Chapter 24
I’d spent a decade between these walls, more home than anything else I’d experienced.
As I dragged my bloody fingers down the pristine white, leaving a filthy mark, I realized home wasn’t a place.
It was a person. My home walked ahead, watching her phone and flicking through the cameras to make sure our path was clear.
Home was people.
Ray planted his hand on Lyra’s shoulder to keep her from bumping into the wall, and Jonah scouted ahead, nimble on his feet despite his gigantic size. The men I once considered my enemies had become my home. I swallowed a laugh. They were here, fighting for her, but also for me.
How strange—the tightness in my chest and the way words fled from my tongue. I’d spent days imagining this moment. More heroic for me in my imagination than reality, I was going to break free, destroy this place from the inside out, and crawl back to Lyra if I had to.
But she’d followed, and if I’d interpreted her unsaid words earlier correctly, she’d forgiven me. Hunger surged, and my mouth filled with saliva. I didn’t dare hope. I opened the door to the bedroom gifted to me when I joined the council and grimaced.
My sparse belongings were strewn on the floor, and the drawers smashed into splinters. The mattress lay at an angle, soaking up the remnants of a forgotten soda can.
“They tossed it, figures,” Jonah shook his head.
Ray plucked a shirt off the pile on the floor and tossed it at me. “Put a shirt on. Your perfect abs are giving mine a run for their money, and I’m too happy with my life to give up carbs.”
His gaze narrowed as he spotted the stingray on my shoulder.
“Wait a second.” Ray reached out and grazed the tattoo, colored with bruises and ink. “This is real.”
“Plants?” Jonah grunted, a question in his tight jaw.
Ray puffed his chest out. “Brother beau, did you get a tattoo for us? I thought you were afraid of needles?”
My skin prickled, and I gauged Lyra’s reaction, too busy sifting through the mess on the floor. I’d poured my heart out to her and revealed my penance, not for her forgiveness but a small part of me still hoped for mercy.
“It’s nothing.”
Ray pouted as he poked the growing bruise over the stingray’s head. “Are you kidding? You’re even hotter with tattoos.”
I shot him a wicked grin after tugging on the shirt. It smelled musty. “No competition. We know who the prettiest one in this group is.”
Ray pulled Lyra into his arms to nuzzle her neck. “Is he talking about you or me?”
I waited for her to pull away and snap at him. But she didn’t. Interesting. My blood rushed with hope.
I turned my back on the trashed room and dragged the metal locker in the corner over with a grunt.
The bruises on my side ached, and I bit my tongue.
Getting beaten for hours on end wasn’t ideal, but I’d not let anything slip.
Skin would heal, but my belief in my mental strength wouldn’t if I let a few measly agents break me.
“Maybe we can find something in the armory.” Lyra planted her hands on her hips.
“Let’s not be hasty.” I popped the false floor tile to reveal a custom-made metal box designed to fit into the space. “Give me a hand?”
Jonah, Ray, and I braced our hands on the box and pulled until my lower back felt like it might snap.
Lyra let out a pleased gasp as I popped off the top to reveal a stash of weapons.
Knock me out a million times. Threaten me with needles.
Make me bleed until I was dizzy. It didn’t matter as long as I got to hear her pleased little noises.
Steel and dust. Not the best combination, but my stash was untouched. The Unseen might have trashed my useless clothing, but they’d found nothing in my room. This was the only thing that mattered. Everything else I cared about I’d marked on my skin.
“Fuck. You don’t mess about.” Ray whistled, pulling out pistols, knives, and more tech that made Lyra gasp again. The drones and comm jammer weren’t as necessary when she held The Unseen’s entire system in her palm on her phone.
“I prefer being armed to the teeth for revenge, don’t you agree?”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Jonah grunted with approval, shrugging on a vest.
I caught Lyra’s gaze, and the warmth in it made my chest tighten. If I pulled her close, could I coax some of that admiration into words? I still couldn’t believe she’d come for me and everything I’d dreamed of was so close to fruition.
We just had to kill a fuckload of people first.
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Lyra’s soft voice was a feather down my spine.
I wrinkled my nose. Did she think some measly torture was enough to keep me down? Hadn’t I told her how I grew up? I’d survived far worse days than this.
“Do I look like a quitter?”
“You’re giving handsome, insane person, and we’re so fucking glad you’re alright.” Ray tucked an assault rifle clip into his vest and grinned at me.
“You too.”
I meant it. When I had the ray and plants tattooed, I’d pondered when the first time I accepted them was. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific moment. Maybe after Ellington took Lyra, and I realized I couldn’t keep fighting them, not if I wanted a chance to keep her.
She was mine.
But she was also theirs. Sharing strangled my throat. I’d been born selfish, and my stay in the hospital only exacerbated my tendencies. Not only selfish, but cruel. More cold and empty than any living person with a beating heart should be.
But I didn’t want to tear out their throats when I saw them, behind Lyra like a shield. A steady pulse of warmth spread through my chest as I caught sight of us in the shattered mirror on the wall. That was who we were.
Broken, jagged pieces that made our own version of whole.
“I’ve been tracking the cameras and monitoring for keywords. I think the people we want are in these rooms, and I’m going to open select doors and funnel them into this bigger hall.”
I snickered. The council met in this room. How fitting. We moved with purpose, aiming to get there before our special guests did. The hallways were familiar, but the air was stale, something I’d never noticed before.
My boots echoed on the polished concrete floors, and my nostrils burned with a clinical, chemical scent. Everything in this place was a lie, and that used to suit me. But now I had people to live for, and if The Unseen threatened them, they could feel my wrath.
Today, we would cleanse with ash and blood.
Inside the room, we waited, and Jonah trained his weapon on the door. I wondered if Lyra was frightened. My fingers itched to cover her pulse and find out. Mine was steady, as always. The only time I’d felt fear was when I thought I’d lost Lyra for good.
“What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to interrogate the council and find out who is working with Larson. Then we’re going to dismantle the entire thing.” Lyra’s jaw clenched.
With each person who walked through the door, Ray dealt a swift thwack to the back of their necks. Until we had eight members of the council, and a pile of agents unlucky enough to be in their company.
“Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. I’m calling a meeting.” My smile was a bloody promise.
There was Belford Rush, a casino owner who leveled up.
Ashlynn Adwin, who inherited the role from her grandmother.
Larson King, the primary culprit, was missing, but that didn’t surprise me.
How was it that this group had the power to shift and break empires?
In person, they weren’t so intimidating.
“What is it you hope to achieve, Beck? The Unseen asks for one thing. Loyalty. You proved you can’t be trusted. It’s not personal.” Belford spoke with an authority I couldn’t accept.
His gray hair made my veins rush with blistering blood. Why did he get the pleasure of old age while we had to die? He pursed his lips when I didn’t reply.
“The Unseen is rotting around you. The question is, are you involved or not?” Lyra pressed her gun against Belford’s head and rolled her eyes when he protested.
“You don’t know—” Belford argued, and Lyra slapped the desk with a snarl.
“Spare me. I’m not the naive agent you sent to Greenich Bay.
Or the traumatized eighteen-year-old whose mom you murdered.
” Ashlynn’s eyes widened at that nugget.
“ I’m sure you don’t even know my name, except I make a convenient pawn.
Does the name Angelo Amato mean anything to you, or Thornridge? What about Ellington Vizor?”
I watched each council member as she said the names. Without the clamor of adrenaline or unnecessary emotions, dissecting the micro-expressions of each member was methodical. The twitch of an upper lip, the flare of a nostril. I’d studied expressions for enough years to interpret them.
Ashlynn rubbed her neck. Classic attempt to self-soothe. Was it guilt or something else, though?
“These four.” I grabbed Belford, enjoying the puff of distress he let out. “He’s running the show after Larson. I’d put money on it.”
“We’re all civilized people here, Beck. Let’s talk. There is no need for all this.” A woman with startling blue eyes lifted her chin in defiance.
“Civilized?” I rolled the word around my mouth until it wrapped in blood. “I served The Unseen for years, and would have continued to kill and maim and destroy for the rest of my life, but you fucked up. You tried to kill the only person I love in this world.”
The members I selected squirmed in their seats.
“You had her mom killed to recruit her.” I let the knowledge loose like an arrow, and again, Ashlynn reacted, rubbing her hands together.
“Something to say?” Ray nudged his gun against her temple with a nod from me.
Lyra turned her focus from the four earmarked members and stalked down the table. Ashlynn’s sigh whistled in the darkened room. The council members were used to being here in their masks, in the shadows and safe. Now they had to sweat out in the open.
“The Unseen have always been ruthless when recruiting. Are you really surprised?” Ashlynn’s voice was like sandpaper, and the sound made Lyra stiffen.