Page 38 of Atlas

“No!” Willa gasps, then laughs when Agatha turns her hand to show her that she still has them. “You have no idea what’s happened on these floors,” she sighs. “If those landed, we might have had to order up an exorcism before you could put them back into your mouth.”

“Got any hot grandpas around here?” Agatha asks, arranging her teeth back into place deftly. “My husband was the love of my life and that’s never going to change, but it’s been a lot of lonely years. I think a little bed sport might be just the thing.”

My god. We’ve unleashed a monster among us.

“There are plenty of eligible men in Hart, I’m sure,” Willa says hopefully, not the least bit disgusted or scandalized. She’s doing better with this information than I am.

“Don’t look so shocked, young man. One day, you’ll be my age, and you’ll look back on this moment and you’ll understand the concept ofold, not dead.”

“The concept is to keep you safe. After the threat has been neutralized, you’re more than welcome to sling grenades on your farm—though I’d really prefer if you didn’t—or find someone to date.”

“Dating?” Agatha spits. “No. Hook up with.” She winks. “I know the lingo.”

“You shouldn’t risk coming to my room” I warn Willa under my breath before Agatha can tug her along to the kitchen.“Not unless you want someone to find out. There are cameras in the hallways and all over this place.”

She just shrugs. Maddeningly.

And even more maddening is the fact that my cock is harder than steel and has been since she mentioned a middle of the night tryst. I don’t know if it’s properly deflated ever since last night.

“I could talk to Wizard.”

“Wizard is busy enough. Too busy.” It’s another reminder that I was going to ask Tyrant about that. He’s probably well aware already, but I won’t be able to stop thinking about it until I put it out there. “It might look like a big happy gathering in here, but people are stressed.” Willa sobers at my words. Her hand falls to the small of my back and presses there in a comforting gesture. “When that asshole comes to get his money and gets the fuck out of Hart, I’ll take you back to your place and give you the fucking of a lifetime.”

“Still right here. Still hearing fine,” Agatha quips.

Willa tries to speak quieter, but it’s hard over the noise in here. “I hope you’ll tie me up this time.” She winks at me before she steers Agatha to the kitchen.

“I hope it’s more fun for you than it was for me,” Agatha drops dryly, just within my hearing.

Willa turns her face and winks again. It’s the last bit of attention she can give me before Lynette spots her and she and Agatha get swallowed into the pie making shenanigans. My mom and dad both look up and locate me, but instead of rushing over and asking me a thousand questions about what’s being done, orbegging me to let them go home, they stay right where they are. They’re a part of this life in a way they never have been before.

Georgia waves at me. She palms an apple and strides over. “Hey, baby bro. I just wanted to say that we’re doing okay. You’re wearing your worried face. Either that or you’re constipated.”

My sister and Willa are far too similar while being so vastly different. It’s almost unnerving.

She tosses the apple at me. “One for the road.”

I catch it before it smacks me in the nose. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“It’s actually fun. Everyone’s been super nice, and our rooms are all set up. Mom and Dad are going to call in sick to work for the next couple days, say they caught a stomach bug. Neither of them ever do that, so they’ll be okay. It’s a believable excuse. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we have it handled.”

“I don’t have anything handled. I just got here, and I haven’t even gone for an update yet.”

She grins at me. “As I said, an apple for the road. Or just to the lounge, or wherever those feral looking guys are that run this place. Then again, they’re all feral, aren’t they? You stick out wherever you go, but here more than ever.”

She doesn’t intentionally mean to be cruel, but as she walks away, her words stick with me, worming under my skin. She pressed on something that’s never sat quite right with me. A set of doubts that I’ve never voiced to anyone and barely contemplated myself.

That this might be my family, but I really am nothing like anyone else here.

“Atlas!” Tyrant appears from out of nowhere and claps me on the shoulder so hard he just about winds me, then steers me out into the hall where the conversation is at least somewhat muted. “I talked to Odin and Battle Axe already.”

“I’m sorry we tied Agatha up and pretty much kidnapped her. That was terrible. Luckily, she rode with Willa, and she talked her down.”

“The important thing is that she’s here and she’s okay now and no one got hurt.”

“You mean her or us?”

Tyrant laughs. “I heard about the grenades.”

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