Page 64 of Broken Souls

The line goes dead, and I climb into the car. The door to the house opens just as I’m about to shut mine. As I wait for my two brothers and Krypto to join me, I text Enoch and Ezriel our destination. My eyes narrow as I stare off into the distance, wondering what Antonio wants at a building that isn’t his.And why would he take Khalid there instead of to one of his secure compounds?

“You get anything from him?” Maddox asks as he climbs into the backseat. Leno takes the front, passing my gun back so he can sit down. Then Krypto jumps in between his legs.

“Yeah,” I say slowly, still rolling it through my head as I throw the car into reverse. “Morn Tower.”

“What is that? A bank?” Leno asks.

“I don’t know of a bank called that. But why would they be holding Khalid at a bank anyway?” Maddox asks.

“For the vault? Easy holding cell.”

“But that would mean this was a last minute job. This doesn’t feel like that.”

No, every step of this has been planned. If not by Talon, then by Antonio. So what’s the significance of having our brother there?

“Well, they sure aren’t using him to hack into any of the servers there.” Leno chuckles. “He doesn’t even know what a server is.”

“Server?” Maddox says, mimicking Khalid’s voice. “Like the people with the menus at a restaurant?”

“Are you telling me they’re all robots?” Leno jumps in, his voice impression worse than Maddox’s but still pretty damn accurate. “So can I hack one to get free dessert?”

“One with more strawberries?”

“And cream?”

“No, not that cream...”

I easily tune them out as I head down the drive. Years of getting into ‘the zone’ makes it second nature – that place where nothing exists outside of my mission. But what is harder to block out is the fear that with every turn of the wheels, I’m getting further and further away from where I want to be. My chest tightens as my eyes flick up to the rearview mirror. I watch the house as it fades into the night, then disappears behind the trees peppering the drive. I want to turn around and go to her. Drop to my knees and beg her forgiveness. But I can’t.

I can’t risk breaking at the news the baby didn’t make it or the look in her eyes when she says she’ll never forgive me. So I keep driving, doing my best to ignore the wild beat of my pulse as it gets harder and harder to breathe.

A sudden touch on my shoulder causes me to tense.

Maddox leans forward in his seat behind me. “Oh, by the way, bruh,” he says. “Congrats on being a future father.”

“What the fuck?” Leno shouts as I suck in a harsh breath. The world starts to blur around me as my eyes burn. I blink and swallow down the tears, but one still manages to slip free. The feel of it on my cheek is so godsdamn foreign, but I don’t reach up to wipe it away.

I want to feel it. Feel the emotions riding me hard.

The fucking joy and relief that he made it, the little bit of hope that I haven’t entirely fucked things up with his mom. That after I get Khalid and get back home, I can fix this tear between us.

“Yeah,” Maddox says, his voice cheery. “Having a little girl, according to Ma. She’s thirteen weeks along.”

I damn near run over Rudy at that. He’s standing on the side of our drive, right before we hit the road, waiting for me to pick him up. I jerked the wheel at the word “girl,” and now I’m careening straight for him. Luckily, he has the good sense to shift into his shadow because despite how quickly I turn to get us back onto the drive, I absolutely would have hit him.

“Rudy says, ‘What the fuck?’” Maddox says a second later as our brother appears in the back seat, forming out of his shadows.

Leno laughs. “Varius’ going to be a father,” he shouts in excitement.

Rudy leans forward and squeezes my shoulder.

“Wait. Hold up.” Leno immediately stops laughing, then twists in his seat to look at Maddox. “You tortured Micha while she waspregnant?” Leno shakes his head. “Dude, you are so going to Hel.”

My fingers tighten on the wheel.

“Nah, that’s equality, bruh,” Maddox says. “That’s totally heaven worthy.” He pauses. “Oh, shit, yeah. You were out fixing the wards when Talon got back.”

As he fills Rudy in about Talon accusing Micha, only to turn out to be the traitor himself, I tune them out again. And this time, knowing that not all hope is lost with my wife, that I didn’t fuck up beyond all repair, I tune thoughts of her and our child out too.