"Bane, Jackal, report," I whisper into my comm.
"Having a lovely time," Carlisle's voice comes back, slightly breathless. "Bane's redecorating the place with arterial spray. Very avant-garde."
"Shut the fuck up," Bane growls. "We've cleared the main floor. Moving to the holding areas."
"Copy. We're almost to the basement cells."
Felix stops suddenly, his whole body going rigid. "Wait."
"What is?—"
"Shh." He tilts his head, listening to something I can't hear. Then his face transforms into something feral, dangerous. "He's here."
"Who's—"
"My brother."
The lights suddenly flood the corridor, harsh fluorescents that make us both squint. And there, at the far end of the hallway, stands a man who could only be Evan.
He's nothing like Felix. Where Felix is lean elegance, Evan is brute force. Thick with muscle that speaks to pure violence and never having to back down from a battle. His face is handsome in a cruel way, with eyes that are almost Felix's silver but somehow empty of everything that makes Felix human. Even if Felix himself doesn't recognize it.
"Little brother," Evan says, his voice carrying down the hallway like poison. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Though I half expected you to come alone. You always were too proud to ask for help. And still just as predictable as ever. I already needed to take care of some inconvenient thorns in my side, and luring you to that auction was just the excuse I needed to do it."
I bristle at his words. Even as we were using the auction to lure out the enemy, Evan was using it against us.
"It was you," I muttered. "You're the one who hired them to take us out."
Evan looks at me like I'm dirt beneath his shoe, and his arrogant smile cracks into a grin that could thin paint. "Of course." His gaze shifts back to Felix. "Did you really think I wouldn't be keeping an eye on my finest assets? That I wouldn't find you eventually, my clever little mice?"
"Where is she?" Felix's voice is death given sound.
"Juniper? Oh, she's safe. For now. Though I can't say the same for your alpha friend. He's been so heroic, trying to protect her. It's almost touching." Evan's smile is all teeth and malice. "Did you really think you could steal from me and I wouldn't take it all back? Everything you took, everything you think you've built, it's all mine. It always was."
My finger finds the trigger of my weapon, but Felix puts a hand on my arm. Not yet, the gesture says. Let him talk. Let him reveal where they are.
"You were always so predictable, Felix," Evan continues, moving closer with the confidence of someone who thinks he's already won. "Even now, playing dress-up with these vigilantes, pretending to be something you're not. But I know what you really are. What you'll always be."
"And what's that?" Felix asks, his voice deadly calm.
Evan's smile widens. "Mine."
Chapter
Forty-Five
FELIX
Mine.
The word taps into the most primal disgust, ricocheting in my soul like a bullet. As if seven years of freedom mean nothing. As if the blood we spilled escaping him was just water under a bridge he still thinks he owns.
My hand finds Elias's arm before he can raise his weapon, and I feel him tense under my touch. "Don't," I say, not taking my eyes off my brother. "This is my fight."
"Felix—" Elias starts, that doctor's concern bleeding through even now.
"I said don't." I step forward, away from him, putting distance between us so he won't get caught in whatever violence is about to explode. "This has been coming for seven years. It ends tonight."
I expect Elias to argue. To pull alpha rank, to insist on protecting me like they all seem hardwired to do. But he surprises me. He lowers his weapon slightly, giving me a single nod. "Make it count," he says quietly, and something in my chest cracks open at the simple respect in those three words.
