Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(35)

Hell, I’m sure the other two have mansions in their families too. I just don’t want to think about that right now though.

We’d found one of his sister’s Bonded, the last one left alive and free, and two other Gifted in here. They were attempting to hack into the computer systems and purge any information that might be incriminating to them, and to find extortion material on other high-ranking Resistance members. The moment we’d stepped around the corner to find them wrapped in shadows, their eyes glowing white as Gryphon’s Gift manipulated their brains into complete compliance for us, I’d had the air knocked out of me at the sight of the archives down here.

Atlas hadn't been wrong, Nox is jizzing himself over all of this and, sure enough, he stalks past everything else in the room as he makes his way over to the large stacks of archive boxes and a huge pile of computer equipment. I can't even begin to guess what half of that stuff is, but I'm sure the power bill here alone would be enough to make a grown man weep.

North gets on the phone with Sawyer immediately, gesturing to Kieran once North has confirmed it can't be done remotely, and the Transporter pops out of the room to go and collect our mouthy Technokinetic.

Gabe leans down to murmur to me, “We should make bets on which one of them is going to nut themselves over this first, because my money is on Benson.”

Atlas throws him a look over his shoulder. “Are you looking at the same Draven I am right now? There's no way that computers will do that much for Sawyer.”

My eyes drift over to Nox and get stuck on him as he starts tearing boxes open, leafing through the pages there and making piles as he begins to categorize them. He's methodical about it, taking photos on his phone before he touches anything. It's as though he is a fussy, old librarian making sure that none of us are going to fuck with the cataloging system.

“None of us would dare to approach him as he works. I like my head exactly where it is, and I have no intention of having it ripped off my shoulders,” Gryphon drawls as I sidle up to him.

“You’re reading my mind again,” I say as I tuck my hand in his, but he just shrugs at me.

“I don't need to know what you're thinking. This is going to take forever, but it's best if Nox does it for himself. North might be able to help, but I've also seen Nox tear him a new asshole for doing it wrong, so it looks as though Kieran's just gonna be Transporting all day today.”

I can only guess at how his second would react to that news, but it has me grinning anyway.

I glance down at the Gifted at our feet, but their faces are still blank. I don't recognize any of them, but the dirty looks Atlas keeps throwing at one of them makes it easy to figure out which one had been the abusive dick to his sister.

If killing hundreds of people wasn't already going to send me to hell, I am pretty sure my boot stomping on the fucker’s hand and snapping it underneath the thick heel might be enough to get me there.

Gabe roars with laughter as Atlas smirks at me, his eyebrows raised when I shoot him a sheepish grin. I turn to North to find him staring at me like he's never seen me before. I send him a sweet, flirtatious smile as I shrug.

I would lie and say that my bond made me do it, but there's a literal lie detector in the room, so instead I say, “I’m sick of fully grown men thinking that they can hurt the women around them without consequences. My only regret here is that he's not coherent enough to know who did it to him and why.”

Gryphon clamps one of his big palms on the back of my head to gently pull me towards him, smacking a big kiss on my forehead as he mutters to me, “I’ll make sure he knows, Bonded. Don't worry about that. I'll make sure they all know.”

Kieran pops back into the room with an armful of Sawyer, snapping at him the moment his feet touch the ground. “You really should stop being a fucking pussy about this!”

Sawyer is immune to anyone's censure, that shit just bounces straight off of the asshole. “I’m no use to anyone if I'm dead, dickhead! Setting up a remote working bug isn't even that fucking hard! It would’ve taken me three minutes to figure out how to do it, and then I wouldn't have had to come here! I told you guys that the Wastelands was the last time I was doing it. I'm not built for camping.”

I gesture around the room at him with a snarky smile. “No one's camping here. Besides, if we had to, we could just sleep in one of the rooms upstairs. This place is practically a fucking castle. It's not like you would have been roughing it.”

Atlas snaps at us both, “No one is sleeping here. We're going home.”

All of the fun and games fizzle right out of me, but before I can get too far into my own head about overstepping, Nox calls out, “Black, you need to start Transporting these back to North's offices. Lock them in the safe there as you go. No, not that one. Use your eyes, they’re clearly in piles! You need to take them in order, starting with that one. That one, Black! Prove to me that you have a functioning brain here.”

Atlas chuckles under his breath, and I bite down on the smile trying to form on my lips. Sawyer, ever the ass, bursts out laughing as he gets himself settled in front of the computer.

Nox starts really getting into a mood about everything, and Gryphon gives my hand one last squeeze before he goes off to Kieran’s rescue. He snaps at Nox to settle down before calling Atlas and Gabe over to help as well, each of them lifting as many boxes in their hands as they can. They keep them perfectly in the order that Nox needs them to be as Kieran Transports the three of them in one trip.