Rage and Ruin | 2

6 | 5

A R L O

Finn, Kane and I strode into the hospital. As soon as the news of what had happened to Jaxon had reached us, we'd been traveling straight to him. We hadn't even been by the compound since we'd left two days ago. It had taken a long time and various modes of transportation to get there—including a stolen car, much to Finn's dismay. But we were here now. And not a second too soon.

      Jake and Delphinium were sitting in the waiting room. Both glanced up at the same time when the three of us entered. For a moment, the silence between us was awkward. No one had forgotten when had happened in Romania those few days ago. But Jaxon was near death; we'd put our anger aside for now.

      Finn spoke first. "Have you gotten any news yet?"

      "No. The last we heard, he was still in surgery."

      "What happened?"

      She and Jake took turns telling us everything: Hundsen's abducting them, their torture and Jaxon's injury. Plus, how they'd unfairly left us out of blowing up Hundsen's house.

      "They cut his entire arm off?" I asked after swearing colorfully. "We missed all the action."

      Finn rolled his eyes and Delphinium grimaced. The assassin's cold gaze switched to Kane, who was glancing subtly around the room. "Riley's not here. She thought it would be best to stay at the compound, given everything that's happened."

      "I didn't ask." Kane had been more silent and brooding than usual during our trip here, which I didn't think was even possible. But I hardly blamed him.

      "That's probably for the best," I said, dry anger flaring up again when I remembered what she did. How she'd sold us all out to Benny without even thinking about how it would affect us. And the worst part was, no one had even been expecting it. We'd trusted her. And if she was here, the fight might continue from the place it had left off.

      Kane gave me a sharp look at that. I knew he was still angry with Riley for what she did, but they were still...whatever they were. He clearly cared for her, but his feelings had obviously taken quite a blow. I'd seen that fact in every dark frown he'd worn in the last two days.

      If I wasn't so wrapped up in this spectacle myself, I might have found its chaos entertaining.

A nurse came approached us. "Mr. Williams is in a normal room now," he said, grasping a clipboard and wearing a cool expression that didn't tell us much about Jaxon's condition. "His surgery was semi-successful; we were able to stop the bleeding and save his life, but his left arm is now completely gone. You can visit him now, but be wary and quiet around him."

I nearly scoffed. If there was one thing that no one in this team was, it was wary and quiet. But I followed the others down a white hall filled with somber people. I tried not to meet their eyes. It only served as a reminder that I was living on borrowed time. When my condition became worse and the pills no longer sustained me, would I be placed in a hospital like this one? Would I live in a blank hospital room, pumped with medicine until I died? It almost made me wish that Imperium would just kill me before that point. I'd already had more than my share of doctors and pills.

As soon as we entered inside Jaxon's room, I gave a shudder. It was freezing, as hospital rooms tended to be. We panned out before the bed. Under the blankets, our teammate looked worse than ever. Jaxon's tanned skin had a pallid undertone and his face wore an unnaturally peaceful expression. It certainly wouldn't remain there for long when he remembered why he was here.