Page 26

X avier's eyes met mine across the conference room, sharp and calculating despite the chaos erupting around us. He nodded once, a terse acknowledgment that carried the weight of everything unsaid between us. While Maxime, Xander, and Xion argued strategies and contingencies, Xavier took my elbow and guided me through the door into the empty corridor beyond.

My heart hammered against my ribs, adrenaline from Phoenix's call still surging through my system. Algerone was alive. Captured. Being used as bait for Xavier. The implications crashed over me in waves, each realization more terrifying than the last.

"You're not going," I said the moment the door closed behind us, cutting straight to the point. No preamble, no hesitation. Just the raw fear that had been clawing at my throat since the moment Felix's face appeared on that screen.

Xavier's expression hardened, jaw tightening in that way I'd come to recognize as a prelude to absolute refusal. "Leo…"

"No." I stepped closer, invading his space the way he so often did mine. "This is what Phoenix wants. You, alone, walking into a trap. This isn't a meeting; it's an execution."

"You think I don't know that? This is what I do, Leo. I hunt. I eliminate threats."

"And what about me?" The question burst from somewhere deep and raw, a place I hadn't known existed until Xavier had crashed into my life. "What happens to me if you don't come back? I saw Maxime today. I saw what happened when he thought he'd lost Algerone. That hollow look in his eyes, that rage mixed with despair..." My voice caught, the image of Maxime's shattered composure still vivid in my mind. "I can't become that person, Xavier. I won't. So don't make me."

His eyes widened, genuine shock flickering across his features before his control reasserted itself. "I always come back." The certainty in his voice would have been convincing if I hadn't seen the shadow of doubt behind it.

"Not this time." I shook my head, hands clenching into fists at my sides to keep from grabbing him, shaking him, making him understand. "This is different. Phoenix has been planning this for years. Studying you. Learning your patterns. He knows exactly how you think because he thinks the same way."

Xavier's expression darkened. "Which is exactly why I have to go. Because I'm the only one who can predict what he'll do next."

"Then let me come with you."

"Absolutely not." The words cut like steel, his entire posture shifting to something more predatory, more aggressive. The Xavier who hunted, who burned, who exacted vengeance with cold precision. "Felix specified the terms. Me alone, or Algerone dies."

"And you believe him?" I fought to keep my voice steady despite the panic clawing up my throat. "You think he'll just let Algerone go once he has you? That he'll honor any agreement after everything he's done?"

"Of course not." Xavier's laugh was sharp, mirthless. "But I don't have a choice. I need to play this out, to get close enough to end him."

The cold calculation in his voice sent ice through my veins. This wasn't just Xavier the protector, the vigilante with a moral code. This was something darker, something willing to sacrifice anything—even himself—for vengeance.

"There's always a choice." I stepped closer still, refusing to be intimidated by the danger radiating from him. "We find another way. Together."

"There is no other way." His voice softened slightly, fingers reaching up to brush my cheek in an unexpected gesture of tenderness. "This ends with Felix or me. It always has. He knew it when he targeted you. I knew it the moment I saw that trailer burning."

"You're walking into a trap," I repeated, desperate to make him understand.

"Yes, but it's a trap I'm setting, too."

I stared at him. "You already have a plan."

A ghost of a smile touched his lips. "I always have a plan, Leo."

"Tell me."

"No." He shook his head, expression hardening once more. "The less you know, the safer you'll be if this goes wrong."

Fear gave way to frustration, then anger. "That's bullshit, Xavier. After everything we've been through, everything we've shared… You still don't trust me?"

"This isn't about trust." His hands settled on my shoulders, grip just firm enough to underscore his point. "This is about protection. If Phoenix suspects you know anything, you become a target, too."

"I already am a target!" The words echoed in the empty corridor, loud enough to make both of us flinch. I lowered my voice, struggling to regain control. "I've been a target since the moment he burned down my trailer. Since the moment he realized you cared about me."

Something shifted in Xavier's expression, a flash of vulnerability quickly masked. "That's exactly my point. He knows what you mean to me. If I fail..."

"If you fail, I'm dead anyway." The brutal honesty seemed to catch him off guard. "Phoenix won't stop with you. He'll come for all of us. Me, your brothers, everyone you've ever cared about. This isn't just about you anymore."

Xavier stepped back, running a hand through his blue-streaked hair. For once, he seemed at a loss, the weight of responsibility visibly settling on his shoulders.

"I need you to understand what you are to me," I said, voice dropping to just above a whisper. The words I'd been holding back for days, maybe years, pushing against my ribs like living things fighting for release. "I love you, Xavier."

His head snapped up, eyes wide with a shock I'd rarely seen on his face. Not "te amo" whispered in Spanish against his sleeping body, but the English words, stark and unavoidable.

"Not just as a friend, or a partner, or whatever label we've been dancing around." Once started, the words wouldn't stop, pouring out like blood from a wound too long compressed. "I love you in ways I don't even have language for. In ways that terrify me. And if you walk into that meeting alone, if you don't come back to me..." My voice broke, the possibility too painful to articulate fully.

Xavier's expression transformed, shock melting into something fierce and possessive and tender all at once. He took my face in his hands. "I love you too. I don't know what that means, not really. I don't know how to do this right. But I know I love you in a way I've never loved anyone. And that's exactly why I have to go. Why I have to end this. So we have a chance."

His lips met mine in a kiss unlike any we'd shared before. It was a promise and a plea wrapped together. When he pulled back, his expression had shifted to something I'd never seen before, a softness that made him look younger, more vulnerable than I'd thought possible.

"If I don't go, if I don't face him, he'll never stop hunting us," Xavier continued, his thumbs tracing gentle patterns on my cheekbones. "You know that. You've seen what he's capable of."

I nodded, the fight draining out of me as quickly as it had come. Of course I knew. Felix Burns wasn't going to stop until either he or Xavier was dead. It was the inevitable conclusion to the cycle of vengeance that had begun years ago with Richard Thackery's death.

"Then take me with you," I said again, my voice steadier now. "Not into the meeting. I know that can't happen. But close enough to help if things go wrong."

Xavier started to shake his head, but I pressed on. "You know I have skills you need. Army training, tech expertise. I'm not just some civilian you need to protect. Let me stand with you, Xavier. Let me be your equal."

The internal struggle played out across his face, the desire to protect me warring with recognition of the practical advantage my skills could provide.

"Please," I added softly. "You said we're partners. Prove it."

Something in his expression settled, a decision reached. "You stay with Maxime at the extraction point. Not one step closer. And you follow every order I give without question. The second I tell you to leave, you go. Understood?"

Relief flooded through me, the small victory sweeter for how hard-won it was. "Yes. Whatever you need."

Xavier studied my face for a long moment, as if memorizing every detail. Then he pulled me close, arms wrapping around me.

"I need you alive," he whispered against my hair. "Whatever happens with Felix, whatever happens with Algerone… I need you to survive."

I clung to him, trying to absorb his warmth, his strength, his very essence. Trying not to think about how this embrace felt too much like goodbye.

"Same goes for you," I managed, voice muffled against his chest. "Come back to me."

He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes. "Always."

We remained like that, locked together in the empty corridor, for how long I couldn't say. Time seemed suspended. The world beyond our embrace ceased to exist. There was only Xavier, his heartbeat strong beneath my palm, his scent surrounding me, his body solid and real against mine.

A discreet cough broke the moment. We turned to find Commander Reid standing a respectful distance away, his expression carefully neutral.

"Pardon the interruption," he said, his accent thickening slightly with obvious discomfort. "Coordinates have arrived from Phoenix. We have a location for the exchange."

Xavier straightened, his posture shifting before my eyes from the man who had held me with such vulnerability to the predator preparing for the hunt. His arm remained around my waist, a physical reminder of what we'd just shared.

"Where?" he asked.

"Abandoned steel mill near Ironton," Reid replied, offering a tablet with a satellite image displayed. "Forty miles south. Isolated. Multiple access points. Difficult to secure."

Xavier studied the image. "Perfect for an ambush. But also perfect for a counter-ambush, if planned properly."

Reid nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

"Gather everyone," Xavier ordered. "We have less than an hour to plan."

As Reid turned to go, Xavier's hand tightened on my waist, holding me in place when I would have followed. Once we were alone again, he caught my chin with gentle fingers, tilting my face up to his.

"I meant what I said, Leo. I love you." The words still sounded strange coming from him, new and raw and precious. "And I'm going to come back to you. But I need you to promise me something."

"Anything," I replied without hesitation.

"If this goes wrong, if it all goes to hell, you run. You don't try to save me. You don't try to avenge me. You get somewhere safe and you build a new life."

"Xavier—"

"Promise me." He said firmly. "Promise me you won't throw your life away trying to finish what I started."

I wanted to refuse. Wanted to tell him that a world without him in it wouldn't be worth saving, anyway. But the desperation in his eyes stopped me. This mattered to him. My survival mattered to him.

"I promise," I lied, the words ash on my tongue.

Relief softened his features momentarily before the hunter's mask slipped back into place. "Thank you." He brushed his lips against mine once more. The contact was brief, almost chaste, but carrying the weight of everything we'd confessed. "Now let's go plan a trap for the man who thinks he's trapping me."

As we walked back toward the conference room, his hand remained on my lower back, a point of warmth and connection I clung to desperately. I didn't tell him about the modifications I'd already begun planning for his tactical gear, the tracking devices I intended to conceal where even Xavier wouldn't detect them. I didn't tell him that I'd been running facial recognition on Felix Burns through every database I could access, compiling a profile more detailed than anything Felix could have created on Xavier.

I especially didn't tell him that I had already decided what I would do if he didn't come back from that meeting. I had made my promise, but some promises were made to be broken. If Xavier fell, Phoenix wouldn't live long enough to celebrate his victory. That wasn't vengeance. It was a simple fact.

Because Xavier had shown me parts of himself he'd never shown anyone. Had claimed me as his in ways that went beyond possession into something sacred. Had loved me in his own complex, ferocious way.

And I would do anything to protect what was mine.