Chapter 691: Smart

Amunet recovered first.

She slapped Grey’s hand away from her chin and rolled her eyes, though the faint color still lingering across her face made the reaction less effective than she probably wanted. Grey laughed under his breath, then reached into storage and pulled out all three Legacy Items before tossing them onto the long dining table.

Brad nearly jumped out of his seat. "Relax! You’re basically tossing nukes around!"

"I’ve got no idea if any of these are compatible with anyone here, so feel free to try." Grey said with a laugh.

The Last Measure settled beside Choirpiercer and the Thousand Door Bulwark, each weapon carrying enough pressure that nobody immediately rushed forward to touch them. Grey, meanwhile, dropped onto the couch with a long groan and stretched his arms across the backrest.

"It’s hard to be a pimp."

Sabrina had been watching him since he returned, and whatever amusement she’d felt earlier seemed to fade as she looked toward the central auction screens, then back at Grey. She hesitated for a moment before speaking, choosing her words carefully enough that Grey noticed the change immediately.

"Do you really think the way you’re handling this is smart?"

Grey raised an eyebrow.

Sabrina leaned back slightly, though her eyes stayed on him. "I’m talking about Breejara, or whoever’s behind her. You keep antagonizing people like that, but she clearly has more power than she’s letting on."

Grey chuckled, more at the fact Sabrina had noticed than at the concern itself.

She probably didn’t know anything about Muse Incorporated yet, or how deep their influence reached outside the Games, but she’d clearly picked up enough from the auction to realize Breejara wasn’t some pretty face hired to read numbers off a screen. Before Grey could answer, though, Amunet sighed from beside him and shook her head.

"I’ve tried already."

Sabrina looked toward her.

Amunet folded her arms. "He only has one gear, and he doesn’t listen."

Grey laughed again, then reached out and caught both of them around the waist before either woman had time to react. Sabrina stiffened on one side, Amunet immediately looked ready to hit him on the other, but Grey pulled them closer against him and spoke before either could start complaining.

"There are probably situations where being diplomatic works. But diplomacy only works when both sides have cards to play. If one side has all the power and the other side is begging for mercy, you’re just asking to get railed at that point."

Grey’s hands stayed around their waists, but whatever playfulness had been there a moment earlier disappeared.

"Earth doesn’t have the proper cards yet. These people still think they can do whatever the fuck they want to us, and if I start smiling, bowing and asking them nicely to stop, all I’m doing is making it easier for them to put a foot up my ass while I’m down there kneeling."

Sabrina’s expression slowly tightened.

Grey looked toward the transparent wall of the private bubble, where thousands of people from countless Races filled an auction built around the same Games that had swallowed their world.

"Think about how this started. We were ripped out of our homes and dropped into this place for entertainment. I didn’t even get a Nexis Suit when everyone else did. Before I’d even figured out what the hell was happening, there were already people trying to kill me for reasons that basically amounted to them thinking it would be funny."

His jaw tightened slightly.

"That didn’t stop either. They tried to end my life again and again, then started using the people around me when that wasn’t working well enough."

The room had gone quiet around them.

Grey’s gaze drifted toward James, Duke, Lilac and Brad before returning to Sabrina.

"Have you ever actually thought about how many people from Earth died?"

Sabrina didn’t answer.

"Not just the ones you know. Everybody."

Grey leaned back slightly, though his voice remained low.

"How much of Earth’s population do you think is even left after all these factions got their hands on people? How many died in Arc I, how many got dragged into contracts, how many ended up in places where nobody gave a shit whether they lived or died?"

No one interrupted him.

"Every one of these people is part of the same wheel, whether they admit it or not. Some are worse than others, sure, but they’re still cogs in the same system that decided throwing an entire planet into a meat grinder was entertainment."

Amunet’s expression shifted first. She’d heard this before. Not these exact words, but close enough that she could already feel where Grey was going.

"If I hadn’t forced Earth into the Genesis Games properly, they would’ve kept using all of you against me without even hesitating. They already did it once, and they would’ve done it again the second they could."

Grey’s grip around them loosened, though he didn’t let go.

"Maybe when this is all over and everybody’s safe, you can come talk to me about diplomacy." The corner of his mouth twitched faintly. "Not that I’ll be listening, since I’ll probably be too busy taking a ten-year vacation somewhere with beaches, alcohol and women with questionable morals."

Sabrina almost smiled, but Grey kept going before the moment could lighten.

"But right now, don’t ask me to be nice." There was no grin this time. "The way I act is the only chance everybody still has at keeping their heads on their shoulders. The moment I fall, it’s over."

Grey looked between them.

"For everyone."

Nothing about the way he said it sounded boastful, or arrogant, or even just cocky in that very Grey sort of way.

Grey usually wrapped everything in a joke or turned every serious moment into some excuse to say something obscene. This was different, heavy enough that she barely recognized the man speaking even though every word still sounded exactly like him.

Amunet did, however. And Sabrina noticed that too.

Amunet wasn’t surprised by the reasoning, and there was no confusion in her face as she listened. There was only that familiar frustration of someone who’d heard the argument before, fought against it before, and already knew exactly how little chance she had of changing Grey’s mind.

They’d argued about this. Not casually either.

Sabrina could tell from the look in Amunet’s eyes that somewhere along the way, the two of them had probably screamed at each other over it and walked away angry enough to need days before speaking normally again.

For the first time, Sabrina looked at Amunet differently.

She’d spent the last several days quietly assuming that she understood Grey in ways none of these women possibly could. She’d known him before the Genesis Games, before the power, before the titles and before millions of people started treating every stupid thing he did like it mattered.

That part was still true. But it wasn’t the whole truth.

Amunet understood pieces of Grey that Sabrina had never seen at all, and judging by the way she sighed before resting her head back against the couch, some of those pieces had been hard-earned.

Sabrina slowly looked toward Grey again.

Maybe she wasn’t the only one who knew him.