The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  “Because when you and your remaining friend die, there will be no one else who knows. Pass along the skill. Professionally, it’s a legacy.” She needed it. She couldn’t fail, and if he could teach her this, then she would have an advantage she never had on Axel before.

  Naseem opened his mouth and she cut him off before he got a word in. “We don’t like each other, you and I. A good man died because of you. Thankfully, he took out one of yours. He died a hero to your villain and yes, Naseem, you are a villain. You are not just the blade others wield. You aren’t a tool. You enjoy the job and that’s the biggest difference between us.” She shrugged after that. “But who else would you teach, if not me? Why not teach the person who took you down?”

  “And what does it get you? Hell, little girl, what does it get me other than a sentimental feeling that doesn’t help me when I’m dead?”

  “It gets me another skill I could use to deal with Axel Castello. It gets you life in prison instead of a death sentence.”

  She could make that happen. Free rein, that’s what the team had been given. It wasn’t like Naseem was going to get out. Security was heightened. The prison was impenetrable now. With Axel out, everyone was tested to make sure they weren’t a doppelganger like Missy. That was a play Axel could only use once and then no one else would be able to pull it off.

  “Parole?” he asked softly.

  “Sorry, but I can’t get anyone to agree to that - and I wouldn’t try.” She was willing to give him a life.

  She wasn’t willing to give him the chance to get back to work.

  “Then no.”

  And that was it. She had expected the answer but needed to try anyway.

  “Fine.” She stood back up. “I don’t know your execution date, so I’ll apologize for missing it now. I’m a bit busy.” She turned and walked to the door, stopping to listen to him talk. She would give him the chance to finish his sentence, at least.

  “I didn’t expect you to. You are now just another IMPO agent, not an assassin who needs to see your kills. Plus, trying to catch Axel again will keep you busy.”

  She tightened her hand on the doorknob.

  “You’ve made the same mistake as Missy,” she murmured, meeting his emotionless eyes again. “I’m not out to catch Axel Castello. I’m out to kill him.”

  His eyebrows shot up again and she just left, leaving him in the silence of that.

  It wasn’t public knowledge. Very few people knew Axel was free. Everyone who did was under a magical non-disclosure agreement. They knew Sawyer and the guys were getting sent after him. But only the Council, her team, and Thompson knew the end goal.

  Sawyer was a hero to the public now. They couldn’t know that she was being sent out for the very thing they were all afraid of. An execution. An assassination.

  She kept walking quickly all the way to the car in the parking lot, unable to stop.

  As she slid in, she knew that was the most probable outcome she could have gotten from the trip.

  Now she had to get back to the guys and act like everything was normal. That she wasn’t falling apart as she did all this. In the end, she was fine. She knew she would be.

  If all of this paid off for her and they lived, even if they hated her for it, it would be worth it.

  4

  Jasper

  Jasper tried to get comfortable in the large executive chair, one of several brought into Thompson’s office for this meeting. He didn’t want to be here, but it was needed. While they were all still reeling, they had to get these things done. They couldn’t just stop and fall into despair. There was too much to do.

  And so Jasper knew there was no avoiding the lawyers or the will. No avoiding another piece of James being gone.

  At least going through this would keep them busy. It would give them just a little more time before they began to deal with the massive, Castello-shaped elephant in their lives. The one that had Vincent unable to sleep and had Sawyer looking like she was going to kill everyone who walked within a few feet of her.

  Oh, the pain and rage in those two. It suffocated him while he slept, as their dreams pounded his mind and magic. It echoed his own rage and pain. It echoed in Zander, Elijah, and Quinn.

  While those two felt it acutely, they all knew it was eating the group. Not just Axel, but all of it. The loss of their home, the loss of their comfort and peace, and James.

  “Jasper, did you hear that?” Zander asked, snapping a finger in his face.

  “Hear what?” he snapped, glaring.

  “They got started. James left you his library.”

  “He has a library?” The glare morphed into a frown as he looked around the table. “There’s not one in the condo.”

  “No, the library - rather, you received the books in it - is located at his residence in upstate New York,” one of the lawyers explained. “A residence that…” He shuffled through papers. “Yes, here it is. Thompson, it says here that if they refuse it, it goes to you, but as it stands, you all will inherit a large property-” He kept reading.

  “It’s our old team house,” Thompson interjected calmly. “He knew I never wanted to go back.” The Director chuckled humorlessly. “That bastard.”

  “We’re missing something. Please, continue to explain,” Vincent ordered, waving his hand and frowning at the papers. Jasper agreed; they were missing something.

  “I thought he would have deeded it to me on his death, but he deeded the old team house to you guys. It’s a big place, a lot like your plantation down in Georgia.” Thompson waved a hand absentmindedly. “I was planning on giving it to your team once this was over, since I have no need, or want, to return to it. It will be easy enough to secure. Only a few people, these lawyers included, know it’s still there. I’ll have the address wiped from their memories.”

  “That works, sir,” the lawyer agreed. “Is it in need of any repairs? We can go ahead and set-”

  “The IMPO handles that internally. You can continue,” Thompson commanded, leaning back.

  “Well, to you, Director, he left his collection of photos. We took everything from the condo and he had many placed in safe-keeping or in storage. We’ll provide you the access to that.”

  “Is that all?” Thompson raised an eyebrow.

  “He wrote a note here…” The lawyer fumbled around. “Here it is. Yes…” He handed it warily to the Director, who moved faster to grab it than Jasper would have expected.

  It took only a few seconds, but then Thompson began to laugh. He laughed harder than any of them were comfortable with. It boomed and echoed around the room.

  “That fucking prick.” He wiped tears from his eyes, and took a moment to collect himself. Jasper had never felt so curious. What had James put in there? It was obviously meant to get his old friend laughing and explain why nothing was going to him. “I had guessed but oh, James had a way with words.”

  “What?” Vincent demanded. Jasper was glad the Italian was doing most of the talking. It was decided before they came in, so that they weren’t all talking over each other the entire meeting. He represented the team and they could all just listen.

  “He’s left everything else to you guys. I’m only getting his most sentimental things, like pictures of our old team and other related objects. That way we’re not… ‘burdening the youth with our old man shit,’ as he so eloquently put it.”

  Jasper snorted. Then his shoulders began to shake. Next to him, Zander threw his head back, his laugh clear. Elijah howled. Quinn shook his head, looking confused.

  Jasper glanced at Vincent as he tried to hold back the laughter. A small smile began to form on the rough, haunted face, just for a second.

  Then it was gone and the Italian got up abruptly from the table and began to stalk around the room.

  He figured it was enough that it nearly formed at all. It was some progress. He knew Vincent just needed a bit more time to find balance again. He’d been rocked to the core, more so than most of the team.

&n
bsp; “So, we’re getting a house?” Elijah asked, out of turn. “Seriously? And…everything else?”

  “The condo, the house, all of his financial assets. He didn’t leave a note. I’m sorry.”

  Jasper’s heart, though full of humor for a moment, still felt the weight of that. They would never have precious last words from him like Thompson got.

  “He thought of you boys as the team he and I never had. One we failed to achieve because of mistakes. He…thought of you as the sons he would never have.” Thompson tapped a hand on the table, as if the movement would distract from the grief. “Know that. That’s why he left all of this to you. You’re our future. He and I were the past. There’s no reason for old men to need any of that. I don’t need any of this. You all do. Just accept it.”

  Jasper took several deep breaths as Vincent walked back to the table. Zander leaned on him. Just a simple movement, and Jasper felt less alone for a moment. Vincent began taking the papers from the lawyers.

  “Let’s just sign all of this and get out of here,” he mumbled.

  “Wait,” Thompson said, stopping him. “We need to talk about moving all your things from Georgia to the new house. We need to talk about you moving in. What you need, when you need it by.”

  “You can handle all of that,” Vincent snapped. “Just do it. We don’t care. We can…personalize it later, or something. I don’t have time for interior decorating.”

  “Yes, we do,” Quinn said softly.

  Everyone turned to stare at him.

  “No, we don’t,” Vincent growled.

  “We’ve hunted him for a long time, Vincent. We took the time to make sure our home was what we wanted it to be. We can take today to make sure our new one will be too.

  Vincent glared at the feral Magi, who wasn’t intimidated.

  Jasper stood up slowly, putting a hand between them to break the stare-down. “Vincent, you and I can do something else while these guys handle this. We can divide and conquer like Sawyer did.”

  “No,” Elijah disagreed quickly. “We’re doing this as a team. James left this for us, gifts from him. We’re not going to disrespect that and ignore it. Vincent is going to sit down and sign the paperwork and we’re going to make plans to move. We can’t go on a mission without a home base, without a place where we’re all able to get our work done.”

  Jasper glanced back at Zander. The redhead shrugged. “I’m with Elijah and Quinn on this one.”

  “You’ve been outvoted, Vincent. Sit down. We’re doing this. Today. Hell, even tomorrow. Even a week from now. I’m still healing. You know Sawyer and the rest of us are right.”

  “Every moment you all tell me to rest, the further he gets, the colder the trail goes.”

  Jasper didn’t have an answer for that. He knew Vincent was right about that, but the team just wasn’t ready to jump in on catching Axel. Not yet. They had to move fast, but they couldn’t go so quickly that they weren’t prepared.

  “You were still outvoted,” Elijah whispered.

  Vincent slammed his hand on the table.

  No one on the team attempted to calm him down. Jasper had seen Vincent in a lot of bad places in his life, but he had never seen this all-consuming fury. He’d never seen Vincent so full of rage, pain, and hate. Not for anyone in the room, but for Axel.

  Yeah, Jasper also hated the man. Hated him for everything he had done to Sawyer, and to the world they lived in. But he couldn’t muster the power of the emotion that Vincent had. It made Vincent the scariest man he’d ever seen.

  It took several long moments. The lawyers and Thompson just waited, watching Vin with wide, surprised eyes. The team was patient though. They could be patient for him. They knew all the things he was working through, and they knew he would come out on the other side.

  Well, Jasper hoped they were right about that. He hoped he was right about it.

  Finally, Vincent slid into his chair, nodding, accepting defeat. The battle was over, but the war wasn’t, and Jasper knew it. It was okay. Soon, they would need to let themselves off their own leashes and get to work.

  “We’re already practically a month behind him, Vincent,” Elijah whispered. “It’s already cold. We can take a week to do this, then we get to work.”

  “It’s so hard,” the Italian whispered. “Eli, it’s so hard.”

  “I know,” the cowboy murmured. “Oh, my friend, I know.”

  Smartly, no one said anything else, and the paperwork was dealt with. They signed the deed together. Each of them would own the home James left them. Thompson began calls for the inhouse contractors to deal with the property.

  Jasper didn’t let it worry him that strangers would be wandering around the new house he hadn’t even seen yet. It was standard procedure. Every day, while work was going on, those people would go to the property on an IMPO bus. The driver had memory manipulation and would wipe their memories of the address when he loaded them up at the end of the work day.

  Since too much of that would lead to complications, the work had to be done quickly. Their last house was done in only four days. He bet this one would be faster since it was already an older secure team home.

  “How are you?” Zander asked him softly.

  “I’m fine,” he answered, shrugging as he looked out the massive windows of Thompson’s office. He could see the place on the street where he’d followed as they loaded Vincent into the ambulance. This had been her angle to it. Right here, she’d seen that nothing in the seemingly easy night went according to plan. Right here, she’d found out James was gone and had run for him and Vincent.

  He felt like he was connected to that night because of it. A connection he didn’t want. A night that should have finished their problems, not given them a hundred more.

  “What are you thinking about?” his friend wisely asked.

  Jasper ignored the question for a minute, letting his thoughts continue. A hundred problems. James’ death. No home. None of their things. Axel out. Woefully unprepared for the task presented to them.

  And yet, Jasper knew his team would succeed. He didn’t know at what cost, but he knew they would make it through. Would they still be a team at the end? Could Sawyer and Vincent hold together when all was said and done, or would this be the thing that broke them?

  What came after this?

  He didn’t know and he wasn’t sure he knew how to figure it out.

  “I hope this doesn’t ruin us,” he whispered, hoping only Zander could hear him. “I don’t want this to ruin Vincent, and I think it can.”

  “We can keep him,” Zander promised. “We can keep him with us. We’ll come out on the other side.”

  “I hope so.” Jasper knew Zander would blindly push towards the goal, and something about it was admirable. He let nothing convince him that failure was an option.

  “Believe me. And Sawyer too. We’re not going to let this…you know what I mean.”

  “I do.” Jasper huffed. Zander wasn’t one for poetry.

  “Guys,” Elijah called out to them. “You two want anything new in particular at the new place?”

  “A big bed in Sawyer’s room,” Zander answered. Jasper groaned, but the ridiculous statement had gotten laughter out of everyone on the team. Even Vincent. “I’m being serious!”

  “Of course he is,” Thompson muttered. “You all…You know what? No. I’m not asking questions.”

  “Better that way,” Vincent agreed softly.

  “Do you know where she is right now?” Elijah said it in an accusing way, narrowing his eyes. Jasper had turned all the way around by then, watching everyone move around, look over documents.

  “I do. It’s nothing dangerous.”

  “Why does everyone need to say it’s not dangerous?” Zander shook his head. “We’re not asking if it’s safe. She can take care of herself. I trust her to do that.”

  “Because we tend to assume everything she does is dangerous.” Quinn mumbled that explanation, but smiled.

  “Wha
t’s she doing?” Vincent asked again.

  “She went to the prison for an interview. I figured it was something she could handle on her own. She knows what questions to ask-”

  “She went to talk to Missy without us?” Vincent’s head snapped up from whatever he was reading. “She went to interrogate her about Axel without me?”

  Jasper didn’t like the sound of that either. Of all the things. He could see why she would do it, but he didn’t like it. They should be there with her as she confronted the doppelganger.

  Yet she purposefully sent them to deal with this and went alone.

  “Damn her,” Vincent muttered, dropping the papers. He started for the door.

  “You’ll finish this,” Elijah ordered. “Then we can all yell at her.”

  Vincent stopped, turned on his heel, and got back to work. Jasper was impressed that Elijah had thrown himself into the position of keeping Vincent in the right place. He wanted to run after her too, but this all really did need to get done.

  He glanced back at the window, thinking about it.

  Axel had gotten out a month before they even knew. The trail was already cold. It hadn’t even been a week since James died.

  When he looked back to the table, and noticed Vincent waving him over, he hoped in another week everyone was in a better place.

  He signed whatever form was put in front of him.

  He snuck a peek at Vincent’s face while he did. It was closed off, like it used to be. Before Sawyer, before it all broke and she changed them. Changed them for the better. Brought them closer. Made the team feel whole in a way it never had before.

  Jasper considered what the next week would hold for them. And the week after that. And a decade from now.

  He didn’t want to lose his brothers to this, didn’t want to lose Sawyer. Vincent looked like he was already lost. Sawyer was off dealing with things from her past without them, like she didn’t need them.

  He could already feel them fracturing.

  5

  Sawyer