Page 65 of Blood Bonds
“If he goes after her again—”
He cuts me off, probably because he doesn’t want to think about it either. “He won’t. I’ve spoken to him.”
I shake my head slowly as the doors open in front of us again and we find Nox passed out on the small couch in the corner of North’s office. One of his shadows is resting over his chest and two more are lying on the floor in front of him, but they stay put as we walk over to North’s desk. They watch us though, obsessively. They’re waiting for the moment we dare to step towards their sleeping master.
The momentanyonedares.
“Did we bring a psych with us as well? Did you find the guy Sage was seeing?”
North cringes and starts his computer up, plugging in his laptop and getting all four of the screens on the desk set up. “I found him, and he’s already left the country. His family decided on an extended stay in Singapore, not that I blame them.”
The elevator dings again and then Bassinger steps out, his cheeks still pink from the run, and his hands shoved into his pockets as he comes over to slump in the chair beside me.
North ignores us both for his emails for a second, scowling and muttering under his breath in a furious tone, and I take the moment to look Bassinger over. His leg is bouncing under the desk, a sign of agitation that he’s struggling to hide.
I pitch my tone to be something friendly enough, which is something that he doesn’t always take kindly to, and I ask, “How are you doing? The run doesn’t seem to have helped.”
He stares at me for a second and then says, “It’s still hard for me to talk to you guys about it. I’m not used to… this sort of Bond Group dynamic. It messes with my head sometimes.”
North nods from behind the desk but doesn’t add anything, so I try instead. “This is the way that we keep Oli safe. Even when we don’t like it, we talk about shit and we’re honest. If something happens to her because we’re acting like dickheads with each other, we only have ourselves to blame.”
His jaw flexes a little but he nods. “I’m just still… surprised that my father would be involved in the killing of children, but that’s probably just me being naive. It’s fucking with my head, but I’m dealing with it. It’s not going to be a problem.”
Truth.
Solid truth, and I’ll respect the hell out of that sort of honesty any day of the week.
North’s eyebrows inch up just a little at the admission but he nods again, taking a second before he murmurs, “It’s hard to see people crossing lines that we assume would be unfathomable to ever consider, especially someone we think we know so well. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
This feels like progress.
It has to be, right?
An hour later,Bassinger and I step into the elevator together, ready to be transported back to the council offices to finish up after the raid and dismantling of the Resistance camp we took out. We’ve already had an influx of intel thanks to the chatter in the aftermath, and Bassinger has been pivotal in recovering it. There’s always the chance that he’s a deep cell spy, someone sent in to us to sacrifice his own family just to get to Oli and take us all out, but I’m starting to really believe the kid.
There’s something about his single-minded devotion to her at the expense of everything else in his life that is very convincing to everyone except Nox, but he’s not exactly known for being reasonable about anything Bond related.
Bassinger is quiet for a moment while the elevator doors close, but once it starts moving, he clears his throat, his voice coming out steady enough. “I don’t want to see my sister. I know you’re probably going to try to convince me, and I get it, it makes sense to have me in there to get her talking and thinking shit but… that’s my line. If it’s not about Oli’s safety, I’m not doing it.”
I look at him and shrug. “It might come down to that. I’ll talk to her and see what I can get, but if I need help with it—”
He cuts me off. “If you need it, I’ll do it. If Oli needs it, I’ll always do it, but not unless it comes to that.”
I can respect that.
I can respect a lot of what he’s said actually. If it weren’t for his last name, his parents, his entire upbringing, he’d absolutely be climbing his way up to my inner circle of people I trust.
I can’t do that though, not right now, and not with so much at stake.
I nod at him right as the doors open to reveal Black and Rockelle waiting there for us, both of them in full Tac gear. Heading out of the Sanctuary means needing at least three fully trained operatives per group, and there’s no one I trust more than these two.
Even if they are the mouthiest assholes on my damn team.
“So we’re not taking the harbinger of death this time?”
I already know Rockelle is attempting to stir shit about Oli, but I’m not going to let him. “North is dealing with the council bullshit as remotely as possible these days, so he’ll be here. Or did you mean Nox? He’s sleeping off a hangover.”
He grins at me and shrugs it off, easy and friendly as always. “Sure, those two Death Dealers were the ones I was talking about. I’ve already been warned.”