Sawyer walked off the elevator with Sombra next to her and saw the guys and the wolves leaving Thompson’s office. She was right on time.
“Hey guys!” She smiled at them, covering all the strange hurt in her from the trip she’d just made.
“You…” Vincent was already glaring at her.
“Thompson said something, huh?” She sighed, reaching out to grab the elevator door to keep it from closing. She held it while the guys walked on and slid in last. “Yeah, I went to visit Missy.” Not even Thompson knew she had wanted to talk to Naseem, so she wouldn’t mention it now. He’d denied her request so there was no reason to say anything, not in her mind.
“Why did you go without us?” Jasper asked, looking hurt. She had expected it from Zander, but her redhead just moved himself closer to her. She met the green eyes of her temperamental one.
“I know if I yell at you, I’ll be in trouble, so I’m going to let them do it. You’re not hurt, so I’ll be quiet.”
She would have laughed if it weren’t for the fact that Vincent looked like he would yell. He looked livid with her.
“I went without you all because that’s the deal I’m going to make with you guys. You are all going to get this other shit handled. I can’t do anything about our living situation, or the will, or James’ things. I wish I could, but I can’t. I can only help you grieve. I know we’re all being pulled in two different directions. But I can look into the…case while you handle this. Once everything is settled, we’ll all sit down together-”
“And what if you get a big break before we’re done?” Elijah cut her off. He didn’t look upset. Well, not nearly as upset as Vincent.
“Then I get you, we drop everything, and we go for it. But the likelihood of that happening is small. He’s gone. We’re starting from square one. I would rather be the one getting our pieces moving. Vincent, this is what I tried to tell you yesterday. You guys need to focus on this. When I need one of you, like Jasper and Zander to help me set up alerts, I’ll divert you for a moment, but that’s it.”
Vincent slowly nodded, as if he understood her reasoning but was still angry. She knew the anger wasn’t truly because of her. He was hurting and lashing out. She knew his logical mind would win out in the end, even if they had to remind him at every turn to remember himself and what was needed.
And she was willing to keep doing it.
“Fine,” he finally muttered, looking away from her.
She didn’t have the urge to reach for him and say she loved him this time. She knew when she would be unwelcome. It hurt, but she couldn’t force him to accept her comfort.
She reminded herself of her promise. She would do anything for them, even if they hated her by the end of this. She didn’t need the pardon; she didn’t need any of it. She just needed all of them, herself included, to live through this.
And Vincent seemed like he was already beginning to hate her, even though she hadn’t yet done the deed. She hadn’t yet killed his brother, and it was already forcing a wedge between them she couldn’t fathom. She thought they were okay at the end of the funeral, but that moment was long gone and the hurting, angry Vincent was back.
The elevator dinged at the bottom. The walk out was silent and as always, it was being watched. Like every time she walked through this building, eyes found her. She kept her chin up and led the guys out, taking charge and setting the pace. She was never a natural leader, but she would be while Vincent got his head together, if he ever did. She didn’t let them drag their feet, and once she was behind the wheel of the SUV they had used that morning, she looked at her passengers.
“What happened today?” she asked Elijah.
“We have a house. James left us a fucking house. The one his and Thompson’s team used back in the day. All our shit will probably be in it before the end of the week.” He gave her a tired smile. “I’m worried about you doing the prison thing alone, but…thank you. The team needs this time to handle this sort of stuff and I’m…really happy you care enough about us to deal with the other thing for a moment by yourself.”
“Care enough? Elijah, I love you. I love all of you. I’d do anything for y’all.” She reached out and took his hand. He kissed her knuckles, holding it.
“I love you too, little lady.”
Those were words she’d never thought they would share. She had nearly missed her chance. He was such a wonderful man, Elijah Grant. They weren’t perfect together, just like they weren’t perfect individuals. He was scared of telling her how he felt because of his past. She had avoided getting to know him past flirtation and friendship.
No, none of them were perfect, but she liked to think their team was perfect. The five of them, all together, were perfect for her, and that was why she needed to protect them. That was why she was willing to do what she’d done earlier. Elijah just reminded her of that.
Back at the condo, the guys dispersed and she meandered into the kitchen. Then she saw Elijah’s medications on the counter.
“Quinn?” she called softly, knowing he was the closest. He was hanging in the living room with the animals.
“Yes?”
“Can you take Elijah his medication? And do you know if he took it this morning?”
Quinn was suddenly next to her. She didn’t get spooked. The feral Magi was feeling protective over their cowboy and his injuries. They all were.
“I don’t know, but I’ll ask.”
“I mean, they’re just muscle relaxers, so he might not have wanted to get doped up before the meeting, but he might like them while we’re relaxing around the condo for the rest of the day.”
“He says they make him feel…fuzzy. I’ve never taken anything like them, so I don’t understand. He hates taking them though, even if they help him stretch and rebuild the muscles in his back.”
“They cloud his thoughts and make him tired. Just see if he would like one or two now?” She handed him the bottle and he nodded, even getting a glass of water. To her, that meant Elijah was going to take the medications, even if Quinn had to force them down his throat.
She pulled a premade salad from the fridge and had just sat down on the couch to eat it when Quinn came back in.
“He’s taken them and is lying down for a short nap. What are you planning for the rest of the day?”
“I’m going to eat this salad and then look over some things. Might as well get to work, ya know?”
“Of course.” He sat next to her, casually putting an arm over her shoulder. He kissed the side of her head, something normal and tender. He was becoming more normal every day.
“You haven’t talked about any of it,” she finally said, her eyes on the television. She wanted this to be casual.
“I know.”
“Would you like to?” she asked gently.
“I’ll miss him. He fought hard. He is the hero they all keep calling him. It hurts, but…that’s life. I’m not the type to fall to my knees over death. It hurts, but I can keep surviving. I said goodbye yesterday. I’ve never been to a funeral before. It was strange, but it felt…final. I see why we humans do it.”
She considered that and nodded slowly. He had a point. He was pragmatic about these circle of life things.
“As for the other thing…” He trailed off for a second before picking back up. “As for Axel, I’ll be the male I’ve always been. We’ve defeated him before. We will do it again. Together, as a pack, we’re stronger and smarter than he will ever hope to be.”
“You’re right,” she agreed, kissing him slowly. “Thank you for that.” She finished off her salad and stood up. “I’m going to get to work. Oh, no one told me where this new house is.”
“North of here. Upstate New York. None of us have seen it yet. I think we’re going to make a trip out there tomorrow. You should come.”
“I will, promise.” She had nothing else to do that required her to be away from the team.
She threw out the salad container then went into the back of the c
ondo. She didn’t look for any of the guys, instead ducking into James’ office where she knew Vincent moved all his work about Axel to.
She sat down behind the desk and just looked at it all for a long time. Pictures of him, his Ghosts, his old properties. All of this was defunct now. They didn’t even have an up to date picture of him. She knew, based on Missy’s performance in the prison, that he would be scarred now.
“He’s probably furious about it,” she murmured. “His precious, perfect face.” She ran a thumb over the scar on her bottom lip, where it had been busted open one too many times. Well, really a thousand times too many.
As she kept looking at the pictures, the invisible itch of the scar between her breasts came back, for the first time in a very long time. She rubbed it absentmindedly, the old habit returning in a second. It felt like the old bullet holes were burning. It felt like her missing finger became more apparent by the second, as she touched the picture of Axel.
Every second dragged on as it all rushed back.
She had gotten so far away from it, so far removed from the trauma. It had always haunted her, but this…this was like before he’d been originally captured. Just seeing him in an old picture, just hearing his name, made her itch and become uncomfortable.
She pulled away from the picture like it was on fire and stood up.
“No,” she growled to herself. “I’m stronger than this. He can’t haunt me anymore.”
She took several deep breaths, collecting herself. She ignored the itch of her scar. She looked down at it, pulling her shirt down enough to see it. Thanks to Tez in the rainforest, it was faded, like the scars on Quinn’s back. It was like decades had passed.
And she used that to anchor the distance she had from Axel, from the dark history between them. It was a long time ago. She had more power now than ever. She had changed since he’d given her the scar.
When she sat back down, she began to review everything. Every criminal that was captured thanks to Axel. Every minion. Every operation that was shut down. She wondered what Vincent had been looking for in the information. She wondered if it was the same thing she was finding.
She knew these names and faces. Meetings and parties. Rivalries and bad business. These were people that Axel had to deal with but didn’t like to. He often said they were who he would replace with his own men if he had the chance. He’d hated that they thought they were his equals, or even close to his organization. He needed one to help him with his human trafficking operation. Another to help with his dealings in Colombia for drugs. Another for the sex trade he had going in some Pacific Island countries.
And now they were all in prison themselves and Axel was wandering around.
“You son of a bitch,” she mumbled. He’d given himself everything he’d ever wanted and he’d used the good guys to do it. “These men had no idea the games they played with you. They had no idea that you could use your own arrest against them like this, to finally give you everything you ever dreamed of.”
She knew the power vacuum he was stepping into now. The seedy criminal world of the Magi, the wild west of their world, only had one real bad guy in power now.
And she had to kill him.
“First, I have to find him,” she reminded herself, looking back at his picture.
As the day continued, she went over old properties. She knew several, but she could also tell none of them were his treasured sanctuaries. None of them were places she had once lived. She wrote those down as well, turning on James’ computer to dive into realty and discover what might have sold or just changed hands.
She drew on everything she used to. She dove into the Dark Web and began to dig. She was once a master at this hunt. Her years as a solo thief had honed these skills. She loved the ground work. She found that he didn’t legally own any of the homes she once occupied. She had never thought he did. He didn’t put his real name on anything. He hid them through fake shell companies and others who would take the fall long before he would if the information was dug up by the wrong people.
Sawyer knew he probably never expected to be captured while trying to kill her.
It felt like hours later when she came up for air, having learned a lot - but none of it immediately helpful. She could ask the IMPO to raid all of these places, but she didn’t think it would help anyone, or hurt Axel.
Her eyes fell to the chess board she knew Vincent had set up.
Chess. Pieces moving on the field. Right now, on Vincent’s board, the white side was winning. Appropriate. Axel was winning. He’d had months to secretly move the pieces around while the two people who knew him best had no idea. She and Vincent hadn’t been paying attention. They had gotten ahead, put him in check, and then they walked away, thinking the WMC would put him in checkmate.
“Idiots,” she mumbled, standing up to look closer at the board, just to think.
There was no reason to raid all the locations she knew because Axel would already know those were her ins. He would have walked away from those places and found new secret hideaways first, actually. He would know that she wouldn’t rest.
“I wonder,” she murmured, touching the black queen. “Are you going to come after me, Axel? Or will you make me work for this? Have you let go of the obsession with killing me?” She pushed the black queen up to the white king. “Because I haven’t let this go. I tried and you dragged me back in when I just wanted to hide out and forget all of this. So when I take you back to check and secure a checkmate, I hope you know it’s your fault.”
She didn’t know why she needed to say the words. He couldn’t hear her. She constantly checked the condo for bugs. She didn’t take chances with him being out. Their location wasn’t secure. The only things she had going for her was that they were in New York, security was still heightened, and Axel wasn’t that bold.
“Well, he is, but he’s not an idiot. If he comes at me head on, he loses. I have too much backing behind me now for that sort of war. He could just treat me like Vincent now. Always a step or ten ahead, always gaining power.” She felt a wave of frustration. “I’m going to catch you. You brought me back in and now you get to suffer the consequences of it. Last time, I just wanted to hide out and run the moment I got the chance. Make a new name and disappear.” She wrapped her fingers around the black queen. “Not this time.”
She stood there, thinking about it for a long time. She didn’t have what she needed in this office, so instead she considered the future of the board. Pawns who were possibly in play and who he would rely on as a knight or bishop. And what could Felix have possibly done? How was Missy alive?
Questions that needed answers. She needed to treat every fragment of information as important. If she didn’t, one could slip by her and disappear, when it would be important later.
“Sawyer?” a rough, tired voice called softly outside the door. She looked for the time and caught the clock on the wall. When had it become nearly midnight?
“Yeah, Elijah?” she called back. “You can come in.”
He walked in slowly, Quinn following him. They ignored the state of the room around them. She hadn’t even noticed the mess herself while she’d been alone. It looked like a tornado had gone through it.
“Come to bed,” Quinn ordered softly. “Everyone else ate dinner. We convinced Vincent to just read a book and relax for the evening since you were in here.”
“I’m…” She wasn’t ready to leave this space yet. She was so patient with Vincent, normally, since she understood. Once someone waded into the world of playing games with Axel, it was hard to pull away. It consumed your thoughts as you tried to figure out every move he could make and what moves you could make that would surprise him.
It was so hard to pull away.
“I’m not going back to sleep until you come to bed too. I’m grateful for you diving into this while we deal with the mundane crap, but you need to sleep too. You can’t become…well, you can’t be like Vin.”
She met the hazel eyes of
the patient, loving cowboy.
“And if I don’t want to go to sleep?” she asked softly.
“I didn’t say you need to sleep. I said you need to come to bed,” he fired back, a smile beginning to form. “Whether bed puts you to sleep or not is up to you.”
“Pervert,” she teased, a small smirk taking over.
“Yes, well, you both need to lie down and rest,” Quinn cut in. He reached out to her. “We’re staying in the master bedroom right now. Come on.”
She let him pull her out of the office. She didn’t want to leave, but she knew she had to, and his physicality, his realness, making sure she moved, helped her take those steps. Elijah closed the office door behind them when they were in the hallway.
Together, they slid into the giant back bedroom and she pulled off her shirt, enjoying the sight of the big, comfortable bed.
Then she realized the situation she was in.
“Are we all sleeping in here?” she asked, looking at them as they stripped down.
“Of course we are,” Elijah answered nonchalantly. “I mean, you’ve cuddled with Quinn and Zander before. No different.”
He had a point. She wasn’t sure why she brought it up. Shrugging, she pushed down her jeans and slid in bed wearing only her underwear. She’d forgotten a bra all day, not really caring about it. She just hadn’t cared when she woke up that day. Missy and Naseem didn’t care enough to point it out. The guys were distracted. She’d gotten away with it.
She pulled a pillow to her face and nuzzled into it, taking a deep breath and trying to relax. They got into bed on either side of her, but didn’t touch her. They wouldn’t unless she asked, or made a move to show them it was okay. She figured neither of them were in that mood either.
Elijah began to snore quickly, and Quinn followed him shortly after.
She just laid awake, considering her future, considering the pieces of the board. Her mind wouldn’t rest.
She couldn’t handle it anymore and tried to get out of bed, kicking blankets away from her. She didn’t use her magic, and she quickly realized she should have as Quinn’s arm wrapped around her waist.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 137