Always?

Chapter 7

Atlas continued to stare at Oliver, hoping the man would realise what he was trying to convey before he peeled his eyes over to the man he didn’t recognise. He was wearing a bloody white shirt, and he was rather pale with blonde hair, which seemed to be dirty with blood. Whether it was his or not, Atlas didn’t know and wasn’t sure if he wanted to. He knew the group were involved in some questionable activities. Why else would they be fluent in multiple languages, leave and arrive at the worst times, and be gone for weeks at a time? But when he looked back at the man after he realised his eyes had managed to find Oliver in the group, he realised his bright green eyes were the most surprising thing about the mystery man. Atlas had met many people with all sorts of eyes, including various shades of brown, blue, and green, as well as natural and contact lenses, in his line of work. But no one had this particular shade of green so bright, and the outer iris was such a stark contrast between black and green in the middle.

The man smiled a little as he looked at the group nervously. He was leaning against the bannister, trying to keep his weight on his right leg. He winced a little when he realised he had messed up somewhere along the way and put too much of his weight on the injured leg. “When you said you were going to make use of me, I didn’t think you would mean within twenty-four hours of knowing me.”

No one said anything, and when he moved a little more, the sunlight from the windows shone down on the silver between his ribs, and he realised Oliver was the one holding it.

When he cleared his throat, Atlas finally found his voice and all eyes landed on him. “Who is this?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.

“A liar.”

The man rolled his eyes at Oliver’s comment but turned to look at Atlas, a look of confusion on his face. “I’m Cai, and have we met? You look really familiar. I would shake your hand, but I am struggling to move.”

“No,” Oliver replied for him. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying no to, the comment about them having met or about the man shaking his hand. Atlas sighed, rolling his eyes, but before he could speak, Oliver continued. “One more word out of you, and you’re getting stabbed.”

Cai didn’t take his eyes off Atlas, even when he invited them all to sit around the couches and turned the fireplace on, lighting the place with some orange light, which was needed, especially after Oliver had gone over to his glass wall and closed the curtains. He now regretted letting Ani talk him into getting blackout curtains. Max and Alec took one of the armchairs, with Max sitting in it and Alec leaning on the armrest. Ani, Amber and Alice sat near the fireplace, groaning when the heat reached their bodies. Matt and Helios took a seat on the ground near the sofa, already whispering to one another, and that left the couch for Atlas, Oliver and Cai.

Cai snapped his fingers as he stared at Atlas, grinning. “I finally put it together,” he said. “You’re Atlas, and that’s Helios.” He pointed at him first and then at his younger brother, who looked up at the mention of his name.

“One more word out of you, and you’re going to get stabbed,” Oliver deadpanned, glaring at the man who didn’t seem to be the least bit fazed over the blatant threat. You would think he would be a little more concerned for his safety, considering Oliver was sitting between the two, and though he was sure Oliver thought he didn’t know, he still had the knife pressed into Cai’s side.

“Ohh, the rumours are true then, you are both brothers. Is Selene also your sister? Is she going to pop out from somewhere?” Cai went as far as looking around the apartment, expecting their sister to appear from nowhere.

“Do you want to be stabbed? Is this what you’re telling me right now?” Oliver hissed, glaring at Cai, who didn’t seem the least bit bothered.

Alec sighed, running a hand through his hair as he stared at Oliver. “Knock it off, Oliver. So, what exactly is happening? You dragged us down the second we walked inside. What is the big deal? We were going to go to bed.”

Oliver ignored Alec and turned to look at Cai with a blank expression. The man, noticing Oliver staring at him, turned his attention back to him with a bright smile and raised an eyebrow. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You said you deal with bombs.”

Cai looked at the man, his smile disappearing and hesitated slightly. He looked around the rest of the group nervously before turning to look back at Oliver. “Yes?” he asked slowly.

Atlas rolled his eyes when he realised where Oliver was going with this. “Oh, come on,” he whined. “You don’t really think.” Atlas was cut off when Oliver whirled around to glare at him. Okay, so he did think that someone had shipped a bomb to his address, which had to be a mistake.

Bombs were fragile. If it really were one, it would have exploded in transit or when he threw it on the floor to hide it from Oliver.

Oliver nodded to the brown package on the table. It had remained untouched. “That box is ticking. Figure out why.”

Atlas groaned; he needed to speak to Oliver without the others overhearing, and if he dragged him to a corner to yell at him, he knew they would want to know what had been said, so he did the next best thing. He switched languages. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked in Urdu.

“Oh, switching languages, now are we?” Oliver replied in Urdu, scowling. “You said to protect you. That’s what I am doing.”

Atlas slumped, his voice barely above a whisper. “Not like this.”

Oliver continued to stare at him blankly. “Exactly like this.”

“Is that f*****g Urdu?” Amber asked in English. “Since when did either of you know Urdu?”

Atlas was not about to reveal that in his free time, he had been taking lessons, and because Oliver wanted him in his line of vision every waking minute, he had been forced to come along, and he had also picked up the language.

“Not now, Amber. I’m pretty sure Oliver just said that little brown box is a bomb,” Max deadpanned.

~*~