Page 35 of Fight or Flight
“Good, you?” I say instead.
“Good. Not all that happy about this meeting, but what can you do?”
“Same, but like you said, what can you do?”
Thankfully Dan doesn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, and he rests his head against the back of his chair and closes his eyes. I spend the next few minutes trying to calm the fuck down as the rest of the members trickle in.
At exactly one minute before the meeting is supposed to start, the door bangs open, and Jordan, Nico, and Axel walk in. Everyone instantly falls silent as our leaders make their way to the center of the room.
“I call this meeting to order,” Jordan says when the three of them are on the dais. “Let the record show that the time is eighteen hundred hours and the room is secure.”
“So recorded,” Axel says and presses a button on what looks like a key fob to lock the door and secure the room.
Every meeting starts with this spiel, and after almost three years as a member, I still have no idea if the meetings are actually recorded since no one ever seems to take notes of what’s said during them.
“I bet you’re all wondering why we called you here today.” Jordan looks around the room.
A low murmur filters through the group as several guys nod and quietly agree.
“We have a few announcements,” Jordan continues. “And we figured it was best to get them out of the way now instead of waiting and delivering them one by one at later meetings.”
Another low murmur fills the room as some of the guys start whispering to each other, but a stern look from Nico is enough to shut them up.
Our leaders are known for their short tempers and creative punishments, and we all know better than to interrupt or piss them off when they’re talking.
While all three men have the title of leader, they’re each responsible for a different facet of running the house. Jordan is the main leader, which means he’s in charge of all the admin and is the tiebreaker when the three of them can’t agree on something. Nico is the head of our physical security, and Axel is in charge of our cybersecurity and surveillance. I’ve heard rumors that Axel has a small team of hackers who work with him and Carter, but I’m not sure if it’s true. It’s hard to imagine anyone in the room as some sort of hacking genius when most of the guys’ favorite pastimes seem to be spending their parents’ money and binge drinking until they pass out.
Usually there’s a fourth leader who’s supposed to act as the member wrangler, which basically means they’re the ones who deal with discipline and any interpersonal issues that pop upbetween members, but that position was dropped last year and absorbed by the others, so now we only have three leaders instead of four.
Almost without my permission, my gaze flicks to Jace. Before I can return my attention to Nico, Jace’s eyes meet mine, and it’s like the entire room fades out of existence for a few seconds as our gazes lock. The look in his eyes is hard to read from this far away, but the intensity of his stare makes me squirm in my seat. He must notice my reaction because the side of his mouth lifts in a smirk, and he tosses me a wink that sends little tingles through me.
Tearing my gaze from his, I drop my eyes to the floor as heat returns to my cheeks with what is most definitely a blush.
How the hell can he affect me so much with just a look? Is this leftover from what happened in my room? He’s never had this kind of effect on me before. Usually all I feel is annoyance and a little rage when I look at him, but now I’m getting all flustered and tingly? What the actual fuck is wrong with me?
“The first announcement is that there are going to be some changes around here,” Axel says, bringing my attention back to the meeting and away from Jace and his magnetic stare. “One of those changes is that key logs are going to be installed on everyone’s doors.”
Several guys make sounds of protest and start talking to each other in hushed voices, but Axel just holds up one hand to silence them.
Our private rooms are pretty much the only place on campus where our comings and goings aren’t logged and we have any sort of semblance of control and privacy. Why are they taking that away now?
“We know that’s not what anyone wants, but it’s just a temporary measure while we deal with some security issues,” Axel says calmly. The fact that he’s gentle parenting us insteadof using his usual “my way or the highway” tactics is almost as concerning as the announcement.
The change being a temporary measure is reassuring, but I have to wonder what their definition of temporary is. Are we talking a few months? Until the end of the year? Or is this going to be an ‘until further notice’ type thing?
I start to swing my gaze back to Jace, but stop myself and keep my attention fixed on Axel. I don’t like that my first instinct just now was to look at him to see his reaction to the news. I’ve never cared what he thinks about anything. Why do I give a shit now?
I can’t even blame our mutual Os for my weirdness. I’ve hooked up with plenty of girls over the years, and done a hell of a lot more than dry hump them until we both came, but I’ve never once felt any sort of awkwardness around them or obligation toward them after. Not even when I give in to my reckless side and hook up with people I shouldn’t.
Unlike a lot of guys, I’m honest with my partners. I tell them straight up it’s a one-time thing and that I don’t do repeats. The only time I’ve broken that rule was with Lianna, and that only happened because I was in a bad place at the time and figured I might as well give dating a try to make my parents happy. That experiment didn’t last, and it helped me remember why I have that rule in the first place.
From what I’ve heard, Jace is the same, and for someone who fucks around as much as he does, he has a surprisingly good reputation and hardly ever gets involved in any sort of hookup drama. And he doesn’t seem to be looking to start any now.
So why the fuck am I so preoccupied with him? Why can’t I just shake it off and move on like I can so easily do with everyone else?
“We have another security brief we need to get through,” Nico says when the noise dies down a bit. “So the sooner you allshut the fuck up and let me get on with it, the sooner we’ll be done.”
Letting out a soft sigh, I slide down in my chair in an attempt to get more comfortable. The last security brief we had went on for over two hours; hopefully tonight’s will be significantly shorter.
