“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.
“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.
“What’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
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.
A Night of Redemption (The Redemption Saga Book 5) Page 5
