from the corners of my eyes.
I might see him again if I survive this, I tell myself.
“Cunts. The lot of ‘em. They used and beat the poor bird to with an inch of her life. If I hadn’t spoken when I did, they would’ve had her six feet under by now.” Finlay says somewhere from the front.
“Sick fuckers. So, fucking close to getting them all! We can make it to Crest Fall in time. She’s still breathing, if we can just keep her stable, she’ll survive this and be sent into programming elsewhere.” The man next to me says. My brows furrow in a deep line.
God, he sounds so much like Garrett. I can’t tell if I’m imaging it or if it’s real. Feeling like I’m in a dream like state I try to say something, anything.
“Garrett,” I croak incoherently. It’s all I manage to whisper. The body sitting next me jolts, then stills. Everything is suddenly deathly quiet until someone in the row behind me blurts, “What the fuck did she just say, Cova?”
My head starts hurting immediately. There’s an incessant pounding in my skull—like someone is pounding a hammer on the bone.
Why is he using my last name?
I force my gaze to the man beside me and I want to sob as I stare into a familiar pair of green eyes. My heart stops. The air stills. This can’t be.
It can’t be Garrett.
I stare into the familiar green pools belonging to my brother. His eyes rake over my face showing no recognition or indication of recognizing me. I swallow repeatedly and force myself to stay conscious.
How can he not recognize me?
It’s me, it’s your little sister, Sophia! I want to scream, but the words don’t come. Instead, I say the only thing that comes to mind. The one thing I’ve always said to my brother.
“Big brother Garrett,” I whisper hoarsely. He squints his green eyes and looks confused for a split second, until a flash of recognition then pain skirts across his features.
“Sophia?” He chokes, his face draining of all color. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes and I feel myself slipping back into sleep.
Hold on Sophia. Hold on a little bit longer.
He searches my face then chokes back a sob. I see a lone tear escape the corner of his eye.
“Motherfucker!” He shouts from beside me. “No, not her! Son of a fucking bitch.” He growls, taking his anger out on the door handle beside him, and punches until there’s shouting from everyone else in the car.
“Cova, get it the fuck together! What the fuck is going on?”
Garrett stops his assault on the door and pauses a few seconds, his eyes drop to mine, and the torment I see there on his face tears me in half, ripping my tattered heart to shreds.
“She’s my little sister.” Is all he says in a voice I don’t recognize. The vehicle is bathed in silence. The only sound is the engine and the road beneath us.
“Fuck,” someone utters. I lose the fight to keep my eyes open, and the darkness consumes me once again.
The second I step into the infirmary room my eyes are drawn to the broken woman resting in the hospital grade bed. With dark hair that’s nearly jet black, and olive skin that is bandaged and littered with bruises, she doesn’t share any resemblance to the man I’ve worked with the last few years here in Crest Fall.
Except her eyes.
Bright emerald green eyes are where the sibling’s similarities start and end.
“She know anything yet?” Jose, one of the members of Hawk Fire inquires.
“No.” My reply is cold and monotone as I keep my gaze glued to the girl in question. Garrett, another one of the members of Hawk Fire fusses over his sister while she lays in that bed, damn-near comatose, displaying emotions I didn’t even know he was capable of.
The first time I met Garrett Cova, was years back, when I was blackmailed and recruited to join Hawk, short for Hawk Fire, a private government agency. Our government has different operations and units in the special forces. There are even units that people have never heard of.
That’s us.
We’re a silent partner.
Paid killers.
We go in, do our job, and get the fuck out. We’re the monsters who take care of things nobody else wants to know about. Not many others take on operations like ours.
There is a system. We have a chain of command that we adhere to. Our handler that doles out our assignments