“Jasper.”
“Yeah. He was at my side in an instant. We got cover and we tried to just let me work on it. We had to be careful, though, since we didn’t want to give ourselves away and get pinned down. It happens. This shit just happens. We weren’t going to make it good every time. I’ll be up by the end of the day and we’re back to it.”
“I’d prefer if we went back to New York. It would give you and Jasper a couple of days to heal more, regain your energy, and I need to check on Charlie. I have to.”
“Of course. I’m not saying we’re doing the raid. I’m not crazy.” He raised an eyebrow at her accusingly and she looked down to avoid him.
It was a strange time if he was having to put Sawyer in her place. This was going to come back and bite him later, he could feel it.
“So, back to New York tonight, then.” She nodded. “I’m glad you like the plan. Zander?”
“Yeah, babe?” he smiled leaning closer to her.
“Don’t get shot again.” She smiled back at him. “And has anyone talked to Jasper about…”
“No…” Zander sighed. If the important stuff was done, then it was time to talk about the relationship. Also important, he knew that, but it wasn’t pressing, not with everything going on. “He’s avoided me since we woke up yesterday. Not like that mattered when I needed him, but I’d like to talk to him.”
“Me too. He was…different the other day.”
“I bet he was,” Zander said lightly, looking over to see his sleeping best friend.
“Did you…enjoy it?” she asked, sounding so insanely insecure. He coughed, wondering what she was thinking.
“Enjoy it? When can we sign up to do it again?” Zander laughed. “That was fucking great. Are you serious?”
“Until Elijah and Quinn, group sex was never my thing, but…” Sawyer shrugged. “None of this is normal.”
“It’s called polyamory, loving multiple people, a group relationship. Jasper and I talked a lot about it as teenagers.” He wasn’t an idiot. When he and Jasper spoke a long time ago on the idea of sharing her, they looked it all up. Jasper had researched and talked it all out with him. “And it’s not socially normal, but I love you. And he loves you. You love both of us. And them.” He nodded to the variety of sleeping men around the room. “When we’re not out dealing with the world, do you even think of it?”
“No. At home, even at the gym…this all feels right.” Sawyer chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest, as if she were hugging herself. “You know me. I’m not one to question good things too much. Just enjoy them while I have them.”
“Well, I love seeing you with any of them. I loved being with you and Jasper in bed, even though I’m not into him like Elijah and Quinn are a thing. I’m not questioning it, either. The only person you have to worry about is you.”
“And Jasper.”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to him,” Zander promised. “You feel uncomfortable liking it, don’t you?”
“A little.” She looked like she had a secret and he waited, desperately trying to be patient for her to just say it. “Axel called me a whore.”
That had him coughing in shock, as he tried to process that entire comment. “Axel said what? How? When?” Did it matter? He was pissed, but he didn’t want to show her how mad he was. She wouldn’t appreciate the indignation he felt on her behalf.
“He called Leonard. I picked up.”
“Well, fuck him. You aren’t a whore and you know it.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just another thing he said to rattle me. Threesomes, though? That’s stuff people see in pornos.” She shrugged again. “I’m confident about a lot of things, as we both know, but maybe this is a little out of my comfort zone right now.”
“Then we won’t have another until you’re feeling less…” He searched for the right word. “Exposed. Or we’ll never have one again. We don’t need group sex just because we’re in a group relationship.” He wanted it. He had loved it. Watching her come undone with Jasper taking her there. Jasper, who seemed so much darker and passionate. It was a side of his best friend he nearly never saw. That depth of emotion. Jasper normally didn’t lose control like that.
It had been hot.
“This is weird to talk about,” she finally muttered. “Make sure he’s okay?” She nodded to Jasper again and Zander nodded, swinging his legs off of the bed. Just sitting in bed and talking had helped some of the sluggishness.
“Any way to find any food here? And where are we?”
“Paris, and I’ll go find a nurse for you.”
“Thanks.” He grinned as she backed away from him and then left the room.
“She’s worried,” Jasper murmured. “Isn’t she?”
“Oh, you are awake. I knew you should have been up before me. She’s worried you’re freaked out. For good reason.”
“I’m in the same boat as her. I’m uncomfortable with how much I liked it.” Jasper groaned. “I’ve never felt so…”
“You don’t need to explain.” Zander held up a hand. He could well understand what Jasper was thinking after nearly two decades of friendship. “Just…make sure she knows you’re okay?”
“Yeah. And, uh…maybe one day we could do that again.” Jasper gave him a guilty smile.
Zander could only laugh. Their lives were such a shit show.
Travis made them a portal the moment the team realized Jasper and Zander were up and walking around. Zander breathed easier the moment he touched ground in New York. For the first time in his life, he was happy to see the city.
“So, what’s the plan?” he asked Vincent, who was pulling out his phone to make a call. They were standing in the middle of a portal room in the IMPO headquarters, an odd place for Vincent to make an immediate phone call.
“Elijah, Jasper, and I are going to check in with our replacement team, then touch base with the teams holding our current prisoners. We’re going to look into the prison situation as well. It’s pretty apparent Axel got people, or word, in there to make the hit and cause problems. We just want to get through it all.”
“Sawyer, Quinn, and me?”
“Going to see Charlie.” Vincent smiled at him. “Sawyer’s his family. The gym was her home for years. You and Quinn are better with the kids than the rest of us, including Elijah. I need him with me, anyway.”
“All right,” Zander nodded, realizing the entire team was now around them, listening in. “Sawyer?”
“I need to find out what arrangements have been made for him.” She sighed. “They didn’t just put him up in a hotel, right?”
“No. Actually, he’s staying at our place. Thompson drove him up there personally. It’s secure. The best place for him. So really, you three are going home for a moment. Sawyer, I’m sure there’s case stuff you can work on while you’re there. If you want.”
“Yeah, I can keep busy.”
“Thanks, Vincent.” Zander clapped him on the shoulder and got moving. He was ready to see their place again. They didn’t even get close to enough time in it after they finally moved in.
“He’s different today,” Quinn mumbled as they all got onto the elevator together.
“He didn’t like Elijah’s tongue-lashing any more than I did,” she replied, leaning on the back wall.
“Maybe you three shouldn’t have needed the tongue-lashing by thinking for two minutes,” Zander mumbled.
“Says the one who generally needs to get kicked around to learn anything,” Quinn snapped.
Zander stopped before he hit the button on the elevator door. Did Quinn really just say that? Really? He hit the shut off button and it forced the elevator to a stop, making sure no one could interrupt them.
“Excuse me?” Zander asked, turning to look back at the feral Magi. The wolves began to shift uncomfortably. “Really? I’ve been trying to make myself a better man. I’m learning to accept when I can and can’t do something. When it’s time to stop or time to push. When it’s time to fight or retreat. I’m
trying my best, and here you two are, making every mistake you ever kicked me around for. And I’m the one suddenly in trouble?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Sawyer mumbled, shifting away from Quinn. Zander could feel it too. The feral anger, the meanness. Quinn wasn’t in the right place. He quickly hit the buttons he needed on the elevator, so Quinn couldn’t take them down on accident. “Quinn? Are you okay?”
“No. I’m going into the woods when we get home.” Quinn shut down after that, without a single shred of emotion on his face. There was no emotion at all except the angry feel of his magic in the air around them. Zander and Sawyer stared at him, then locked eyes, wondering what they had just experienced.
They loaded up quickly and started the long drive home, ignoring the feral rage in the back seat. Zander was glad they were going home for a moment. Really glad. It would give Quinn a chance to reconnect to land he could consider his and get away from the rest of the world. It had been too long since they let their pack of wolves recharge on safe land.
The moment he pulled in the driveway and parked by the front door, Quinn launched out of the back, shifted into a wolf and tore into the woods, his boys following him.
“I hope he’s okay,” Sawyer whispered, watching him go.
Zander nodded, unable to find an explanation - until he remembered what she had told him. “You said he and Elijah argued?”
“Yeah.” She sighed, getting out of his Range Rover. He followed and they found Charlie the moment they walked through the door. Everything changed in an instant, from the strange sadness and confusion over Quinn’s behavior to complete elation with the sight of the older, hefty black man. “Charlie!”
“Hey, kiddo.” Charlie dropped what he was holding on a small entryway table and held his arms open.
Zander chuckled as she practically jumped on him. The hug looked like it was bone-crushing, and it took several long moments for them to detach.
“Charlie, I was so scared. I didn’t want anything to happen to you. I knew something could since you went public for me-”
“It’s just a building, and it’s not even that bad. The IMPO and WMC are already working on a payout to have it rebuilt, even better than ever. A month, and everything will be fine and back to normal.”
“Tell me all about it?” she asked, pulling back from him.
“A fireball flew in through your bedroom window. It grew too fast. The guys on my protection detail were able to contain it while we all were trying to get out, but none of them could put it out. It hit the gas line in the kitchen after we were free of it and it took the entire top floor. Nothing else saw much damage. Some structural repairs up there, but the bottom floor is relatively untouched. It’s not bad.” Charlie was patting and rubbing her shoulder through the entire thing.
Zander watched, somewhat jealous that she had Charlie. He wanted a Charlie. He’d had James, but now James was gone and they were doing this on their own. He wanted someone looking out for him like that.
“It was Director Thompson’s idea to hide me here until the case is over. No longer. When you guys are done, I’m leaving, since I don’t want to live with all six of you.” Charlie grinned. “And he had agents check up on all the kids, just in case.”
Zander watched Sawyer visibly relax. “That’s good. That’s really good.”
“Isn’t it? Some other interesting things have been talked about as well.” Charlie looked over to him. “Thompson offered to make the gym more official. Said maybe I can get a contract helping train new agents, and that should help me financially. Keep me on my feet after this, since I’m going to be going into the red until repairs are done.”
“Really?” Zander raised an eyebrow. That was something. The IMPO didn’t generally contract people on a whim. No, this was Thompson pulling some strings, since Charlie was who he was and filled the place he did in Sawyer’s life. This wasn’t Director Thompson. This was him trying to be their handler like James once was.
“It would open me up to hire people, create better business, and not worry over my books when I’m teaching two dozen kids for free.” Charlie looked back to Sawyer, who ducked her head and went further into the house. Zander heard the laughter down the hall.
“She’s happy to see you’re okay,” Zander said politely, pointing at where she went.
“Oh, I know. I’m glad to be okay.” Charlie looked him over now, head to toe. “You got shot. Looking good for a shooting victim.” Before Zander could pull away, Charlie grabbed him. He was able to get Zander’s forearm, skin to skin contact. The heat from the hand told him exactly what Charlie was doing. Using his healing ability to check to make sure everything was okay. “They did a good job on you. I take it you stabilized yourself?”
“As best I could.” Zander tried to pull away but Charlie was watching him carefully, refusing to let go.
“I’ll give you the job,” Charlie finally said. “When this is over, you will always have a place at the gym, just like her.”
“Why?” Zander frowned.
“Because I see young men getting shot all the time where I am. It’s not pleasant. If getting you out of the IMPO is what needs to happen, then I’ll have a job for you. You’ll be the first person I hire to help train these new agents.”
Zander nodded slowly. He didn’t know how to feel about this sudden wealth of care he got from Charlie. “Why?” he asked again.
“Like all her strays, if you mean something to Sawyer, you mean something to me.” Charlie let him go, those words hanging in the air. “You understand?”
Zander just kept nodding. Thompson and Charlie were both trying to be what James had once been. Before James had gone, they had talked as a team. What would any of them do when they wanted to get out of the IMPO, and things like that. James had always promised he would set up anything they needed to succeed. He knew Charlie probably didn’t know any of that, but as an adult man with a big heart, he was doing it for Zander anyway.
“Thank you,” he murmured, looking down. “I want to finish this and maybe then, she won’t have nightmares. Maybe then, Vincent will get a full night’s sleep. Maybe none of us will go into a hospital again and we’ll all live past forty. But I can’t do more after this.”
“Takes a man to admit when it’s time to step away.” Charlie patted his shoulder. “Let’s go find her. Then I’m going to make sure you two eat. Where’s the third one? I was told the wolf boy was coming. Quinn.”
“He needs a moment to himself, I think. He’s already out in the woods.”
“Not injured?” Charlie narrowed his eyes.
“No, no. He’s fine physically. I promise.”
“Good. Now let’s go get something to eat.”
22
Vincent
Vincent tapped a finger on the desk, looking over the pictures of the aftermath. The prison went through hell. Two guards were caught on camera killing Missy. Upon capture, they admitted to being paid, as well as blackmailed.
His brother had set this up well. Neither were a part of Axel’s business, not really. Just two guys in debt. Two guys with family that they needed to keep safe. Two guys who were vulnerable and hadn’t gone to get help from the right people.
“Vin?” Elijah sat down next to him. “This is all a dead end.”
Vin closed his eyes. He had promised to keep her safe. Missy had given them everything they had been working with for the last few days, and she didn’t even survive a week.
“I can’t let this go unpunished,” he whispered, looking at a photo of her body. They had strangled her, then stabbed her for good measure, just to make sure she stayed dead. “I promised her, Elijah.”
He was so mad, which is why he had Elijah with him. Elijah would keep him in check so he didn’t do anything without thinking it through. That’s what this had come to. Vincent was thinking about how to keep everyone on the team thinking clearly and on task without going mad.
He had to separate Quinn and Elijah for their own good.
Quinn needed to go home and get some peace in the woods, reconnect to what made him so special and not a monster. Sawyer and Vincent just couldn’t be in the same room anymore. He didn’t think so, anyway. He wanted to pick her brain and keep her busy. He wanted them to go hunting together and find his brother and end this.
So he split them up. Elijah could keep him in check and Zander could keep her at home. For just a moment. Just long enough for them to get over being shaken by what happened while they were in the Congo.
“I know you did.” Elijah stayed seated next to him, watching him with clear hazel eyes. “Vincent, it was a long shot.”
“He even killed Talyn, who had stepped out and stayed neutral,” Vincent muttered bitterly. “Talyn wasn’t an innocent man, but damned Axel, he can’t let anything go!” He slammed a hand on the desk. Talyn had been poisoned by one of the researchers he’d been working with. That researcher was now in custody. Similar story. Blackmailed. Axel didn’t use a single person close to him to pull this off. “And where the fuck was he hiding this entire time? Right under our damned noses!” Vincent swiped a hand over the desk and sent papers everywhere. People were staring at him, other agents wandering around to do their own business. He glared at a couple, who backed away. No one attempted to clean up the papers.
“He stole that trick from Sawyer. There’s no way we could have known, Vincent.”
Well, that was a comfort. Vincent snorted.
“But there is,” Jasper cut in. Vincent looked over to the blond, wondering what he was saying. “We could have started facial recognition programs just around the jail, to see if he’d been spotted near the prison, but the problem was always that we don’t know the exact timeline. Or exactly what he looks like. We would have gotten tons of false positives, since this is New York with millions of people in it…and who knows, he might have had enough changes to his look that we wouldn’t even get a real one of him. It was too unreliable to consider attempting.” Jasper stood up from his desk in the large room and walked over, sitting on Vincent’s desk. He grabbed an image still on the desk. Vincent watched him carefully as he folded the image and slid it into his pocket. “But I’ve had an idea.”
A Night of Redemption (The Redemption Saga Book 5) Page 22
