The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  Age was making all of them a little slow. Seeing this every so often made her remember that.

  “Don’t hurt my man,” she ordered loudly from her place. They all turned to her and she saw Zander’s pained expression turn into a grin.

  “We were just having some fun before closing it out for the day.”

  “And here I thought I was late,” she replied, raising an eyebrow. In his forties, she expected some maturity from Zander. Not all the time, just some. He was better than he had been in their wild youth, the same ages as the agents he now trained, but this was still Zander Wade. If he could make something a good time without anyone getting hurt, he would.

  “Well, guys. I need to head out. The lady calls.”

  “Wait, is this your girl? The…” One of the agents studied her.

  “My name is Sawyer,” she told him softly. “And anything else you’ve heard…well, read the old news and draw your own conclusions.”

  “Yes ma’am.” He nodded, looking away. “Well, sir, same time tomorrow?”

  “Of course.” Zander wrapped an arm around her but she didn’t try to move with him, letting him finish his work. “Same time, and bring pads. We’re going to work on some things you all might enjoy.”

  With that, she turned him to leave. She caught a glimpse of Charlie and Liam, waving. She was due in the gym the next day as well and would catch up with them then. They seemed to have their hands full with nearly a dozen young boys and girls, probably all between the ages of seven and ten. She felt a pang of sympathy, but not a big one. Tomorrow she was dealing with the teenagers because those two said they couldn’t keep up like she could. They had abandoned her with the passionate youths with smart mouths and half brains. She loved them, but they annoyed the shit out of her sometimes.

  On the drive back to their home, she heard Zander groan and looked at him with concern.

  “You shouldn’t let them throw you around like that anymore. You’re taking a beating.”

  “They like to test me and see what kind of man once helped Shadow gain her pardon. You’re still a legend, Sawyer, and nothing is ever going to change that. So I put up with them. It’s not like their teams will ever be as good as ours.” Zander gave her a tired smile. “Think we’ll make it home after homework time?”

  “No, but I keep hoping,” she answered, beginning to laugh. She wasn’t going to touch the other topic with a ten-foot pole. Every new group Zander trained was the same. Who was this guy with the retired, once-famous assassin as a lover? They had never gotten married, but the relationship was clear. She had never married any of them, but it changed nothing. They were her men, her family, and the world knew that. It was once an argument, where she tried to fight the reputation, tried to fight that it would be used for and against all of them.

  At forty, she was done caring about it. One day she would be old, and she could admit she would still be a legend. She would be a legend among the Magi long after she died, she bet.

  “I hope Elijah handled that. He’s good at it.”

  “He is, isn’t he? Too bad Quinn is the worst influence ever,” she reminded him. That made him laugh too. “Do you think Jasper can pick you up tomorrow? Or maybe you can pick him up? Force him to get home earlier than dark o’clock?”

  “I can try,” he promised. “You know how he is about his job. He loves it.”

  “He does,” she agreed, humming an agreeing note as well. “But you know, just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean we don’t have family dinners together at least once a week.”

  “Let’s be real. You want him home earlier because he’s the best at homework time.”

  They were inside the house and they knew immediately that homework time was absolutely not over.

  “JAMES HENRY MATTHEWS! You will finish your homework before your mother gets home!” Elijah roared, obviously out of patience with whatever her son was doing today. She winced.

  “But Uncle Elijah! She’s going to be home soon, and I want to go play with the wolves before it gets dark!”

  “You would already be done and playing with the wolves if you focused and did what I asked you.”

  “It’s boring! I know all of this already!”

  Oh, he was really going for every excuse he could. She and Zander walked towards the dining room gingerly, knowing Elijah’s fatherly temper would explode if they caught James’ attention before he let them. Sure, James Henry was her son, adopted by her at birth, and raised by her, but that didn’t stop the men she loved from becoming his fathers. He called them uncle for the world, but they all knew he meant dad. The world just wouldn’t understand, and her men? They never took it personally. They loved him to pieces.

  So interrupting homework time would only spell a worse day for Elijah and James. It was the only time any of them had to get on to him. He hated homework. He was a grade ahead in school already, only nine years old, and he still seemed smarter than everyone else in his class. Hell, half the time she wondered if her boy was smarter than her.

  She peeked into the dining room, smiling. She waved at Elijah, who groaned.

  “James, go say hi to your mother.” He sounded so defeated, his head falling down to the dining table with a thump.

  “Mom!” James jumped up, looking her way like it was the first time he’d ever seen her. Her heart swelled like it did every day she came home to him.

  He leapt for her and she caught him, realizing quickly he was getting too big for the action. She spun them in a quick circle before putting him down and cursing old age.

  “Why isn’t your homework done?” she asked him immediately, knowing Elijah would get onto her for being too soft if she never brought it up. She was a soft mom, no doubt; it’s why she hated homework time. She also just didn’t care about homework. She thought it was a pointless endeavor meant to drive kids insane. Her son was evidence to the fact.

  “Uh…”

  “Yeah, now the excuses end,” Elijah muttered, making Zander behind her laugh harder than she would have liked.

  “Uncle Zander!” James purposefully diverted, leaving her to hug Zander without really giving her an answer.

  “Sounds like Jasper is going to need to give you a talking-to when he gets home, isn’t he?” Zander was chiding and yet also sweet. He lifted her boy and walked him back into the dining room. “Tell you what. If you get all your homework done, you can play with me on the game, how’s that? It’s too cold outside to play with the wolves anyway.”

  “Okay…”

  “I heard my name?” She jumped and turned to see her lawyer. Jasper was looking between them. “I just walked in. I was able to pull out early, but I had to practically run or I’m sure they would have found some way to keep me for another three hours.”

  “Ah, is my Councilman upset with his schedule?” she asked, leaning over to him. He chuckled, kissing her like she wanted. “I was just saying to Zander earlier that I wanted you to make sure you got off early enough for dinner.”

  “I’m sorry. The holidays being over, me being the junior Councilman…The WMC likes to keep me busy.”

  “I hope it’s a good busy,” she said, running her fingers over the front of his perfect suit. The campaign hadn’t been a good busy. She had a young, very young boy. James had been six and didn’t understand why the other kids looked at him funny and people were always taking pictures of them. He didn’t understand that Jasper was running for the WMC to make it better, so that nothing bad could ever happen to someone. So no one had to go down the same path his mother did to have a good life.

  She had always loved Jasper, but the day he publicly got on worldwide television and told the world that he loved her, and they had a family…Her heart had been so full. They had tried to use the team against him in a smear campaign. So they all sat down and told their story one more time. In the end, Jasper became one of the Councilmen representing North America on the World Magi Council.

  It was the perfect job for him, and he was makin
g all the changes she knew his parents would love if they had lived to see their son’s work.

  “It’s a good busy,” he promised, kissing her again. “Is it still homework time?”

  “It is. Please? I think Elijah is going to have a heart attack. He needs your help.”

  Jasper nodded, walking to the dining room. She ducked out, leaving those three to get James back on track. She needed to say hello to her last two men before getting on with starting something for dinner. She wondered which she would pull in to help with the task, even though it was her day on the schedule. One of them always did help. She was guessing Quinn today.

  She went out the back of the house and whistled. Sombra tore out of the woods first, coming straight for her.

  “Hey girl! Thanks for staying home today.” She went down to kiss the top of the jaguar’s head. “Keeping them out of trouble for me, right?”

  Sawyer didn’t get a clear answer and then found herself in a pile of animals. Shade was on her before Scout, who was the most excited but a bit slower than he used to be. They licked her face like dogs, something Quinn had taught them. When she’d asked him why, he said boys deserve dogs.

  He wanted them to be a part of James’ life, to help make it more normal, but still a brand of unique that only the team could offer him.

  “Get off of her!” Quinn called out. “Boys!”

  The wolves retreated and she reached out blindly, Quinn grabbing her hand to help her up.

  “Hey!” she greeted him brightly. He just took her cheeks and pulled her in for a slow, delicious kiss.

  “Need help with dinner?” he asked softly.

  “How did you know?”

  “James isn’t done with homework time. I’m only allowed back in the house if you needed me. I was hoping.” He gave her a small, guilty smile.

  “So you’re the reason he’s not done.” She really should have known.

  “He wants to play,” Quinn tried to explain.

  She just shook her head. “He needs to learn that doing his homework, doing the small tedious work is just as important as doing the big work.”

  “Not like you reinforce that.”

  “That why I left Elijah, Zander, and Jasper with him. Where’s Vin?”

  “He’s been in the office all day,” Quinn told her. “Will you bring him out?”

  She kissed his cheek as they walked back into the house. “I always do.”

  She left Quinn in the kitchen to get dinner started. She had to go find her last lover and her business partner.

  They had done it. Now, the home office didn’t say Vincent and Elijah on the outside of the door; it said The Castello-Matthews Private Investigation Firm. It was their shared office, where they worked to find missing children, sometimes assisting the IMPO on select, very select, cases. They helped build cases against abusive spouses and found homes for orphans, and they made no distinction between Magi and non-Magi. They did a lot of work for free, just wanting to help out.

  It helped they both loved the mental work and it was rewarding.

  But sometimes, Vincent would go too deep. Sometimes she did. They made a promise to always pull each other out when it happened. This wasn’t the game with Axel. There were none of those anymore, not for them. And if they both went too deep? They had a loving, large family to save them from themselves.

  “Vincent?” she called softly, opening the door.

  “Oh.” He jumped at her sudden appearance, his feet falling from his desk. “Sawyer. How was your day?”

  “Good,” she commented lightly, taking him in. His hair was messy. Like everyone else, he was beginning to get those laugh lines, the wrinkles that showed he lived a good life. This scene took her back though, back to the beginning. “You weren’t in here…” She looked down at his crotch, smiling.

  He laughed, shaking his head. “I was trying to nap my way through homework time,” he conceded, spreading his arms in defeat. “Can you blame me?”

  “Most of the time? No. Sometimes? Yes.” She met him in the middle of the room after he turned on some music.

  “Welcome home,” he said softly. “Dinner?”

  “Quinn’s on it,” she told him.

  Slowly they danced until Elijah stomped in and stole her, claiming he needed to give her a proper hello since James was now secure with Jasper and Zander helping him. Vincent let her get stolen and she didn’t fight the cowboy as he held her tight. Later, they would have a large meal with the people they loved. She would tuck James Henry into bed, then find one or more of them waiting in her room.

  And tomorrow it would be the same.

  And the day after.

  And the day after that.

  It was a good life, where the sun’s warmth was only matched by one thing.

  The warmth of the love she had filled it with.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading The Redemption Saga. After this, you’ll find a small, one chapter short story featuring Quinn and Sawyer on their first Halloween together. It’s set between A Nature of Conflict and An Echo of Darkness. It was once part of an anthology and when it was released back to me, I just knew it had to come into the box set!

  If you want even more content featuring Sawyer and her group, you can find all manner of unedited free content in The Banet Pride, my facebook reader’s group. You can also find out more plans I might have for another Magi who showed up once or twice in The Redemption Saga, and a lot about many of my other series!

  And if I still have you… Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive content and information on my upcoming works! I send it out monthly. Newsletter Signup!

  A Sawyer Halloween

  1

  Sawyer leaned back in the recliner, chuckling at the girl screaming on the big screen. B Horror movies were like candy and she planned on gorging on them until she hurt.

  A night to herself to do whatever she wanted. None of the men were bothering her, for the first time in what seemed like ages. Vincent, Elijah, Jasper, and Zander all went out for drinks, to be rowdy at the local bar. How they convinced the owner to let them back in after the last time the team went there was beyond her, but they had done it. They had convinced the owner that the bar fight they had been in really wasn’t that big of a deal. It astounded her. She also didn’t worry about Quinn, who was out in the woods doing his own thing.

  “Please! Don’t kill me!” she said at the same time as the girl on screen, making her voice a higher octave to make fun of it. She sipped on her drink, grinning. Yes. This was exactly how she wanted to spend her Halloween. A ritual just for her.

  The girl died pretty quickly, in a gory mess that made her laugh. The blood was so fake. The killer was overdone and ridiculous. The canon for the entire series was ridiculous. It made watching it fun for her. If it had any sort of realism, she wouldn’t find it entertaining.

  No, Halloween was Sawyer’s night to watch cheesy and bad B Horror films while laughing her ass off with a drink and popcorn.

  A snort drew her attention and she held back a groan.

  “Yes, Sombra?” she asked politely, looking to her right at the black jaguar curled up in one of the recliners, where she wasn’t supposed to be. Sawyer was allowing it since none of the guys were there to tell the jaguar she couldn’t. “Are you not enjoying yourself?”

  The jaguar was feeling cooped up. She wanted to go outside.

  “I told you that you might not like being down in the basement with me all night. I warned you.” She sighed, putting her popcorn and drink down on the small table to her left. “I’ll let you out, but I’m coming back down here.”

  Sombra didn’t want that. She wanted to go outside and play with Sawyer. She wanted to play in the night and scare the wolves.

  “You can scare the wolves without me. And you know Quinn knows the moment any of us enter those woods. Have you succeeded in sneaking up on him?” She crossed her arms, staring at the black jaguar.

  No, the jaguar had not yet succeeded
in sneaking up on the Magi that everyone called Quinn. She considered him one of the wolves.

  “Of course you do,” she mumbled, standing up. “Let’s go. I’ll entertain you for a moment, but then I’m leaving you to come back to this.”

  Sawyer didn’t know what she did to deserve getting a new animal bond, but she figured it was bad since she got a pushy, feisty jaguar. Not really. She already loved Sombra, more than most things, but they still hadn’t yet found their groove. There was a lot of butting heads and strong personalities involved.

  She watched Sombra jump off the recliner carefully. She sent a feeling of thanks through the bond when she noted that there were no claws tearing up the leather. It was something Sombra was working on. She wasn’t allowed in anyone’s bed if her claws were out.

  Sawyer opened the door for them both and watched the jaguar haul ass up the stairs. By the time Sawyer got up the stairs, Sombra had figured out the backdoor handle and ran out.

  “Shit. She’s learned how to open the doors.” That didn’t bode well for anyone, especially not her. Or Elijah. She liked curling up with the cowboy for some reason. She was going to have to warn him that closing the door was no longer going to save him from the over two hundred pound cat. Locking it would be necessary, but she wasn’t sure he had locks on his door. Maybe he could enchant the door. Maybe that would save him.

  Sawyer followed the cat outside and watched her jump around, a flood of happiness hitting the bond. She had been feeling too cooped up in the basement entertainment room.

  “I warned her she would,” she mumbled, watching the jaguar. Suddenly, those gold eyes locked with hers.

  A simple request hit the bond.

  Come play, it begged Sawyer. Come out in the woods and play in the night.

  “It’s chilly, Sombra! I just wanted to hangout and watch some movies tonight! This is my Halloween tradition!” She called it out loudly, not wanting to force the message back through the bond. “Please?”