The compound felt like a powder keg with the fuse already lit.
After the Reaper’s photo of my mom arrived, lockdown went full throttle. No one in or out. Patrols doubled. Every brother walked around armed and wired. I spent the afternoon in the garage trying to lose myself in work, but my hands kept shaking every time I remembered that red marker scrawled across the picture.
Colossus found me there just after sunset.
He didn’t say anything at first. He simply closed the garage door, locked it, and crossed the space in three long strides. Then his massive arms were around me, pulling me against his chest like he could shield me from the entire world.
“You’re spiraling,” he said quietly, voice that low gravel I loved. “Talk to me.”
I pressed my face into his cut, breathing in leather an
