Rage and Ruin | 2

5 | 1

D E L P H I N I U M

The closer we got to the weapons factory, the more on-edge I became. It was a few hours away from the fortress, but I still couldn't shake the weak feeling that I got whenever I was close to Orion and the Tribunal. I hated how I kept looking over my shoulder to see if anyone followed.

So I kept my eyes straight ahead. We were driving through a rural area in the car that Jake and I had stolen. Back at the compound, Hunt had instructed us to rent one, but Jake had insisted that it would be much more efficient to simply take one. Trust him to always turn back to his criminal ways.

I glanced at the map propped up on the center console. "About twenty more minutes."

"We might have to move quickly. Are the bombs ready?"

My gaze dropped to the bag of explosives that Jaxon had shoved into my hands. "Yes. Although it is a bit daunting to be so casually holding enough explosives to blow up an entire factory in my arms."

"We've been in worse predicaments."

I scrunched my nose as a string of images came through my mind: facing Hundsen in his lair, seeing Mariette's dead body stabbed into the wall, the car chase in which our car had rolled onto its side and back over again.

    Laughing a little as I remembered, I asked, "Do you remember that time in Hungary when I took out all those Club members?"

"Which time?" He was right—there were many instances in which that same thing had happened.

Giving him a pointed look, I said, "The time you stalled for time while I took out all of our enemies."

"You're remembering it wrong."

Shrugging, I looked away. "You were the one hiding behind both my abilities and reputation."

"You're definitely remembering it wrong. I have a reputation of my own that can certainly hold me over."

A smile found its way onto my face. "And when we first escaped from the Club and robbed that gas station?"

"I seem to recall you slowing us down because of your gunshot wound."

"I seem to remember myself holding a knife to your throat." Shaking my head in mock-disgrace, I continued on, "It's a damn shame I didn't just end it then and there."

Scoffing as though the very idea was preposterous, he sneered, "You really think I would have sat there while you slid your blade across my throat? We both know better than that, Tesla. I was proving a point."

"What point? That I'm more powerful than you?" The words were meant to be sharp, but the ends of my lips turned upwards halfway through.

"You're truly delusional if you believe that. Let's not forget who broke you out of the back of Hundsen's truck in the first place. Without me, you'd be nothing but a pile of rotting bones in that Romanian fortress."

"Maybe I should have slit your throat that night. It might have knocked that ego of yours down a few notches." I chose to ignore the last part of his statement, not wanting to think about what would have happened if he hadn't freed me.

"Bold of you to assume that you even could. Many have tried, all have failed."

"So far." I'd only been joking earlier and I knew that he was aware of it. But my smile dropped when I imagined him with his throat slit, bleeding out on the ground. The thought sent a cold shiver of fear down my spine.