CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
ELIO
We’ve been waiting on the island closest to the Red Vault for an hour.
Bernard spoke with a soldier on the inside.
He got intel on Tobias’s location tonight.
He was here to visit Saint. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save Saint.
And we are getting Saint out of the Red Vault, whether Spencer and Ali get us what we need to access the building.
Tobias King himself.
I massage the gun in the waist holster of my combat uniform. Blessing and Cyrus stand beside me with other soldiers waiting behind us.
My heart hammers in my chest as I look at the watch fastened around my wrist.
One hour. Ten minutes. I tap my feet on the gravel relentlessly. Then the idling of the rigid-hulled inflatable boat cracks the silence surrounding us. Spencer and Ali approach the beach on the island. They both get off the boat and haul their disarmed and cuffed prisoner toward us.
I move toward them first, snatching the black hood over his face. Blood makes a mark across his features, and his expression hardens with anger. He surges forward, but I slam my fist into his jaw, knocking him into the sand.
Cyrus appears before the man lying at my feet. The Tobias King. The King of the Black Viper. He smirks, watching the horror in his eyes. “Traitor.” Tobias spews. Cyrus tuts and regards Spencer and Ali.
“Casualties?” he asks.
“Just two. He really wasn’t expecting us to pull a move like this.”
“Hmm.” Cyrus hums.
“You shot my son.” Tobias barks, teeth grinding against each other.
“You killed mine twenty years ago. Besides, you still have two sons.” Cyrus answers without care.
“Do we really need him? We could cut his hand off.”
“The only part of the vault accessible through his biometrics are three out of four prisons. Each one made for his children.” Cyrus answers as Spencer, and Ali lifts Tobias to his feet and drags him across the beach sand.
We form a circle together and go over our attack plan again. We were splitting into three groups. Team one attacks through the entrance. The other through the back, and the last team through our escape route.
Blessing leads her group. So does Spencer, while Cyrus and I stick to the team attacking through the entrance. Bernard waits at the city closest to the island in case we need another means of escape, while Ali waits here with a boat. As we prepare to leave, Bernard and Ali kiss each other goodbye.
We make sure everybody’s carried along before we dispatch in our various boat rides.
I nod sternly as I hoist Tobias to his feet. “You really think your plan will work.” Tobias looks at me.
“It’s already in motion.” I drag him toward the boat and shove him in.
“All of this for him. To what end?” He questions, expression contorted with hatred.
“To your end.”
I pull out my gun and load the magazine, mentally preparing myself for the battle ahead. The boat idles off, humming against the deep blue ocean water. We drive for minutes until the other island appears at the end of the horizon.
An unexplainable weight settles into my bones when I see the Red Vault. Round, thick steel walls. Three stories. With guards manning every entrance. How could this man punish his children this way? He’s a monster for building a place like this. For subjecting Saint to this fucking horror.
After tonight, it’ll be over. Cyrus will take him and do whatever he pleases, hopefully kill him. He didn’t deserve to see the sunrise again. And wherever my dead uncle was, that’s where he’ll end up.
In the darkness, our boat almost reaches shore. The engine dies as Cyrus turns it off, and we jump into the water, moving toward the forest surrounding the structure as quickly as possible.
The cold metal of my pistol rests against Tobias’s skull. Beside me, Cyrus levels his weapon, arms locked and steady, fingers tightening on the trigger as his aim narrows at Cyrus’s head.
“Team B check in.” Cyrus speaks into his walkie-talkie.
“We are already on the island, and we are closing in.” Blessing offers.
“Team S.”
“Just made it there. Headed on foot, over.” Spencer says.
A renewed sense of hope lights in my chest. We will get this done once and for all.
As the forest around us gives way to the entrance, silent shots whip through the air, and the soldiers manning the entrance drop to the ground. The soldiers walking the circular hall on the second and third entrances grunt as the other team takes them out.
We approach the steel door, and I force Tobias’s frail hands up to the entrance. The door scans him and clicks, wheezing as it slides open. The soldiers in the hall retaliate, taking down one of our men. But Cyrus and the others return the bullets immediately.
“Where is he?” I ask and shove Tobias forward.
“Last floor.” He says as we take a turn. What I don’t expect to see is the man hanging from the vaulted ceiling, hoisted by chains.
Vincent Bishop.
He’s here. Of course, he’s here. Fear clenches my insides, but I remind myself that things are different right now. He’s trapped whilst I’m free. And whatever debt my uncle owed him has been settled cause the motherfucker was dead.
I return my attention to Tobias as we hurry up the stairs, taking down his soldiers on our way. The air tastes like steel, gunpowder, and blood. Adrenaline buzzes through every nerve ending in my body. I’m getting closer to saving him. To getting him back.
When we appear on the last floor, Tobias leads us down the circular, lit hallway. A soldier grunts and slumps right beside me. His body thuds against the steel floor, blood leaking onto the surface. Cyrus and I retaliate synchronously, taking down the other man.
It’s just me, Cyrus, Tobias, and a soldier left.
We come to a halt in front of a door, and Tobias lifts his hand and slams it against the biometric lock. The door hisses open, and I shove Tobias into Cyrus’s arms, storming into the dark space.
It’s empty.
It’s fucking empty.
He knew Saint wasn’t here, and he led us to it anyway.
Anger slithers through my blood, the venom scalding hot. My jaw sets with white hot rage. I whip around and storm toward Tobias, seizing him from Cyrus’s hand and shoving him against the wall.
I lift my fist and bring it down against his face. His head snaps sideways, blood oozing from his broken nose.
For a split fucking second, his face warps into my uncle’s, but I know the difference now. I only need answers. I won’t kill him. I won’t let my anger overwhelm me.
“Tell me!” I bark into his face.
He grins at me, blood-colored teeth and lips, no single remorse in his eyes.
Then footsteps and the clatter of a weapon catch my attention.
It’s Saint.
White bandages wrap his injured hand. His face carries the scars of his father’s wrath. An unexpected wave of relief hits me like a ton of bricks. I leave Tobias behind and surge toward Saint.
The impact of my embrace makes Saint grunt as he closes his hand around me. “Fuck!” I cry out. “Fuck, I missed you.” I grab his face, and he winces. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I smile, tears rolling down my cheeks.
He doesn’t utter a word.
“I gave you another chance.” Tobias whispers, looking at his son.
Saint steps away from me. My heart shatters into pieces. I went through all this for nothing.
“Reinforcements are on their way. These bastards will pay for what they’ve done. All you have to do is prove to me how much this family means to you.” Tobias goes on and on.
“Saint… we need to go.”
He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t answer me. He turns away from me. “You have ten seconds to vacate this building.” Saint declares. “Or your bodies will bleed out on the floor when our soldiers get here.”
A gasp scrapes out of my throat, and my knees threaten to give out. The realization settles deep within me. I’ve lost him.
SAINT
The gun I’m holding with my uninjured arm drops to the ground when I see Elio standing in a black uniform with my father trapped between his hands.
That’s enough to pull his eyes to me.
And he doesn’t waste a fucking second before he hurries toward me. When his hands close around my frail body, sunshine bathes my skin. He still smells the same. He still smells like mine. All fucking mine.
But he left me.
He left. That’s what Father said. There is enough evidence to prove that he left. Yet here he is, his arms around my broken and battered body.
“Fuck, I missed you.”
Before I can revel in the thrum of joy buzzing over my skin, my father’s disapproving gaze zeros on me. Then his gravelly voice echoes off the steel walls. “I gave you another chance.” My heart sinks, torn between the need for duty and the want for the man I love.
I walk past him and hear the way he gasps quietly.
My father’s soldiers are on their way to the island. If Elio isn’t out of here in ten minutes, he’ll get caught. Men like me don’t get to love. We keep our heads down, do what duty wants of us.
He stands behind me even as he calls my name.
And it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart that I even have to question what I feel for him.
Family matters more. The syndicate matters more. I might have lost sight of that because of him. But no more. No fucking more.
“You have ten seconds to vacate this building.” I assert. “Or your bodies will bleed out on the floor when our soldiers get here.”
Elio pulls out his gun and holds it to me. “Cyrus, we have a deal. Take your prisoner and leave. Be careful.” He gestures toward the exit.
Cyrus snatches my father from the wall and drags him down the hall with his last soldier.
“You’re just going to let them take me away.” Tobias barks at me.
Elio waits for me to move, but I don’t. I can’t. I stand there, watching the man who humiliated me disappear down the hall.
Elio’s steady arms fall.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not leaving without you, Saint.” He says.
“If these fucking soldiers get here, they’ll kill you.”
“You have the power to stop them, but if you don’t, fine. At least I’ll die knowing I tried to save you.” I watch as he pulls out a second gun and takes off the safety. “I’m not losing you. Not when you’ve given everything for me.”
“What have I given to you? Look at me. I’m worthless. I’m fucking broken.”
“You’re the next king of the syndicate, that’s what I know.”
“Elio.” I move toward him and snatch his arm.
He faces me and looks at me. His eyes have been one of the things that pulled me in the very first moment I saw him.
And goddamn, the way he looks at me right now.
Eyes filled with equal parts of anger, fear, and want.
And it subdues me. This man right here has power over me.
And every second I spend with him this close to me reminds me of everything.
Everything we have been through together. How he became my safe space. How I let myself accept him as my safe space.
I’m fucked.
“Whatever horrible things he said to you, it’s not true. You are not what he thinks you are. You’re different. In my eyes at least.”
Light flashes on the other side of the hall. Footsteps stomp as the soldiers approach in an intimidating wave.
I swallow hard, bracing myself for what’s coming. I did all of this for him. I stood up to my father. And he’s here for me. He’s here for me. He came back for me. He learned how to fight for me.
Elio prepares himself. He’s about to hoist his gun up when I pull him closer. My chest heaves for air as I grab his face, grunting from the pain of the bullet wound. Father had instructed a doctor to take out all the bullet shards and clean the wound after he left me behind.
I begged him to take me back.
I tore myself apart just so he’d look at me like I mattered. But he didn’t. He never did.
“I… Elio… I thought I wouldn’t see you again.” I give in to all of it. All the scorching desire running through me. The desire to have him all to myself. Wrong or not. “If I burn for wanting this, then fuck, let me burn.” I shake my head. “I choose you.”
His eyes soften, but the emotion on his features is short-lived when the team enters, except it’s my youngest brother, Cross, leading them.
“Stand down!” Cross holds up his hand.
My head spins with pain, and strength spills out of my bones. The steel walls warp in and out as my knees give out, and I collapse on the floor.