Chapter 45 - Love The Way You Lie

Eric

"Are we all set?" I ask Chase after handing him a cup of coffee then raising my own and sliding into a seat beside him.

I let my eyes run over the set up we have for tonight. It's not much. Not like it would be in the control room with more monitors available. We picked one of the mostly unused storerooms that already had terminals and monitors in it. Hardly anyone ever comes here but we've used it for some of our more covert ops before and over time, we've been able to make some improvements.

Chase nods and sips his coffee while his eyes are still glued to the monitors. "We are." He pauses and types some information into the terminal, adding another vid feed to what we're already seeing. "What took you so long?"

I scowl and sip my coffee, wanting to avoid answering the question.

The main thing that prevented me from heading right here after Kat left was getting myself back under control. As if having a granite-hard dick wasn't bad enough but add the intense emotions from my time with her and I was a fucking mess.

Caught up between my anger and frustration that she's being sent out there tonight while also still trying to process everything that happened between us. I was feeling raw and more vulnerable than I cared for and I knew I had to get myself together to get through the next few hours.

My silence was enough of an answer and he probably assumed (and he would be partially right) that it was more the physical part that kept me. He lightly chuckles and shakes his head while mumbling that he wishes me luck holding out for the next four weeks.

I roll my eyes, but inside I'm silently agreeing. I came way too fucking close tonight to going back on my promises.

I glance at my watch, frowning then look back at the monitors. "Shouldn't we be seeing them somewhere by now?"

Chase nods and chews on his lip while he starts working his hands over the keyboard and the monitors start cycling through the different feeds. "The fucker has always been slippery, trying to keep track of him is a pain in the ass. He almost knows this place better than you do."

I scowl and motion for him to let me take over as I run through some of the paths he could have taken out of the compound. Finally, I hit the right one and the monitor shows them just getting to the tracks to wait for the train. I hand back controls and raise my cup to drink as he zooms in on them.

I hate the way he looks at her and his body language when he's talking to her. I know Kat says that there's nothing there but I've seen the jealous and possessive looks he gives her when he thinks no one's looking. Hell, even Chase has mentioned more than once he's seen Four looking at her like that.

But what we are seeing right now goes beyond anything we've seen on Four before when it becomes clear they are having a serious conversation. I curse not being able to have audio to pick up what they're saying when it turns heated and Kat gets up in his face, repeatedly poking him in the chest.

"Wonder what that's about?" Chase asks, his head tilted and a smirk on his lips.

Our amusement at Kat giving Four hell turns to scowls and curses when it becomes clear she's crying.

"That fucking asshole made her cry." Chase snarls as we watch them head for the train.

"I don't understand why she's insistent on being friends with him again." I agree with my own scowl still firmly in place.

"I know man, but if he keeps up doing shit like that maybe she'll write him off for good."

I sighed and shook my head. "Kat's too fucking forgiving for that."

He grunts in agreement.

We watch in silence and curiosity as the two of them seem to be waiting until the absolute last minute to get on the train. They seem to be purposely letting cars pass them by until they finally start running and jumping onto the third car from the end.

It could have been a coincidence, but my instincts are kicking in and are telling me that it was done purposely. The question is why?

There are no cameras on the trains themselves, but we already had a plan for them boarding it and had several cameras ready with the feed as it passed through the different sectors. In one of the sectors that it was due to pass by, we saw two men by the tracks. I tensed a bit but the chances of them picking the same car as Kat and Four, if they were even going to be getting on the train, were pretty low.

It becomes quickly apparent when the train approaches that they are going to be getting on and the more cars they let pass the more tense I become. When they make for the third car from the end I'm on full alert.

"Did Max say anything about them meeting up with someone?" Chase asks me with a quirked eyebrow.

"He didn't mention it to me. Then again he didn't say much of anything about what the fuck number boy is up to." I growl, my shoulders tense. "Fuck, I hate not having cameras on the train.

"I know, all we can do now is wait," Chase mutters.

It turns out to be a longer wait than either of us expected and when the train passes the factionless sector and there's no sign that they are or have jumped we have to scramble to pull up the vid feeds for the sectors outside of that one. The entire time my instincts are going crazy and the start of paranoia begins to sneak across my surface thoughts. There's also something niggling in the back of my mind about one of them that jumped on the train. I only saw his back but there was something…off...no...more like familiar about him but I couldn't place it.

Sector by sector goes by and I'm getting worried that they got off the damn train without us having seen them until the train rolls into the Candor sector and finally they jump. Chase and I watch with disbelieving expressions.

"What the hell are factionless doing in Candor?" Chase mutters and I look over at him.

"Something's going on. First that request for more patrols and now this? We need to find out more, starting with who put the request in the first place." Making this an order isn't necessary. I know he was already thinking the same thing, but I do it anyway.

I'm distracted, my eyes glued to the monitor that's showing the group of four Kat is in. That nagging feeling is back as I watch the same guy that caught my eye the first time. He seems to be the oldest of the group and is a bit better dressed than most factionless. Both of the men really are. It could be just that they look to actually bathe and take care of themselves while most factionless either don't or can't. The clothes themselves aren't all that different. A collection of colors that come from the different factions. The older guy is wearing cargo pants that resemble the ones Amity heavy laborers tend to wear, but his are in a darker color. The shirt and old leather jacket he's also wearing look well taken care of if a good bit faded into a darkish grey color.

There's nothing about the clothes that is raising any alarms for me. It's the dark red hair bunched together in dreads and the russet color of his skin. It has me once again taking control of the cameras so I can get a better look at him.

It isn't until he turns to walk back toward where Kat and Four are standing still, once again locked into a deep discussion/argument, that I get my first good look. So does Chase and I can hear the gasp in surprise then hear him muttering under his breath.

"No..no...no….that's not fucking possible."

Not fucking possible...but there he is...with Kat.

Cold anger washes over me and those voices in my head start whispering even more now, clamoring for me to let them in.

He flashes a crooked smile at her and pain slams into me. I've only seen one man smile like that in my life. A man that should be fucking dead, not running with Kat tossed over his shoulder and both of them laughing with not a fucking care in the world.

"Amar," I confirm the identity out loud.

I faintly hear my brother muttering his disbelief but my mind is in chaos. I try to focus on Kat, refusing to let in the dark thoughts that are knocking loudly on the door I've been keeping closed against them until now.

They disappear from view completely and once I can't see her anymore, it's like when that happens, all reason completely leaves me and I feel nothing but the rage at seeing someone I once cared for and grieved for turning up alive. What's worse is the fact that I was blamed for his death with no one being the loudest accuser as Four and the fucker knew he was alive!

Time ticks by with no sign of Kat or where they went to and the anger starts to turn into something darker when the shock of his appearance starts to fade.

I can feel Chase looking at me worriedly from time to time but he doesn't say anything. Maybe he doesn't want to say what we are both thinking now. That this has all been a set up from the start.

Didn't I say that Kat's story, the one that got me hooked, seemed similar to ours? Hadn't her relationship with Four seemed off from the start to me? Now I see her with Amar and fuck if they don't seem close as hell.

There could be another reason for all of this.

What kind of explanation would that be? What could explain the flash of guilt in Kat's eyes when we talked about tonight? The look I wrote off as her knowing how much I hated the thought of her being with Four alone at all. When really it was because she knew what she was really doing tonight and that she would be meeting those guys. This was all arranged.

But hadn't Max said as much?

Max didn't say shit besides he didn't want me to follow her but wanted eyes on her and Four in some way.

He knew they would meet the factionless and that for some reason Kat would be the one to send to them. He knows more than he actually said.

Then he should have fucking told me that! That's not even the point. Kat fucking lied to me. She looked me right in the fucking eye and lied to me. What else has she lied about? What else was arranged?

Fucking Capture?

How convenient was it that Kat, the serum resistant divergent, got hit by those darts? She got hit by something that was likely to do the least amount of damage to her but made sure to make her look good to me. Her taking hits that were meant for me sure worked to gain even more of my trust.

"Eric," Chase's voice penetrates through the haze of darkness that's descended on me. "Something is obviously going on...but we don't know what it is and we won't know until we talk to her."

"Oh, I plan to talk to her alright," I drawl coldly and glance at the monitors with a dispassionate gaze.

He sighs heavily but doesn't say any more while we continue to wait for any sign of the group. I don't realize that despite my cold anger and feeling of betrayal that I was still worried about Kat. It wasn't until I saw her again that I released a breath and some of the tension left me for a second before the rage burned through me.

I watch her getting ready to jump onto the train and stand calmly. "Message me when they reach the compound," I inform Chase flatly then leave without waiting for a response.

It's going to take them a while to get back to Dauntless, but once they do I plan to be waiting to get my answers and to make someone pay for making me look like a fool.

~~Worth Fighting For~~

"Our parents were too compassionate and it killed them, Eric. They placed their trust in the wrong thing and the wrong people and look at where that got them. If you're not careful you're going to end up going down the same road as them."

My brother's words follow me, as they always seem to do, while I make my way from the storage room to my office.

I've been careful for years to avoid doing the very thing he warned me against. I hardened my heart to anyone but Chase and Zach. I've kept any and all physical encounters with women to the bare minimum of contact because of the danger getting too intimate presented.

Then I blew all that to hell but letting Kat Prior worm her way in.

"They are becoming even more cunning in ways to avoid detection. Not to mention that there have been rumors they are going to find a way to gain entrance into our ranks. Be on your guard, Eric. A divergent will go to any lengths to bring us all down."

Jeanine had warned me weeks ago and I disregarded the doubts I had about Kat back then.

I slip off the suit jacket and exchange it for one of the vests I have in my office. There are several pockets hidden and visible with things I always have on the ready. I feel the familiar weight of them as I slip it on and zip it up. Then I look in the mirror and appraise my reflection for a second.

I look as cold as I feel, and I embrace it. I let the cold slippery hand of darkness that lives in the recesses of my mind come forward. I let it slip around my heart and squeeze until the parts that Kat brought back to life start to sputter out.

Fire's need oxygen to live, without them they die out and that's exactly what this feels like is happening to me right now. My very life's breath is being torn from me.

I turn away from my reflection and leave my office behind. No one even comes close to stepping in my way or bothering me. I'm given a wide berth. Maybe it's my expression and bearing or maybe it's the fact that I have a knife in my hands and am toying with it idly. Whatever the reason, I don't really care, in fact, I relish it and the way people are looking at me with apprehension and fear, wondering if I'm coming for them or not.

I walk through the pit, down the corridor that the transfer dorm is on then right past the doors.

It will be past lights out when they make it in. Ever the good little boy, Four will escort Kat to the dorm. When he leaves I'll make my move.

I intend to save my confrontation with him after I've dealt with Kat.

In fact, I smile into the darkness of the alcove I've taken up residence in, this will actually work out better for me. She won't have entered the dorm yet and he will be the last one seen with her.

My smile turns wicked as it all lines up in my mind.

Max and Jeanine will be pissed at first, but there's a spare stiff so I'm sure they'll get over it. What's one less fucking stiff, a divergent one at that, to bring our city down.

They should be fucking thanking me.

My phone goes off but I don't bother to check it. I know it will be Chase letting me know they've made it back. I'm sure it will also say something to try and make me believe Kat is innocent and didn't just rip my goddamn heart out by being a traitor.

I'm in the shadows watching Four walks Kat up to the dorm door as predicted. He doesn't even stay to make sure she actually goes in. Stupid move on his part but excellent for me.

Kat just stands there looking at the door and I know she's debating something. Just like I know she knows I'm here. I can tell the instant it registers for her and she looks my way just as I step out of the shadows.

I move closer and into the light then casually slip the knife I still had in my hand back into its pocket. She watches me carefully, with a pained expression twisting her mouth but if she suspects that the game is up, she doesn't show it.

Kat doesn't even hesitate to follow me when I move past her and indicate with my head that I want her to do so. She doesn't even think twice as I lead her through dark and winding hallways, all meaning to make sure she isn't last seen with me.

So fucking trusting.

So fucking deceitful.

A bad combination for my kitten.