“We’ll give him the choice. Sawyer, you just said it. If this was done right, he would have been taken in front of the WMC. He would have been given a sword, while another waited on the side. He would either fall on his sword or the impartial Magi would behead him. The executioner would just finish the task, but it would give the Magi a chance to do it himself. We’ll give Axel his.” Elijah took a deep breath. “There’s no way to avoid killing him tonight. We’ll either succeed or we’ll die trying, but we can make sure it’s done in a way that doesn’t…make us feel less than ourselves at the end. We can do this together.”
“Who would be the one beheading him?” she asked softly.
“Me.” Elijah said it with a confidence that rocked her a little. “I have the strongest swing. It doesn’t have to be gruesome. It’ll be quick and it’ll be over.”
“I don’t want any of you-”
“Let us help carry the weight,” Zander cut in. “Please, just this once.”
She swallowed, leaning back on the wall. “You have,” she whispered.
“So now we have a plan. The Rome office will capture and detain everyone they can. Our objective is to corner and secure Axel, then go through with an execution. The right way. The honorable way. Let’s show everyone that this never had to be a knife in the dark.” Elijah looked between them. “And it doesn’t need to make you hate yourselves in the end.”
“Why?” Vincent demanded. “Why does he deserve to have this choice anyway?” She heard a dangerous anger in those words.
“He deserves it because we’re good men who will offer it to him. Because we’re better than him and the WMC.” Jasper’s words rang clear. “And we’ll always be better than them.”
She covered her face. In this place, they were deciding how to avenge Henry and so many others. And they were going to give him the option to fall on his own sword.
Vincent leaned on the wall next to her.
“I’m leaving the IMPO,” she finally said. “When this is over, I’m not going to work for people who ask me to kill for them.”
“What will you do?” he asked. “What will I do?” She knew her decision was leaving him alone with people none of them could tolerate anymore.
“I don’t know. There was a time when I helped people. In New York, those kids in that gym. Maybe I could find a way to do it legally.” Something about that rang so good and true to her in that place. Help people before they found themselves in her place, or Henry’s. Help people find their loved ones, like Zander and Jasper had searched for her for years.
Just helping people.
That sounded good. She had liked that part of the IMPO. Texas and those kids. She had helped them. She could keep doing that, but not as long as the WMC had their way. If she worked for them, she would never help anyone, just kill off the enemies of her government.
“Can I help?”
She looked up at him and nodded. “Yeah. I think that would be good for us.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “Because you’re right. You’re all right. The WMC is just another group that lives like Axel, but they lie to themselves and everyone else about it. He at least admits he does everything for personal power. And they’re not good for us. Not even for me.”
“Why did you want to stay after all of this to begin with?” Zander asked, obviously confused by the internal battle going on in their leader.
“I like the game,” he murmured. “I genuinely like the game. I like finding a puzzle of a case and trying to work it out. The IMPO turned into my dream job, and even though it hurt all of you, I thought it would continue to work for me. That I could survive it like I survived growing up in the Castello family.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” she said, a small smile breaking out. “We can start some…private investigation firm. How does that sound? All the leg work, all the investigatory work. We could be great, you and I.”
“We could be,” he agreed softly. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk about it.”
“Tomorrow. I’ll hold you to that.” She elbowed him.
Here, where Henry died, they talked about their future, and for a moment, with a fight looming on them, she felt like it was right.
“Let’s get moving,” Elijah said, breaking them out of it. “It’s time.”
She nodded. Touching the wall one more time, she silently told Henry goodbye and began to walk away. She stopped, realizing one more thing needed to happen.
“Wait,” she ordered them as they also began to leave. She reached into her bag and found the one thing she never wanted to see again. Her mask.
What had those boys said? One day she might need it? She wondered if they were right or wrong. What if their skill wasn’t accurate?
Now, standing in this place, she had one more goodbye to say.
“What are you doing?” Quinn asked. They were all watching her.
She gripped both sides of it.
“Saying goodbye,” she explained. Then, with all the strength she could muster, she snapped the mask in half, unleashing a wave of magic. Broken enchantments, releasing whatever magic that had been stored in the object to make it the perfect mask to hide one’s identity.
She handed one half of the mask to Quinn. “Destroy that.”
He took it and nodded. “Once we get outside,” he promised.
She slid the other half in her bag.
Whether she needed it or not, she would no longer be Shadow. She was leaving that persona to rest just like Henry. Tonight, Axel only had one woman to fear. Her.
Finally, she began to walk back out of the home where her entire heart had been shattered. Thanks to the men around her, thanks to Charlie, and Liam, and those kids in New York, those pieces had been put back together.
So while she walked, she didn’t feel haunted.
She felt hopeful.
30
Quinn
Quinn sent his boys out to get the lay of the land as they walked. They were in for a trek, the team. The twenty minute drive on country roads? They had talked it out, realizing it would be an hour and a half walk. He was fine with it, understanding the team wanted to come in without anyone knowing, but he was also concerned about them being tired on arrival. Or something finding them before they wanted to be found.
So he sent the wolves out, to stop that from happening to them.
“This is going to take forever,” Zander complained, obviously trying to lighten the mood by not taking the mission seriously.
“Yeah,” Sawyer agreed, not really taking the bait.
Quinn half-smiled. He was happy that she’d decided to leave the IMPO with the team, and convinced Vincent in the process. She seemed clearer than she had in a long time. Focused, but not a victim of tunnel-vision, rage, or sadness. There was a confidence in her stride that he felt like had been missing for too long, buried under the weight she always carried.
Something in that house had shifted something in her. Something tangible. It changed the entire mood of the team. They all felt focused and ready. Zander’s joking complaints only proved that.
“We’ll be fine,” Elijah told both of them. “Forty-five minutes out, we drop a call to the Rome office, then keep moving. They’ll end up there at the same time as us. We just need to keep moving.”
“Elijah’s right,” Vincent confirmed. “We can handle this. We dealt with a worse walk before.”
“Yeah, the Amazon was way worse than this. Let’s never do that again.” Elijah grinned back at the team. He and Vincent were in the front. Jasper and Sawyer were in the middle, and Quinn was in the back with Zander. They had wanted to stay close, even if it meant they were a group that could be hit at once. They would at least have each other.
“Agreed.” Quinn never wanted to go back to the Amazon either, unless he was visiting a very specific waterfall with a very specific person. At the thought, he reached out and grabbed Sawyer’s hand, moving up to walk beside her. Jasper looked across her at him, curious but not possessive. “Would you like to go b
ack?” he asked her softly. “To the Amazon?”
“To see a specific waterfall, sure.” She smiled in the night. He grinned, kissing her cheek. “I guess you were thinking the same thing?”
“I was,” he answered. “Maybe one day. We’ll talk about it tomorrow?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” she promised, squeezing his hand. He didn’t let go when the conversation dropped. He kept holding her hand as they continued closer to their final goal.
He liked the promise of tomorrow. They just had to finish tonight. That was it. It seemed so simple. Tomorrow, he could live a life that suited him. He could work to be a normal Magi without the added pressure of the IMPO, who expected him to use his strength to hurt people. He hadn’t liked what he’d done, and he was glad Elijah called him on it. It reminded him of the good he had. He wasn’t a monster. He didn’t have to be a monster, not for anyone. His pack only wanted him to be himself. They didn’t want his power without him. They wanted him. He could just be Quinn, and that made him deeply happy.
They just needed to all make it through the night.
Growing up, he’d only had his wolves to truly rely on. That was it. Two brothers that followed him everywhere and trusted him implicitly. But now, he had a real pack, one that only wanted his happiness.
“Do you think he knows we’re going to hit tonight?” Jasper asked softly.
“No. I think he knows we’re coming eventually. Tonight might seem too fast.” Vincent sounded unsure of that.
“He could have accounted for Balian giving him up and does know,” Sawyer offered, shrugging next to him.
Quinn nodded. That sounded right.
“He wouldn’t expect us to jump into a raid the night after other raids,” Elijah tried to reason. “But even if he does expect it, he probably doesn’t expect we’re bringing in the Rome IMPO office for this. Thompson is even getting people on standby who will portal into that office and flood it right before we call. We’re coming in with triple the numbers that he could ever expect.”
“We’re going to outnumber him by a long shot. He’s probably got his ten best men and a few guards there. He doesn’t like big groups. It would have given him away too easily. Plus, there were only a few men on satellite.” Sawyer shrugged again. “There’s no reason to think he’s got an army hiding in the Villa with the vineyard and olives.”
“To think he ran home,” Zander scoffed. “Baby.”
“He loves home, and if there’s going to be a place he meets us, it’ll be ground he knows better than us. It’ll be home. We’re knowingly walking into this trap. We should be prepared for anything.” Vincent was no-nonsense and straight to the point. “He’s a smart man, but I think Elijah is right. He might not have prepared for the sheer numbers we’re going to bring down on his head.”
“He might think we don’t trust the rest of the IMPO to handle this with us. Or he’s got a contingency plan.” Sawyer was also straight to the point. “We need to stay focused.”
“We have at least another thirty minutes before really getting worried,” Zander reminded her. “We’re in for a long walk before we even call in the reinforcements.”
“Then let’s drop it and keep walking,” she fired back.
So the team did. They had gone over this plan a dozen times while preparing to leave. Quinn made a promise to Elijah he would do what he needed to do for survival’s sake and nothing more. He would capture and detain, but not mindlessly slaughter their enemies.
Because they were better men than their enemies.
Quinn had never thought of himself as a good man, only a strong male. He’d always been out of place, out of time. But Elijah wanted him to be a good man and he would be that. It seemed like an amazing thing to be. It seemed like it was the thing they had really been trying to teach him. How to go from male to man and yet stay good.
The slow walk continued. They were in no rush. He checked in with Shade, entering his wolf’s eyes. His hand holding Sawyer’s kept him grounded and moving forward as he ran with his wolf, showing him the world through new eyes. They were already at the halfway point, waiting and patrolling. There was nothing yet for them to be concerned about. Quinn gave each of his wolves a mental pat on their heads, promising a bone when they got home. When he pulled out of Shade’s mind, he turned to Sawyer.
“Check with Sombra,” he ordered, knowing she hadn’t yet. The jaguar had bounded off, and there was a trust and independence between Magi and feline. She wouldn’t have felt the need to check on her cat. “Vincent, check with Kaar.”
“Okay,” they answered at the same time.
Both of them had to stop for the process. He watched Sawyer’s eyes go unfocused for a long time. Vincent was back in his own mind before her.
“Kaar is flying over the wolves. He seems to think they haven’t noticed him.” Vincent’s tone was filled with humor.
“They haven’t.” Quinn shook his head, pushing that to his boys. The raven, above them. “They will soon. Do you want to send him closer to Axel?”
“No. Axel will take him out of the sky. He never liked Kaar. He’s one of the reasons Kaar didn’t have a name until you named him.” Vincent shrugged. “Not that my bird ever really cared, but I had to keep him away from Axel or he could have gotten hurt. It was a sore spot. Axel thinks animal bonds are useless and weaknesses.”
Sawyer bared her teeth, but Quinn knew she was still with her jaguar. It took another two minutes for her to come back as well.
“Of course he finds them useless and weaknesses. That man doesn’t know a good thing even if it cut him open and left him to bleed out.” She was snappy now. “Sombra is fine. She’s ahead of the wolves. I’ve told her to pull back. I don’t want to risk her being seen too soon.”
“Good. I figured since I checked on the wolves, getting a read on those two would be useful.”
“No, thank you. She’s been sending me…weirdness through the bond. Well, after this, she and I will have tons of time to work it all out.” Sawyer tried for a smile, but ended up only looking annoyed. “She’s such a diva, guys.”
“Oh, we know,” Elijah muttered. Quinn began to chuckle.
“Kaar’s in love with her,” Vincent mentioned mildly.
“She wants to eat him.” She snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Sounds like their Magi,” Zander commented, coughing when he was finished, in a fake attempt to hide it.
“All right,” Vincent snapped, now annoyed. “Let’s keep moving.”
They were all snickering as they walked further on. Vincent kept mumbling about the importance of the mission. Sawyer leaned over to him and whispered something about how they needed to take their last chances to smile for the night and Vincent understood. He was just blustering.
Quinn knew. He hadn’t needed the explanation.
Finally, Vincent raised a hand as animals poured out of the night and to the group. Kaar landed on Vincent’s shoulder, nuzzling his Magi’s head. Quinn’s own wolves trotted to him and lay at his feet, waiting for their next order. Sombra didn’t come closer, prowling around the team, reminding him so much of Sawyer and how she tended to stalk around.
“We’re here. Let’s make this call. Elijah?” Vincent looked pointedly at his second.
“Got it.” Elijah pulled out a cell phone set up with a secure line just for this mission. First, a call to Thompson, just to verify that men were on their way to Rome through a portal. Then a call to the Rome office with a single address and a name. Instructions. “Thompson, we’re good?”
Quinn couldn’t hear the response, but the cowboy’s smile gave them all the answer they needed. The phone was hung up quickly.
“We’re clear on that front. Vincent, you might want to make this second call.”
“I will, thank you.” Vincent took the phone and dialed. “Did you all know that when I joined the IMPO, I first went to the Rome office and they turned me away? It’s still run by the same guy. He’s never liked me. This feels good.”
<
br /> “Good.” Sawyer was smiling as well. “This is it.”
“This is it,” Vincent agreed softly. Then his face changed, concentrating. “Assistant Director Romano, this is Special Agent Vincent Castello. My team and I are in a quiet area outside of Rome. Now listen very carefully. Do exactly as I say, and tonight we’re going to capture Axel Castello and his closest inner circle. Before the end of the night, Axel Castello will be executed. Do you want to be a part of that? If your answer is no, hand this to your second in command and I promise you, he’ll say okay.”
Zander began to clap slowly. Elijah joined him. Soon the entire team was clapping, as softly as they could as Vincent nailed the man to a wall and got them the agents they needed to finish this.
“Now, my team will meet you there. See you on the other side, Assistant Director.” Vincent hung up. “He’s in. Full office. Thompson began flooding him during the phone call and even showed up, taking command. We’re going in with a dozen more men than planned. Thompson was able to put two other teams on the task.”
“Let’s keep moving then!” Elijah clapped Vincent on the back and started walking. Quinn sent his wolves back out, ordering them to maintain a tight circle around the team, looking for enemies. Now was the time to focus. Sombra disappeared into the night as Kaar launched into the air.
Quinn was smiling as they moved forward. They could do this. They had the entire strength of the IMPO behind them. They were a team with resources and trust, and they were better people than Axel and his men.
They had each other.
And tomorrow, they would have new lives.
Thirty minutes later, they were within viewing distance of the Villa. A fifteen minute walk between them and their target. A shorter run, if they wanted to go in fast. They could hear the vehicles on the road now. An entire caravan of IMPO agents about to flood the property.
“Move out,” Vincent ordered.
31
Zander
“Remember the game plan!” Elijah called out as they began to jog towards the compound. “We’re going to work through who we need to, focused only on our objective! Let the small fry deal with the small fry!”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 162