Page 15 of Beautiful Chaos
I go at Maverick full speed, moving faster than any human he’s ever seen. His eyes widen as I grab him by the thighs, lift him off his feet, and slam him to the ground.
“Jesusfuck,” he says, breathing heavily. “You’re a blur, dude.”
To his credit, even though he’s slow to get back on his feet, something has shifted behind his eyes. This time, when I go at him, Mav doesn’t try to keep up. Instead, he becomes slippery like an eel. Sneaky too. The second I think I’ve got a good grip on him, I’m looking up at the ceiling, my eyes rolling around in my head.
Sucking air, still on the ground, I roll my head to address Hedy. “He’s good.”
“Excellent.” She turns to Mav. “Take five and get ready for the real test.”
Sweat pouring off his forehead, Mav nods.
“That’s why Uncle Ro hates you,” he says, taking a bottle of water from Holmes while he watches me pick myself up off the mat. “I know you were, like, born in a lab or something. But you’re also scary as hell. If you ever decided you hated us, we’d be fucking dead.”
The others came to the same conclusion but used nicer language. I appreciate Maverick’s blunt take.
“Uncle Ro doesn’t hate me,” I respond matter-of-factly. “He’s afraid of me.”
Unlike the sadness he displayed with Edison’s reveal, Mav’s expression for me is softer. Accepting.
“Bad luck all around, huh?”
My thoughts go to Oakley, and I wonder if that’s who he’s thinking of too. I’m not very good at hiding my feelings. “You could say that.”
“If you’re breathing easy enough to talk, you’re ready for the next part,” Hedy says, gesturing to Edison.
He nods and walks over to the whiteboard about fifty yards from where we’re standing. Edison raises his brows and Mav nods. Edison rolls the board off to the side, revealing a small holding cell bolted into a steel-reinforced section of wall. The cell is dark and its inhabitant lies on the floor. Still.
Dead or asleep?
The big red button set off to the side looks like a cartoon prop. It always makes me laugh.
Edison takes a dart gun from his side holster, pulling the trigger with a softthoot. Mav moves closer to get a better look. Holmes holds up his hand and motions for Mav to step back.
Soon enough, the occupant of the cell shakes off his haze and rises to standing. Well, not full standing—he’s too tall for the cell.
“Holy shit,” Mav says under his breath.
He follows Holmes to the cell door, where he hands him a small axe and a knife.
“Understand what you have to do?”
Mav looks at the man in the cell and rolls his shoulders. “Yep.”
Holmes gives him a thumbs-up and jogs back to our position.
Rae holds up a stopwatch and clicks it. Mav hits the big red button and the door slides open.
The man stays in place.
“Dude. I’m supposed to kill you. If you’re just gonna stand there and make it easy?—”
The man comes flying out of the cell. Mav rolls out of the way, barely avoiding getting taken out by the giant. And heisa giant. Nearly eight feet tall and broad as a barn, almost inhuman in scale. His unibrow is ridged, his nose broad and battered, and his fingers look like sausages.
Maverick, who’s over six feet tall and built like an Adonis, looks damn near petite next to this monster. He pops up and dances on his feet. The axe and knife look inadequate in the extreme.
I turn to Hedy. “Do you think we should?—”
Before I can complete my thought, the giant takes a swing at Mav, who easily ducks, avoiding the ham-sized fist, before darting behind the mammoth guy. Mav leans down and swipes at the man’s Achilles with the knife…only for the knife to get stuck and break off in the tendon.
