A Coalition Story

"I Want Him to Suffer First"

Atticus knew he needed help taking Lev down, so he naturally turned to the two most ruthless people he knew.

"Don't make me knife you, Blackbourne," Excalibur growled from Torin's bed. Usually, a threat like that coming from Cal would make Atticus nervous. But today, Atticus was too full of rage to feel scared by any threats thrown in his direction.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. There's somebody else we need to knife," Atticus chuckled dryly. "Again."

"We?" Torin questioned, eyebrow raised.

It must be a shock for the two assassins that the jokester spy was asking them to help him assault someone. Atticus thought the two men never took him seriously, just viewed him as Ravyn's annoying, talkative best friend. Torin maybe held a bit of respect for him, but that was more because Torin held a soft spot for Alice as she had helped him in quite a few missions.

"Yes, we."

"And why should I care? I'm too hungover to get involved in anything, Blackbourne," Cal drawled, his voice making it evident that he wanted nothing to do with Atticus' usual shenanigans.

Oh, how wrong Cal was. Atticus would have found this amusing if he weren't a man on a very violent mission.

"Somebody hurt Ravyn. Still too hungover?" he deadpanned, meeting Cal's glare with the same intensity. He didn't have time for Excalibur Cole to be belittling him.

"What happened?" Torin interrupted the staring contest, his voice just as calm as ever. At least he was taking Atticus seriously.

Atticus sighed, leaning against the wall and regaining his composure. Sure, he was absolutely furious and wanted to murder Lev on sight. But he knew he needed to play this smart. It was why he was seeking help from the Coalition's two best assassins. At this moment, Atticus wasn't thinking of them as Ravyn's two closest friends. They were allies with a skillset that Atticus needed to take advantage of for his mission. So he needed to stay calm, reign in his anger, and focus on the task at hand: finding a way to take Lev down.

"Your roommate, Lev," Atticus started, his voice almost betraying his fury at the man's name. "Tried to rape my sister. She only got away because she stabbed him repeatedly."

Torin's anger had been growing the minute Atticus walked through the door, but now his blood was practically boiling. Alice was one of the few people in the Coalition that Torin considered pure and good. Most everyone else had red on the ledger, even if it was only a fleck. Alice wasn't like that. And Torin felt the same protectiveness over her that he did his own sisters. She had helped him hack into security systems many times for missions. After helping him get inside, she always left the rest of the mission up to Torin, distancing herself as much as possible. Torin understood that. Not many people had the stomach for his line of work. But still, Alice had always found him the following day to hug him and offer him her ear should he ever need to process what had happened. She was simply too pure for this business. And Lev had tried to take advantage of that.

"Did Lev do anything else?" Cal asked slowly, clearly wondering where exactly Ravyn fit into this beyond her obsession with the boy.

"He grabbed Ravyn so tight that there are some serious bruises around her waist. He also threatened her safety, as well as ours," Atticus clarified calmly, waiting for the assassins before him to understand why he was coming to them.

"So when are we taking Lev out?" Torin spoke up first.

"Exactly what I was about to ask," Atticus smirked in reply. He knew it wouldn't take long to convince the boys to help him. Now they just needed a plan.