“Get on with it,” Vincent snapped.
“We know what Missy looked like after Axel escaped. We know what form she took. Sawyer said it herself, the woman was scarred pretty badly, but only the neck scar remained between forms. Can she alter forms or did she copy her last mental image of Axel?”
“He would have gotten any scars repaired as best he could, though!” Vincent didn’t see where this was going.
“It’s a non-Magi technique, and something we don’t use very often, but we can hire someone to make a new version of that face. Something with the scars treated with magic or plastic surgery. There’s a chance.” Jasper sighed. “I’m grasping at straws. I like the plan of taking down his men and this could take more time, but it’s an idea.”
“We already use their facial recognition software. Why not hire an artist to make a few new versions of Axel’s face?” Elijah frowned. “The only problem would be if all of those are wrong. He could have very well remade his face the moment he was free. Hardcore plastic surgery. If I were him, I’d do it.”
Vincent pointed at Elijah. Exactly. If anyone of them could think of a way to throw them off the scent, Axel would have already done it.
“It was just an idea. There’s no harm in trying,” Jasper said simply.
“Other than wasting our time,” Vincent mumbled, shaking his head.
“Then I’m doing it and all of you can be asses about it.” Those words were said with enough of a bite that Vincent snapped his head back up to stare at Jasper. Jasper got off the desk and stormed off without another comment.
“Vin-”
“He’s smarter than that! Axel is smarter than letting us get pictures of him like that. Not after everything that’s happened. It’s how we tied Sawyer to him and caught her. How we’ve regained small steps over the years. He’s not going to be that arrogant. I think he’s playing the smarter game right now.”
“Vincent-”
“And I don’t know how to beat him!” Vincent leaned over, resting on his shaking hands. “I don’t know, Elijah, and Charlie was nearly killed. The gym is gone. That’s her family and her home and they’re gone.”
“Charlie is still alive,” Elijah whispered. “Vincent, Charlie is okay and the gym can be repaired. It’s not the end of the world.”
“And Missy!” Vincent felt like he was falling apart. Every little thing was piling up. Angry, frustrated tears pricked at the back of his eyes uncomfortably. He’d never felt so much like a failure. “I promised her I would keep her alive! He broke her. He drove her so mad she tried to kill herself, and it was luck that she didn’t succeed. It was all we had.” He continued to lean over until he could wrap his arms over his head. “I can’t beat him. And even if I do, she has to kill him. She’s the only one who can, and I can’t…”
He was falling apart again. He wasn’t good enough, smart enough. He should have known Axel would retaliate that quickly. He should have known it would be bad.
“I’m failing. I can’t even protect-”
“We did everything we could to protect them.” Elijah growled, shaking Vincent by his shoulder. “Everything. Protection details, secure locations. We couldn’t change the outcome, Vin. It sucks, I know, but we did everything we could. At least some survived the night.”
“AND IT WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH!” Vincent jumped away, roaring. “It’s never good enough, damn it.”
He turned away and walked out of the meeting room, ignoring the agents staring. He didn’t care about any of them. They were running paperwork for the team’s case and everything they had done so far. They weren’t important.
No, the important people were either hiding or dead. He was hiding, sitting at the IMPO headquarters, away from Sawyer and half the team so they could all take a day to do whatever would bring them to sanity.
He hadn’t realized Elijah followed him out onto a balcony where smokers would sneak off to until the cowboy touched his back gently. He lit a cigarette and took a long, deep drag on it. He held it out to the cowboy, in case he wanted a puff. Elijah only shook his head.
“What was that about Sawyer?” he asked.
“She has to kill him,” Vincent murmured. “She knows how to fight him better than any of us and-”
“No, she doesn’t.” Elijah tugged, forcing him to turn around and face hazel eyes. “It doesn’t need to be her, Vin.”
“The WMC-”
“The WMC doesn’t have to know. At the end of the day, the WMC never has to know.” Elijah leaned forward. “You don’t want her to, do you?”
“No,” Vincent whispered. “I don’t.”
He had never said the words, not out loud. Sure, deep in his chest, he wanted his brother dead, and she was the best choice. And to everyone, even to himself sometimes, that meant the same thing.
But deep down, he’d made a promise to her. Anything. He would do anything to keep his brother or anyone else from hurting her again. Every time she killed someone, he saw the new pain she would carry. Or the new scars she would have, either physical or emotional. Most of the time, both. She could cover it up, claiming she was doing it to protect people and therefore, it was okay. She could hide behind the shield of pretending this was just what she needed to do to protect everyone.
But he knew it hurt her.
And he didn’t want his brother to hurt her anymore.
“Then we’ll do something else. We’ll figure this out. Because you’re right, Vin. She shouldn’t have to do this. This isn’t what we ever wanted for her. Not this. We thought we could make her a solid agent and we could all work together and we’d be great.” Elijah sighed.
“Nothing went as planned,” Vincent agreed softly. They didn’t need to tell the WMC. They never had to know. “I built this team to defeat him.”
“Yeah, and we’ve done it before.” Elijah smiled. “You coming back to me, Vin?”
“I’ve been distracted by my own feelings,” he admitted. “Elijah, I still don’t know if I can catch him.”
“We have things set in place. Sawyer is going to be spending the next couple of days looking over the Dark Web, I bet you. Jasper is setting up facial recognition. Vincent, we don’t need to catch him tomorrow. Stop rushing this. Focus.” Elijah snapped his fingers, as if he were trying to think of something. “Play the game. Slow down and play the fucking game. Like you and Sawyer always say.”
“He hit back hard because we hit him hard,” Vincent murmured, nodding. “It was an eye for an eye.”
“Exactly. But what did he do before we pushed so hard?”
“Nothing…” Vincent looked away from Elijah. “He did nothing since he was ten steps ahead.”
“Come on, man. I’m not this smart, not as smart as you two. I know you can see what I see.”
“If we regain the steps without him noticing, he won’t come back and hit us.” Vincent continued to nod. “So we play quietly.”
“Exactly. You and Sawyer got wrapped up in this idea that you could take everything from him. But he’s just going to do it right back and we have more to lose.” The cowboy groaned. “You even got Quinn…”
“Elijah?” He frowned.
“Quinn was good once, Vin. He’s never been a killer like that. Until this. He sees you and Sawyer hurting. He sees the team hurting and he’s retaliating in his own way. The only way he really can, and that’s being as powerful as he is. We taught him to hold back. Remember? Because killing dozens of people isn’t how you fix anything. He can get people hurt on our side, and it sucks to admit that, but it’s the truth.”
“Should I talk to him?” He would. This felt like it was his fault. Quinn was protective of all of them, and Vincent was the one pushing for more. For them to be more vicious, to destroy his brother.
“He wants to kill your brother to protect you and Sawyer. To protect all of us, just like Sawyer. Just like you. No, you talking to him isn’t a good idea. I…think him not in the IMPO is the only thing I can do for him right now. Him not on the team.
”
“Excuse me?” Vincent leaned against the railing, holding off taking another drag from his cigarette.
“Once, he killed a bunch of people because he thought he was defending himself from them. He was. Now he’s killing people for human reasons, and with all the passion of a rabid animal. This isn’t healthy for him. Not constantly like this.” Elijah looked away this time, down to his boots. “I want to take Quinn out of the IMPO when this is over. Jasper and Zander are right. If we don’t finish this and then move on, we’re all going to die before we’re forty or become the monsters we hate. Jasper has a point. What’s the difference between the WMC and your brother right now?”
“Uh…”
“We gave the WMC the right to do everything we condemn Axel for. But either way, it’s the same thing. Using people to do things, a lot of times awful things, to achieve personal goals of power.” Elijah shook his head, looking back up. “And Quinn’s goodness is being shattered under the weight of it. So is Jasper’s, and he knows it. Vincent, in another decade, will we have the right to call ourselves the good guys? Do we still have that right after all of this?”
Vincent shook his head, but he didn’t know which question he was answering. Maybe he was trying to deny it. He came to the IMPO because these were the people on the right side of the law. They would give him everything he needed to defeat his brother and put an end to one of the most powerful crime families that the Magi ever had.
But he couldn’t deny the obvious.
“Okay. When this is over…I’ll let you all leave.” He wasn’t going to force them to stay if they were unhappy. He didn’t know what he would do, but he wouldn’t force them to stay.
“There’s no letting us do anything. We’re going.” Elijah said the words like it was for a funeral.
Vincent could see it already. The team was broken. There was no fixing this. This was over. When his brother was defeated, he had no idea if he would have any family left. He could hope they all stuck around, just to be with him, live in the same house as him, but he couldn’t force them.
And after everything, why would they want to?
“But we’re going to stop your brother, Vin.” Elijah’s voice was stronger now, full of conviction. “I’m not going anywhere until the team makes it through this storm.”
“Why does this matter to you?” he asked, hoping for honesty. “You could leave right now and not risk being hurt from all of this. Especially after that car accident. No one would blame you.”
“Because when we met, I saw a lonely man who needed a friend. A man who only had his conviction to catch his brother and nothing else. And I wanted to give him something else. Anything really, but mostly a friend, someone he could rely on. Together, we built a team. Together we fell in love with a spitfire of a fucking woman. Together we’ve made a family. Somewhere along the way, I realized you gave a lot to me, too. All of those things. We made them together.” Elijah swallowed. “A really fucked-up family, no doubt, but you’ve been my brother for years now. And I don’t abandon my brothers to their nightmares, to the things that haunt them. And I never will, because you’ll always be my brother. I’m never letting you go back to being that lonely man, Vincent.” Elijah reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “So we’re going to see this through. And even when we’re out of the IMPO, I’m going to live in the house and I’m going to trash the bathroom to make you mad and hope you loosen up.”
“I hate you,” Vincent said, a smile breaking out on his face. A second later, he was chuckling as Elijah laughed. “I hate you so much.”
“Yeah, I know.” Elijah grinned. “Finish your smoke and meet me back in there. I’m going to check on Jasper.”
“Wait,” Vincent said quickly, stopping the cowboy. When Elijah looked back at him again, halfway in the door, Vincent let him go again. “Thank you.”
“For?”
“For teaching me what real brotherhood is. And for helping me find the brothers we have now.”
“It’s not hard,” Elijah whispered. “Brothers would do anything for each other, and you already knew that. You just needed to find the brothers who returned that.”
Vincent swallowed on that. Was that right? Had he always known that brothers should stick together and do anything they could for each other?
Yes. He had. He knew. It’s why he’d killed his father. Because brothers would do anything for each other.
It had just never been returned, and now it was.
And slowly, Vincent let go of Axel in his heart. He’d resisted and he’d lied about it, saying he was over his brother, but he’d never been honest. Somewhere, he was always just holding onto a little shred of love, hoping.
“Vin?” Elijah didn’t keep moving inside, just waiting there for more.
“I’m fine, you can go,” Vincent murmured, waving him along. “I might have another.” He waved his cigarette around before taking another drag. “I think I’ll quit after this.”
“Okay.” Elijah finally went inside, the door closing firmly so Vincent was alone again.
“It’s over, Axel,” he whispered, looking back out into the city. He felt that stupid need to say it out loud. “Every day, these guys have reminded me time and time again why you aren’t my family, but they are. It’s time I finally believe, since everything you’ve ever said to me has been a lie.”
All the promises. All the small things from his childhood he was constantly holding on to. Sawyer had said it once. He loved a boy, a brother that no longer existed. Axel Castello was not his brother. Antonio was, and Antonio was long gone.
“I’m coming for you. I’m going to catch you.” Vincent took a deep breath, leaning on the rail, talking to the wind as if his brother would hear the words. Kaar landed on the rail, bumping his head to Vincent’s arm. A rare wave of encouragement and support came from the raven. “And I’m going to kill you.”
23
Sawyer
Night was approaching and Sawyer began to worry. Quinn still wasn’t back from the woods. The wolves had come back hours before, curling up in Vincent’s office with her and Sombra.
But no sign of Quinn, and the wolves weren’t giving up anything. They barely even moved. When she put down dinner for the wolves, they had eaten but not moved. They didn’t go looking for their Magi at all.
“Sawyer?” Elijah called in. She had heard the other guys come home, but hadn’t moved to go see them, captivated and stuck with the sad wolves.
“What’s up?” she called back.
Elijah walked in after that, still wearing his thick winter coat. She didn’t know why he waited, since it was his office too. “He’s still out there, isn’t he?”
She could only nod, pointing down to the wolves. Sombra was staying with them, physically comforting the animals, who seemed forlorn and lost.
“Want to come get him with me?” Elijah held the door open wider, an invitation.
“Yeah, let’s go. It’s time.” She grabbed her jacket, swinging it on as she walked to Elijah and left the office. Sombra stayed behind to keep the wolves company.
“How long has he been out there?”
“The moment we got home, he took off. The wolves came back shortly before dinner. That was four hours ago, and they’ve been like that since. Elijah, what’s wrong?” She hadn’t wanted to ask about their argument, but if Elijah did anything to hurt Quinn, she didn’t know how she would deal with that.
“He and I argued about a lot of things,” Elijah explained softly as they walked through the new home. “I don’t like how he behaved on the last raid. I really didn’t like how he behaved in the hospital.”
“He’s an adult and you aren’t his father.” She felt insulted for Quinn.
“He’s feral,” Elijah murmured, turning to her. “Never forget, Sawyer, that Quinn mentally is an animal first, just because of how he was raised. He will always be feral. We’ve tamed and trained him, but he’ll always be feral.”
“What are you trying to sa
y? That he can’t grow up and change? Become more human?” She felt more insulted. Did he think Quinn was stupid? No, not Elijah. She never would have thought he would behave this way.
“No, that’s not…” Elijah groaned as they walked out the back door. “His first instinct in any situation will be to act the way he had for his entire life before meeting the team. I didn’t like his behavior in the hospital and on the raid because he didn’t remember anything the team taught him.”
She stopped before stepping off the porch as Elijah kept walking. “What did I miss on the raid?” She had never thought to ask what really went down.
“He killed a lot of people, without even giving them a chance,” Elijah answered. “And not because they were enemies, but because he could. He could have as easily captured them all. Hell, Vincent finally reined him in and convinced him to do that instead. No, he lashed out and killed people…like he used to.”
She was beginning to see. Now she was understanding. “You think it’s…our fault? That he did that?”
“Yes and no.” Elijah held out a hand. She took it slowly. Not just her fault. Not just his. Not only Quinn’s. But everyone’s.
“Keep explaining,” she ordered, without any strength.
“I think the IMPO and the job we do is slowly twisting him. And that’s why I’m having you on this walk with me. The argument between Quinn and I ended with one thing. I’m leaving the IMPO and I’m taking him with me. He finds it a betrayal to the organization that gave him a place in our world. I told him that the IMPO, the WMC, the IMAS…they have already betrayed him. He knows it, but the IMPO gives him the ability to use his power without real repercussions.”
“He’s thinking like a human,” she realized softly. “Power. The ability to hurt people, to do as he pleases…for what he wants.”
A Night of Redemption (The Redemption Saga Book 5) Page 23
