THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

Mathias pointed out.
    Tony rolled his eyes, insult sparking in his words. “What? The Blood Scorpions control the west side of Camden. That’s all anyone needs to know about touching me or my family.”
    Where Mathias and Zilya had turned wary of Gabby, they were not the least cautious of Tony. In fact, Zilya’s fingers quivered with a surge of anger. “Your arrogance knows no boundaries.”
    Gabby muttered, “She’s got your number, Jersey boy.”
    Tony held his bound arms in front of him, hands up. “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.”
    “Then you admit you are one of the mighty teks?” Zilya quizzed Tony.
    I opened my mouth to object and Callan warned me, “Do not interfere or this discussion ends now.”
    Meaning things could deteriorate further. Not good.
    Callan had kept any show of his emotions locked down tight, everywhere but his eyes. Fury stoked his gaze to the fiery shade of brown. I could swear the colors on his skin shifted a tiny bit. So his markings did move. What caused that? Mathias and Zilya hated tek-nah-tees, but Callan wanted blood.
    I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to remain silent when I smelled a trap being set for the Jersey Jerk.
    Tony swelled with the implication that they thought he was special. He gifted Zilya with a beaming smile. “Nobody handles technology better than me back home. I am the man.”
    Smiles could say a lot of things.
    Zilya’s said she’d just heard the answer she wanted.
    Mathias turned solemn, but pain and anger riddled his gaze. When he spoke to Tony, his words came out with quiet authority. “Enjoy your superiority for the short time you can. You shall be the first to pay for the transgressions of your people.”
    “What’re you talkin’ about?”  Tony, brows furrowed, turned to me. “What’s goin’ on?”
    I couldn’t see a benefit in remaining silent at this point. “They think you’re a tek-nah-tee, Tony. Something or someone they believe to be their enemy.”
    Tony’s cockiness disappeared in a flash. “Whoa, everybody. That’s not me.” He swung a worried face to Mathias then Zilya. “I’m a geek guy. A babe magnet. A lover, not a fighter.”
    Zilya’s posture stiffened. Anger spiked her breathing. “First you want us to believe you are a genius of technology. Now you want me to believe you are not tek-nah-tee?”
    I had a feeling the less this girl talked to Tony, the better off the three of us would be. And if this conversation didn’t improve soon we’d face a bloody resolution. Forcing a calm in my voice I hoped would hide the worry squeezing my chest, I asked Mathias, “What’s it going to take to convince you we’re not whatever this tek person is? A strong ruler would be sure before jumping to conclusions.”
    His eyebrows tightened in a brief flinch at my subtle strike to his leadership skills, but he lifted his hand and all conversation paused. “Fine. You want a fair judgment, even though your kind is not acquainted with such practice? How did you travel here?”
    Tony jumped in, trying to be Mr. Helpful. “I can tell you that.”
    I bumped Tony’s leg with my foot, but he was undeterred. “Rayen here did some woo-woo with the computer and–”
    Callan broke in. “ Computer? ”
    Zilya froze.
    Mathias opened his mouth but said nothing.
    “Yeah, a computer. Never seen one?” Tony asked, his ego expanding by the second.
    Mathias cut in. “Does this computer have a name?”
    Tony made a half-laughing noise deep in his throat. “They all have names. Mac, Apple, IBM, Dell and a pile of others.”
    Once again, Mathias shared another of those looks with Callan that hinted of communicating, but I read this one to mean the mention of a computer had been significant. But if I tried to keep Tony quiet now Callan would think I had something to hide and I sensed he was the one we should worry about most.
    Addressing Tony once more, Zilya said, “You were explaining how you traveled here.”
    “Right. Where was I?”  Tony’s eyes lit up again and he nodded in my direction. “So she sticks her hand into the computer screen and the next thing we know, bam, we’re sittin’ in some pod that spits us out where that nuclear crocodile climbed out of the ground.”
    “Pod?”  Mathias frowned.
    “That thing that spins then vanishes.”
    “Ah, I see. You did travel to the sphere in a transender.”  Mathias’s voice flattened, removing any hope of sympathy for Tony or me. “Take them to the isolation