Page 105 of Degradation
‘Yeah. Tomorrow.’
‘Fine.’ Shade replies.
He goes into the bathroom and shuts the door quietly.
Blake is in his room at his desk when I pass by. I stick my head in. ‘Thank God you had that damn pill, huh?’
‘Yeah,’ he murmurs. ‘I usually have some for emergencies, but we need to think.’
He frowns and turns back to the screen, rubbing his face hard.
‘You okay?’
He nods. ‘Yeah, sorry. I... You know how I get. She wasn’t upset, was she?’
‘No, she wasn’t upsetwith you, but I can’t say she was overly excited about getting pregnant and she definitely isn’t in the mood for more today.’
He nods, going back to the screen. ‘We need to be more careful. Where are you going?’
‘Gym.’
He glances back at me. ‘Balls a little blue, huh?’
‘Just a fucking little.’
He sniggers. ‘Me too. Mind if I join?’
I nod. ‘Sure, I’ll need a spotter anyway.’
I run to my room and throw on a shirt and my sneakers, grabbing my training gloves. When I get back out in the hall, he’s already waiting, his eyes trained on the bathroom door. I can hear the murmur of low voices coming from inside.
‘What do you think they’re talking about in there?’ he asks.
‘The future.’
He snorts. ‘Fuck. If we don’t get our heads back in the game, we probably won’t have one.’
I don’t answer. Maybe I should be going back to the lab to go over everything again, but the truth is I’m so close to it that I know I need some distance. Just a few hours of not thinking about it, of turning it around over and over and over. It’s driving me crazy. I know there’s a solution. It’s staring me right in the face. But it’s just out of reach. Maybe pumping some iron and tiring out my body will get my brain working.
My phone buzzes and I look down.
‘I’ll meet you there. It’s Dom.’
Blake disappears down the stairs and I lean against the wall, peering into his room.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey.’
I let out a small sigh. I can tell a lot from my brother’s mood from just the way he says that one word, and it already doesn’t sound good.
‘What’s up?’ I ask.
‘Sark was here. Word is Sauvage is sick of waiting. He’s getting impatient and when he gets impatient, people get a little dead, bro.’
‘We have another month. Sark confirmed.’
My brother huffs. ‘I hear he wasn’t supposed to give you more time. He’s not the head of the family yet. He overstepped and got himself a beating. Pop-pop Monty was not happy.’
