Chapter 28 Azrael #2
“Don’t use that name,” he snarled, taking a step forward. “That was not what they were.”
“It’s what you called Them,” I purred. “Cub, have you told your little mouse about the murderous rampage you went on when you were 19? Some might have mistaken you for me.”
“Yes,” she said tightly. “Yes, he did.”
My eyes shifted to hers. Surprising, but not too surprising. The cub had a soft heart, I had assumed, at some point in their soft lives, that he would divulge his one slip up. After all, not even he could ignore what father dearest had turned us into.
“Lest we forget,” I went on, meeting each pair of the woman’s eyes, “how none of you would have the ability to stand back and watch an underage child be sold to a man four times her age so that he can take her back and rape her over and over and over again before bringing her to church on Sunday and forcing her to ask their precious Savior for forgiveness because she allowed herself to become impure with his cock.”
“What the fuck, Azrael,” the fox breathed out, shaking her head.
“Don’t,” the rose warned her sister, her eyes still locked on mine. “It’s not a game. That was real.”
“And so are the memories the daffodil has yet to remember,” I spoke with a deadly calm. “None of you have the strength to stand back and wait.”
“Because we shouldn’t be,” Rae stated icily. “We should be fighting this. Destroying what they built, saving those kids—”
“Continue cutting the branches while the roots thrive,” the rose said, her eyes shifting to the mountains.
He watched her for a long time before his eyes found mine. “We left well enough alone—”
“Everett,” the daffodil argued.
“He’s right, Rae. I understand that you have a stake in this, but the last time we did this, all we did was drive them deeper underground. We rid the world of half a dozen when we could have rid the world of hundreds had we been a little more patient, but we couldn’t handle it.”
“They are torturing kids!” she snarled. “Children! They are doing to them what they did to us. Jack,” she went on, turning to her little prince.
“He’s a part of this. He’s out there ruining other people’s lives while we, what?
Chase other targets? Go on other assignments, letting him rape other girls? ”
Jacky boy turned to me. “It’s been three years. How much patience are you expecting us to have?”
“All of it,” I said evenly. “If you want the innocence to survive this little ordeal, and I know how much you people do love innocence, you will continue to be patient. You will continue to wait, and you will not speak a word of this anywhere with speakers, trackers, or cameras. This includes Big Brother, or as you all love to call them, father dearest and dear Uncle.”
The cub straightened. “Why? They should know about this.”
“Sorry, little cub, this is one of those secrets we have to keep, and if I think any of you are going to waltz right back into the building and tattle,” I chuckled, “I’ll slit your throat before you leave the alley.”
The little mouse looked over to the daffodil, her expression shifting while the men stewed in their own anger. “Rae,” she said after a few seconds.
The yellow flower of fire continued to glare, her blue eyes burning with a rage I knew all too well.
“Rae,” she tried again, taking her hand.
The daffodil sneered and looked over, her expression softening.
“He’s right. We have to let him do this.”
I straightened, shocked that it was the mouse that spoke first.
Jacky boy looked over. “What are you saying, Emily?”
Her hand only tightened around the daffodil’s. “He’s been doing this for years. Going AWOL, showing up at our places, taunting us, but still always showing up when we needed him.”
My lip curled. She mistook convenience for kindness.
“He says he has a source—”
“Who his target has already broken beyond recognition.”
“No,” the rose said, her voice clear, her eyes still trained on me. “Not beyond recognition.” She looked over to the other flower. “He’s using her for information. She’s not lost, she’s just…locked away.”
“In Wonderland, some might say,” I hummed, earning many glares.
“He’s using her to get the information he needs to finish this.
” She turned to me. “You said that the ace was ready to play on December 19th. You urged us not to intervene, and I had them turn the plane around because of that. That’s when things started taking a turn, right? It went from watching to acting.”
I angled my head. “Not long after that was my first session with her.”
“Session,” the daffodil breathed out. “They have sessions.”
“You have to trust him,” the rose said as the daffodil turned away.
“And why should we trust you?” the hound asked the rose. “You’re barely a babe in this world. At least Rae went through the program and Emily knows she can’t crack it out here, but you?” she asked, angling her head. “You were nothing before you met Everett.”
My eyes shifted to the mountains. His eyes were a raging storm, but his body was calm. He made no move to stand up for his collared girl.
Probably because he knew the same thing I did.
The wild rose laughed, causing my smile to grow, her little wolf snarling quietly, her ears pinned back.
“While you all stand around, lying to yourselves about the fear you feel for your youngest brother, I admire him, strive to be him, understand his motives.
Weeds will always grow back unless you pull the entire root out.
Even if there is a morsel of a root left, a breath of one, it will sprout through cracks in the concrete just to thrive again.
“What you guys have failed to see is the connection between us all. How nobody has gone after them,” she gestured towards the boys, “until after they found us. A weakness. Azrael showing up exactly when he must to give us a few crumbs, as if he knew what was going to happen before it happened.”
I watched her unblinkingly, daring her to go on.
“Something about who came after us and who he is hunting inside that church is connected. All of us alerting all at once is exactly what can’t happen because if it did—”
“Then they’ll either run or attack,” the mouse finished, glancing in my direction before turning back to the rose.
She nodded. “What Azrael is trying to do is smart. Unless you want to hunt down your father and kill him?” she asked the daffodil.
“Perhaps we save his newest victim, but what about the others? Let’s give it best case scenario and we storm whatever church he’s embedded himself into.
Kill them all, save the children, keep them from hunting us down.
Go us,” she cheered, earning a deadly glare from the hound. “But what about the others?”
The cub looked over. “Others?”
My eyes remained on the rose, proud of how much she had put together since the last time I visited her.
She deserved all the praise that mountain boy was willing to give.
All I could offer her was another morsel.
“There are seven main establishments, branches from each one, daycares, and perhaps a school or two, but I can’t confirm that yet. ”
The rose turned back to them. “We destroyed one church and forced them to close ranks, now what? His cover is blown, perhaps they commit mass genocide and cut their losses. Now everyone’s dead, congratulations, Zo, you saved the fucking day.”
She worked her jaw, straightening, but kept her mouth shut.
The rose shook her head. “Don’t prove to the world that old dogs can’t learn new tricks.
You all are smarter than this, I know it, I’ve seen it.
The best thing Everett and Evie ever taught me was to use the anger to benefit us, not control us.
This is just another test. Trust me when I say, just because the Delepski’s are all dead, doesn’t mean I don’t want the world to pay for what happened to me.
I was almost sold to your father, Rae. He violated me too, but the only way to make him really pay for what he’s done is to let him get away with this until he doesn’t.
There are, according to Azrael, many many others out there just like him.
We cannot allow this to be just another handful of people that we take down, only to lose the majority of them.
We have to play this smart. You have to trust him. ”
The daffodil, who had walked several feet away, finally turned back to me, her eyes flaming, a war going on in her head.
“Why didn’t you tell us three years ago?
” she asked. “All you’ve done since I met you is hide things and keep secrets, telling us to be patient, but not telling us why. Why didn’t you allow us to help?”
“Because,” Red answered before I had decided whether or not it was worth the repetition, “we care too much.”
When everyone turned to her, she only shrugged.
“He doesn’t like repeating himself and everyone here knows that.
He let me in the church, not that he had a choice,” she went on, shooting a glare at me.
“Someone else is in there with him, so Olivia is not just asking you to trust him, she’s asking you to trust us both.
We’ll bring you in the very second we know that we can take them down without leaving roots, as she put it. For now, we have to rely on patience.”
They all exchanged looks, the anger and frustration dimming to what I hoped was bitter acceptance.
The daffodil finally shook her head, taking Jacky boy’s hand as she did. “I’m not waiting another three years, Azrael. I won’t. If the game is finally being played, then you won’t have the time to stop us all. One of us will get through, and I will make him pay for what he did to Liv and I.”
My eyes shifted to Jacky boy, his gaze telling a lifetime’s worth of stories before he spoke. “We’ll give you the time you need.”
I gave him a small nod, my gaze finding the cub’s. Out of them all, he hated me most, but I could still see the battle he was facing.