One word. One simple name. It was all it took for her to stop in her tracks.
Claire felt how her heart stopped, right before it's pace quickened. Her hands gripped on to her towel so hard she could already feel her nails threatening to rip it's fabric. But she was much more stubborn than she was willing to let Colton's attempt to shake her be successful.
"What about him?" She asked in a monotone voice. Refusing to face her brother as she looked straight towards the door.
"He's in our morgue." There was no hint of his usual fun-loving tone in his voice.
"So?" Her voiced was laced with disinterest. But her brother knew her like the back of his hand. Disinterest was the last thing she had when it came to the body laying on the cold metal slab of their base's morgue.
"So, when were you going to tell me he was part of the raid?" He could see how she flinched at his question. Just like Lily did whenever she was caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. However rare that was.
"I didn't mention any other specific name's to you now did I?" She said so in the most defiant way possible.
"Meaning he was as unimportant as the rest?" His voice was sounding closer and closer to her with each one of his questions. But Claire wasn't paying much attention to it. Not since she had been spending the entire day doing everything in her power to not let her pent up emotions get the best of her.
Claire was slipping. And she knew it. So to avoid reaching whatever rock bottom she felt approaching her state of mind, she did what she did best. Work and beat others black and blue. But even if she knew what her current state of mind was, "fake it till you make it" was the only train of thought she would allow herself to follow.
"Yes. He was as unimport-" Claire's breath hitched when she heard her brother's voice right behind her.
"Don't you dare lie to me Claire." His voice was low. Not in a threatening kind of way, but drastically different from the way he usually spoke to her. "I don't care if you lie to the rest. Hell, I know you do a damn good job of even convincing yourself. But to me? We don't do that to each other. Not you and me."
"He...."Claire had long closed her eyes in an attempt of pouring all of her energy into controlling her breathing. But similar to Aiden , her brother always had a way of prying open whatever door she shut inside. Regardless of her not wanting him to, or of whatever it was she was trying to keep locked inside. "He was..." Her words were barely a whisper now. Yet as soon as Colton gently turned her to face him, it came out as clear as day. Forcing her voice to crack with everything she attempted to say. "He was so important Colton! I ca-can't tell him how im-important he is anymore!"
As soon as her facade started to fail, the image of Aiden breaking the neck of the man who had intentionally searched for her was the only thing she could see. The way the shadows caused by the fireplace were cast over his face as the life in his eyes was permanently dimmed would be but another reason for her everlasting state of guilt to grow.
And blaming nobody but herself, she continued to shout out her true thoughts. "He went to die by my hands Colton! He volunteered to be killed! He did-didn't wait for me! I couldn't...I couldn't...I..."
Colton saw her tear filled eyes and felt like dying. His baby sister's tears were enough to make him want to fall to his knees. Pulling her into his arms, and with teary eyes of his own, he didn't let her finish. He knew painfully well what she wanted to say.
Save him. She couldn't save him.
They couldn't. They were too late. Making him yet another ghost that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Another face that would plague their nightmares.
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Some time had passed. Enough for Claire to have silently cried herself to sleep.
During her earlier outburst of emotions, which was purposely forced on his part, he had guided her to one of the metal benches. Where she unwillingly let her tears fall until she fell asleep on his shoulder. Going to show what he already knew. She was beyond exhausted. And although he wanted nothing more than to keep her close like she was, he knew they couldn't stay there.
Colton took his cellphone out and sent a message. Seconds after it was sent out, the door to the training area opened. And in came Cameron.
'Something told me you weren't in the showers.' Colton signed towards him to avoid waking up his little sister.
'Well, I could sense something was off with her. So I thought it was best to stay close by.' Cameron slowly replied back. He had been practicing, but wasn't as skilled as the people around him.
He stood in front of him, where both of them shared a silent conversation.
After finishing it, Cameron gently lifted Claire into his arms as Colton stood up. He then proceeded, with great effort, to take off the hoodie he was wearing and lovingly place it over her. Making sure that most of her bare body was covered. After all, she and Cameron were wearing the usual training outfit, which consisted of only tight fitting exercise garments. He would have carried her himself, but he obviously wouldn't be able to do so while walking with a crutch. So simply giving Cameron a nod, both men made their way out of the training room and into the hallway.
Almost reaching the sleeping quarters, Colton stopped. Making Cameron look at him for an explanation as to why.
'I have to go do something. Ben is already there, so just knock. He'll know what to do.' Colton signed. And after receiving a nod from his part, he smiled. 'Thanks.'
He watched them go until they disappeared from his sight. Taking out his cellphone once again, he looked for a specific person in his contacts. Colton was well aware that he was crossing over a major line by even considering what he was about to do, but after seeing Claire's state, and having received some very complicated news, he'd rather risk her getting pissed at him. After all, the other option was simply letting her deteriorate even further. And that was never going to happen as long as he had a say in the matter.
He pressed the call button and waited. Unsurprisingly, the person on the other line picked up at the first ring. "Hey. I know you have important company right now, but we need to talk. So when you finish, come see me. Just don't let anybody know." Receiving a hum in response, he hung up the call.
Colton let out a deep tired sigh. Everything was piling up way too fast. And the frustration of not being able to handle each and every thing as well as he would like to, was a weight he couldn't seem to lift off his shoulders.
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Aiden was beginning to feel the toll of not having slept like he should have. His earlier nap with his Princess helped him get through the rest of the day, but his body was sluggish. Like anybody else's would be if they had only averaged such little amount of rest between days.
Yet as soon as the door opened in front of him, all thoughts about how he felt were pushed to the side. He had a very important conversation pending with the man receiving him.
"Thanks for coming on such short notice. I know you're as busy as the rest of us." Colton said as he shook his hand.
"It's fine. Some things will always take priority over work." Aiden replied as he reciprocated the hand shake.
"Make yourself comfortable." Colton gestured for him to step inside, and so he did.
The room was small and organized. Just like every other room Aiden had been while inside the Collins' hidden base. But unlike the rest, the space he stepped into looked like a very typical man cave. It had a few lounge chairs at it's corners, a bar occupying most of one of it's walls and a pool table placed in the very center of it. With it's dirt wall background and the dim lighting, the tone was set for a relaxing atmosphere.
"And here I was convinced you and your people were all work and no play." Aiden said as he took a seat in one of the lounge chairs. Colton taking the one across from him.
"To be honest, this is the second time I've ever been in here. If I had the spare time to play pool, I'd much rather use it on wooing a certain stubborn head secretary." Colton replied as he leaned his head on his knuckles. With a grin on his face that made Aiden chuckle.
"I get what you mean." Aiden responded. He had already noticed his not so failed attempts at pushing Anna's buttons. But even if he was indeed intrigued by the nature of their relationship with one another, he knew they both had more pressing matters to discuss. "But I'm guessing you didn't call me because you needed dating advise huh?"
"I am impressed with how quickly you got Cece to let her guard down around you, but no." Colton chuckled as well. "That's not why I called you over Casanova."
"What can I help you with then?" Aiden's demeanor was amicable, but he was truly attentive.
"Just to give you a heads up, your girlfriend will be beyond severely pissed at both of us if she finds out we even had this conversation. And even more so with anything that comes out of it." Colton sighed as he leaned back into his chair. "I'm not a fan of keeping secrets from her, but right now she's....not doing so well."
Aiden's eyes immediately narrowed. He had escorted both Anna and Lily back to the sleeping quarters once night came, but he had only caught a glimpse of Claire's sleeping figure. And since he didn't want to wake her, he could only make sure she was physically okay. "Is she okay?" His voice was deep and slightly demanding.
"Okay? My sister doesn't even know what being okay feels like." Colton could see the man struggling to stay in his seat. Probably because of wanting to see Claire. So he decided to explain a few things. "It's true that my sister and I were both raised under the Phoenix Clan's rules. But it wasn't under the same conditions."
Aiden already understood what he meant. The matter of them being of opposite genders would have drastically impacted their bringing up. Still, what he didn't understand was exactly how extreme that difference was.
Little did he know that even Colton's explanation would only provide him a mere glimpse of it.
"You see, after our dad died, Claire was kept away from me. And I from her." Colton's voice was normal, but his eyes saddened at his own words. "Because of that, and the fact that the news of my father's passing was never delivered to me, I spent my time on anything that involved me growing into a tech wiz. It wasn't until I finally heard of his passing, that I noticed what they had been doing. But even then, five years went by before I managed to hatch an escape plan for us. Meaning she went through literal hell for five years straight." Something inside Colton's eyes was enough for Aiden to understand the turmoil he was reliving through their current conversation.
'Cut from the same cloth I see.' thought to himself. Apparently Claire and her brother had the same habit of letting him read them through their eyes. A very useful skill he had grown thankful to have.
Seeing as Aiden was fully immersed in what he was saying, Colton continued. "She had nobody by her side." His eyes slightly unfocused before continuing. As if he weren't talking directly to Aiden. " Nobody to tell her she deserved better, nobody to help her sooth her fears, nobody to show her not everything had to be earned through blood and torture, nobody to..." Noticing he was going off track he stopped himself. Focusing back on Aiden he carried on with the conversation. " And worse than everything else, with every passing second, they continued convincing her even further that her life would never change. They managed to permanently damage her in ways I couldn't even begin to explain to you."
Aiden had already heard some of it from his little lady, but no matter how many times he tried to imagine it, not once was he successful in curving his anger. Sentiment that Colton easily noticed in his current expression.
"You think you're mad? Imagine how I felt when I learned that after five years of searching, she had never been more than twenty minutes away from me." At that, his voice was as if he were still in disbelief of what he was saying. "Imagine that. Colton Collins. The genius boy of the century, not being able to figure out his baby sister was being switched between a few building not two entire blocks away from where I lived lavishly. All while they tortured her with endless inhuman 'training'."
Both men were livid at the thoughts of what he was vaguely describing, but he knew he needed Aiden to understand just how dangerous it would be if Claire were to fall back into the hands of the very men that plagued her nightmares.
"And if you ever wonder why she was kept that close, I'll tell you." Colton hadn't fixed his posture while in his seat, but the air around him had began to chill with his every word. Similar to the one surrounding Aiden at the moment. "It was so she knew, that no matter how close she was, neither I or any other person who felt love for her, could hear her screams. Her cries. Her pleadings for help."
The silence between them was deafening, but their expressions spoke for entire lifetimes.
A whole minute had passed between them before Aiden finally managed to get his thoughts out. "Why are you telling me this?" He knew there would be a reason for a man as calculating as Colton was, to cause him to have such intense bloodlust.
"Because my baby sister has been living in fear her entire life. And the struggle of keeping up with her fake positive attitude is finally taking a serious toll on her." Colton's thoughts were dragged back to his sister's broken face while she finally let a fraction of her pent up emotions out.
Aiden had already noticed that her emotional state could be easily triggered, but now he began to understand the gravity in which it was truly being affected. But something about Colton's expression made him think that Claire wasn't the only reason why he decided to talk about such a delicate topic with him so out of the blue.
"There's something else. Isn't there?" Colton silently stared at him. As if he were searching for something in Aiden's expression. What it was, he didn't know. But sure enough, he appeared to have found it.
"I want to derail from my people's original plan. And I need your help to do it."