“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. She saw that he was pale. He was tired. He hadn’t yet slept at all.
“Why did you come here?” she asked.
“I wanted to see if she would…flip. Help us. I didn’t think she would be…” He waved a hand at her. “He did this.”
“I know he did. I tried to tell her that he wasn’t going to come, but she’s loyal-”
“She’s not loyal,” he said, cutting her off. “She’s madly in love with him.”
Sawyer just nodded. She knew that. Loyal, in love, it didn’t matter. Missy wasn’t going to flip for them.
“It could have been you,” he whispered, still looking at Missy.
“Yeah, it could have been,” she agreed softly. “Let’s get out of here, Vincent.”
“No, I want to stay,” he murmured. “I want to be here when she wakes up. They say she’s not healing as quickly as she could be. Something about how her body is already too full of magic. Like what happened with Elijah when he was healed. This is going to have to heal the normal way.”
“Okay, we’ll stay. Let me tell the guys. They can go to the condo for the night and we can stay here.” She wasn’t sure why he wanted to stay, but she would stay and let him. She could be here for him to keep seeing the aftermath of his brother.
It took a moment, but she ran back out and sent the rest of the team on their way. She and Vincent would meet them later. It was all safe. Everyone would be okay. When she was back inside, Vincent was sitting at the bedside again and the quiet nurse was gone.
“I came here to try and manipulate her onto our side,” he admitted. “I came here to try and play the same games he does. I couldn’t. Seeing her like that, Sawyer, all I could think about was you and what he’d done to you.”
“Missy and I are like Axel and you. Two sides of the same coin. Do you know what you and I have that they never will?” She pulled a chair beside his.
“A moral compass?” he asked.
She nearly laughed by the sarcastic way he’d said it. “No.” She leaned into him. “Though…yes. Actually. We do have that on them. I was thinking more that we have each other. Axel and Missy, and the rest of them? They might be a tight-knit inner circle, but they still hold each other at arm’s length. They never truly liked each other. They crumble under the pressure, alone and without anyone they’re supposed to trust to back them up.”
“We could pick them off one by one…” Vincent gasped.
Sawyer felt it hit at the same time. “We could…”
Vincent’s eyes were wide and she knew her expression mirrored it. “His inner circle would know everything.”
“I know.” She took a deep breath. “We have two here. A lot of them died that day in the hangar bay, but Felix is still out there. Whatever he means or does, I don’t know, but…”
“We need Missy’s help.” Like that, Vincent was deflated again. “I’ll stay here with her, but I don’t think I could ask her for…her help. I mean, look at her, Sawyer.”
Sawyer had been trying not to look too hard. She was of the same mind as Vincent, though. The doppelganger had paid enough, doing this to herself.
“What did she say when you got here?” she asked softly. “Do you need to talk about it?”
“She finally realized he’s not coming for her.”
“Well, damn,” she mumbled. “That could kill her in its own right. I never thought she would…be this way. I thought she would die to prove herself to him. I never…” She felt awful. She had never realized Missy loved this deeply. “I’ll stay here with you and we can wait for her to wake up.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I don’t…want her to be alone.”
“I understand.”
And so, she waited with him, reaching out to take his hand. She squeezed it gently and he responded in kind, letting her know he was still with her.
Dawn was breaking through a window when Sawyer saw Missy’s eyes begin to open. A soft groan left her mouth. For once, Sawyer didn’t dread having to deal with someone she used to work with. She genuinely hated that Missy was in this state. She had given so much to Axel, just like Sawyer had, and for what? For him to want her dead. The only difference was that Axel expected Missy to do it herself while he’d tried to kill Sawyer repeatedly.
“Good morning, Missy,” Vincent greeted her kindly. “How are you?”
“Upset,” she snapped, reaching to gently touch the broken bones of her face.
“Why?” he continued calmly.
Sawyer remained quiet. She didn’t know what she could possibly say to the doppelganger.
“I was really hoping…” Missy shook her head as rage came over her face. “I was hoping you were him for a moment. He’s never going to come.”
“I’m sorry. I really am, Missy. I know what you’re going through.”
She knew Vincent meant every word of that. Sawyer knew what she was going through too. She was glad, and yet she hated, that Missy was finally dealing with the harsh reality.
“I want him dead,” Missy growled. “You’re going after him. You’ll do it.” Those last lines were said to Sawyer.
“I will,” she agreed. “Now you understand why.”
“He…It was okay for him to treat other people this way. I never thought…” Her sentences became broken and fragile. Oh, Sawyer knew this so well. She knew how bad it hurt to realize nothing ever mattered. Nothing was ever good enough to truly make Axel care.
“I know.” Sawyer looked away, down at her hands, leaning over on her knees. She didn’t want to look at the doppelganger anymore.
“I thought I was important to him. Even when I made mistakes, I thought he would never…”
“Yeah.”
“Kill him, Shadow.” Missy’s voice went angry again, hard and vicious.
“Can’t. Need to find him first.” Sawyer had found her in.
Vincent coughed, realizing she was going to do this. She wasn’t going to allow Vincent to become his brother, to use people. But Sawyer was willing to cross those lines to make sure she could keep the people she loved safe and their souls clean. She was going to cross all of them if it meant she saved them in the end. She hadn’t thought this would be Missy’s attitude when she woke up, but she was going to use it.
“I…” Missy trailed off as she must have realized what Sawyer wanted.
Looking up, meeting the other woman’s eyes, Sawyer didn’t back down. Silence descended over them, this time heavy and agitated. It was nothing peaceful like it had been while Missy slept.
“What would you like to know?” Missy asked, raising her chin in the same way Sawyer always did when she was willing to die for what she wanted. Sawyer had more respect for her in that moment than years of being colleagues.
“I need to know who’s a Ghost right now. I need to know where they are. I need to know everything.”
“I can tell you that,” Missy agreed. “On one condition.”
“You want to live through this,” Vincent finished for her. “We’ll protect you. For this, we’ll make sure you live for centuries more.”
“Good. That man doesn’t get to toss me aside like I’m nothing. I’ve seen times he could barely comprehend. I taught him everything I know. I cultivated his greatness. He doesn’t get to do this to me.” Every word was bitter and biting. Every word held all of the pain Missy felt.
Sawyer could relate. Deep in her soul, she knew exactly what Missy was going through.
“And for all of this, I’m also going to ask you and the WMC to work together for the betterment of our longer-lived Magi, like yourself and Talyn. Would you be willing to work with Talyn and the research team? It would give you a good life, secure.”
“I would. More than Axel ever promised us.” Missy began to laugh. “Looking back, it’s so obvious that he played me.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer mumbled again. That she understood well, too. Every word out of the doppleganger’s mouth reminded Sawyer of a time when she had been th
e same way. All the pain, the betrayal, the hurt. But there was a shred of hope in her too. Missy had flipped.
“I can get the team. We can bring in our information and start collecting everything we need. If we move fast…”
“I don’t know where Axel is hiding right now. He jumps between the homes of the Ghosts, as we would each look over his different organizations. I was normally involved with his non-Magi arms dealings.” Missy smiled. “I can give you where all the Ghosts like to hang out, those traitorous assholes.”
“That’s enough. That’s more than enough.”
Sawyer didn’t have words. She got up and went out to make the call to the team.
“Sawyer?” Jasper answered, groggy.
“Missy’s flipped. Get here.”
“Seriously?” His voice was suddenly sharp as if she took a cattle prod to him.
“Yeah. We’re going to pick Axel’s organization apart, piece by fucking piece.” She was grinning as she ended that. “We’re going to get this son of a bitch.”
“I wouldn’t call him that,” Jasper chuckled. “That’s also Vincent’s mom.”
“He’s a son of a bitch too for disappearing last night.” She looked back into the hospital room. “I’ll forgive him for it, though.”
“All right. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“Tell. No. One.”
“Of course. We can’t have this leaking.” Jasper hung up on her then.
Her heart raced. Axel’s own detached, monstrous ways would finally be his downfall. She could feel it, and it felt good.
She walked back into the spacious medical wing, glad Missy was the only patient there and the single nurse was gone.
“Missy, before we continue, how are you alive?” she asked, sitting back down.
“You mean, how did I live through the day at the hangar bay in Atlanta? I didn’t. You killed me.” Missy snorted. “Felix. Necromancy. It’s rough. He had to get a group of healers to fix the body while he brought me back to life or I would have died again immediately. We have some on standby, Magi we have blackmail on. Every bit of magic I have right now is his while my body tries to expend it and replace it with my own. We were warned that if it ever had to be done, it could take up to a year for it to resolve. I’m not the first he’s had to bring back. If you want to finish Axel’s organization, you need to finish him.”
Sawyer nearly dropped her phone. Vincent was just speechless, his jaw even dropping open as he stared. Just gaping, they considered what Missy had just told them.
“No fucking way…” she mumbled finally, shaking her head. “I always thought he was just a pet. He never…He’s such a coward.”
“Of course he is!” Missy laughed. “He can’t bring himself back. We brought him that day just in case one of us went down dealing with you. We never expected to lose. We had never really lost. He told me the rest of what happened that day. I died. They showed up.” She nodded to Vincent, implying the team. “Everything went to hell. When Felix realized it was a losing game and Axel would be captured, he grabbed my body, setting in motion an emergency plan. Bring me back first. I can get in and out of anywhere. A simple kill, replace a guy. Easy. I never thought…”
“That Axel would then just leave you here.”
“I figured he would get out and come back for me when he stabilized. I didn’t think he expected me to go all the way through with his execution.” Missy looked away. “Bring me back just to let me die after all I’ve done for him.”
“Have you heard from him?” Vincent asked.
“Once. Orders passed. Follow the plan. I didn’t want to think he…”
“So you didn’t follow the plan or go through with it. You just waited and realized he’s really expecting you to end it.” Sawyer sat back down. “Yeah.”
“Kill him,” she snarled. “Show him what it means to betray me. To leave me to hang for him. I was loyal, and I loved him, and he…”
The anger was back. Sawyer knew it so well. She’d loved him and he’d brutalized her. He had killed the few things that had mattered to her at that time in her life.
Sawyer needed Missy angry. Angry meant she would want her piece of the man and would give up anything. She couldn’t let Missy fall to the broken heart.
For once, seeing the anger and the crazy in Missy’s eyes was a blessing. Sure, the woman had tried to beat herself to death on a wall, but the nurses and guards stopped her. Now they needed to keep her alive while that rage continued to temper and grow, until she gave them everything.
“So we need to get our hands on Felix…” Sawyer frowned. She didn’t remember what Felix managed for Axel.
“He’ll probably be the last you get to. Axel started keeping him very close once we got rid of you. We might have thought you were dead, meaning you weren’t a threat, but Axel lost his best killer when he lost you. He grew a little paranoid. That only got worse when we discovered you were alive. Felix does everything for Axel, with Axel. There’s no separation between the two now.” Missy began to giggle. “Felix is in love with him. It’ll never happen.”
“Apparently it’ll never happen for anyone,” Sawyer mumbled. That made Missy sober up too. How many fell for the charismatic man, only for him to lead them to their destruction? Sawyer and Missy. Felix was next. How many did she not know about? Henry’s mother, the prostitute who Sawyer never knew? Was she even a prostitute, or had she been someone who played the game and lost, and that was just the story he gave?
“So, Axel made Felix so loyal to him that when he could have gotten out, he dove right back in. Brought you back to life, got Axel out, and continued on with business…” Vincent stood up now and began to pace.
“Of course. Have you met your brother?” Missy’s comment was snide, but they all knew Vincent’s question was rhetorical. They all knew Axel was good at getting people to draw close to him by dazzling them, giving them things and attention.
Then he was good at slowly taking it all away until the person was so dependent on him that they had nothing else, no one else. Nowhere to turn for help. Nowhere to hide.
That’s the reason everyone died when they tried to get away from him. Sawyer had been lucky. She had fought hard to survive that night when she realized her plans had all gone to hell, even after the doppelganger had put two bullets in her. After they had tortured her. After they had dumped her in the ocean.
The hazy and awful memories came back like the tide. Choking on water and blood. Pain consuming her body, she swam for the shore, desperate. She called on her magic, even though it could have killed her too, which helped close the distance. She dragged herself out, coughing and weak. She stole car after car. She could get to New York, certainly. Someone there would help her. Someone had to stop him. She couldn’t die until someone avenged Henry and Midnight.
“Sawyer?” Vincent was suddenly in front of her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she whispered, stepping back as she pushed the memories back down. “Got lost for a minute.”
“I never understood what broke you and him,” Missy commented.
“He killed my animal bond and then his own son,” she answered. “After years of him beating and blackmailing me, he killed the only things that could keep me in line.”
“I didn’t know he even had one until recently. Felix told me after he revived me that Axel had failed once in getting someone revived by him and that Felix would never fail him again. Which is why he saved me.”
Sawyer’s throat threatened to close up.
“He tried to bring back a boy?” Vincent asked, incredulous and upset.
“Necromancy isn’t some dark art. It’s just difficult and rare and needs to be done within hours after the death, where the damage to the body isn’t so bad that it can’t be repaired. Axel didn’t get whoever it was to Felix in time.”
“That would explain why Felix is now always with Axel,” Vincent said, nodding. Sawyer curled her arms around herself as he stared at her. She didn
’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to think or even consider the possibility that Henry could have still been in the world with them. If he was, maybe she would still be Axel’s monster. Or maybe she would have had the courage to run for it with him.
The ‘what ifs’ would kill her if she followed them too far, so she stopped thinking about them.
“Start giving us names and addresses, Missy. All of them you know.” It was a command and one that didn’t allow for disobedience. If the doppelganger wanted to betray her former master, then she needed to prove it.
Right on cue, the rest of the team walked in, looking between Sawyer, Missy, and Vincent. Jasper was at her side immediately, wrapping an arm around her waist. Zander glued himself to her other side. Elijah and Quinn went to Vincent, flanking him. It was as if the team knew their leaders would need the physical comfort. That they would be raw from dealing with Missy alone for this long.
They were right. She was feeling raw. She was also feeling ready. She was so ready for this.
13
Sawyer
Sawyer stood in the front of the room, in front of a projection of their targets’ profiles. Missy gave them so much, Sawyer had nearly felt lost at where to start. One team to take out eight of Axel’s inner circle? It was impossible.
Then Vincent had mentioned something about having every available resource, they could pull it off. And he’d been right. She felt the annoyance of having to trust other teams, but it was something she could deal with.
Which is what had led to this. Only a day after Missy had broken wide open for them, pissed off at Axel, and Sawyer now had two extra teams to help in the case.
“Are you sure I can trust them, Thompson?” she asked softly, not taking her eyes off the profiles in front of her.
“I’m positive. They’re strong teams and will take orders.” The Director stepped around her and blocked her view. “Is this it? Three raids in a single night.”
“The first night, yes. Then one team is going to take a break while two teams do a raid. Then we all go back in for the last round. Three rounds. I want it done in less than a week.”
A Night of Redemption (The Redemption Saga Book 5) Page 13
