She scratched the jaguar behind her ears, but said nothing.
Quinn watched her from a chair on the porch, his wolves lying at his feet. “How are you?” he asked, those ice blue eyes pinning her where she was on the porch.
“I’m fine,” she admitted. “I should be freaking out more over someone trying to kill me, but I’m fine. I’m more surprised by the WMC than I am about myself.”
“You knew this was coming. Someone attacking you.”
Had she? She knew things could go sour easily on her at any point during this attempt to gain a pardon and walk away from crime and her past.
“I did,” she whispered, looking out to the woods. “I figured it was going to come. Maybe not how or when, but I knew someone would want me dead. Someone who wasn’t Axel. I made a lot of personal enemies while I worked for him. A lot of people blaming me for the deaths of their loved ones who crossed him, and other things.”
“We’ll keep you safe,” he promised.
“I don’t need you to keep me safe, Quinn. I need you to back me up.”
“We’ll do that too. We can do both.”
Everything was so easy to him. She chuckled, shaking her head at it. He just confronted a problem with a confidence that was unmatched. He knew what to do and when to do it. It was black and white to him in a lot of ways.
They waited on the porch as the rest of the team came out, dropping their bags. No one spoke much as they waited for that portal to show up in their backyard. The air was thick with tension as they all considered what would be in New York waiting for them.
“At least we aren’t going commercial,” Zander joked quietly, leaning against the porch’s railing.
“Amen to that,” Elijah replied, a smile breaking over his face.
Sawyer couldn’t stop a small smirk.
“Yeah, it could be worse. WMC Councilmen assassinated, our location exposed, Sawyer attacked…but we’re at least getting a portal to New York. The WMC and IMPO doesn’t have time to make our lives harder than they need to.” Jasper was trying not to laugh as he said it.
“Maybe they realized there are bigger fish to fry,” Quinn muttered. Sawyer snorted, smothering laughter. Nothing about this was supposed to be funny.
“I mean, someone did try to kill Sawyer. Maybe they feel sorry for us. We’re now targets of someone else. They failed to kill us, so now no one else can. They’re petulant children like that.” Vincent said that and she lost it, doubling over in a fit. That brought Elijah and Zander down with her, both of them laughing harder than they should have.
They were all laughing when Travis showed up, the portal forming in their backyard. He looked at them like they were crazy as they grabbed their bags, still chuckling and snorting at the situation they found themselves in.
“You know, at least it won’t be hot and humid,” she told them. “And Quinn, you’ll get to see the holiday lights of New York!”
“Oh joy,” he groaned.
Vincent went through first with Kaar, and the mood sobered quickly. Then Elijah went through and Sawyer realized they were all leaving any semblance of happiness here at home. She could feel it, as they locked it all away. Quinn, then Zander and Jasper.
She had waited to be last on purpose.
“Are you going through?” Travis asked, frowning at her.
She turned to him slowly. “Did you give up our home?” She met his eyes. This was her best chance to ask him.
“No. No, I didn’t say anything, Sawyer. Promise.”
She believed him and stepped into the cold dark of the portal.
Once through, she left the small room for portals and walked into the hallway. Immediately, she noticed the madhouse. From peaceful, backwoods Georgia into a flurry of activity that seemed like it would never end.
“We need to get to the central meeting room. They’ve picked a big conference hall where the Director does big announcements to be the main area of the investigation.” Vincent grabbed her elbow. “We need to stay close together and not get separated. We don’t need any drama from having you here. You’ve already been announced as the third victim of the Triad, and who knows what sort of response that will get from people.”
She only nodded, following him as the team fell in around her. She stood in the center, not something she was particularly used to. People glanced at the group as they walked.
“Remember, someone was just arrested for exposing sensitive material. The person who outed you to the press. Tensions concerning you are already high,” Vincent whispered back to her. “Keep your head down.”
“Of course. Like I ever do anything else.”
Elijah snorted, shaking his head next to her. He had a silent point. She had a tendency to make something of a scene.
They got to the elevators without any incidents, but that changed quickly. Overcrowded with people and animals, they were all packed together like sardines. Once closed into the elevator, some IMPO desk jockey ran his mouth.
“Look, it’s the person who got Collin arrested.” The words dripped with anger and condemnation.
“Is Collin the guy who took my photo to the press? Then fuck him. He got himself fired.” She eyed the other guy.
Vincent spun to glare at her, then at the guy in the suit. “Lawrence, I’m going to recommend you don’t say another word while on this ride,” he said with an animosity that even she couldn’t muster. “We’re in the middle of an emergency, so there’s no time for the petty shit - or I’ll report you to my superiors.”
Lawrence slammed his mouth shut. He must have decided it was better to remain quiet, making Sawyer pleased. When the doors next opened, Vincent led them off and she took a deep breath, glad to be off the overstuffed elevator.
“Over here!” James called, waving them down from the center of the new floor they were on. He was in the middle of a massive crowd, all yelling things at each other. She beelined for him, even leaving the guys behind, since she could cut through the crowd around them easier.
“Who the hell is in charge here?” she demanded, waving around at the other agents. She dropped her bag on the table he stood at. It was her table now. She noticed all the others were completely full.
“The Director,” he answered. “He’s in charge of the entire operation and will be assigning tasks per team. We’re to deliver him anything we learn during our assignments. Vincent, he wants you and Sawyer to him pronto. Everyone else, get your stuff put down and find something to eat. Everything is going to be moving fast.”
She glanced over her shoulder to see the Italian there, his eyes dark. Behind him was the rest of the team, though they began to spread out, dropping their bags at the circular table as well.
“Can do. What’s our current assignment other than that?”
“Actually, he’s going to give you our team’s assignment. I have a feeling none of us will like it. We’re either going to be tossed to the side for Sawyer’s protection-”
“Or thrown into the thick of it? Bring it on,” Elijah said, cutting off their handler. “Go on, you two. We can hold down this table in here for us to sit at, get something to eat and hear the word spreading through the other Special Agents. We got this.”
“Come on,” Vincent ordered her. She went without saying anything, glad to be going. Already, eyes were falling on her, watching her carefully. Whispers broke out underneath the yelling. One or two dared to point.
She walked through them, wearing their uniform, and even had one of their badges in her wallet, the wallet she kept on her at all times, in her back pocket. If it weren’t for her past, she’d be just another agent. Her past did exist, though, so her very appearance brought the whispers and glares.
“Naseem went after you?” one of them asked as she and Vincent passed him to find the Director. There was a slight Russian accent that reminded her of Varya. It made her interested in the agent.
She also, for a moment, wondered where the Russian woman and her bear were. She hoped they were well. S
he hadn’t seen them since they left South America.
“Yeah.” She wasn’t sure what he wanted to hear.
“They say you let him go.”
“I didn’t have a weapon on me and backup wasn’t going to get there in time to help me take him down.” She shrugged. There wasn’t much to say about it. “Walking away with my life is victory enough at that point.”
“Good point,” the other agent agreed. Then he lightly hit her arm with a closed fist. “Good work on surviving. It gives us a lead of sorts, a heads up to who the players in this are.”
She frowned at him, stopping completely to stare at him.
Vincent began to chuckle softly. “Not everyone hates you,” he whispered to her.
“Oh? Is that…” The other agent looked between them. “No, I wasn’t going to give you a hard time. I know a lot of people will, but I get it from them too, or used to. I was a thug for the Russians before IMAS pulled me out. Joined the IMPO right after. I get trying to survive by doing wrong. It’s the only way to make it in Russia. It’s that or get hauled to the labs.”
“Yeah…” she nodded slowly. “Another reformed criminal, then.”
“Yup. I did it to save my younger brother. He was able to have a good life, and I got him out of the country. Then IMAS caught me through an IMPO investigation.”
“We need to get to the Director,” Vincent finally cut in again, ending the conversation. The other Special Agent nodded, waving them away. Sawyer looked back at him as they continued walking.
Interesting.
“He’s going to be in here,” Vincent murmured as he pushed open a door.
Inside the small meeting room was more chaos as agents screamed at each other. Her eyes fell on the Director, though, looking annoyed as he stared at the other, older men in the room. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t going to find the chance or had given up on silencing the others to speak himself.
“Director!” she called out over the others. “You needed to see Special Agent Castello and me?”
The room went quiet as the other agents looked to see who dared speak over them. Added to the fact that she had used Castello, she had given away their identities in a simple statement. A pin could drop and it would be the loudest thing in the room now.
The Director raised an eyebrow at her. “I did. Come in and have a seat. Tell me about last night. I’ve heard the secondhand from James, but I want your retelling of it.”
“Yes sir,” she replied, finding an empty seat at the boardroom table. Quickly, she recounted the entire incident and her thought process behind every action she took. From the moment Sombra pulled her out of her sleep to getting back in the house, she didn’t miss a detail.
“See, I told you she’s the one we need to talk to,” the Director said to another older man near him.
“I’m not sure we can trust her.”
“I don’t trust her,” another fired out.
“Looking for expert advice?” she asked, leaning back in her chair.
“We don’t need experts. We catch killers all the time,” one snapped at her. “We are the experts.”
She glanced at Vincent next to her.
He sighed, shaking his head at the scene. “We’re not experts at catching assassins,” he said, calling out the obvious reason they had her in the room. “In fact, we’ve only caught one in the last century.” He gave her a pointed look.
She snorted, rolling her eyes at that. Yeah. Just one. Her.
“We’ve caught hitmen before and that’s all assassins-”
“Don’t even finish that,” she snapped out, pointing at the man about to make the offensive statement. It nearly had her out of her chair, sitting up and on the edge as she practically shoved her finger into the guy’s eye. “Hitmen are not assassins and assassins aren’t hitmen. We aren’t just there to kill an unruly ex-wife or husband. We don’t do small time. We take it big. We’re the best. Hitmen are child’s play. You treat the Triad like they’re hitmen and they will run you over and take their targets without a sweat.”
“Explain,” Director Thompson ordered calmly.
“Hitmen don’t have the skill or resources to get through lots of security. The Triad will have both. They also have the magic to back them up. Most hitmen are weaker Magi or non-Magi. They aren’t as threatening. The Triad are powerful. They are all incredibly gifted in terms of magic. Naseem, for example, got into our house, all the way to my bedroom in the attic, not only under my nose but through four animal bonds and Quinn. He was about to stab me in the chest when my jaguar even noticed he was there. She could smell him. That was the only thing to give him away. He got close enough for her to smell him.” She curled her fist, remembering just how close it had been. Adrenaline was already working its way through her system just at the memory of it. “Hitmen? An accident is their best work. A bloody murder is their worst. An assassin? We’ll kill you in your bed and no one will ever know we’re there. No one will ever know who it was unless we want them to. Don’t think this will be easy, like taking down some small time, fucking cheap-ass hitman.”
No one said anything in return when she was done until the Director again spoke up with another order for an explanation. “How would you do it?”
“I haven’t thought about it,” she answered, sinking back into her chair as the question felt like it bounced in her head.
How would she do it? She would spend months researching the target, learning the patterns of the guards and their personal habits. She would know what types of cars they all drove, how they moved around the city. She would work up to the target, finding ins and outs. Then she would find blueprints of the location she chose for the hit. It was always their home. The idea of getting them where they felt safest? Axel enjoyed that. He would always provide a lot of this information as well, though he let her out to do any groundwork she needed.
“If this tied to my information going out to the public, it went too fast.” She tapped a finger on the table. “I’m slow. I like research. I like perfection. I like knowing. It made me a great thief when I…uh, died. It made me a better assassin, when…” She stopped for a moment. She was going to talk about her old work in a room full of people she didn’t know. “It made me an even better assassin when I worked for Axel. He would supply much of the information I wanted faster than I could get my hands on it. Which brings me to one of the biggest differences between assassins and hitmen. I was trained to do what I did. Grueling hours of having it beaten into me how to get it done without being caught.” She took a deep breath. “As for how I would do it…not like this. It’s too fast, too sudden, and too big. But I can consider why I was a target. I know how these things work. I know how to look at security and find its weaknesses, or at least the ones assassins would exploit.”
“And that’s why you’re in this room,” Thompson explained for her. “I’m going to put you in all of the strategy meetings. I want your input on everything. Vincent, you know why you’re here.”
“So much for keeping you out of the middle of things. He wants you deep in this.” Was what Vincent sent to just her. She wanted to laugh. She’d known, somewhere deep in her, that she was going to get center stage for this mess.
“I had a guess, sir,” was what he said to the Director.
She didn’t. She had no idea why Vincent was also in the room with her. To keep an eye on her? He would have told her.
“Good. You think of anything and you tell me. James keeps telling me how damn smart you are, and now that you aren’t focused on your brother, I want you to put all of that into this.”
“Yes sir.”
That made a lot of sense. She looked at the Director with more appreciation now. He knew the people in his organization and knew how to use them. It also made her respect the hell out of Vincent. She knew he was good at people, finding the threads and how they fit together, but they hadn’t gone on a case where that mattered yet. Texas? That was easier to put together, and they ha
d stumbled on it following the sheriff’s situation around. The Amazon? Not much to put together there. It was a kill squad, not an investigation.
This? She had a feeling Vincent was going to thrive during this.
“First, we’re already bringing in every member of the WMC from their holiday homes. They will be roomed here in New York together, where we can keep an eye on them. They understand they need to follow a strict schedule with security, and none are complaining about it.”
“Good plan,” Sawyer muttered. “Unless they all get blown the hell up.”
“Excuse me?” One of the older men glared at her.
“Keeping them together, in a single spot where we can keep them contained and watched is a great idea…unless one of the Triad gets frisky and tries to blow them all to high heavens.” She thought it was an obvious problem.
“They won’t. We don’t know who they’re working for or why. They might be just taking out a few key targets and leaving some. They aren’t the type for collateral damage, you know that,” Vincent replied, tapping a pen on the desk. “It’s not their MO.”
“Or they could have been hired to take out the WMC. Completely. Leave the Magi communities around the world in complete disarray. Hell, the last time the Council was shy of a full table was when one died of a sudden heart attack over a hundred years ago.” She crossed her arms. “We’ve never held special elections, not in living memory. Not since before we’ve been public to the rest of the world. You think we have problems now with two missing? Imagine the hell we’ll have if we lose our entire governing body. There’s already going to be anarchy out there with the IMPO dumping their resources here. Imagine if there was no one paying the IMPO, therefore the IMPO didn’t exist.”
“You both bring up points we’ve talked about extensively,” Thompson cut in before Vincent could respond. “They won’t all be kept together unless they are in council, discussing the future of the Magi and how to fill the two empty seats. We’re thinking a few groups scattered all over the city, in hidden locations-”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 118