The Heart Stoppers

THE FINALE

It took him a week--a whole damn week--for him to recover and cope with what he'd done to the man that worked for Fiery. We'd gotten into a rhythm: me waking him up in the morning with a small breakfast that he always refused to eat, me leaving him in the room he claimed as his own until lunchtime when I'd try again with more food which he would decline, and then around dinnertime, I'd make him get up, shower, and force crackers down his throat. Literally.

    But throughout the whole thing, he looked just so hollow. And it was thoroughly rotten on him. He looked so different without the glow in his eyes and a grin on his lips. The expression held on his face was not sad or angry or miserable; he was just empty.

    After he started eating more and getting up and around, we started packing to head back to California. It was easy for the both of us; we hadn't packed much to begin with because we didn't plan on being gone for more than two weeks. Tigger was the most inconsolable about leaving the cabin. He had grown quite fond of the fireplace and plush carpet of my bedroom. And now he was clawing the fuck out of the recliner as I tried to remove him to put him in his carrier.

    Fifteen minutes later, Zack and I were in the car, myself in the driver's seat, and Tigger meowing from the back due to the frigid March weather.

    "Are you excited to be going home?" I ask, shivering as I start the car.

    Zack peers out the window, his dull eyes looking even more lifeless than ever. "I'd rather not face the reality."

    My eyebrows furrow as I wince at his harshness, "It's always a bitch. But trust me, you're gonna be fine."

♣♦♥♠

    Nine months had passed since we arrived home. The only great events that had happened in this time was the second meeting of the Heart Stoppers, I had changed my genes again, and two quarterly balls had passed.

For the Heart Stoppers meeting, the other two men with assigned targets had taken their time and done thorough recon on all their victims. They had only finished off two of their missions, which left all of us with one last target.

While it had been an awkward meeting with Freeman at the gathering of the Heart Stoppers, it was even more tense when I went to have my genes altered. Though he was pleasantly surprised that I had decided to take it back to red hair, keeping my eyes their classic violet hue.

Zack and I had been doing everything we could to get to Adeline. Since the explosion at her old hideout, she had moved somewhere else. We had had many leads, but all were dead ends.

Zack had sprouted yet again, six foot now. And fifteen did not suit him well. He was an even cockier piece of shit, constantly hitting on all the Spade women since he'd hit puberty and was suddenly something to oggle at. I would never admit to anyone that he was attractive, but he did have a pretty face and charm. There were too many times when I'd had to drag him away from some of these twenty-somethings and remind them that he was only fifteen. He had started doing this swooping thing with his hair that I repeated told him made him look twelve, but he continued to tell me that it won him the women.

In these nine months, I had resumed the sleeping around that I was--dare I say it--known for. Zack had gotten used to seeing all kinds of men leaving in the morning as he made breakfast. But he never asked. And I was beyond grateful for that.

We were getting into the swing of things.

"Hayden, I think I've got something," Hartle yells from down the hall.

My head immediately perks up from my paperwork, and I see Zack's curls popping out of Gibb's door in excitement.

We both hurriedly move from our posts, trying to get to Hartle fast enough to see what he's found.