cloudy sky. Even from how far away we were parked, I noticed a few lights shone through the windows. "It looks like someone's home."

      Jaxon shrugged, not worried in the slightest. "I'll just kill them. Stay here until I get back."

      "You'll just kill them," I repeated in an incredulous whisper. Jaxon vanished from sight.