The possibility was slim that they would ever be in danger, but Sawyer wasn’t willing to risk any of them, for any reason. Non-Magi children, all of them. They wouldn’t stand a chance if someone glanced their way, trying to find her.
“I’m sorry,” Liam whispered. “I just miss you.”
“I know,” she whispered back, standing up. “I’m just not sure how to fix it.”
“I’m not sure how to do all of this without you.” He waved to everyone else in the room. “I’m barely older than them. I’m only-”
“Only twenty?” Sawyer’s heart broke. “So was I when I met you. I have faith in you, Liam. I do. You can make this even better. Help kids by doing the right things. I’ve got it all set up for you.”
“Will you come back?” he asked, and she hugged him. They held on to each other for a long time.
“I’ll always come back,” she promised. “I just won’t stay.”
“That’s enough.”
“It needs to be.” She laid her head on his shoulder. Gods, why was he so tall now? “You’ll always be my little brother.” She wondered if she ever told him that she considered him the younger sibling she never had. Now she would, every chance she got.
“All right, big sis,” Liam replied with an embarrassed chuckle.
She felt a flood of pride and happiness at his words. “Let’s get the kids in here for a lesson,” she decided. “Go on, tell them to get in here. I’ve learned some new things from my team while I’ve been gone, and I’ll teach them to you all. Hurry. I can stay until dinner, then I have plans.”
“Sweet!” Travis jumped up and ran for the door.
Sawyer looped an arm around Liam’s shoulders and leaned on him. “You can do this, Liam. I believe in you. You don’t need me.”
“I’m sorry for being so angry,” he repeated.
“Don’t be sorry. Just don’t let your emotions rule you like that.” She chuckled. “Still something I need to work on. It’s an ongoing thing, believe me.”
“We’re all just works in progress. I think that’s the saying I heard in Philosophy class.” He grinned, and she nodded.
“Yes, we are,” Sawyer agreed. “Who we are, what we do. Everything about us. Like your self-defense training.” She scooped up a younger boy running to her as Travis let them in. “Hey, little man. Have you been good?”
“I have, Miss Matthews!” he answered. “Have you?”
“I’ve been trying.” She laughed and watched as everyone got into place. “I’ve been trying, little man.”
9
Vincent
Vincent knocked on Sawyer’s door bright and early Monday morning. He needed to make sure she was ready to go, and he hadn’t heard from her yet. He would have used his telepathy, but the enchantments in the wall prevented him from doing so.
“What?” Sawyer called out, sounding groggy and unready.
“We need to leave in twenty minutes. Everyone else is down at breakfast.” He said it loud enough that someone down the hall looked at him with a frown and put a finger over their lips. Chastised by a stranger. He leaned on the wall next to her door, wondering why she was taking so long. She was normally up before anyone else, since she could never sleep through a night unless she was exhausted.
The door swung open and her head poked out. He crossed his arms and smiled at the tangle of near-black hair that she had falling over her face. She had bags under her eyes, and Vincent hazarded a guess that she had only gotten to sleep right as they needed to get up. Or she tossed and turned all night. It sent a bolt of worry through him, but he wasn’t sure asking would get him answers.
“Fuck. Why didn’t you try earlier?” She glared at him.
“I did,” he answered. Three times in the last two hours. “I got no answer and don’t have a key to your room.”
“Shit.” Sawyer slammed her door closed, and he could hear her rustling around. Five minutes later, she stumbled out of her room.
Vincent sighed as she closed her door. “You could have gone for something more formal,” he teased, smiling as he said it. She’d gotten her hair back into a ponytail, looking more managed than it had. It didn’t have knots in it, at least, but it was still curly and voluminous. From there, she went standard uniform. Black cargo pants, black t-shirt, work boots.
“Sorry, I don’t own a suit,” she retorted, looking over him with a sneer. Vincent raised an eyebrow and began walking to the elevator. She was in a bad mood today, that was certain. He just decided to ignore the comment and sneer. Zander, Elijah, and Quinn were also in regular uniform. It wasn’t a big deal.
Inside the elevator with her, he heard a soft sigh.
“Sorry. Two nights in a row without any sleep. I shouldn’t be an ass,” she whispered, leaning on the back wall of the elevator.
“I figured you weren’t getting any,” he replied, looking back at her. “Do you not own anything formal?”
“No,” she answered. “I don’t. No dresses, no suits. Lost all the ones I wore when I was younger, never wanted or needed them since.”
“I’ll take you out later today, then,” he offered. “You’ll need something for our date.”
“Oh?” Sawyer smiled. “After my morning bad mood, you still want to do that?”
“I’ve seen your morning bad mood at its worst, and it didn’t scare me away,” he reminded her. She had tried to kill him once. He wasn’t going to get pissed off over a mood caused by a lack of sleep. He had better things to use his energy on.
“Touché,” Sawyer conceded, bowing her head in mock defeat. “Are you the fashion guy of the group? Do you know anything about dresses?”
“Are you okay wearing one?” He chuckled, moving back to lean on the wall with her.
“Yeah, just no heels.” Sawyer motioned to her long legs. “I don’t like being taller than the guy. Hard to do when you’re five foot eleven and heels are normally a solid three to four inches. Most men don’t like women to be taller than them either.”
“I didn’t know that was something that bothered you,” Vincent said honestly. He could see why it would bother her, but it seemed like such a mundane, and slightly insecure, thing. She seemed like the type of woman who completely owned her body. “They would make your legs look longer.”
“It’s…just a thing,” she deflected, shrugging. “I’m really not a big heel wearer and my legs don’t need help looking long. I’ll get a pair of flats.”
“We can make that happen,” Vincent agreed softly. The elevator dinged for the lobby and he led her out. The team was already at the front of the hotel, waiting on them, and Vincent couldn’t stop a smile as Zander offered Sawyer a small breakfast sandwich. He had asked one of them to make sure they got something for her to eat, and he was glad it was Zander. It was a good way for him to do something nice and harmless for her. Hopefully, the simple food offering wasn’t going to set off some argument about letting her take care of herself or something.
“Thanks,” she murmured, taking it from him.
Vincent and Elijah got the keys to their rentals. Outside, Vincent raised an arm and Kaar landed. He’d been letting his raven fly free, only a small ankle tag to make sure people knew the bird belonged to a Magi.
“Hey, boy,” Vincent whispered, bumping his forehead. “Have a good night?”
Kaar puffed up and sent some annoyance Vincent’s way. Kaar didn’t like how busy the city was and people kept shooing him off the patios when he tried to take a break from flying around. He was annoyed that they were getting in the car again. He was annoyed that no one was giving him treats.
“All right,” Vincent huffed. “Needy-ass bird.”
That comment got Vincent an obnoxious caw.
“Dick,” Vincent mumbled, opening a car door and letting Kaar jump in. “Quinn, did you bring any of those seeds this guy likes?”
“I did. Here.” Quinn pulled out a bag and Vincent took it, taking seeds out and holding them for Kaar to eat out of his palm. When Vincent
went to hand the bag back, Quinn declined it. “Keep it. He’s your bird. You and he need to work out your issues.”
“There are no issues between Kaar and I,” Vincent retorted. Not many. The bird was just a loner, and while they were bonded, they weren’t particularly close. He had no problem with a self-sufficient animal. He didn’t need the closeness Shade and Scout had with Quinn. Kaar would rather spend all day flying around than sitting at his desk with him, and that was okay.
“Sure.” Quinn moved to the other car and got in. Vincent narrowed his eyes at the other car, where Quinn and Scout were hiding. Shade jumped into the door Vincent had open. Sawyer followed the wolf. He shut the door on his clown car and looked at Elijah over the top, who just shrugged.
It was a quiet drive to the IMPO main headquarters. The WMC, IMPO, and IMAS owned three massive buildings just a block away from the United Nations. The WMC sat in the middle, with large steps up to the front door. The IMPO and IMAS were more understated, looking like office buildings from the outside.
He chuckled with Elijah more than once on the drive though, as Sawyer whispered obscenities at Kaar, who was trying to eat some of the biscuit that made her sandwich. Vincent sent a thought to the raven, asking him to stop, which only made him ruffle his feathers and jump on the center console to try for the seed bag now in his pocket.
When they parked, Vincent looked at his bird. “Did you not eat anything last night?”
Kaar sent something like a no.
Vincent pulled out the bag and gave the bird more seeds to appease him, then got out. Kaar went straight to his shoulder once out of the car.
“So…” Sawyer helped Shade out then looked at him. “What is really happening today?”
“We’re going to meet some big people from the IMPO, our bosses, and they are going to pat us on the back for a job well done in Texas,” he answered, shrugging as best he could with the giant bird on his shoulder.
“That’s really it?” She frowned at him. He knew she didn’t trust it. She probably figured this was going to be a long day of backhanded compliments. He was willing to bet she was right, but he didn’t want to say it out loud.
Games. This was all games.
He was tired of them, truthfully. He enjoyed the ones he played with her - the word games, the chess games, the attempts to outmaneuver each other into revealing more about themselves. But he was tired of the IMPO and the games he was about to play.
“Let’s go,” he told her. He turned to the rest of his team, all making sure their shirts were tucked in. Quinn was even smoothing out Shade and Scout’s coats to make them look nice. Scout shook it back out and Quinn growled at him. The wolf didn’t shake out Quinn’s hard work the second time. Vincent gave a smile at the scene. Those three were so out of place in the middle of New York. “Everyone ready?”
“Yeah, boss,” Elijah answered, adjusting Jasper’s tie. Jasper had gone with a suit like Vincent, aiming for professional. Vincent was glad someone had joined him in the pursuit of looking presentable. “We’re ready.”
“Everyone stay on your best behavior,” Vincent reminded them, giving a pointed look to Zander. He was the worst at these things, and he grinned back at Vincent as if there was already trouble in the making. The gauged ears, the neck tattoos, the full sleeves of ink. Zander was always looking to stir things up with those who ran their organization.
“How much trouble can we really get into?” Sawyer asked as they started walking to the front door.
Vincent scoffed and looked at her. “You don’t want to know.” He pulled open the door and let her in. He followed, letting the guys go in behind him.
The AC of the IMPO lobby hit him immediately. He didn’t look around, keeping his eyes on the reception desk. He could see Sawyer out of the corner of his eye, though. She was taking everything in, her observant, quiet way of making sure she knew everything about the room. He wondered what she was thinking, wished he could read her mind, like he always did.
“Vincent Castello,” the receptionist greeted him with a purr, standing up. A pretty blonde named Sara. Vincent knew her well. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s been a long time, Sara,” Vincent said, reaching out to shake her hand. She held it too long, her fingers drifting over his palm when it finally ended. He sighed internally. Ex-lovers. They never knew when to quit. When he’d been younger, he’d fallen for her for a moment, taken her out, slept with her, and realized she was just trying to get with the ‘ex-criminal’ agent everyone had been talking about. He never made the mistake a second time.
Now he was falling in love with an assassin. He had horrible taste in relationships.
“You have a meeting?” She asked, looking down at her scheduling book.
“We do,” he answered. “With-”
“Director Thompson. I’ve heard about Texas. I thought this was next week,” Sara cut him off. “They should be expecting you. Is that her?” She nodded towards Sawyer, who was further from the group. She was a dark figure in the room. People hushed as they walked past her, gave her looks. She seemed not to notice, but Vincent knew otherwise. He watched her longer than he should have, because Sara asked again. “That’s Shadow, right?”
“Sawyer,” he bit out. “Her name is Sawyer Cambrie Matthews. Use it.” Hearing her old moniker pissed him off and made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t going to let anyone stand near her and remind her constantly of a past she hadn’t asked for. A past that was still trying to claw its way through their lives and ruin what they were trying to build.
“Sawyer.” Sara’s tongue rolled over the word like she was trying to get a flavor for it. Vincent didn’t like it. “Weird name.”
“It’s her name,” he repeated. He didn’t find it weird. He found it and the story behind it as sad and interesting as the woman herself. It was given to her by a nurse as a newborn since her mother didn’t have the chance to name her before she was left an orphan. “We have to get to our meeting. Buzz them and let them know we’re on our way.”
“Of course,” Sara replied absentmindedly. Vincent kept his eyes on Sawyer, who met his gaze.
Elijah coughed softly, taking his attention away from their assassin.
“What?”
“Don’t get uppity with them,” Elijah whispered. “I don’t like how she used Shadow either, but we can’t be fighting the whole world. It’s her title. It’s the name that’s famous. No one knows Sawyer, but they don’t trust Shadow.”
Vincent held back a curse. Sawyer met them at the elevator. Zander went to her immediately and whispered something Vincent couldn’t hear. He saw her eyebrows raise and then she nodded.
“It’s fine, Vin,” she told him. “Shadow, Sawyer. It doesn’t matter. I am who I am.”
“You aren’t Shadow anymore,” he reminded her. She couldn’t be Shadow anymore.
“I’ll always be Shadow to some people. Dead or alive. Let them use it.”
He got into the elevator, refusing to respond to that.
Once the team was inside, it was Zander who broke. “Why? Why should we be okay with them using that fucking name?” he demanded, turning to glare at her.
“Because they might be scared of Shadow enough not to fuck with Sawyer,” she answered, crossing her arms. “Or you guys. They might be scared enough of me to not fuck with you guys.”
“I don’t like that,” he growled.
“You don’t have to,” she snapped. “It was my fucking professional name. You want to know where Shadow comes from? They never saw me coming. I was the dark shadow of Axel’s retribution. I was always near him, in the dark, ready to kill anyone who fucked with him. Or so they thought. In a world of white Ghosts, I was the reason people were afraid of the dark.”
“Stop,” Vincent cut in. “We don’t have time for this.” He didn’t want to hear them bickering about her history, not in this building. At home, they could all argue about the use of Shadow. Maybe in the hotel, but not here. It would ruin them. “
Sawyer, I’ll stop caring for now, but we’ll continue this discussion later. Zander, don’t start a fight. Jasper, keep him in line. Quinn, you keep doing you.” Meaning, staying quiet and unnoticed. Vincent was impressed with Quinn’s control through all of this, and the wolves’. “Elijah…make sure we don’t lose all our friends on this trip.”
“I got him,” Jasper confirmed, throwing an arm over Zander’s shoulder. “You need to stay with me, the amputee, since you’re the medic.”
Zander cursed at him.
“Can do, boss,” Elijah said, chuckling. “And you?”
“I’m going to play fucking politics,” Vincent mumbled. He realized he didn’t give Sawyer any orders. Politics. “Sawyer, stick with me or Elijah.” He needed a fucking cigarette. He was annoyed he didn’t have one before going inside.
“We got this,” Elijah said plainly. “No reason to stress today, seriously.”
“Sure,” Vincent sighed. He thought so too, but he hated the idea of people calling her Shadow. That had thrown him. He was trying to regroup. He needed control for this, and getting thrown for loops by his own emotions was not something he needed.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 75