Page 40 of The Merciless

Angel blinked and blurted out after a moment’s pause, “Thebarber?”

Ray grinned at him, “Sorin and Micah were hiding there while we waited for everything to settle.”

Angel scoffed, his mind blown as he flopped back in his seat. It was wonderous how they’d managed to hide this for so long now.

“Well anyway,” Myra interrupted, “We need to decide how to divide ourselves.” She turned to Angel’s friends, her gaze narrowing. Angel straightened behind Ray, ready for a fight when Myra just shrugged,

“I think we should pair up.”

“Pair up?” Christina said and Myra nodded, lost in thought.

“It’ll help build trust,” she said realistically and looked at the rest of them without a hint of doubt or judgement,

“Like if Luke and Noah and I start working together.”

“Jack can join us,” Sorin said, pointing at himself and Irene.

“And Christina with me and Cameron.” Neera continued calmly. Angel arched a brow as Ray looked over her shoulder again,

“I guess that leaves me with the lovebirds.” Mia said in distaste, and leveled a glare on both of them, “Don’t make it worse for me.”

“You all need to relax.” Angel noted and returned a hard glare as Akash scoffed from beside Ray,

“Why don’t you try thatafterletting go of her, Raven?” He remarked tauntingly. Angel shot him an unamused smile as Ray put her face in her hands and sighed deeply,

“He has a name.” she said, exhausted just as he heard Mia snort.

They all cackled but Neera just stared at Mia stoically. Angel, sighing now, just rubbed the middle of his brows with more force that necessary and growled deep,

“Can we please stay focused–”

A loudscreechfilled the room as Sorin got to his feet suddenly. His movement surprised Micah, who darted back as if he were caught on fire. But Sorin just turned to look at Ray, who moved to stand on her feet. Angel didn’t really understand what was happening until Noah got up as well and Sorin turned to all of them.

Well, all of them excluding him and his friends.

“Are you sure you want to bring him in this?” he asked, his voice dubious. Ray blinked at him, surprise marring her features. Angel furrowed his brows, wondered if he was talking about Kyle when Neera got to her feet as well,

“Do you trust him?” Ray asked.

Sorin shook at her words.

“I do.” He said softly, “But not enough to share every minute detail of our plans.”

Ray nodded beside him, “Then tell him nothing of it–”

“I want him to know about our allegiance with them,” he nudged his chin in Angel’s direction, “I want him to know who I am. Whoweare.”

“Tell him.” Noah replied calmly and stepped in his brother’s direction. Angel saw it now, and still couldn’t believe his eyes. Couldn’t believe they were twins and had slipped under so many people’s noses just. Like. That.

“Don’t tell him about the new player. Tell him nothing about our plans. But tell him who we are if you want to.”

Angel didn’t know what was going on, but judging by the sheen look in Sorin’s eyes it wasn’t easy. He knew now they were talking about Kyle. Knew what went between Sorin and Kyle was far deeper than he’d ever imagined. It surprised him but made both of them a bit more human. Made them far more understandable.

It was with that thought, he slid off his chair and brushed his pants to smoothen them down. Smiled as he saw Ray shoot him a questioning look and turned to look at the rest of his friends. Luke and Jack got up as well, turning to face him as he heaved a breath and said in a low voice,

“It’s time for us to head home as well.”

Angel was aware of Ray turning on her heels to face him, and turned so he was too facing her. His eyes softened at her fractured expression, and he forced his urge to wrap her in his arms to subside as he continued,

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