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“Did she crochet?” Sam asked suddenly.
“Yeah, she found it relaxing. She used to make these bears she’d donate to charities for disadvantaged kids at Christmas.”
“Maia and I both had one. Our gramps told us someone had made them with love but never said who. I always wondered why our brother, Ben, never had one.” Sam blew out a heavy breath. “I have a million questions and I’d like to sit and talk with you about Constance later, if that’s okay, Sadie. Maybe we could call Maia so she can talk to you, too? But right now, it changes nothing. It’s just one more thing that Maven needs to pay for.”
“We need to find them and end this,” Lexie said, anger blazing from her eyes. “It’s gone on for too long, and they’ve hurt too many people.”
“We’ve been trying to do that for decades,” Sadie said. “We know who they are. Individually, they’re all public figures, but getting any proof that Maven as a pack exists and what they’ve been doing has proven impossible.”
“We have it now,” Lexie said.
“Yes,” Sadie agreed, “but we have no way of making that information public and there’s no-one left in any kind of authority to send it to, or do anything about it.”
“If we could find them, we could capture and detain them ourselves,” Ryder suggested. “We have the cells under the labs here. Let them see how it feels to live in them.” Ryder wasn’t usually a bitter person, but I could feel his anger roiling through him. He’d become protective of Wolf, and watched him for signs he was okay almost as much as he watched Ava.
“Do you want to spare the food to feed them when people are starving out there from their actions?” Sadie asked.
Ryder was silent, and Sadie’s posture softened as she watched him. Watched us all. “Most of my guys in the Network would happily take them out if attacked, but none of us are murderers. It’s a line we haven’t yet crossed.”
I noticed her use of the word “yet” and narrowed my eyes at her. She flicked her gaze at me and watched me quietly. Waiting for our next move.
“They’ve crossed it,” I said. I kept my tone emotionless and my eyes on my brother. “They may not have pulled the trigger themselves, but through the military, they trained and ordered people to do it for them. A lot of the sanctioned hits the military undertook weren’t in the national interest. They were in Maven’s interest.”
Ava shifted in her seat and wrapped her arms around my neck as she nuzzled into me, drawn in as she sensed my emotions spike and my scent turned slightly bitter. I wanted nothing more than to collapse into her softness and let her heal me, but I kept myself rigid. Now was not the time.
“It’s the reason we left the military. We realized they would never let us claim Ava, no matter how far we rose through the ranks. Even if we’d become generals, it wouldn’t have mattered. We’d planned to stay longer, collect as much information against them as we could from the inside. We left when we did because we couldn’t stomach the things they ordered us to do.”
Cary and Nick both put their hands on Ryder instinctively, as he visibly flinched at my words. I could feel his remorse and guilt pummeling me. “You mean I couldn’t stomach them.” It wasn’t a question. He was wrong, though.
“No, I mean, we,” I ground out. Wolf shifted and rested both his hands on my shoulders. The solid strength in those hands and the reassurance filtering through our bond grounded me. I needed it. I’d kept my emotions in check for so long, focused on our plan and trying to navigate Ryder’s rage. Now I had six people’s emotions pummeling me. I found I didn’t want to tune them out, the way I’d thought I would. I found them strangely comforting, but I needed help to process them. Wolf’s touch was a pillow between me and everything coming at me. It wouldn’t stop it all, but it softened it.
“What happened?” Ava asked as she stroked my neck.
My gut churned as memories assaulted me. “They asked us to capture another soldier, then torture and kill him, on a made up accusation we knew was false. Our superior told us it was for the good of our country. That he was a traitor. They tried to use us to cover their own tracks. We tried to get him out but make it look as if we’d killed him. It backfired. They’d sent a second team in unknown to us. It had been a test. The soldier got badly injured and we couldn’t get him out. We had to choose between taking him out, or leaving him behind, knowing they would torture him for whatever time he had left. He begged us to kill him, and I did. We barely made it out alive.”
I could still feel the man’s blood on my hands. Ryder hadn’t been able to do it, so I had. I tried to pull my hands away from Ava, not wanting to sully her with my touch right now. She grabbed my hands and pulled them tight around her. The things we’d faced in the military had stoked the misplaced anger Ryder felt at Ava. He could never understand why I wasn’t angry at Ava as well. The truth was, I hadn’t been because I knew I would destroy myself to save someone I loved. It helped me realize that was exactly what she had done, too. To save us.
Ava looked up at me, and a tear rolled down her cheek, but her eyes shone with understanding. I couldn’t feel any blame coming from her, or horror, just love. It was a soothing balm on my soul.
“And yet you harried them, even after you went AWOL. Discovered their next hits and got a lot of them out and to us. Some of them were our undercover guys, and you saved their lives,” Sadie said. I could see why Constance wanted her to lead. She had an inner fire, but was also empathetic and supportive. It was a good combination for a leader.
I shrugged. We’d done it because we had the skills, and it was the right thing to do. It hadn’t washed my hands clean, though. I could still see that man’s face in my dreams. He’d known death was his best option, but it hadn’t made it any easier when I’d cocked the trigger. There’d been so much regret in his eyes, for the life he hadn’t yet lived, and now, never would.
“It’s the same reason Damon and the guys left the military,” Lexie said quietly from where she was sitting on Sam’s lap. “Dave refused to give them an order he couldn’t stomach. Damon blackmailed people and got his team out before the military forced Dave’s hand. The military benched Dave after that. He ended up retiring early.”
“Yeah,” Oliver said with a deep sigh. He’d been a quiet presence at Sadie’s side until now. “I’ve never heard of Maven before, but for the unit I was with here at the Palace, it was their classic M.O. I was in too deep before I realized how corrupt it was. By then, it was too late. I’d trusted my orders blindly for too long and I’d seen too much. They never would have let me out alive and I had no allies to turn to.”
“You did what you could and helped when it counted,” Pala said. He glanced at Ryder and me, as well as Oliver.
Oliver grunted, and I got it. The words were nice, but the blood remained. He looked up at Sadie and she reached out a hand to him, but didn’t move into his lap, even though I sensed she wanted to. She seemed conflicted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just hug him, Sadie. Nobody here will think any less of you. You can be an omega and the badass head of the Network at the same time,” Lexie grumbled.
I worried for a moment that Sadie would get angry, but she grinned at Lexie and hopped straight onto Oliver’s lap. She kissed him quickly, and he relaxed into her.
“I’m not looking for sympathy,” Oliver said. “I’m just saying, Maven and whatever is left of the military hiding out with them won’t hesitate to cross any lines. They don’t have any. So if a line needs to be crossed to take them down, I’ll do it. I’m not innocent anymore.”
Ava glanced at me, feeling my determination. To keep her safe, I’d be at his side, taking whatever shot I needed to take.
