The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  20

  VINCENT

  Movie night. Vincent narrowed his eyes on Elijah, wondering where this was going.

  “You think we should have a movie night?” Vincent sat up in his chair, eyeing the grinning cowboy. Zander was snickering next him, and that didn’t bode well for Vincent. When these two decided something, he knew he was in for trouble.

  “Yeah, to relax.” Elijah sounded like it was all set. Simple as that.

  “Tonight, in the next hour or so,” Vincent continued, as if Elijah hadn’t said anything, “when we should be preparing to go to Atlanta in two days.”

  Vincent rubbed his temples at the thought. They would be in Atlanta fighting with Jon over their assignment with Sawyer and Axel. He needed to focus, not… watch movies.

  Jasper would understand Vincent’s concerns; but considering Jasper wasn’t in the room and Zander was, Vincent felt like he was missing an ally in this argument. Jasper was probably already setting everything up for movie night, the traitor.

  “There’s nothing we can do except go.” Elijah laughed while Zander sat down across from Vincent and kicked his feet up on Vincent’s desk. Vincent glared at the mud-covered boots on his desk. Zander was purposefully pissing him off. “You look like you’re about to have a hernia, you need to relax. We used to do them all the time. It’s been months! Come on!”

  “Zander.” Vincent tried to remain calm. “Get. Your. Fucking. Dirty. Boots. Off. My. Desk.”

  “Approve movie night and come relax.” Zander grinned at him, tapping one heel on the desk and causing a clump of dirt to fall onto Vincent’s pristine, organized desk. “I’ll clean that the moment you say okay.”

  “Fine!” Vincent snapped, standing up to push Zander’s boots off his desk. Zander had them down before Vincent could reach them. That was probably for the best, as Vincent had the urge to break the shithead’s ankle.

  “Temper, temper.” Elijah wagged a finger at him, and Vincent turned his glare on the man who was supposed to be his closest friend.

  “Get the fuck out. I’ll be down in one hour.”

  “Roger that!” Elijah gave a mock salute and grabbed his enforcer, Zander, dragging him out of the office.

  Vincent looked at the dirt and growled. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out bleach and a roll of paper towels. He used a paper towel to grab most of the dirt and threw it away. Then he wiped off the rest carefully, so that none fell on the floor. He liberally applied bleach and scrubbed, making sure nothing was left.

  He hated dirt on his things. His things were expensive, and he believed that his property should be treated with a certain level of common decency. If there was nothing there to ruin it through normal use, then why go out of one’s way to do so? Zander could wreck his own shit, that was fine, but he and Elijah loved screwing with Vincent. He was going to strangle both of the trouble makers one day.

  “Oh, boss man?” Elijah’s head popped back through the door, and Vincent released a sigh, wondering when his suffering would end.

  “What?”

  “Can you get Sawyer? She’s been in her room for like, an hour, and no one else wants to bother her.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Vincent said dryly. Only the day before, Elijah had walked into her room without knocking. Vincent could hear the scream in the garage. He didn’t want to know what Elijah had walked in on, but it hadn’t been good. Zander had to heal Elijah’s black eye later.

  “Please?” Elijah gave him a look that Vincent could only describe as a sad and half-assed attempt at puppy dog eyes.

  “Sure,” Vincent answered, secretly hoping he didn’t get the black eye this time. He wasn’t stupid enough not to knock though.

  He shuffled through papers to kill time. Elijah was right. He did need to relax, and there wasn’t much they could do about Jon except convince the mediator that everything was fine. He wished he knew why Jon was being such an ass, though. He put precious resources into investigating other IMPO agents, which just wasn’t done. He had no legal authority to look into Jasper and Zander without real cause, and that abuse of power pissed Vincent off.

  He finally gave up on trying to delay his requested duty. He sighed, walked out of his office, and headed toward the attic. It wasn’t that he was scared of Sawyer or didn’t like her. He was rather surprised with her. She was a quick study, with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue wrapped up in a body that was made to kick ass and take names. He was enamored, and he could completely see why Axel had been as well.

  He sighed again; there was the problem. Her little trick during their chess match gave him everything he needed to know. Axel was most likely the ex she’d mentioned who taught her to play, and that was probably why he wanted to kill her. Leaving him would be a death sentence. Vincent only needed to think about what had happened to Shadow to know that.

  As he reached the attic, he pondered the unanswered questions. He had no evidence that Sawyer and Axel had ever run into each other before the LA incident, which was why he didn’t bring up his suspicions. He wanted to know, but a deal was a deal. He wasn’t going to pry… himself. He had intended on manipulating all the guys into getting her to talk, but after a week, he’d given up. He’d felt guilty as hell for even thinking about manipulating his team like that.

  “Sawyer?” He rapped twice on the door and frowned when he heard a thump, but nothing else. “Sawyer?”

  It was only eight pm. He narrowed his eyes on the door. There was no way she was asleep. He grabbed the doorknob and began to turn it.

  “Open that door and I will murder you.” Sawyer’s snarled and strangled voice startled him into letting go. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Okay…” he mumbled, backing away from the door. He thought it was funny that she was scared of Quinn when, in his mind, she was the scariest thing in the house.

  He waited for much longer than a minute and raised his eyebrows when she opened the door. She was disheveled, her dark hair going everywhere even though she had it up in a ponytail. Her ebony eyes were a little glazed; and her chest, that gorgeous chest, was rapidly moving up and down.

  He had two guesses for what she had been doing—drugs or masturbating. He was smart enough not to say either out loud.

  “Can I help you?” She was curt with him, and he actually liked it a little. In some perverse, fucked up way, he wanted to know just how sharp that tongue could be. But this wasn’t the time for it, and there were more secrets between the two of them than she knew. After Axel, he promised himself. He would delve into this charming woman after they dealt with Axel.

  “The team wants to do a movie night down in the entertainment room,” he responded, matching her terse tone. He loved the verbal sparring, loved seeing her eyes narrow at his lack of response. She wanted to figure him out, and he wanted to… well, he wasn’t going to let his mind go there right now.

  “Am I required to be there?” She raised an eyebrow and looked back into her room. Vincent resisted the urge to lean in and see what she was looking at. He had a strong guess.

  “Yes.” He gave her a smile and turned to leave. She wasn’t, but he loved the idea that he was keeping her from dealing with that particular problem when he couldn’t do the same for himself.

  21

  QUINN

  Quinn sank into his seat, sighing in happiness. Elijah sat on his left, in his own chair, grinning.

  “Like the new chairs?” Elijah elbowed him, and Quinn nodded.

  “I’m happy we are finally coming down to use them,” Quinn murmured to him, not wanting to get loud. “Though, I think you’re more interested in… her coming down here than the chairs.” Quinn almost said ‘the female’ but corrected himself. Before they had brought her to the house, he and Elijah had a long discussion about how to properly address her.

  “I am excited about that,” Elijah chuckled. “Can you blame me?”

  “No.” Quinn smiled at him. He trusted his friend’s judgment on humans, esp
ecially of the female variety. Quinn was naturally distrustful of them.

  “I’m happy to hear that,” Elijah’s voice dropped to a whisper. He grabbed Quinn’s hand and placed his lips to his palm. Quinn cupped Elijah’s cheek for a moment.

  They weren’t lovers, not often anyway, but Quinn and Elijah had found a physical friendship together, each getting the physical affection they needed and couldn’t find elsewhere. Was there love there? Quinn thought there probably was, but they weren’t soulmates. Even together, he and Elijah still found something… missing.

  Quinn looked over to Jasper and Zander, lost in their own conversation. The other side of the coin: true brothers through everything except blood, those two. Quinn pulled his hand away and looked back to Elijah.

  “I was worried for a couple of weeks,” Elijah sighed, “but I knew you and she would figure it out when I saw you took her to the swimming hole.”

  “My brothers were getting angry with me,” Quinn groaned. Shade and Scout had been riding his ass, upset that he wasn’t nicer to the female. “They are totally in love with her.”

  “Of course,” Elijah grinned deviously, “I think all three of the wolves like her more than they let on.”

  Quinn snorted, leaning back in his seat again. To anyone else, Elijah was referencing Quinn’s wolf form, but Quinn knew better. Elijah was the only person on the team who knew the name his mother had given him when his abilities had manifested. Rogue Wolf. Quinn didn’t use it and he’d only shared it with Elijah once. They had been drinking a little too much wine. He’d made his mother’s recipe. It was strong wine.

  They sat in companionable silence for a long time, waiting for the last two of their group to show up. Quinn heard footsteps on the stairs and perked up a little. It had to be Vincent. He would never hear Sawyer at that distance.

  “We only have five recliners,” Vincent told Elijah, who was nursing a beer. They had leather theater-style recliners. They were extra wide with cup holders and seat warmers. And they only had five of them when they needed six, if Sawyer was going to watch movies with them. Quinn looked around and realized Vincent was right.

  “Well, you better claim yours before I steal it,” her voice drifted in from behind Vincent, and Quinn saw her stroll around him. Quinn let her vanilla scent hit his nose and nearly growled in pleasure at it. It was light, barely there, but he always knew when she walked into the room because of it. He’d noticed early on that she walked silently, so he’d learned to focus on her scent. He was happy to do so, since she smelled wonderful. His senses were above average compared to other humans. Thanks to his multiple animal bonds and his own shapeshifting, he could rely on more than his eyes and ears. “Oh, there’s a bar in here! What kind of liquor do you boys keep? I haven’t had a drink in ages.”

  Vincent sighed wistfully at her. He probably thought no one noticed. Quinn did, though. Quinn knew all the other guys were attracted to her on a primal level, and he knew she was attracted to all of them. He found the entire dance of living with her fascinating. He’d never experienced something quite like it during his time in modern society. In the wild, they would have fought against each other to claim the strong female as a mate. As far as he knew, humans were normally very similar, but it wasn’t happening here. He knew from experience that males who wished to mate with a Druid were expected to do similar—fight for the privilege.

  So, going against everything he knew, he watched her dance between five healthy and strong males without them all killing each other. Even Jasper, who Quinn knew was permanently injured, was a contender to be reckoned with. Yet, he saw no hostilities between any of them.

  “What are you making?” Quinn asked with a frown as the strong scent of alcohol and pure vanilla slammed into his nose. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was very strong—stronger than the beer Elijah had or the wine his mother used to drink.

  “It’s a vodka martini, though this one is a vanilla vodka martini.” She smiled over at Quinn, who stood up slowly to look at what she was making. Elijah frowned at him, but Quinn was too focused on what she was doing, pouring different things into a cup. He knew people mixed drinks like this, but he’d never smelled one like what she was making.

  “Can I try it? None of them ever mix stuff.” Quinn walked behind the bar to her side. He didn’t resist the urge to get closer than necessary.

  “Sure,” she chuckled, handing him the glass. He took a sniff and realized maybe he shouldn’t be trying to smell it. It was too strong for his sense of smell. It blocked out everything else in the room. He took a swallow and his eyes went wide. “You’re supposed to sip it. Unless you want to get really fucked up. I mean, you can do that, but I don’t recommend it.”

  “It’s good,” he mumbled as he handed the glass back to her. He looked at the drink, then his chair and had an idea. Elijah was probably going to be a little upset with him. “You can sit with me if you make me one as well.”

  “Is there room?” She chuckled, looking over at the seats. She looked a little nervous at his suggestion, but she didn’t let it stop her from thinking over his request. “Oh, yeah, those things are huge. Sure, you take that one, and I’ll just make a second one.”

  He took the drink, excited to have his own. He really liked it, and he knew it was because it was vanilla. He sat down and curled into the right half of the seat. Vincent sat down with a scotch; Zander had a beer like Elijah.

  “So, what are we watching tonight?” Sawyer asked as she got to the chair. Quinn helped her sit down so she didn’t spill her drink.

  “Some new Marvel movie,” Vincent groaned. “Probably.”

  “Actually,” Elijah laughed, “you’re kind of close. We’re watching Wonder Woman, from DC.”

  “Fuck yeah.” Sawyer laughed, and Quinn’s chest rumbled in pleasure for a second. He was happy she didn’t notice. “I’ve heard this movie is fantastic.”

  “So have I.” Elijah grinned at her. Quinn had purposefully put her between him and Elijah. Something about the seating arrangement pleased him, like it had at the swimming hole when they were on the rock. She didn’t need to know that he told Shade to move.

  Quinn didn’t care about the movie in the beginning, but Sawyer’s enthusiasm was a little infectious. She and Elijah cheering for the Amazon women made all of them start cheering. Zander made her another drink when she asked, and then another. Quinn lost count, and, by the end, he had a female curled up into him without a care in the world.

  He looked over at Elijah, who was smirking at him. Quinn looked back down at her and realized that Sawyer wasn’t nearly as afraid of him as she once was. That pleased him, since he didn’t want her to be scared anymore. He’d done it on purpose, originally.

  “Oh, hell,” Sawyer giggled. “Zander, Sugar, you make drinks much stronger than I do.”

  “My bad,” Zander chuckled, covering his mouth in an attempt to hide what Quinn had heard described before as his ‘shit-eating grin’.

  “Drunk Sawyer is kind of adorable,” Elijah laughed, looking toward Vincent, who glowered back.

  “Need help getting to your room?” Quinn asked, leaning towards her ear. His left arm had somehow gotten pinned underneath her, and he knew it had fallen asleep twenty minutes before.

  “I would love that,” Sawyer laughed. “I think I’m likely to kill myself on the stairs if no one is there.”

  He helped her to stand and blatantly checked out her ass while he was still seated. Every other guy in the room was; why couldn’t he?

  “Need any help, Quinn?” Jasper was standing up as well.

  “No, I’ve got her.” Quinn narrowed his eyes on the other male, but pushed back the wave of possessiveness. She wouldn’t like that. She was a strong alpha female, and Quinn knew better than to try and make a scene over her. He also knew it wasn’t his place. Jasper had the older claim to her, as did Zander.

  “Good luck, my man.” Zander laughed, jumping up and throwing an arm over Jasper. “Let’s go play some COD.”
>
  “Good idea,” Jasper chuckled as they left. “Good luck, Quinn.”

  “Good night,” Vincent mumbled, and Quinn wondered why their leader practically stormed out of the room.

  “Good night!” Sawyer called after him, waving. “Come on, Quinn. Let’s get out of here before Elijah decides he needs to take all his clothes off, again. I’m in no place to deny him right now.”

  “Well…” Elijah grinned, standing up. Quinn snorted as he began to pull his shirt up like a stripper. “If that’s the case…”

  “Nope!” Sawyer grabbed Quinn’s arm, and Quinn let her pull him out of the seat. “Good night, cowboy!”

  “It’s only a good night when I dream of you, darling.” Elijah winked.

  “Pervert,” Sawyer laughed.

  “Let’s go,” Quinn said quietly, wrapping an arm around her waist. One of hers went around his own; and they left the room together, leaving Elijah to clean up the entertainment room.

  They walked up to her room in amicable silence, though it was a bit tough on the narrow stairs leading to the attic. Quinn bit back another growl when she ended up pressed against him as she tried to get the door to the attic open.

  “Let me,” he grumbled, reaching around her to turn the knob.

  “Thank you!” She grinned, stumbling into the attic once he had the door open. He grabbed her before she went down to the floor and pulled her against him, again. While it drove him mad, it seemed to be safer.

  “Let’s get you to bed,” Quinn murmured into her ear.

  “For another night of furiously masturbating and having nightmares,” Sawyer groaned. “Damn.”

  He didn’t have a response to that, so he just got her room door open and led her inside. He took a sniff and realized how right she’d been. The room was saturated in a scent that he could only describe as heaven. She must have been doing it recently.

  “What do you mean by nightmares?” he whispered, helping her sit on the edge of her bed.