Page 48 of Lost in the Silence (The Grove 2)

I give him a nod, and make my way over to the conference room on the north end of the office. I see a few workers on my way through, and they all give me a nod. I haven’t spoken to any of them before, and I think they realize just because something happened to me doesn’t mean I’m going to start have an unnecessary chat with them.

Hugo makes it to the door first and opens it up, revealing three men in the middle of a heavy conversation. When they hear the door open, the stop what they’re doing and turn around. Rich is the first to stand, coming over to me and putting a hand on the back of my neck. “Jackson, glad you could be here today. It hasn’t been the same without you, son.”

“Thanks.” Some weird emotion builds in my throat, and I clear my throat to rid the feeling.

Lynx comes up behind him and gives me a heavy stare. “How’re you feeling, Jackson?”

“I’m here.”

He nods. “I’m sorry this is how things ended up for you. I never knew…”

I shake my head, not wanting to get into the mechanisms of me and my childhood or my relationship with my father.

“I’d have killed him, you know. If I knew about it.” He says, running his hand down his face as he walks back to his chair.

When he sits down, I see Aziel sitting there, staring at me. His face is expressionless, but I can see the fury in his gaze as his eyes look me up and down, stopping at my useless legs as they sit there thin and motionless. They are the one thing about me that I’m ashamed of.

Yes, I’m ashamed.

They’ve lost their muscle mass. Although I wasn’t that beefy to begin with, not using my legs has made them look ridiculous, and I hate it. It infuriates me as I look down at them and see the useless limbs unresponsive and dead.

Aziel shakes his head, saying nothing but giving me a look of complete sadness. He’s another brother to me, and I completely understand his emotion. We might not run in the same crew, but that doesn’t leave us any less meaningful to each other.

“Let’s sit down. We have a lot to discuss.” Rich says, breaking the tension and we all make our way around the large oval table. There’s a spot between two chairs that has a missing chair, and I make my way to that spot, right between Easton and Lynx. Aziel sits across from Lynx, still staring at me with that same devastated look on his face. Hugo sits on the end of the table and Rich makes his way to the other end.

“After a lot of deliberation and discussion, we decided to allow the Mexicans to expand their territory fifty miles over the California border.”

“What?” The word comes out of me, shocking everyone around me. I’m not one to speak, and I’m not one to interrupt Rich. No one interrupts Rich.

Oh well, because I'm not going to let the Mexicans walk all over our territory. No fucking way.

“It’s necessary, Jackson. Let Rich talk.” Hugo’s authoritative tone tampers down my anger. I’ll wait, but this shit is not happening.

“The alternative, Jackson, are consequences much more severe than just allowing them to make passage into the US. We’re talking about a loss of lives, cut off of supplies, money shortages. Fifty miles is not a lot when we’ve already lost so much.”

“Isn’t there another way? Can’t we find another distributor? Isn’t there a way we can get with those who are on our side and they can stand with us?” Easton sits forward, arms on the table with his palms down, fingers spread. He’s angry, and he doesn’t want to lash out, but I have a feeling his thought process is along the same lines as mine is.

“We don’t have time, Easton. They want a decision now, and we’ve held them off too long already.”

“Do you guys really want to risk more of our own?” Hugo asks.

“But what happens when we concede? We’re bending too quickly. They’ll come back for more. They’ll manipulate us and it’ll become a game to them.” Aziel growls.

“We won’t let that happen, son.” Lynx stares at Aziel with a fire in his eyes. He thinks the same, but he also understands Rich’s thinking.

“There’s no other choice in the matter, and we’ve already made our decision. This meeting was to inform you guys of what’s going on. Hugo and Easton will be heading out next week to California.”

“I want to go.” I urge.

“Absolutely not.” Rich cuts me off with a swipe of his hand and a sharp look my way.

“Why not? I’ve got this robot-mobile and can move around just fine.” I press the reverse button and then go forward to show them how good I can move in it.

“It’s not up for discussion, Jackson. You’re not going and you’re not ready. Hugo will be going in your place. I don’t want to hear about it again.”

“This is bullshit.” I bark.

“It’s for your own good, Jackson. Keep getting better and you’ll be back out there before you know it.” Hugo says gently.

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