“What did you say?” Gavil’s words caused enough surprise in Creed, they yanked his eyes from Meg’s picture so he could frown at his brother’s face.
“Listen, I know I hate you, and you hate me. I don’t care. The only thing I cared about was tossed out with the trash six months ago. I always knew this place was hell. All I knew was hate, manipulation and power. What the hell was the point of any of it, right?”
Then I met a girl. She was a meta who kept to herself. She had a top-secret assignment and was usually on duty, but she came to deliver a message to me from Williams when I was recovering from our Match. That’s the first time I met her. We talked—I mean really talked. She was different. She made me want to be a better man. But she…” Gavil shook his head angrily. His eyes looked red. Creed stared in confusion, wondering what Gavil’s angle was.
“She was killed. Her body incinerated along with all the other medical garbage. She was just a pawn in one of Williams’ damn games.” Gavil’s eyes glistened with tears Creed had never known his brother to shed. “That’s just it, Creed. We’re all pawns in Williams’ sick games.”
Creed stared at his brother through new eyes, unsure whether to trust him. Could a girl change him so drastically? His eyes slipped down to the photograph still clutched in his large hands. Her dark hair was spilling wildly out of a clip as it swung. She was running and was in mid stride as the photograph was snapped. Her face was a mixture of concentration and emotion as she looked toward, but not directly at the camera. Her figure was lean and muscular but not so much that it hid her soft female curves. She was strikingly beautiful, but it was her eyes that commanded his attention. They were large, wide-set, dark pools that seemed to look directly into the soul—to cause joy or pain with equal devastation. He knew in a part of his heart that still remembered every moment with her, that he loved her completely.
Yes, a girl could melt his brother’s icy heart, just as one had melted his own.
Creed looked back into crystal blue eyes of his brother and nodded. “I have to protect her from Williams.”
“She would have wanted me to turn the other cheek,” Gavil mumbled unable to say his former love’s name. “She used to tell me to let go of my anger with you. She told me she believed family to be a beautiful thing, that she remembered her own mother before she died after a long illness. That’s why she was orphaned, and fell into Williams’ recruitment machine. She told me I should feel lucky to have a brother.” Gavil scoffed at Creed like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
“Even though she’d tell me all these things, she never judged me for how I felt, or for what I did. It’s like she was waiting for me to come around to her way of thinking.” He stared at his hands, as though remembering her holding them.
“She would want me to help you and Meg.” Gavil shrugged. “I’m doing this for her, Creed. Everything I do now is to honor her memory.”
“I don’t have much time,” Gavil looked around the room as though waking from a dream. “Williams told me you and I are to figure out who ‘leads’ the team, so it would make sense that we talk on the plane. We just have to make sure everyone still thinks I hate you. I don’t want anyone catching on to any plans we come up with.”
“Gavil, are you really going to help me?” Creed wanted so badly to trust his brother, but was fearful.
“She’s beautiful, man.” Gavil nodded toward Meg’s picture before reaching into his own pocket. He pulled out a picture carefully laminated for protection and smiled at the image softly before handing it to his brother. “This is her.”
Creed looked into the face of a smiling girl wearing fatigues, red hair falling loosely around her shoulders in waves as though it had just been freed from a tight braid. Her green eyes crackled with kindness. Standing in the picture beside her was Gavil. He was ignoring the camera, choosing instead to watch the smiling girl at his side. His brother never looked happier than he did in this picture next to the girl he loved.
“I’m sorry, man. You two look really happy together.” Creed didn’t know what else to say to his brother. Life sucks.
Gavil nodded solemnly, taking the picture from his brother and slipping it back into his pocket as though he’d done it a thousand times before.
“Meet me at the hanger in thirty minutes. We’re going to have to keep everyone thinking we’re ready to kill each other, but when it comes to it, Creed ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ I want Williams dead. Clear?”