Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Fifty-Eight - Linkin

Yulian lead me down the hall; how he knew where Thierry was staying was a mystery to me. It was hard not to relate him to Jaysen, a fact which made my heart hurt. I could only imagine that the two of them would have been great friends, complaining about how loud everyone was and creeping people out with things they never should have overheard.

The longer my thoughts lingered on what we lost, the colder the prison felt. Yulian arrived at a door and didn't bother to knock. He opened the door and I stared at the floor, trying to keep my tears back. We had already lost much.

"Linkin?" Thierry stood up, taking up his entire room by himself. "Yulian, what's wrong?"

It was the concern and sleepiness in his voice which made me just crumble. I rushed into his quickly opened arms, my head resting on his chest as I broke down in tears.

"You've got this, right, Thierry?" Ira spoke up.

"Hey, Tina, honey, what happened?" Thierry never replied to Ira, just nodded which allowed Yulian to shut the door for us. Thierry's hands ran through my hair as my tears soaked his freshly clean shirt. When I didn't reply, he sighed and tightened his arms around me, pulling me back to the hard bed.

I collapsed into his lap and he just let me cry, running his hands along my back. "Do you remember the first time we were in a place like this?" he mumbled in my ear, grinning a bit as he managed to pull my head back from his chest.

Removing a hand from the back of his neck, I nodded and wiped my eyes. "At least then we had a fire to keep us warm," I mumbled.

Thierry's smile widened as he brushed my hair back behind my ear. "Yes, but we also had blueprints to burn before we broke into that jewellery store," he reminded me, "That was the first time we ever met, how did you even get into that job? You were tiny then, I questioned if you could even lift a piece of paper, let alone carry a gun."

I remembered that, between Dell Island being on the run from an unknown enemy, I had stopped eating. I was nothing except skin and bones and even Stuart made comments he was worried I'd be blown over in the wind. I wasn't the best at taking care of myself. "I was willing to get shot if things went sideways. I think they needed someone as desperate as me." It was a sad fact, but true. Losing Jaysen and Ira was still a fresh wound and I was careless with my life. My inability to feel was more than just a physical toll on me at that point.

"I think the whole crew planned on leaving you behind if things went sideways," he admitted, and I couldn't admit I was surprised. "That, of course, was before they saw you take out that security guard with just a single touch and get the code for all of the doors. Doors we were just going to blow up."

A weak smile spread across my face and I nodded. "Ya, that's when things went really wrong."

Thierry laughed, shaking his head as he slowly pulled me down so we were laying on the bed. He flicked a blanket over us, but with the size of the single bed, I was more acting as his blanket. "Oh?" He chuckled, running his hands along my back. "Why, because they finally respected you?"

"No, because that's when I lost my chance to get out of the criminal world..." My tired smile faded as what was really bothering me slowly crept back into my mind. "How did you get out?"

Thierry looked up at me and sighed, "I was mourning, no one wants a guy who has no reason to live to work for them. I did the work I did because I was good at it, then I stopped serving a purpose. That life left me; I didn't leave."

"Do you miss it?"

He shook his head "I did at first, but it's like alcohol and drugs. It's an addiction I'm better without."

I never thought of it like that before, but I understood it. There was nothing like the adrenaline rush of counting down the seconds until the cops were called. It was dangerously empowering. I told myself that I did it for the money, but that was far from the truth. Maybe at first, I wanted to make sure Stuart and I had everything we wanted, but it was nice to feel in control, not only of my life but of others.

I merely had to call Thierry, a man who owed me nothing and simply had to tell him my name before he asked what I needed. I had him working against the Oasis Project before either of us knew it existed. That was power, something I wanted, something I missed. I hated feeling like a puppet. "I miss it," I whispered, glancing to him. "I hate fighting against the Oasis Project. I like knowing we can win."

"We can win, but only if we work together. Four trying to control everyone is going to end poorly, you pouting and not asking for help, is going to end poorly. We need to be a team." He paused and laughed softly. "We need to be knights at the round table. No one is better, no one is worse, but we all need to work together or else we will fail."