Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(28)

This was all a game to her. This whole thing with the photos was just one more ploy to crush him. It might work for some, but he’d spent half his life training for this and he knew not to fall for it.

“You’re an intelligent guy, Quinn.” Livia sat back with a smile and something that almost resembled respect in her eyes. “You’ve been trained well. Not many kids your age are even aware that an Immortal can be broken, much less understand how it’s done. I walked into a goldmine the night I came for the redhead and came away with you instead.”

“Well, you’ll have to do better than ‘good cop, bad cop.’” He cast a glance toward James, who had stood silently beside Livia throughout their exchange.

“But your brother is a problem.” She pulled the photos of Graham from her stack. There were dozens. Graham at the airport, stepping into an Uber cab. Graham at the park. Graham at a coffee shop with his laptop out, talking with another Immortal boy about his age. Whatever he thought he could discover by coming here, it wasn’t worth it.

“He’s an annoying little punk.” Quinn smiled. “But you should know, he’s damaged goods. He has a deformed foot and he walks with a limp. Surely your people followed him long enough to notice that. His deformity limits him in a lot of ways.” It was a lie. Graham was born with a twisted foot, and he did walk with a limp, but it never slowed him down. If anything, it somehow made him faster. Once that kid started running, few could catch him.

“That’s the thing about the techies. They’re the new scholars. They don’t need to be particularly gifted fighters. Your brother shows up again and he’s mine.”

~~~

“You’re daring. I’ll give you that,” James said as he collected the scattered photos from the table after Livia had gone. “Most wouldn’t risk raising her ire like that. Well done.”

“You’re encouraging me to piss off your boss?” Quinn tried not to look at the photos. He didn’t want James to see how much they affected him.

“Livia’s not as bad as she seems. She wants you to believe she’s evil incarnate, but she has a heart buried in there somewhere. It peeks out from time to time. It’s good to see someone stand up to her. And for the record, you were right. This was just a scheme to get you to stumble. It’s hard work breaking an Immortal. It’d be a lot easier for her bottom line if she can get you to sign your life away. Like me. But you don’t want to be me.”

“You sure you want to be telling me that?” Quinn watched the stocky man thumb through the pictures of his family. His life. Everything that had ever mattered to him. “Aren’t you on her side?”

“James is on whatever side benefits James.” He sat back down. “But make no mistake, Quinn. I’m a Soma slave just like you. This your brother?” he asked.

Quinn nodded.

“He’s a cutie. It’s reassuring to see a young gay Immortal with such talent. I hear he’s pretty impressive. Let’s hope he stays far away from Soma … and Amrita.”

“My brother’s not….” Quinn paused and took another look at Graham with another boy at a cafe.

“That is most definitely a date,” James said.

Quinn smiled. Graham had changed in the months since Quinn’s capture. He was leaner, taller and looked like the constant worry wasn’t letting him get much sleep. But it was clear there was something Quinn had missed about his little brother. “I’ll be damned.” He leaned over the photos, trying to see what James saw.

“Missed that, did ya?” James chuckled. “Families usually do.”

“How can you tell by looking?”

“You can’t see gay, you idiot. I just have a way of seeing things others can’t. Your brother has accepted who he is but he doesn’t want to come out until you return. He doesn’t want to move on without you. Coming out was easy for me. I didn’t have a family to worry about.”

Quinn ached inside. He wondered how long Graham had known? If he worried about telling their parents. Quinn wanted to be there for his brother. To help him through whatever his future held, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever get that chance.

“Dammit.” Quinn sighed. “I’m going to miss everything.”

His eyes burned and his throat tightened. He missed his brother so much. Quinn hadn’t always been the protective big brother he was now. When he was nearly three and Graham first joined their family, Quinn was insanely jealous of the little blond boy who looked more like their French mother than Quinn ever would. It took Quinn a long time to understand that his parents didn’t see color when they looked at their two sons—one dark and one fair. They simply saw their children. In time, Quinn reciprocated the brother bond Graham offered so freely, and he too stopped seeing color when he looked at his family.

“Yes, food’s here.” James stood to greet the delivery person from the dining hall. “This is getting a little too real for me. Why don’t we dial it back a bit and just eat? I’m starving.” James set the lunch trays on the table.

“There’s a cafeteria here?” Quinn looked down at the tray in front of him. It was very institutional. Like a school. Or a prison.

“The dining hall’s two floors down, near the big gym. You can go any time you want, unless you’re on a particular diet.”