Alette

33: man no more

T H I R T Y - T H R E E

♡♡♡

Aresius' POV

"Come back home safe to me, my love, I'm waiting for you."

Her parting words rang through my ears as I got out of my car to walk into STAMP.

The main floor was dark; we were closed today because we had to focus on apprehending Kan.

I walked up the stairs, nodding in greeting at the few people that were prepping on the main floor as I passed them

I heard noises coming from all of the different rooms upstairs, and I walked to the surveillance room.

Coincidentally, the place where I had met her for the first time.

I walked inside, noticing Jakob standing at the helm of the room, speaking to two others, while others got the room ready for when we went out.

Jakob nodded at me as I walked in, and I walked towards Karter to talk to him, giving Jakob a chance to finish his conversation.

"Any updates?"

Karter shook his head, his face grim, "We're still prepared for everything to go today. He doesn't know that we've tracked him down but," Karter scratched the back of his head, "There's some odd movement outside of the facility that he's operating out of. I've been handling the arms we need for today. Zion is meeting up with one of Adrik's men right now."

I nodded, "That's fine, you can go handle that, I'll speak to Jakob."

Karter nodded and walked out of the room; I motioned to Jakob with my eyes before leaving as well.

I walked to my office, unlocking the door and discarding my jacket on a chair.

I sat down behind my desk, grabbing the corded phone and dialled a number. I set the phone down, pressing the speaker button, and leaned back in my chair.

"Adler," his voice rang out on the other end.

"Sylvester. You'll be here soon?" I asked him, skipping the pleasantries.

"I'll be there soon. I'm just speaking with the DA, I want to try and get as many prosecutions as we can from whomever we round up today. I also need to finalize another uh...medical professional just in case anything goes south."

"Oscar is ready to go."

"Yes but he might be overworked in the event that anything goes south."

I hummed in agreement and he cleared his throat whilst I heard what sounded like of shuffling papers on his end.

"How's Faye?"

"She's...good," I cleared my throat, "At home. Studying with Josephine for her finals."

"What are your...intentions Adler?" he asked solemnly, "After today? After Kan ceases to exist. Where will you two go from here? Have you thought about your future?"

"Whatever Alette wants. She's my future."

I didn't hesitate in giving him my answer. While Alette was an adult and legally her own guardian, I knew that Sylvester had raised her, and was practically a father figure.

"Good answer," he said slyly, "I'll see you soon."

We hung up the call and I leaned my head back, thinking about Sylvester's question. I didn't lie when I said that it was all up to her.