Addict (Hunter #2)(70)

Lee hadn’t had his arm frozen off, so I would make my own decisions.

“And Uncle Marcus says that the lieutenant guy is just trying to get in your pants,” Lee added.

So much for Marcus’s belief in my abilities. “Good to know.”

I stood up. My decision was made. It was final. It would probably cost me the only man to treat me like a princess, but I wasn’t cut out for the role anyway. I looked down the hallway at the door where the men making the decisions about my life were meeting. The door was closed to me. It might be time to kick it open.

Lee’s hand found mine. He was looking at the same closed door. “You want me to go with you?”

I smiled down at him, surprised at the confidence he gave me. But this was my fight. “No, buddy. I think I have to do this on my own. How about we play some Xbox after dinner?”

“Cool.” I expected him to run off and find his brother, but as I walked down the long hall, I felt his eyes on me. He watched with a slight smile on his face as I walked into the office. I winked back his way. This stand I was taking went beyond just me. It was for us—for those of us who didn’t have a voice right now. We were either too young or considered too na?ve or inexperienced. We had the right to speak and we needed someone who could stand for us.

It looked like that would be me.

I opened the door and was assaulted by chaos.

“You can’t take her off the playing field,” Donovan argued.

“I can and I will,” Marcus snarled back.

My uncle was standing between the two men. “I think we need to talk about this.”

“I’m staying.” I had to practically yell to be heard over the argument the men in my life were having. Marcus and Zack were standing close to Donovan, trying to get the king to see their point.

“Kelsey, you will wait outside,” Marcus said in that authoritative tone he tended to use on everyone but me. I had to admit, I kind of hated it being used on me. “I will be with you in a moment.”

“No.” I stood my ground. “I’m the Nex Apparatus. I’m the one whose butt is on the line. I make the decision. I’m staying.”

Marcus sighed, and I saw his jaw tighten. “Kelsey, you will do as your trainer tells you to do.”

“She’ll do as her king commands her,” Donovan said firmly.

“I’ll do what I want.” It was time to put my foot down. Kings and trainers were important, but this was my job. My life. The queen was right. I had to make a place for myself or be forever dismissed. Knowing my father would have stood behind me, with his game smile and his taciturn outlook on life, gave me a strength and confidence I didn’t have before. He would have given me a big old thumbs-up, and that helped me stand tall. “Look here, Donovan, you might hold most of the cards when it comes to me, but I got the only one that counts. I can say no, and I can mean it. I won’t be doing your dirty work mindlessly. I won’t assassinate someone because they disagree with you or you think it’s a fun idea. If you want me to put my ass on the line, you better convince me. Start now.”

I got the impression no one talked that way to Daniel Donovan. He stopped and the room went quiet. I wondered if he was going to call Trent in. Even Marcus seemed surprised I’d spoken to the king that way. I hadn’t been raised to kiss his ass.

After a long, uncomfortable moment, Donovan smiled briefly before he began his pitch. “All right, then. Those files you stole tell the tale, Owens. The drug known as Brimstone is both highly addictive and fast acting. It works on the impulse center of the brain in shifters and weres. It doesn’t work at all on witches. The witches they gave the drug to died.”

“So Winter wants a bunch of psychopathic shifters wandering around? Is he trying to give you hell? It’ll be hard to keep this out of the papers.” Secrecy was important in our world.

“Henri is worried that there’s more to this,” Donovan explained. “Demons can have certain powers over the weak minded. This drug gives Winter a whole bunch of powerful, weak-minded soldiers.”

“So he takes away their impulse control and then potentially influences them.” It was a lethal one-two punch. Our own people would be the ones coming after us. “They could come after you.”

“Or anyone Winter wanted gone.” Donovan stood up from his chair. His blue eyes narrowed. “So, Nex Apparatus, are you in or are you going back to Italy?”

There was no question about what I needed to do. “I’m in.”

Marcus cursed behind me. “You’re not ready for this. You must listen to me, Kelsey. I know what I’m talking about.”

I clenched my fists, willing him to understand. “It doesn’t matter that I’m not ready. I don’t get to choose this, Marcus. Can’t you see that? This isn’t some game where it doesn’t matter if I play this round. I don’t have two thousand years. I got today and maybe tomorrow, and if I sit on my ass while people around me suffer when I could help, then what the f*ck does any of this mean?”

He slumped down in his chair, and his hand reached up to massage his brow. “That is a child’s question. Only a child seeks meaning in that which is meaningless.”

“Maybe it is.” I was resolute. I was the one who had to sleep at night, and I couldn’t do that if I was on a plane to Italy while the world was in turmoil. “But I gotta find out on my own. All I know is if I walk and people I care about suffer, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”