Sawyer stayed leaned back, reclining as Vincent stood up.
“Yes. Other bright minds. Can you handle that?”
“I’m going to bring one of my own in. He’s insanely intelligent.”
“Approved. Sawyer, the rest of Castello’s team is yours.” Thompson looked down at her and she just gave a thumbs-up.
“You’re giving her authority over the agents who are supposed to be keeping her out of trouble?” one of them snapped, glaring at their collective boss.
“I’m giving her the only resources I can to make sure she can help us to her fullest ability. I can’t give her authority over anyone else or I would,” the Director fired back, his gaze just as heated. “Don’t test me. Dealing with Shadow is the least of the things I’m worried about when it comes to stopping the Triad from killing more of the WMC before we catch them.”
“If,” she corrected softly.
“We’ll catch them,” he growled at her.
“You’ll try, but don’t lose sleep at night if I end up killing any who cross my path. I’ll try to capture first though, have no doubt on that. I’m just not willing to let them get away if it’s between that and killing them. This might have started professional for them, but it’s personal for me.” It became personal the moment Naseem called her Axel’s whore. Or maybe before that, when he dared to walk into her home. He had exposed a security issue of her home and could have killed one of her guys. It was very personal to her. She stood up, intending to follow Vincent out. “I’m going to go now. Need to get my half of the team ready to go over blueprints.” And a plan started to form in her head. A dangerous one. One that required Shadow’s level of perfection and attention to detail. The same attention to detail that had led her to successful hits and a solid career as a thief.
“Yes. You may both go. Sawyer, across the hall, a team is already looking over locations around New York. I would like you to as well, and approve any they think might work. Disapprove any and give me reasons why they don’t.”
“Yes sir.” She gave him a fake salute, making him shake his head. Vincent was trying not to smile, she could see it in his eyes.
When they were nearly out, she could already hear the argument fire up about whether she should even be on the case, Code Black or not. “This is a nightmare,” she whispered immediately to Vincent.
“Yes and we’re both down teammates.” They began walking back to the main area where they left the rest of their team.
“Zander, Elijah, and Quinn are better with protection like me. Good call getting Jasper.”
“I wasn’t going to leave him to the wolves,” Vincent retorted. “Not just for his leg, but this isn’t his type of mission. He’s more useful with me.”
“I know, and I appreciate that you were looking out for him.” She smiled gently until Vincent nodded, looking away. She wanted to kiss him, so bad. “We’re going to need to be careful.”
“Just like the last time we were here. Just keep your head down.”
“Going to be hard to do when I’m in the middle of the plans.” She pointed to her three. “Elijah, Quinn, and Zander, you’re all with me. We’re going to be approving the protection detail plans and the locations.”
“Jasper, you and I are investigating the who behind the Triad and anything else we can use to catch them. We’re split, but we can make this work.”
“And me?” James spread his hands, looking between them. The fact that their handler was asking them for something to do made Sawyer feel somewhat uncomfortable.
“Go take a nap,” Vincent answered, leaving with Jasper.
“I mean, don’t you have a thing you can do?” she asked him, as he stood up.
James shrugged in return, rubbing his eyes. “Most of us handlers are just twiddling our thumbs. We don’t have much going on in this. We’re retired Special Agents. I’ll go mess with Thompson.” He threw a grin at her. “He and I used to be the Vincent and Elijah of our own team. There’s a fun fact you can overthink today.”
She was left gaping at him as he walked away.
Elijah chuckled softly, then tapped her shoulder. “We never told you? A shame. Yeah, it’s why we think he’s the best handler. Sure, he’s a right pain, but he looks out for us and helped us build this team. He also has the ear of the Director, who claims that James doesn’t sway his choices - but we all know better.”
“That’s wild.” Sawyer looked over who she had left. Just over half the team. “You all ready?”
“Ready to stop assassins from killing our government?” Zander sighed, looking up to the ceiling as if he were silently praying to a god.
“No, are you ready to catch them?” She thumped his arm and started walking away. She might approve the security plans, but she wasn’t going to let herself get stuck on guard duty. She was going after these motherfuckers. Naseem walked into her house to kill her. She had a bone to pick with that SOB.
And she refused to acknowledge how much she liked the idea of going toe to toe with someone who held just as much of a professional reputation as she did. Something about just the idea of it sent a thrill through her that got her nearly as high as sex.
Serial killers, fighters, Druids. None of them had the same thrill as going after one of her own kind.
17
James
James walked away from his team, knowing something was wrong. They had been split up, which was never good, but not only that, they had been given positions that would put them in the thick of it.
He went directly to Thompson, hoping the meeting was finally over. When he reached the door, he could already hear the arguing. Shadow, of all people, couldn’t be so involved in security. It was unacceptable. Thompson was crazy for thinking she was trustworthy.
With a deep breath beforehand, James walked in and grinned at all of them.
“She’s not so bad!” he chastised lightly. “If anything, she’s dedicated to whatever she’s doing, and now you’ve focused her on this. Good idea, Thompson.”
“Director. He might be your old teammate, but he’s still the Director of the IMPO,” one of the old farts snapped.
“I’ll remind you that I was offered and given this job because he refused,” Thompson muttered, glaring at the old man. Then he looked up to James. “What do you need, you fool?”
“See, I don’t want Sawyer in the thick of this either.” James crossed his arms, closing the door behind him. He made a point of saying her real name. The more people said Shadow, the more they separated her from being a real person. Sawyer Matthews was a real girl. An orphaned Magi with a heartbreaking story. Shadow was a figment of death. “They tried to kill her, Thompson. Why are you going to put her in their line of fire?”
“If she wants to be an IMPO agent, then she needs to act like one.”
“I just got that team back from hell. And the Amazon was hell. I don’t want to lose another team, Thompson, and I already nearly have twice this year.” He ignored that the others were in the room. They all knew the story, had been working with the IMPO for just as long, if not longer, than he had. “I’ve lost two too many already.”
Thompson narrowed his eyes. “You get attached too easily.”
“I do, I’ll admit that. And these kids are a pain in my and everyone else’s asses. I think it’s why I like them so much.” James laughed, shrugging. “I’m not looking for them to get killed when they should be in a safe house, Thompson. A safe house I would prefer far away from New York.”
He wanted them to be heroes, but not like this. This was too much. This had the stink of death on it, and he wasn’t going to see another team of his get caught in a bad place.
Their graves.
“James-”
“I watched them get dragged into the Amazon, Thompson. I got calls about how Sawyer and Quinn couldn’t be found. I remember reading the body counts from that mission.” James’ voice turned hard. “You will not get them killed here. I’ve invested too much into this team.”
> They glared at each other now.
“Too bad.” Thompson walked out and James walked after him, refusing to drop this.
“I’m not letting you do this to them.” He tried to grab his friend’s arm, but Thompson yanked it away.
“They’re all I have!” Thompson roared in the hallway. People stopped and looked, but neither of them cared. “I need experts. We have one. Only one. And I get that she’s also a target, but she’s also already proven that she can take care of herself. And you were always the one telling me how fucking good this team is. Their record also speaks for itself.” He lowered his voice. “I know, James. I do. You were destroyed by the loss of your first team. I know these kids mean the world to you. I know they’re very young compared to most Special Agents, but they are all I have. I need Sawyer’s expertise, and we both know that I can’t just have her. They will all come following her if I tried.”
“Then I want to be shifted into an active role. With Vincent and Jasper on the intelligence team, put me on protection with Sawyer, Elijah, Quinn, and Zander.”
“You want me to make you an active agent again? Are you insane? We haven’t seen active duty since two thousand seven, James. A decade ago.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.” James held out his arms. “I’m not too old for it. We have Special Agents and teams older than both of us.”
He wasn’t letting these kids die in this mess, and he had such a bad gut feeling that they would. He had felt similarly about the Amazon. That entire mission had made him sick to his stomach. He’d worked his hardest to get the IMAS and Councilwoman D’Angelo off their backs, and he’d failed. He’d nearly lost all of them in the process.
He wanted them to be heroes and live through it. He wanted them to ride off with the world at their feet.
He didn’t want them to be recognized for the good people they were long after they were gone. He wanted them to have it while they were alive.
“You’re mad. Crazy. James, I can’t-”
“We’re talking about young men and a young woman who have survived the worst this world has to offer. Orphans, backwoods prejudice, terrifying family legacies, lost families and loves. They are so young, Thompson. If you’re going to make them active in this as much as you seem to want, then I want to be in it with them. To keep them safe.”
The Director sighed, looking over him. “At least you stayed in shape.” He chuckled weakly. “You always had a big heart.”
“It’s a handler’s job to do whatever is necessary for the team they are assigned. From their mental health to their professional careers. We had a shit handler - a couple. I won’t be that for them. You know, since this team formed, my entire goal has been them. I don’t give a shit about the politics, or my job past them. You should have known this was coming.”
“Yeah…Makes me wish you and I had a handler like you.” Thompson ran a hand through his hair. “Go. Approved. Godspeed, James. And tell those kids they’re lucky to have a man like you looking out for them.”
“Godspeed, Thompson.” He’d never had much of a family, much like Sawyer and Zander in that regard. While he could never be truly in their lives, he looked at the team as his family, from a distance. Kids he had to watch grow up, try new things, get in trouble. Messes, and pains in his ass. He was like a detached parent or older brother.
And he’d put them where they were. He’d let Vincent make this team. He’d helped them get the members they wanted in Zander and Jasper. He’d been the one to convince Thompson that Quinn was an asset, not a danger to the organization. And he’d let them keep the stray that was Sawyer.
This was his team, from a distance.
He walked into the room across the hall, just in time to see the assassin herself lose her patience.
“You can’t put that few guards in this location. I keep fucking telling you that you need a guard nearly at every fucking corner and you keep fucking ignoring me, you stupid shit. If you want the Councilmembers here to die quickly, you might have missed the reason we’re in Code Black.”
The room was silent as an older agent stood up and looked to the door. He glared at James as if this was somehow his fault. He just walked in.
“I won’t take orders from a criminal,” he said, growling the last word like it was a curse.
“Too fucking bad,” she snapped, crossing her arms. “I’m the only person who can look at the blueprints and see all the options. This place is fine to hold like seven of them, over half of the WMC, but you need to put the right amount of guards on it. Seriously, not one on every corner, two. One will just get killed or incapacitated. Two at least have a chance to get word out if something happens.”
“It’s a waste of manpower,” the older agent said. “You think too highly of your kind.”
“I think highly of them because none of you have stopped them. Reminder, I’m the only assassin the IMPO has caught in a very long time, and it was a fucking accident, on just about everyone’s part, including the team who caught me.” She pointed at the blueprints on the table again. “They will walk in and they will destroy you. They will get in, kill who they please and walk out if you don’t listen to me.”
“Why is this even a problem?” Elijah cut in. “Why can’t you just swallow your pride and follow the advice? We have an expert on assassins. She literally survived a run-in with Naseem last night. What is your issue?”
“She shouldn’t even be here,” another agent yelled out. “She’s a murderer.”
“So am I, but we all ignore that,” a Russian accent said into the argument. “She’s come to our side.”
“You did all of that for your brother.”
“I’m sure she had her reasons as well. If some guy in the Bronx, a doctor and healer, is willing to speak for her, then I see no reason why we shouldn’t.”
James watched her face while the bickering continued. He’d seen it once or twice, just glimpses of it. He’d been told by all the guys on the team that her dark eyes could get so cold, so endless. Dark depths of horror and pain, endless abysses of the night. They weren’t black, her eyes, but when the light wasn’t hitting them just right, they were like cold obsidians, giving away just as little emotion as the stone itself.
He saw it now. As she also listened to the bickering, her eyes were hard. There was an emotionless quality to her entire face that honestly frightened him a little. She could lock it all away, and well. The only reason he knew what she was feeling was his empathy. Her pain. Her regret. Her shame. Her heartbreak. And underneath it was pride. For herself or the guys standing up for her, he couldn’t tell, but it was there.
“Do the changes,” James said. He was the ranking member in the room. None of them stopped bickering. “Do the changes!” he snapped louder, his eyes still on her. He didn’t like how cold she was. He didn’t like that the temperature of the room had been dropping either. That, he had felt before, in the meeting with D’Angelo and the General. He hadn’t liked it then either.
“Yes sir,” the old agent growled. “We’ll put two to four IMAS soldiers at every point. What about this one?” He pointed to a single hallway.
“There too,” she whispered. “Now with that location taken care of, let’s move on to the second one. Will there be a third?”
“We think two locations are best. Three might stretch us too far.”
“Okay. Two we can make work.” Her arms stayed crossed. James narrowed his eyes on a hand that found itself on her back. Quinn was rubbing her back slowly, the sight blocked by Zander and Elijah from most of the room.
Quinn, of all people, was touching someone else.
“James, what are you doing here?” Zander asked him and he blinked, refocusing on why he was actually in the room.
“I’ve been moved to active service during the Code Black! I’m officially a Special Agent without a team, though I’m hoping mine will have me.”
“Oh my fucking god,” Elijah muttered. “James, are you serious?”
“I am. I’ll remind you that I once did your job. It’ll be fine. I wanted to give a helping hand, and the IMPO needs the manpower and the experience.” And he needed to keep them alive.
“Well, we’re glad to have you,” she whispered, still looking at the blueprints. She sent him a small smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes. Eyes that had dark circles underneath them. He reminded himself to find out where his team could get some sleep. They had been up much earlier than everyone else, since they had been attacked.
The meeting continued without much more issue. He figured it was because of his rank. It was obvious he was there to keep his team in charge and alive. If they were too busy planning, maybe they wouldn’t try to go out into the field. He gave them more weight. If one person tried to scoff at a change she wanted, he would order it to be done anyway. And there was no arguing with James, the old friend and teammate of Director Thompson. No one was that stupid, not in the IMPO. The WMC and the IMAS, certainly, but not in their home organization.
As people began sending out the orders and plans, others started to wander out, looking for places to sleep.
“You can all come to my condo,” James offered as they were left alone. “I know you all need sleep. I have a few couches and a spare bedroom.”
“Seriously?” Zander perked up immediately. He felt for the reckless redhead. He wasn’t much of a planner, and the day must have been wearing on him.
“Yes. Let’s find Vincent and Jasper, then you can all come with me. I’m only two blocks from the headquarters, and I’m actually in a good halfway point between here and one of the safe houses. It should work out.”
“And the animals?” Quinn asked, pointing to the zoo following the team. A jaguar and two wolves. He knew Vincent probably was already letting Kaar figure himself out but the collared big predators needed a place to stay and bunker down.
“My building has a rooftop garden for Magi animal bonds.”
“Then it’s acceptable.” Quinn’s ice blue eyes were tired, more tired than James had known the feral Magi was capable of.
An Echo of Darkness (The Redemption Saga Book 4) Page 20
