Page 145 of G.O.D.S Omnibus

I look up and see my brother staring me down; he seriously isn’t over his hatred of me. I know he thought Jolie was dead, and he has blamed me for it ever since, as I was supposed to be on duty that day. But we’d decided Trace would be the one to take her; it had to be him so Mr Z couldn’t use his gift to help find her. Once he knew the truth, I thought we could start repairing our relationship. Clearly, he isn’t ready yet as he flips me off.

“Do you want to have dinner with me on Sunday night?” I ask, fully expecting her to tell me she already has plans, but she smiles up at me and nods her head.

“I would love to.”

My insides turn as giddy as a kid on Christmas. I smile and press a quick kiss to her nose before leaving the room. Who would have thought that I would do things the right way? Dating before sex, go figure.

I wonder how many of the guys told her they were virgins. Not all of us, of course. Well, I’m a girl virgin.Does that even count?But the last time I took count, it was just Trace and me. Case was also one before Jolie deflowered him. I always had a suspicion that Davis was saving himself for god knows what reason, considering he thought she was gone. I’m positive that’s why he’s a low-key dick to her—he’s afraid to get hurt again.

Creed, Chester, and Brennan fucked a few of the handlers. It was their way of denying they felt anything for her way back when she was innocent. It’s insanely fucked up when you think about the age gap, as none of us would have touched her back then. We were only ever told we were born with the sole purpose of protecting her with our last breath. We never questioned it at first because why would we?

That is, until Chester’s reaction when he was sixteen. He killed his first man over the way he picked Jolie–or Zircon back then–up after she was hurt in a training exercise. He lost it,stalked the man after he finished work, and followed him back to his home. The amount of blood we all witnessed surely shouldn’t have been possible. He wore the crimson colour as fucking war paint. Mr Z was not pleased, but made it all disappear by the next day. We realised then that the way he felt about her was more than protection. We also swore to never tell a soul because he was disgusted with himself. Over the years, we all started to feel the same way, except for Brennan, whose hatred of her only grew due to his belief that she was tearing us apart. A hatred he kindled to mask his true feelings. I wonder if we would have ever found outthattruth if we hadn’t betrayed him, and via retaliation, he had to tell us.

With a few minutes to spare, I’m walking into the café. Sinclair and Jimmie are already seated, and I make my way to them, taking the last remaining chair. I look over at Jimmie and see he has brought along his girl.What’s her name again? Brittany? Bianca? Fuck, I don’t remember. Oh well.We haven’t interacted much, but I don’t like the way she watches Jolie every time she’s wandering the halls at school, seeking out Jimmie instead of doing her damn job.

“Why is she here?” I demand, wanting to know why, when I called them here, they didn’t follow an order. The funny part of Olympia is that there is a pecking order, and we take it seriously. Mr Z’s enhanced teams, aka me, are up fairly high, while Jimmie’s team is very low on that list, and I doubt Sinclair is even on it.

“Kai,” Sinclair snaps. “If this was a G.O.D.S thing, you should have said so, but there is zero reason to be mean.”

“I think our friendship has started to confuse you of your place. I’m not a nice guy, maybe nicer than the rest of my team, but when I ask you to do something, I expect it to be done. The only time that’s void is if I was to ask to meet with your girl. Then you—or, well, in your team’s case, I’d personally send the guywith the huge muscles and small brain—would be permitted to come, no questions asked.”

“Drake does not have a small brain,” Becky or whatever her name is defends her guy.

“I beg to differ. I bet he has a small pecker too. All those steroids are not good for a person.”

“Is there a point to why we are here, Kai? Because you’re acting like a dick right now,” Sinclair snaps again, clearly pissed. It might be time to ask Mr Z to add her to the roster for fight night. It may even be fun to see her get her ass kicked. Damn, that green-eyed monster has really pissed me off.

“Yes, it’s Jolie’s birthday in a week.”

“We know when her birthday is,” Jimmie adds.

“I’m thinking we should throw her a party—a masquerade party, to be more precise. That’s not negotiable, and I’m not classified to tell you why.”

“Okay, I can work with that. Though a week isn’t long enough to get everything I would want,” Sinclair mumbles while she starts to write in the notebook I asked her to bring. “And I take it we are making it a surprise?”

“Yes, so I’m trusting you to find her the perfect dress and mask. I want jaws to drop, and spare no expense,” I say, sliding a card across the table.

We all get paid to be part of Olympia, earning a wage, and once teams take on jobs, they get a good commission from those too. I’ll give Mr Z one thing: he pays us well. It’s why he expects so much from all his teams. I know for a fact my team is paid more than, say, Jimmie’s team. The wages are based on your team’s skill set and once you graduate high school, you negotiate your payments. Let’s just say having Brennan on our team has really worked in our favour. I’m sure Jimmie is being well paid for his stint back in high school, but Sinclair, on the other hand,would be paid next to nothing. She isn’t on a team and might not ever be, plus she hasn’t graduated from high school yet.

“Any other requests?”

“Just that you two make this perfect.”

“What do we get paid to do this?” Betty asks.

“You don’t get shit. You were not invited and news flash, girlie, Jimmie is friends with Jolie. Friends do nice things for each other. I don’t trust you, nor do I even like you. You’re lucky that I even let you stay. If you know what’s good for you, I would keep your mouth shut and sit there looking pretty.”

She slumps back in her chair and doesn’t say anything else. I can already tell that she and Jimmie are in for a fun drive home. She clearly doesn’t like Jolie, and he does.

Sinclair stops writing and looks up at me.

“We’ll make it perfect. What about the guest list?”

“Her friends, their teams, and anyone else you think should be invited. I don’t really care as long as you warn them that if they step out of line, they have us to deal with. Chester will not take lightly to anyone messing up her birthday. Nor will Creed, for that matter, if someone makes her cry.”

“Done. I will update you once I have all the details.”

With that, I get up and leave, my mood still sour. The image of her kissing Brennan so easily yet only kissing my cheek as a goodbye keeps replaying in my head. I have to go gift hunting before I head home. I want our date to be perfect since it’ll be the first.Operation “Woo my princess” is a go.

---