Chapter Thirty-Three: Aspen

Chapter Thirty-Three
~ Aspen ~

I let out a harsh breath as I recoiled back. The hit to my ribs caused a sharp pain to vibrate through my sides and down my spine. I gasped for air and placed a gloved hand against the tender spot.
“Geez, chill out.”
“Do you think your enemy is going to chill out?” Grey rolled his eyes and lifted his hands back into fighting position. “What does that even mean?”
I rolled my eyes right back and tried to catch my breath. We’d been training for at least an hour now and I was exhausted. He wasn’t taking it easy on me, which I guess is better in the long run, but damn was it tiring. And painful. I knew he wasn’t hitting me nearly as hard as he could, but I would still have bruises after this.
I took a step forward and tried to land a hit but, of course, he dodged it. He caught my wrist easily and jerked me forward. I lost my footing and slammed into his chest so harshly it knocked the air from my lungs. I placed my free hand against him and tried to push away, but he wasn’t budging.
“Break free.” He taunted, a teasing smirk on his lips.
My eyes narrowed, my anger spiking at his arrogance. It wasn’t like he was out of line, but it was still incredibly irritating. I kept tugging until he surprised me by spinning me around so that my back was pressed against him, with his arm loosely around my neck caging my own across my chest. I felt him lean down until he stopped just inches away from my right ear.
“Come on, City Girl. What did I teach you?” His voice still held that teasing quality, only much quieter now.
I closed my eyes and tried to fight the fluttering in my stomach long enough to remember what he’d said to do in a situation like this. Without warning, I kicked my right leg back into his knee and he grunted in pain. I wrapped my foot around his leg and tugged as hard as I could, at the same time leaning forward with all of my weight so he’d be forced onto the ground. I don’t know which one of us was more surprised when it actually worked. My eyes widened and a huge grin pulled at my lips as I watched him fall onto his back on the mat.
“I did it!” I couldn’t help but yell out my excitement.
He chuckled from below me, the same pride I was feeling inside shining through his eyes. My celebration was cut short, though, when he wrapped a hand around one of my calves and pulled me down onto the floor with him. I yelped, not expecting the quick movement, and only a moment later I was the one on my back with his hands on either side of my head, pinning my arms down onto the squishy surface beneath me.
“Never lose focus during a fight.” He tried to chastise me, but I could tell he was holding back a smile.
“You’re just mad I got you.” I said triumphantly, still impressed with myself for knocking him down.
“Okay, gross.”
At the unexpected voice Grey quickly shoved himself off of me. I watched him as his eyes took on their usual stormy appearance and frowned. So, he was only going to be nice to me in private? I pushed myself up onto my elbows and peered over at our intruder.
“What do you need?” Grey asked, putting a hand down toward me absently.
I ignored it and got up on my own. If he was going back to being cold, I could easily do the same. And I would. Will rubbed a hand down his face tiredly and I wondered if he’d actually gotten any sleep last night. I also wondered how his conversation with E had gone, but I would ask him that later.
“Team meeting.” He said, eyeing Grey and I before turning to go back out the way he’d come.
I sighed, still trying to slow my breathing from the longest workout of my life and began pulling the gloves off of my hands. Or, trying to. They were stuck to my skin due to all the sweat that had accumulated during our training session.
“Hey, can you…?” I turned to see that Grey was nowhere to be found and rolled my eyes for what must’ve been the thousandth time concerning him. “Never mind.”
I eventually got myself free and made my way to the meeting. I took my usual stance in one of the corners, not wanting to intrude. I’d become a bigger part of the group, yes, but I was still nothing compared to any of these people. They didn’t know me anymore than I knew them. I had given them this place to call home, yes, but I was still practically a stranger. One that had gotten them into this in the first place.
“Alright,” E sighed from up front, seemingly trying to collect her thoughts. She looked better than the day before. More at peace, but still exhausted. “We’ll keep it short. Everything is looking good as far as the illusion and sensors. We’re safe for now. I see everyone’s been getting settled nicely which is good, but please don’t get too comfortable. We’re still on the run. There’s still an army coming for us at any moment--”
As if on cue, a nearly deafening shrieking filtered into the room. I looked toward the ceiling, knowing it was the alarm system. The alarm system that shouldn’t be functional...shit. We hadn’t ever disabled it. Of course it would still be functional, if the power still worked. It could be something as simple as a false alarm, the building was really old after all, or we could be in big trouble. Pure panic broke out in the room. Everyone moved as if they knew exactly what to do in a situation like this, but I was stuck in place. I was processing, trying to figure out what was going on.
I was being shoved further into the corner as everyone ran out of the room, trying to find shelter. There was yelling, so much yelling, but it was impossible to understand with so much other noise. All I could do was watch as everyone barreled past me. Suddenly, an idea came to me. Might as well make myself useful. I jumped into the crowd and let them practically shove me out of the office. The hallway was a stark contrast to the room. It was almost calm in a weird way, if you could block out the insane noise coming from the alarm speakers above.
I didn’t have time to tell anyone my plan, but I assumed they’d have one of their own anyway. In the end, one of us would be right and it would work itself out. They were a team, they needed to work together. But I was just me, and I was going to work alone. It was probably safer for them, anyway. I made my way to the electrical closet, knowing everyone would calm down if they could hear what the hell was going on. I ran down the long hallway, avoiding people as I went, and tore the door open when I got to it.
It only took me a few seconds to find the wire I knew was connected to the alarm system. After two tugs it burst free from the control panel, sparks flying at my hand in the process. I flinched away, but a few managed to land on my skin anyway. I hissed in pain. That was definitely going to leave a mark. The second it was unplugged, the building descended into complete silence. I let out a breath and glanced at my hand. A burning pain moved through the injury, but I chose to ignore it for now.
A terrified yelp fell from my lips as I turned and almost ran into E. She looked absolutely pissed. Her eyes were narrowed, and her lips pursed. Yeah, she was mad at me for sure.
“Meeting room. Now.” She practically barked the command.
She didn’t give me any time to respond as she turned on her heel and stormed away from me. What the hell was her problem? I was just helping. The alarm needed to be turned off. I was fairly certain it had been triggered in error and getting that horrible sound to stop was top priority so we could all think again. Either way, I followed closely behind her, my irritation growing by the step.
My eyes scanned the room when we got there. Will, Grey, and Jax all stood with their arms crossed at the front of the room. E motioned for me to stand before them as she joined their sides.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing around here?” She asked, trying to keep her voice even.
“Excuse me?” I was surprised by her question.
“What she means is,” Will glanced her way in a silent warning. “Where did you go?”
“What?” I looked between all of them. Was this some kind of intervention or something? Had I done something wrong?
“S, around here we don’t go running off before strategizing when something goes wrong.” E spoke up again, slightly more calm.
“Okay…” I drug the word out, my confusion increasing. “And?”
“And,” Jax spoke up. He actually looked angry too. “You could’ve jeopardized our plan.”
“What plan was that? To sit around talking until it was too late?” I laughed without humor. I wasn’t going to apologize for jumping into action. I’d already proved time and time again that sometimes that’s the best answer.
“You don’t get it. There are rules around here. Rules that you don’t make.” E was getting heated again.
“Rules, huh? If you haven’t noticed, rules and I don’t get along too well.”
“Trust me, we’ve noticed.” My eyes shot to Grey at his curt remark.
“Look, I don’t really know what your goal is here.” I started, taking a few steps back. I was more than done with this conversation. “But I know this building better than any of you and I knew how to fix the problem on my own. End of story.”
“You can’t keep being selfish!” E looked as if she’d instantly regretted raising her voice, but I didn’t care at that moment. She was way out of line. I took a step forward again.
“Selfish?” My voice was getting louder as well. I almost couldn’t control it.
“Alright, that’s enough--” Will tried to intervene, but E took a step toward me as well and jabbed a finger in my direction.
“Yes! Selfish! And reckless! We’re a team here. We work together. We don’t run around doing whatever we want when times get scary.” I let out an astonished breath as I stared her down. I really couldn’t believe she was going there.
“You’re right. You’re a team.” I pointed at each of them. “All of you. Not me.”
I’d taken orders blindly my entire life, and I wasn’t about to continue now that I was free of dad. I’m done listening to what others had to say. I’m more than capable of making my own decisions, and I would think they’d see that by now. They’d seen me help in times of need by choosing my own path many times. They should’ve been appreciative that I’d helped at all. I could’ve just ran away like the rest of their people.
“Yeah, and maybe that’s for the best.” E bit out, and I had to stifle a gasp.
So, it was true. They didn’t consider me a part of the team. It was one thing to assume it myself, but it still hurt to have it confirmed. I fought to control the wetness gathering in my eyes. I wouldn’t let them see how much their exclusion actually got to me. At this rate, it seemed as if they thought they’d be better without me here. No one spoke up in my defense, so I could only assume they felt the same as E.
“None of us think that.” Grey suddenly ground out, sounding like he was in pain.
“I told you not to read my fucking mind!”
I sent him a quick glare before turning on my heel and almost running out of the room. I had to get out of here. That’s what I’d always done when things got ugly. I hid out until the waters calmed and it was safe to talk again. It wasn’t that I thought any of them would hurt me, but I also knew seeing them any time soon wouldn’t help either. The tears fell freely once my back was to them.
I thought I was really helping. I thought I was making a difference around here, but it turns out they just saw me as a liability. I made it to my room easily, since everyone was still hiding out, and grabbed the bag I’d put together in case I ever needed to get away. I slung it over my shoulder and wiped the angry tears away from my face. I wasn’t sad. No, I was furious for letting myself start to get close to these people. I should’ve known better.
Before heading out the front door, I paused at Jax’s station of computers and started typing quickly. I set the sensors to turn off for thirty seconds; just in case they wanted to check which direction I went later. This way, they wouldn’t know where I was going. I didn’t plan on staying away forever, but right now, I didn’t have any plans of returning either. Without another thought, I walked out the doors. And I didn’t know when I’d be back.