Page 63 of Natural-Born Cullers

Gray withdrew his gun and fired.

Light jolted to a halt, then hissed as the bullet clipped his ear, forcing him to spin and grip at the hurt.

“What the fuck?” growled Simon at Gray, jolting right along with Light.

“Not. Fucking. Playing. Here.” Gray’s dominance over the fighting space was just as final, the talk just as blunt, how Graywouldmakethe final call as a culler.

Light looked back at the bullet lodged in the wall, then down at his bloodied fingers after he swiped at his ear. A moment later, he came over face-to-face with Gray, breath inches from breath. No hurt shone in his eyes, just a pure blackness that quietly called him out in the silence when it came to pulling a gun.

“Don’t ever piss about,” Gray said quietly. “I won’t.”

Simon’s mistake had been to walk the path Light knew best, to have taken the staff. His first option should have been the gun, this time without missing its mark in order to cull the threat. And one thing Gray hadn’t taught Light was how to fire a gun, neither had his stepfather. Light acknowledged now as well as his blindness over his anger hit home. Light had fallen for choosing whatever was available and not taking in the wider threat around him.

He was a top-class fighter, but still young, still as used to normal life as Simon when it came to stepping away from that and facing the reality of the kill switch moment. And if itevercame to that, Graywouldcall it, no matter who stood on the opposite end of the barrel. “Take the cull before someone better takesyoudown.”

“Yeah?” Light said flatly. “Tell me, after I… chose not to take the full cull with Cath and Zak because, well—I’m fuck all to do with the cullers. Did you kill them as a mercy call from you, one culler to another? Fuck how she showed no mercy to mine?”

“Too much anger there, Light. Don’t piss about,” Gray said just as flatly. “It’ll see you fall.”

Light looked him up and down. “Not a culler here. Your style, not mine. Some people deserve to be made to hurt for as long as they draw breath.” He tilted his head slightly. “You made a deal.”

“I made a deal as lead culler,” Gray said to him, and something else entirely set in Light’s eyes. “One I made after I culled the field-martial general who sent Cath in,” he added evenly. “The cullers are mine and controlled. Simon is mine because I trust him. And you…?” Gray held his look. “I couldn’t let you walk that path to the lead culler without having a father there at the end of it all. It’s done. It’s over.” He stepped in closer. “Let. It. Go. Because you don’t get to walk away at this level.”

Seeing it coming, Gray hit the floor a moment later, the staff catching his jaw.

Light, he didn’t even look Gray’s way, just shook his head as Gray made no move to get up. Gray let him have that one because he hadn’t told Light about taking lead culler position to ease his head. He’d wanted to ease it by keeping all mention of the cullers outside these walls, where they belonged.

“Don’t really get any of this, do you?” Light said so quietly. “I didn’t need the culler. Talk to me about surviving the aftermath when you realise just what that meant.” The staff landed by Gray a moment later.

As he went to push out of the hall, Gray got to his feet and, wiping the blood from his mouth, he stopped him with the call of his name.

“When it comes to those kinds of decisions, there’s only the father in me when it comes to you. My version of it.”

Light looked him up and down, then glanced at the blood lining his fingertips. “You keep that close,” he said back to Gray. “Because now ithascome to those decisions, there’s only ever the son in me. You ready formyversion of it?”

Gray let him go, giving the nod to the security guard to follow him, although there really was nowhere for Light to go other than to see to his wound. Gray knew his mark, and the wound would be superficial. Ray would no doubt be on his way over now a gunshot had been registered. As Simon took his own staff over to the wall and put it back in place, Gray let his and Light’s find a home.

Simon’s look strayed to the door.

“His anger and hurt’s hitting him,” Gray said flatly. “So we give him space, we take the hits when he cries out, but he takes the warning as a killer that there are no such things as games at this level.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Simon looked at Gray. “Because this isn’t his reaction to Zak or Cath, Gray. This…?” He shook his head. “This is something else. There’s frustration, anger, but it’s not uncontrolled like there was with killing Cath or Zak.”

Gray nodded. “I know.” And he frowned. “When you’re done, run over the security plans surrounding Light with Ray,” he said to him quietly. “I want to ensure there’s no black spots over Light’s containment.”

Simon was already on his phone as voices back through the door drew Gray’s attention, but then Simon covered the phone and focused on Gray. “I’ve sent a bulletin over to the Met to keep an eye out for any unusual deaths similar to Tuesday’s, and with the coding—Ray…?”

Simon was lost to his instructions over getting a first aid kit over here, and tensing his jaw, Gray looked back to where Light had disappeared.

As Ray came in with the first aid kit, Gray headed on through to the bathroom to wash up. He needed clean hands. Ironic since he’d just been the one to aim a gun and fire it at his own son. But it was there: how he’d never felt the need to clean his hands before. It took three attempts, and he stopped on the fourth.

After giving a long look at the mirror, he made his way back into the kitchen. A breakfast tray rested on the table as Light’s guard stood looking down at a list he held. Keeping Ray back with a look, Martin stood in close to Light, a napkin held to the nick at his ear to stop the trickle of blood running his neck, but it was the rougher grip on the back of Light’s hair that kept him still.

That same old anger back at the MC seemed to settle in Martin’s eyes again, and he let Light go a minute later, or more Light pushed him away, and Martin held his hands up. “Just trying to help, kid.”

As Light turned away, Martin flicked Gray a look. “What the hell happened?”

“I can’t get you these,” the guard said instead, and Light glanced back over his shoulder as Gray went over to Light.

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