The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

Matt threw me a look, a slight tug at his lip. “We can get sequestered away from the real world sometimes. Makes it easy to forget.”

Tony dumped his bag onto the chair next to Matt but kept going to a back seat.

Melissa took the seat next to me.

Torie and Tamara sat next to each other, but I saw, once we were in the air, that Tony was next to Tamara and Guy was next to Torie.

I texted Kash.

I feel like I’m on a school trip.

I waited, but no response.

Maybe he was somewhere he didn’t have reception.

I wouldn’t think about it until later.

But later would be too late.





THIRTY-EIGHT


We were taken to a resort, where we broke off into two separate large cabins. Both attached to a main building housing the kitchen and eating area, along with a game and media room and a larger living room with a massive fireplace. The two separate cabins each had a smaller kitchenette area and sitting rooms, but it was obvious that the main building was where everyone was supposed to hang.

Dax and Melissa assumed that one cabin would be guys, the other for the girls.

Nope. Didn’t happen.

One cabin was Matt, Tony, Chester, Guy, Fleur, and Cedar.

The other cabin was Dax, Shyam, and the three other guys. Melissa went with them, and she gave Torie a pleading look, so that’s how Torie and Tamara ended up in that cabin, too. Hoda trudged behind them.

I started to head after them, but Matt hooked an arm around my neck and tugged me with him. “Nope. My sister stays with me.” That was how I ended up in their cabin.

Liam and Carl took a room that was the most in-between both cabins as could be. There was one sleeping room in the main building, tucked in the back hall, and that’s where they tossed their bags. It made sense, too. Carl wasn’t fitting in with the computer group. He’d taken up with Guy if Liam was with our classmates.

A lot of people.

I was forgetting the whole reason we’d come on this trip until Matt came to my room and leaned up against the doorway. He folded his arms over his chest, his head cocked to the side. “Thanks for doing this.”

I paused in my unpacking. I was more grabbing a change of clothes, but everyone was “unpacking,” so I felt that was the appropriate thing to do.

“For doing what?” See. I’d forgotten.

He frowned at me. “For helping to distract me. Quinn being out, and her having her hooks in Camille. That makes me all ragey. I want to be like Kash and bash someone’s head in, but I can’t. Not with those two.” He gave me a dark look, coming in and shutting the door behind him. “So my question to you: what are we going to do with them?”

I paused. And gulped. Unease trickled down my spine.

“What are you talking about?”

“No way am I letting Kash have all the fun. Camille Story, that’s on me. I fucked her and ditched her. I primed her to be all vengeful. And Quinn, that’s partly on me, too. Us being here, that’s helping me keep a clear head, but no way am I sitting on the sidelines. I want my hands dirty.”

Yep. Another gulp.

This wasn’t good.

I sighed, letting go of my bag and turning to face him more fully. “Matt,” I started, speaking low.

“No.” He spoke over me. “No way. Quinn tried to hurt you. She wanted to end you. I get the Calhoun part; that’s on Kash to deal with. But Quinn and Camille—we should get a piece of that pie, and I’m thinking Kash isn’t going to include us, so that means it’s on us. What are we going to do to handle them?” He motioned between himself and me on the “we” part.

I had to gulp a third time.

A different feeling took root, an excited feeling, an anticipatory feeling, a predatory feeling. It was slow, but it was spreading.

Oh yeah.

I think I was liking this a whole lot, probably more than I should’ve.

I whispered, “Team Batt?”

My brother gave me another dark look, a wicked gleam, and I shouldn’t have liked how he flashed a triumphant grin, but I was feeling everything he just said.

He gave me an approving nod. “Oh yeah. Team Batt.” He held out his hand.

I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I reached out, opened it, and shook it.

A funny look was on his face, but then he nodded and pulled his hand free. “Okay. I was going with the fist bump. A sibling handshake works, too.” He raised an eyebrow. “We’re doing this?”

We were doing this.

“I can hack ’em.”

He frowned. “I don’t know if we should do that. That can be traced, can’t it?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the door swung open and I realized it hadn’t been shut the whole way.

Hoda stood there, pale. “You can hack?”

Shit.

“Crap.”

Matt shared my sentiment.

“Yeah.”

She gulped now. “Did you hack me?”

Um …

Her eyes bulged out. “You did, didn’t you?”

Another question I felt was better off not being answered. I looked to Matt with that one.

He gave me a pitying look back.

Yeah. He wasn’t helping.

She took another step inside. “What did you do? With my stuff, what did you hack?”

Oh wow. Now that was the question I couldn’t answer.