76
EMERSYN
I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d never see him again.
My heart ached as I watched his ears perk at his name, and his giant head turned toward me.
Those gold eyes I’d fallen in love with locked onto me—gold eyes that felt like home.
He sniffed the air warily, still unsure as I stepped past Griffin.
A low rumble of warning escaped him, but it cut off abruptly when he realized it was me.
He was a blur of grey, and then I was tackled to the ground as his whines of joy and a very wet tongue assaulted my face.
I vaguely heard the echo of guns as they locked onto us, but I was too wrapped up in Fang to worry about them shooting him.
I let out a laugh, choked around a sob, and blinked the tears out of my eyes so I could see him better.
“Hey, boy,” I murmured. “How are you here?”
I somehow managed to sit up as Fang continued to try and tackle me with his full-body wiggles of joy. I looked over at Griffin’s team. The man Griffin had called Kyllion had an incredulous look on his face, jaw dropped in a comical way. The other men stared in various degrees of horror.
“Oh fuck,” one whispered.
Despite the gun still pointed at him, he clutched a tablet to his chest, and I figured he had to be Rune.
A sinking feeling slowly leeched the joy away as I settled on the implications of what this meant that Fang was here.
My mind raced, even as I looked at Griffin’s team and asked the question I both dreaded and needed to know.
“How do you have Fang?” I asked.
“Where’s Lincoln?” I heard Griffin ask behind me at nearly the same time.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Rune tore his eyes from Fang and I to look at Griffin. “Lincoln is the mole.”
Silence descended, a feat, considering how many people were crammed into the foyer.
“Stand down.” My father ordered, and his men immediately holstered their weapons. “Everyone into the war room. Now.”
Nyx pulled open a set of large french doors where I could see a seating area and a large wooden table. Griffin tried to help Kyllion to his feet, but the man shoved his hand away and glared at him.
“Fuck you, man. After everything we've been through—”
“I had to be sure,” Griffin said.
Kyllion waved him off and stormed into the war room, where he threw himself down into a seat.
Fang stuck close to me and growled at anyone who came too close, as I followed everyone into the war room and sat down in an armchair out of the way.
My father looked at the one who clutched the tablet and confirmed my suspicion.
“Rune. Explain.”
“Alright—well—wait, where’s Seven?”
Griffin’s lips thinned and he shook his head. A devastating look flickered across Rune’s face and Kyllion looked even more angry if that was possible.
“Damn—I was hoping his tracker just failed,” he murmured.
He glanced over at North. “Okay. I—I suppose I’ll start at the beginning then. But first—” He tapped away on the tablet in quick, urgent movements.
“West?” Rune turned to a man in glasses with a laptop who had slipped into the seat next to him. West gave Rune the nod, and an image appeared on the glass wall.
“What the fuck,” I breathed.
It was a picture of Lev.
“Emersyn, do you know this person?” Rune asked.
I felt every single person’s attention, but I had eyes only for the photo on the screen.
At times I’d wondered what had happened to Lev after I’d been captured.
After the failed op that had killed everyone—after I’d killed Riggs.
The past tightened its hold around me, and I dug my fingers into Fang’s fur.
He whined and rested his head on my thigh. Griffin put a hand on my shoulder.
“That was my tech ops,” I said. “His name is Lev.”
Rune nodded and exchanged another look of confirmation with Griffin. I could feel the anger radiating from him, his hand hot and heavy on my shoulder. I looked up and sure enough, rage glittered in his eyes.
“We know this man as Lincoln,” Rune said. “And for the last three years, he’s been feeding information of our movements to Mahoney, hindering our ability to find Emersyn.”
“Where is he now?” My father asked.
“We’re assuming he went back to Mahoney.
Once Griffin and Seven went undercover, I spent time attempting to figure out our mole problem.
I set a few traps and that paid off. We were about to move on the island for exfil when I caught Lincoln relaying encrypted messages to someone.
I brought Kyllion, and the rest of the team up to speed, but before we were able to confront Lincoln, he ran. ”
My father frowned at the photo, then turned to me.
“Tell me more about his position on your team,” my father said.
I could tell he desperately wanted to know the details about all of that because when I’d said tech ops, the surprise on his face had been obvious.
“Three years ago, when I was taken—the safe house was compromised—that must have been when they found him. If he was dirty before that, I wasn’t aware.”
But, he had been loyal to Riggs. I couldn’t ignore that. I didn’t want to think about how deep his sabotage might run, and if he was misleading my path to Octavius even before that op.
“What was the connection with Mahoney?” Nyx asked.
“There was none,” I said. “At least that I knew of. The team was formed to go after Octavius. I’d heard Mahoney’s name, but I didn’t meet him until the island.”
“We recently discovered Mahoney has ties to Octavius and Basilion,” Griffin said. “He was going to use Emersyn. First, to gain favor with the brothers, and second, to use her to leverage you to go after Albatron who they have a rivalry with.”
“The brothers are fighting?” Nyx asked.
Griffin nodded confirmation, but my father continued to stare at me. His eyes sharpened dangerously, and I watched his fist tighten on top of the table.
“You went after Octavius?” He repeated.
I nodded. He wanted to ask why. I saw it in his eyes. But, I also saw the apprehension there.
“We spent years dismantling his organizations in an attempt to get to him.”
It was all I could offer in a room full of people. Silence descended on the room. Nyx shifted beside my father and when I glanced at him, I saw he battled to keep a smile off his face. Atlas elbowed him hard, obviously none of this was funny. Nyx turned to him, and the grin broke through.
“What? Like father, like daughter,” he whispered loudly. “I can’t be the only one thinking it.”
“So Lincoln, Lev—has run back to Mahoney,” Knight stated. “Mahoney obviously didn’t succeed in giving Emersyn over to the brothers. So, where are they all now? Will they come for her?”
“Octavius isn’t a problem anymore,” Griffin interrupted.
“Why?”
“Because I killed him,” I said.
Silence again, except for Nyx. “See? I told you—ouch!”
He glared at Atlas who had a benign look on his face.
I felt my father’s attention, and the entire room dropped away as I slowly looked his way.
I don’t know what I was afraid I’d see, but the look on his face made my heart lurch in my chest. That’s what pride looked like. That’s what love looked like.
“I don’t think Basilion will come for her,” Griffin answered. “He has bigger problems because Albatron will be moving on him now.”
“Have we found Mahoney?” My father asked.
“He’s back on his island,” West said. “And I just received this.”
He threw an email up on the screen, and Nyx started to read.
“Greetings my new friends—this motherfucker,” he muttered before he continued.
“In a show of continued good faith, and because I assume your next vendetta will be against Mahoney, I would like to share with you some information I consider pertinent to your cause—how nice of him—As I’m sure you’re aware, Mahoney is still on his island and doesn’t appear to be making any moves to relocate.
More importantly, Basilion has disowned Mahoney—” Nyx whistled low. “While Mahoney has his own resources, he will receive no help and has been cut off. Apparently, giving a gift that ended up killing his brother doesn’t earn any favors with the rest of the family. Do with that what you will.
Further, Basilion’s transition into power after Octavius’ death has occurred as expected, and we will be moving on him shortly to capitalize on this unrest. As we so briefly discussed, ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’—ha, he’s a funny one—” Nyx said dryly.
“I am not one to ask for things, so this is highly out of character and, as my second, Dante would say, out of practice, but this is a formal request for space to accomplish the removal of Basilion.
To put things plainly; I need a year.
After that, if you feel called to come extract whatever vengeance you believe is required, I will meet you on the battlefield.
To further this dazzling display of good faith, I’ve included the full blueprints of the island.
Good luck.
Albatron’”
“So, he expects us to take out Mahoney,” Nyx said. “And just sit by and let him take out Basilion?”
“That would give him an absurd amount of power—basically without impediment,” Atlas agreed.
“Impeding him would require siding with Basilion,” Knight said. “I doubt that’s something we want to do. Or, if we go after Albatron right away, then he’s fighting two battles which means yeah, we could probably eliminate him, but then we’d have to go after Basilion.”
“Who at that point would have the resources of the entire family business,” West said.
Knight shook his head. “We’re really in a shit situation. Either way we inadvertently help Albatron.”
“It does seem like it would be to our advantage to let Basilion and Albatron battle things out between themselves—weaken each other, the entire structure—before we have a go at him,” Nyx mused.
“Do you think Albatron will win?” West asked.
“If I was a betting man, I’d put good money on it,” Nyx said.
“Why didn’t he use Emersyn as leverage?” Graham asked. “Albatron could have had all of NorTac at his disposal—”
My father shook his head. “He knows better. He’s been watching us—watching me—he knows I would have done everything to make that impossible for him. Not to mention it would have been one more thing for him to deal with. No, this was a character demonstration.”
“Kind of risky,” Nyx muttered.
“Yes, but he wanted us to get a different opinion of him so we’d agree to give him the space he needs,” my father said.
“He’s an interesting man—” Nyx leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head as he looked over at West’s laptop. I watched him narrow his eyes, and his chair thudded to the ground.
“Tex—what’s going on at the front gate?” He demanded, suddenly all business.
West pulled up the security feed and threw it up on the big screen. A man had his hands up, the guards at the gate held him at gunpoint, and one spoke into his radio.
“The man is demanding to speak to Griffin, boss,” Tex said from his place near the door.
We watched as the man stumbled, fell to his knees and almost faceplanted before he caught himself on his forearms. He was unrecognizable. Tattered clothing, blood, and dirt made him look more like a corpse—
“He’s in pretty bad shape,” Tex reported. “Says, his name is—” He was listening to someone on the other end. “Sev—? Unclear. Could it be—”
Oh my god. It wasn’t possible.
I didn’t bother waiting for Tex to finish before I jumped up from the chair, hot on Griffin’s heels. He hadn’t hesitated either and was out the door before the words died on Tex’s lips. I didn’t dare hope.
I didn’t dare let myself hope a ghost was at the gate.