Bad Brain

Bad Brain

MAX

Before Yvette’s contemptuous outburst, the original plan was to tie her to the back of the SUV, via the useless rope now coiled in the trunk, so that she might experience a small portion of the torture Blanca went through this morning. I meant for her to run…all the way to the prison and maybe even around it a few times, but in light of Yvette’s little declaration, there has been a change in plan.
Now, I sit beside her in the very rear of the SUV, while Jared drives and Jericho silently stews up front. Alfred sits directly in front of Yvette, next to Finn who takes up the remaining middle seats. His wide body lounges across two of the three spaces as he faces me, looking just as eager to interrogate Yvette as I am.
Although, I have to wonder how much he, himself, might already know about my brother and this mystery female. There wasn’t a whole lot that Drake ever did without his friends and I’d overheard him on several occasions bragging about his conquests in vulgar detail. So, it was highly unlikely that Drake was involved with many females Finn hadn’t heard about and…if perchance he does know something, then why hasn’t he told me about it yet?
Signalling Jared to keep the speed at a slow and steady pace, I faced Yvette with cynical eyes, regarding her insidious little smile with cloaked trepidation. My temper was a tempest, a pressure cooker that’s been sealed too long and aiming to blow with the slightest provocation and watching her stare at me like she is…like a satisfied madame on the first of the month, makes me want to deposit her in an altogether alternative type of confinement. A different kind of prison. A tomb perhaps, or maybe a mausoleum. Or a sanitarium even. Any place that she will be sure to slowly rot, or be experimented on sounds perfect. Dedicate her remaining days to science or some shit.
She’s smiling like she’s won something. Because she thinks Blanca is dead. Does she truly believe that she saved me from some sort of Shiftless corruption? 
When did she become so unhinged? Or has she always been this way and I just never noticed?
“What makes you think Drake was being manipulated, Yvette? Why would you think he needed to be saved from anyone? He was the heir. The Alpha’s firstborn. Why would he need you for a hero?” 
I worded my question with an intentional insult, wanting Yvette to feel just a little of what she was bestowing on others. Being an Omega herself, she wasn’t exactly a first class citizen. There was a time before the Shiftless, when Omegas were considered nearly as inferior and were treated almost as badly as the Shiftless are now. Back then, they were the outcasts. The unaccepted. The oppressed. She would do well to remember that. To understand it.
Unfortunately, Yvette was in need of a history lesson and my remarks were received with an open smile. The face of oblivion.
Yvette giggled, knocking into me with her shoulder, “Drake was a man silly. Just as you are. And a man sometimes has a very difficult time separating the good brain from the bad brain.” She winked, gazing pointedly at the crotch of my pants and causing my dick to flatline. “Drake was no different than any regular male with a hard on for a girl he couldn’t have. Alpha or no, he was weak when it came to some things.” She eyed me scornfully. “And when it came to the Shiftless-” she scowled “-he was weaker even than you.”
Finn and I shared a look and I had to wonder if he was thinking of Reanna, Blanca’s sister, or if there might have been a different Shiftless female that Drake had come across.
“Wow,” Jericho chortled and Jared laughed. “Are you sure you don’t want her to run? Because I volunteer to nip at her heels if you do.”
“You could question her through the open window?” Jared suggested and Finn shook his head, unamused by Yvette’s portrayal of his old friend.
I ignore them. “I am not weak, Yvette. And neither was my brother. He wasn’t a sympathizer. He detested the Shiftless. To an alarming degree.”
Yvette smirked, her beady blue eyes falling away suspiciously as she shook her head. “That was certainly what he wanted people to think and I suppose for the most part he was pretty convincing, but I know better-” she rolled her eyes “-and so did Corlys. That bitch had fried his brain.”
My heart thunders, and I share a look with Finn who suddenly straightens, narrowing his eyes on Yvette as I turn back to her and say, “Are you trying to tell me that it was all an act? That my brother—who couldn’t shut up about the poison Corlys had created in class to eradicate the Shiftless—was secretly in love with a Shiftless female? Is that what you are trying to say?”