“Where?”
“The forest.”
Chapter 41
I was always going to end up here.
After a heated argument in the car when we parked, I’d gotten out and walked towards the old wreck. They could see me clearly enough, as we’d driven up an old dirt path. And there he was, perched up on the roof of the car, dressed in dishevelled formal wear. Marcus looked down when I approached, smiling that catlike smile, then stood up, a towering figure, casting me in shadow. As he always had, I realised. I stared up at him, then started when he jumped down beside me.
“You must have questions.” This was delivered quietly, circumspectly, though there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I’ll answer them, Cyn, any damn question you want.” His voice came out part sigh, his movements restless, and for the first time, I saw an uncomfortable Marcus. He took small steps, circling me, his hands thrust into his pants, eyes flicking up to me and back down at the ground. “Anything at all that I have to give is yours now.” He looked up and over my shoulder. “All of you.”
There was something terribly final about this. Somehow, he’d managed to escape being charged with Benson’s death and Juniper’s shooting, yet it was now that he looked like a prisoner in the dock. He stopped finally, standing in front of me.
“Cyn?”
“You’re scared,” I said.
His breath came out in a rush, a fluttering laugh escaping his lips, and impulsively, he reached out and took my hand. I found myself grabbing it, squeezing it.
“Fuck, I thought you’d ask me anything but that. I had all these answers…” His smile spread, then faded again. “I always love it, when something I don’t expect happens.”
“Because most of the time, you do, don’t you?” I asked warily. “You see everything, saw what everyone would do. All of it.”
“Usually.” He shrugged. “People think they’re so fucking mysterious, but the same patterns of greed and hatred and prejudice play out over and over and over. It’s not that hard, once you work it out, to anticipate what people do.”
I snorted, then stared at him.
“How many hours of watching, waiting, and observing does it take?”
“Not as many as it used to. I have software now, algorithms that help make the process easier.”
“And back then?”
I didn’t specify and I didn’t need to, because he knew. Marcus always knew.
“Just me. We were little fish in a much smaller pond. I could devote my attention to individuals more then.”
“Like me.”
I said the word with my heart in my throat, knowing the answer but needing to hear it, and he sensed that immediately. Of course he did. He took a step forward, stared at me like I was the beginning and end of the world, and then reached out. I stood there, quivering, so much of what had happened to me remaining unprocessed, but it couldn’t be, not until this. When his fingers trailed featherlight down my face, I moved with them, into them, my hand going to his wrist and gripping it tight, like he’d disappear in a second.
And maybe he knew that.
He came in slowly, wrapping his big body around me, pulling me close when I didn’t resist, a long breath escaping him, and mine came with it.
It was omega bullshit, but I had to admit, I hadn’t felt safer than I did just then. My other mates were perfect, and I was dead sure they would protect me under any circumstance, but… Marcus had killed for me, but not just that, he’d had this long, convoluted plan that entailed this. I heard the crunch of the guys’ feet as they approached, unable to stay away for long, and we leaned against the car, together.
“From the start,” Rhys said in a low growl. “Don’t leave anything out, Marcus. That’s a dealbreaker, going forward.” The others agreed in deep rumbles, and Marcus nodded. He took a deep breath and told us the story.
“I don’t know how I learned to read people, how to push their buttons and get them to do what I wanted, I just always could. I either fit right in or couldn’t at all. Getting bored with things always going my way, I started setting myself challenges, like wagging classes without being caught, bumming a smoke from a staff member without them realising I was a kid. Seducing a teacher. I was…floating in this shitty fucking world where everyone was blind, unable to see what I could, and as a result, I could just run rings around them. Until I met you guys.
“I’d get caught sometimes, deliberately. Part of me just wanted to see if there was someone, anyone who could put limits on me, who could stop me. They’d try, but I’d weasel my way out of it every time. I’d find key bits of information, hack their computers and find secret files. Everyone has this…whole other layer of shit it would be bad for others to find out, and I’d identify it and present it when the hammer was about to fall, skating on out from under consequences.
“But that was kinda exhausting. The world just seemed so flimsy, with all these edifices and institutions people relied on, and I could make them fall without much effort. It’s why I let them send me to the alpha anger management camp. Maybe someone could help, could stop me, could provide fucking meaning in my life, because where I was headed scared me. My mum was useless, fuck knows where Dad was. I was smarter than anyone else I knew.” Bren snorted at that. “And I didn’t know what the fuck to do about that. Until I saw your pack.
“I always scoped out new blood when they came to camp. I need to know who the players are and what their power base is. I’d been collecting dossiers on the camp organisation and key figures, checked out new alphas when they arrived, worked out who were the ringleaders, the bullies, the insecure ones. But Rhys…” Marcus’ brows creased when he looked at our mate, a look of pure yearning transforming his face in ways I’d never seen. “Brendan was completely under his spell, Orion following not long afterwards, and I couldn’t work out why. He didn’t coerce or bash you. If anything, he protected you as much as he could. I assumed there was some shitty reason for that as well, but the longer I watched and waited, the more I saw.”
He frowned, his brows creasing, his gaze unending.