My eyes narrow on Knox. “And that’s the only reason? You want to be responsible spirit guardians?” They share a look, some sort of bro speak that makes me feel even more like an outsider. There’s more they’re not telling me. My eyes narrow. “What are you all up to?”
“What do you mean?” Macklin asks a little too innocently. He shifts in his seat and starts to fix the bottom button on his shirt that was already perfectly in place.
“I mean, what the fuck are you all up to? You’re hiding something from me. The last time you did that, I ended up six feet deep and covered in dirt. In case you needed the reminder.” The room is silent. Struck a nerve, I did, but they’re not going to admit to anything right now. Big men gotta protect the little lady. Fucking hell. “Look. We’ll come back to that in a minute. Right now...I have an idea I want to discuss with all of you.”
“Oh hell. Here we go,” Cole mutters.
I turn my glare on him. “Can we vote him off the island?” I snark. “All in favor?”
Thad and Levi raise their hands, grinning unrepentantly.
“You’re hilarious.” Cole rolls his eyes.
“I think we should use Rylan as an undercover spirit. Get him to work his way through the groups and find out anything he can about what might be in the works.”
“Who the fuck is Rylan?” Knox asks.
“Buff surfer guy. Missing one leg.”
“Wait, is he a blond buff surfer?” Thad asks, his eyes narrowing.
“Uh, yeah?”
“Like the blond surfer from your fantasies?”
And now that little chat in the SUV is coming back to bite me in the ass. I wave my hand around like it’s no big deal. “I made that shit up to get my point across.”
“Isn’t that convenient?” Levi remarks, shooting me a questioning glare.
Cole grumbles, “She was flirting with him.”
“I was just talking to the dude,” I manage through gritted teeth.
“He was laughing.”
“I’m funny.”
“Not that funny.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I attempt to stand but get sucked back down by the weight of this ridiculous dress.
“Here, let me help,” Macklin says as he walks over to me and offers his hand.
“Thank you,” I mutter softly as he pulls me to my feet, his grasp on me tightening ever so slightly as I attempt to pull away. His disappointment filters through me just before our hands disconnect, but it doesn’t sway me. He may be adorable, but I’m not ready to forgive any of them yet. Even my sexy nerd. “Look, I think this is a good idea. We have no more information now than we had all of those years ago, aside from the fact that it wasn’t really Destiny that was there with you all. We’re no closer to identifying the threat, and that’s dangerous.” I take a moment to eye each of them. “I know you all have been operating without me for years now, but you can’t leave me out. I’m just as much a part of this team as any of you. I’m not some thing to be cherished and placed on a shelf for safe keeping, dammit.”
“Fate, we know that. It’s just…” Knox fumbles, at a loss for words as his hand nervously runs through his hair.
“We just want to keep you safe,” Mack says honestly.
“Keeping me in the dark isn’t keeping me safe. It’s making me blind to what might be lying in wait out there. Like it or not, I am the one the Gateway chose. Not any of you. At the end of the day, you’re all here because of me. Now, I have no problem working with you, taking your advice and discussing the important matters that affect us all. That’s what a team does. What being in a relationship entails. We trust each other. But it has to go both ways. The second you all start operating like I have no say is the second I’ll be forced to take drastic measures.”
A voice in the back of my mind reminds me that I’m keeping secrets of my own, but I tell it to shut the hell up, ignoring its eye roll. Because us ghost girls don’t have enough quirks without having entire sarcastic conversations with ourselves.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Cole shouts.
“Assuming you start including me in whatever it is you’re planning, you won’t have to find out.”
“Are you threatening us?” His voice is quiet, even, but it holds that sort of deceptive tone that lets you know you're skirting the delicate edge of his anger.
“Cole, man, you know that’s not what she-” Thad starts, but I cut him off.
“A warning. A threat. A simple fact. Call it whatever you like.”
He stands and the rest of the guys follow, their eyes darting between the two of us, not sure who’s going to lash out first. Anger. Surprise. Worry. Fear. All combining in a toxic mixture that’s battering against my already thinning self-control.
“Okay, let’s just calm down,” Mack says quietly, always the peacekeeper. His arms are out in front of his body in the universal sign for let’s not do anything stupid. He starts to step between us but risks a brief glimpse at Knox, who simply shakes his head. Yeah, probably not a good idea to get in the middle of an alpha war right now, sexy nerd.
But I’m not letting this go. I’m an equal, or this will never work. This hardens my resolve to meet up with Nick and get answers. I’ll just have to prove to them that I’m more than just a doll they can dress up.
“I’m going to go change. I’ll see you guys back in the main chamber in twenty minutes.”
I swish past them all, heading for my room. First thing on the agenda, remove this heinous dress. Second, try not to let the hurt that’s seeping back into my heart take root. I know they mean well, but that’s no excuse. They need to trust me. Period.
Memories or not, this isn't their job. It’s mine. I’m the Guardian of the Spirits, and I don’t take orders from them. If anything, they take orders from me. Time to remind them just who’s boss around here.
“That went well,” Knox snarks from the armchair next to me as the office door leading to our suites snicks shut behind Fate.
The damned woman is just too hard headed for her own good. Doesn’t she understand the threat we’re facing? Why can’t she see that we’re all just trying to protect her?
“Fuck!” I throw my head back and stare at the ceiling. I can admit I was a jealous ass. Something about seeing her smile at another guy, especially while knowing she’s pissed off at me, dredged up the same old insecurities I thought were on the way out.
“Did you all really think she wouldn’t see right through your plan to keep her occupied?” Levi asks, throwing his arms up on the back of the sofa. “My sweets is too smart for that.”
“I thought I did a believable job of selling it,” Knox mutters. “She didn’t seem at all suspicious at the time.”
“Pretty sure not seeing any of us all day while sitting on her ass gave her plenty of time to become suspicious. And angry,” Thad points out.
Mack pushes up his glasses even though they weren’t falling down, a nervous tic not even his newly found confidence can squash. “Yes. That was a miscalculation on my part. I should’ve accounted for our lack of presence in my plan. We should’ve made regular appearances to keep her mollified.”