“Any other mentions of Italy?” Jasper began shuffling through papers. Another email mentioning Rome. There was even a mention of a small olive grove, though it didn’t seem small based on the acreage mentioned.
“I can’t believe him.” Vincent pushed away from the table, running a hand through his hair.
“Do you think?” Jasper couldn’t believe it. “I mean…”
“He loves home,” Vincent said softly. “And he could be hiding anywhere in it, since we don’t have an address. But yeah, if he thought he could get away with it, he would go back. Hell, he would never leave. Sometimes I wonder if he’s somehow more Italian than me.”
“You are pretty Italian.” Jasper snorted, shaking his head. “So what? We focus on Italy?”
“Yeah. We’re going to focus on Italy. God damn him. I should have known.”
“Think Sawyer will have any insight?” Jasper was still mentally fumbling. Axel wouldn’t be that arrogant, right? Sure, they had never caught him working there, never caught him living there. They only knew of the few locations in Italy they did because of Sawyer.
“I think she will. We’ll keep going here and hope to uncover something. Anything to do with Italy, we mark and keep.” Vincent sat back down. “She’s probably still with Balian.”
“Most likely,” Jasper agreed, going back to his papers.
Italy.
Sawyer burst into the room five minutes later, pale. Jasper jumped up. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.
27
Sawyer
Sawyer walked towards the interrogation room with her two shadows on her heels. Elijah and Zander weren’t going to give her even a second alone with Balian, and she was thankful for it. She didn’t need it, but she was thankful. After yesterday, she knew they were going to watch her carefully - and she couldn’t blame them.
She had no intention of hurting the Ghost. Just chat. She didn’t know Balian well, but she did know of him well enough to know how to play him.
“Sawyer, before you go in, can we talk about this?” Zander’s question made her stop.
“It’ll be okay. Nothing is going to happen,” she promised, smiling back at him as she reached out to the door. “This isn’t yesterday. Balian will break. He stuck around to get into trouble for a reason. I think I know what it is.”
“Okay,” Elijah agreed, shrugging. “You’ll play the lead. We’ll just support.”
“Thanks.” She schooled her face and walked into the interrogation room first. Balian was sitting like she had seen so many others sit now. A steel table, steel chairs designed to be uncomfortable for those who had to stay in them for a long period of time, and a bare room meant to feel lonely and dark. Oppressive. Classic interrogation room.
“I didn’t know I was important enough to get a visit from you, Shadow!” Balian threw up his hands in excitement, grinning. “You didn’t show up last night. I thought you would.”
“I could have been at any of the raids last night.” She raised an eyebrow, sitting down across from him. Zander stayed out of the room, but Elijah leaned on the wall behind Balian. It was a good move. “Sounds like you were expecting me.”
“I was! Axel…” Balian snorted, a look of distaste appearing on his face. His posture shifted to something more aggressive. He leaned forward to get closer to her. “I never knew he was a coward, but he seems to have run away. Little school boy decided to go home. He asked me and I said no. I was going to fight for what is mine.”
“You know if he ever learns you called him a coward, he’ll have you killed, right?” This was why she decided to talk to Balian. He was macho, arrogant, and not the brightest bulb in the box. He was loyal to Axel, sort of. He judged people harshly and once someone didn’t live up to his standards, he saw no reason to follow them. Somehow, he’d survived quite a long time in Axel’s employment, maybe because of his attitude. He was a good judge of strength and loyalty.
“Coward,” the Ghost spit out. “I bet he won’t do it himself.”
“Not wrong there,” she agreed. “So, you got yourself captured because you didn’t want to follow orders.”
“No. I got captured because I decided to stand up and fight for what was mine against a tyrannical government and their dogs. I disobeyed Axel as a sign I was leaving his organization because he’s a coward. I will not pay a coward portions of my money. I will not work for one.” Balian grinned. “Not when he’s just running from a little girl.”
“Be careful who you call little,” she warned. Only one man was allowed to and he was standing behind the criminal. “He’s running scared because I scare him, and for good reason. But it’s interesting that you wouldn’t try to protect your future by going with him. He commands loyalty to the fullest extent.”
“Well, I’ll admit to some ulterior motives.” The Turkish man shrugged. “If I could kill you, I would be a hero. He would treat me with more respect.”
She tried not to laugh at that, or give away how ridiculous the concept of it was. Balian didn’t have the training, abilities, or raw power to defeat her. There was no competition.
“And yet here you are, and Axel has run off…home. You are much braver than him, I’ll give you that.” She smiled kindly. “Balian, do you want to make a deal?”
“No. I know what happened to Missy.” The Magi shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to work for him. Balian…you’re already a dead man.”
The room shifted as Balian slowly realized what he’d done to himself. Disobeying a direct order was already a death sentence. By failing to win his little battle against the IMPO, Axel would see him as a failure and his actions would be seen as betrayal.
Sawyer had some sympathy. Balian wasn’t smart. He was overconfident and ridiculous. He was more action and less thought in a world of people who had the tendency to think too much. Working for Axel, he was considered just muscle, constantly hiring thugs and sending them where they needed to be.
“But it’s okay. I don’t need you to make a deal with me.” She stood slowly, nodding to Elijah. The cowboy moved around to her side of the table. “You gave me one thing I didn’t know, but should have.”
“And what was that?” Balian’s eyes went wide in some mix of shock and fear.
“You told me he went home,” she murmured sweetly. It had been an offhand comment and she knew it. ‘Little school boy decided to go home.’
Balian had been part of the Castello operation long before Axel took over and turned everything on its head. That had been a shocker to Sawyer and Vincent, but it was something she could use.
“Ah, yes!” Balian nodded. “I’ll tell you more if you protect me!”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’ll think about that.” She had no intention of making a deal without discussing it with the entire team. All of this had been a play to get Balian to slip, and if they needed him for more, he would be ready and willing to talk.
She turned on her heel and left the room, Elijah following her.
“Well played, little lady.” Elijah’s compliment made her feel good.
“Either of you could have done it. I could just do it faster,” she said, chuckling. “He’s not the sharpest tool in the box.”
“I’ll stay here and make sure no one goes after him. Can never be too careful.”
“Thanks, Zander. I’m going to get Vincent and Jasper. Maybe they’ve come up with something.” Or maybe even confirmed what she now had nagging in the back of her mind.
“Before you go, want to talk about what he said in there?” Elijah leaned on the wall, watching her carefully.
“Home. Axel only has one place he considers home.” She turned away from them before anything more could be said. The answer was obvious.
Italy.
Something about the idea of it made her heart race and her palms get sweaty as she walked down the hall towards the elevator. Once inside, she crossed her arms, trying to stop whatever strang
e adrenaline rush was making them shake.
Italy.
She hadn’t gone back in five years. After Henry died, she left and never went back.
When the elevator dinged for the floor she needed, she rushed off, ignoring the other passengers. She knew what she probably looked like. Anxious, and making the space around her just a little too cold for comfort. It only took her another hundred steps to find the room she wanted and barge in.
“Italy,” she said at the exact same time they did. The shock of that hit her first, then a steady realization they were right. That monster had gone home.
“The papers point to some place in Italy. We know. How did you get it from Balian?”
“He said…he said Axel ran home. Only one place fits that. Axel doesn’t consider any place a home except Italy.” She was breathing harder than she should have been. “Do you have any addresses? We could get this done right now, guys. If we know where he is…We could go tonight.”
“It all seems a bit obvious…” Vincent sighed. “I mean, he should know we’d find him there, arrogant or not.”
Sawyer felt like pieces fell into place. “This is the trap,” she whispered. “This is his trap.”
“Excuse me?” Vincent frowned.
“I’ve been considering an idea that he’ll try to trap us eventually. Pull us into a situation we can’t win. This is it.”
“We think we’ve treed the game so we rush in.” Jasper nodded. “I like that. Vin?”
“Fuck,” Vincent snapped. “Balian, he involved?”
“No, he’s just stupid. Axel probably left us all the clues we needed to find him on purpose, and Balian is just going to expedite the process because he’s a moron.” She grinned. “If we go in knowing it’s a trap, there’s a chance we don’t get caught in it.”
“Don’t get arrogant. He’s setting us up, obviously, and he’s probably got more tricks up his sleeves.” Vincent pointed a finger at her, pinning her with the point he made. “Remember, don’t rush.”
She held her hands up. “Not rushing. Just pointing out that we can prepare. We can be ready for anything he throws at us. We can win here.”
“We’re both in check, then.” Vincent hummed to himself. Sawyer waited as patiently as she could, trying not to pace and get antsy. “I wonder why he’s doing it now…”
“Does it matter?” Jasper asked.
“Yes. My brother does nothing without thinking it through. He always has multiple levels of reasoning.”
Sawyer considered that, closing the door behind her finally. She should have done that earlier, but caught in the moment, she might have exposed a lot of their plans. It would be something they just had to live with now.
“Vincent, do you think it might be a long-term thing?” She walked closer and sat down at the table. “Do you think maybe he’s tired of playing the game?”
“He loves the game…but I think you’re right. You have a point, at least. We’ll never stop. This is the last case we’ll ever do and the only one. We’re not quitting until it’s over. We wrecked major areas of his business in the span of a week, pushing him to deal with problems himself and try to distract us by attacking back. It was never something he had to do before.” Vincent sat next to her. “Sounds like him. He’s never been on the losing team, and yet…”
“He’s losing,” she murmured. “We’ve cornered him, so he’s going to use it to his advantage, or try.”
“He wants to end this because when we’re gone, everyone else has to start from square one.” Jasper motioned to all the papers on the table. “The next guys will get all of this and it’ll be defunct. Worthless. We hit fast enough and hard enough because of a lucky break that now no one else has. Missy is dead. If another team takes over, they’re ten steps behind.”
“While we’re only two. He doesn’t like how close we are.”
“This is his favorite move,” she reminded Vincent. “Pretend to be vulnerable, leave an opening, then attack the force you send into the gap. This is his move.”
“He’s never been driven to do it off the chess board.” Vincent considered her. “Can you get an address from Balian?”
“I think I can. He stuck around since he thought Axel running home was cowardly, so he disobeyed the orders. By doing that, he’s already a dead man. He might have also been trying to kill me and become a hero? That I’m not one hundred percent sure of; it might just be something he can say to Axel if they ever see each other. An attempt to get back in good graces. Doesn’t matter. He was asking me about a deal when I left. I told him I would think on it.”
“Let’s do it. If he can give us the place, we can start the final act.” Vincent stood back up and held out a hand. She accepted and noticed he didn’t let her go. He held her hand as they walked out of the room, Jasper on her other side. People stared at the PDA, but no one said anything. Others in the elevator, as she boarded with her lovers, moved away from them, and hushed work conversations quieted.
Feeling bold, she held Vincent’s hand tighter and leaned into Jasper, who slid an arm around her waist.
The elevator was empty by the time they reached the floor with the interrogation room. Zander and Elijah were still waiting patiently at the door.
“Well?” Elijah noticed them first.
“Let’s find out where my brother is hiding.” Vincent didn’t stop walking. He went straight into the interrogation room, letting the entire team follow him. They flooded the room and Sawyer watched Balian sit up straighter, trying for some dignity, she guessed. “I want an address or you get nothing.”
“Only an address?” Balian sounded surprised. “You don’t care who will probably be there? What might be waiting for you?”
“We know it’s a trap. I know my brother. It has to be a trap, if he made it this easy after staying off the grid as well as he has. So I can imagine there’s going to be trouble there. Just give me the address so we can go and do this.”
“I need a pen and paper. What do I get?”
“Parole,” she said before anyone else could offer something. “Serve some time and then parole out. You might get back into crime, sure, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Ah, that works. How much time would I serve?”
“Ten years,” Vincent answered this time. “Agreeable?”
“Yes, I agree.”
Jasper laid out a pen and a piece of paper for Balian. The Ghost wrote quickly and Jasper snatched it back the moment he was done then rushed out of the room.
“He’s going to check on the validity. Make sure the address is real and get satellite imaging started on it,” Vincent said in her head. Based on the small nod from Elijah behind their prisoner, he had said it to everyone.
They waited in dead silence. Sawyer checked her phone for the time when she began to start feeling the pain. Her feet were beginning to hurt. An hour had already passed.
Then another hour.
“What are we waiting on?” Balian demanded. “My ass hurts.”
“For you to be telling the truth,” Zander retorted.
It was ten minutes after that when Jasper walked back in.
“We’re good. I told Thompson of the deal with Balian as well and he’s working on making sure the paperwork is in order.”
The team nearly ran out of the room, everyone trying to talk at once until Vincent snapped.
“Quiet!” he demanded. Sawyer stopped trying to say whatever she’d been intending to him. “First - Elijah, tell Quinn. We’ll get a portal to the house to pick him up, then portal into Italy. Second - Jasper, I want to see exactly where that address is. Third, we need to prepare all day. We’re in for a long night.” He said that last bit to her, eyeing her.
She nodded. They were in for a long night. The final night. Beat Axel at his own game and…
She still didn’t know what came next, but if everything went well, tomorrow she would know.
“Sawyer, where did you live with him? It was near Rome, wasn’t it?” Vi
ncent looked up at her after he reviewed the documents and photos Jasper has given him.
“Yeah, it was,” she answered.
“His new place? It’s only twenty minutes away from that property.” Vincent took a deep breath. “It’s only an hour from the old Castello summer home.”
“He went…home,” she repeated. “Literally.”
“It seems he did.” Vincent handed the papers to her. “Jasper…”
“I did run the satellite over to see surrounding landmarks and properties. I ran it against other known addresses we had that he once used. It was something I felt you both should know.”
Sawyer saw the simple picture the satellite took of the target and then went to the next picture. It was that damned mansion. Her hands began to shake. “Thank you.” She handed all of it back to Vincent, practically shoving it into his arms. “This might seem inappropriate, but-”
“We’ll make the side stop. If you want to see it one more time, we can make the side stop before hitting Axel.” Vincent was kind and gentle as he said it, encouraging. “We can go.”
“Good, because this is the last trip to Italy I’m ever taking.” She stepped around him and began to walk away. She didn’t move quickly, letting the team keep step. With them at her back, she felt ready to see the place where all her darkest nightmares came from.
28
Axel
“Sir, maybe this isn’t-”
“If you tell me this is a bad idea like the two who walked in here before you, I’m going to kill you and not particularly care,” Axel snapped. “The plan is set. They’re coming. It could take them a day or it could take them weeks, it doesn’t matter, but we’re not doing anything until I get them out of our way.”
He turned from his view over his vineyard, right next to his large olive operation, to glare at the Ghost. He didn’t even bother learning her name. He’d only promoted her in the last week, thanks to his brother and that stupid…He took a deep breath. Now wasn’t the time to get enraged over her.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 160