𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 ❶

𝟔𝟓. ✭ 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 ✭

"What do you mean you've lost Dedaj's location?" Luke's irritated voice grits into his wireless device as he paces around the room. "It's not him? How is it not him? Are you fucking kidding me?" He turns away, walking further than the reach of my ear saying something unintelligible but most definitely furious, near hostile to whoever is on the other line; his security team no doubt.

I tap my fingers on the table, two beats per digit in anticipation. First, we'd lost Polat's whereabouts and now it would appear we've lost Dedaj's. In no way, shape, or form is this lining up to be anything good. An uneasiness spreads throughout my stomach, making it roil just a bit before the feeling sinks inside of my chest.

I should've gone with them. I should've listened to my gut. If anything happens to them I'll never forgive myself.

Fuck.

Luke strides back into the room, hand threaded in his blond locks with frustrated anxiety. "Seth, you're telling me that the men didn't stay? You're telling me that they're there by themselves? I TOLD YOU TO MAKE THEM STAY THERE! I TOLD YOU TO—" He closes his mouth, eyes slamming shut as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I understand you were doing us a favor. No, no I know, Seth. I just..." He lets out a long, winded sigh before letting out a choked, "I don't know what I will do if anything happens to either of them, to my boys." Malyssa walks up beside him, her arm wrapping around him as her hand clasps his shoulder in comfort. "Okay, thank you. Make it two teams, please? A full sweep."

"You know Seth doesn't work for you, right?" Malyssa calmly said after Luke had ended the call. "He's family."

"I am aware but I asked him to do something for me and he didn't do it."

She purses her lips slightly. "And why didn't he do it?"

"Because Torey told him not to and, as per usual, Torey got what he wanted. Just like he always has." Luke pulls away from her, heading to the bar and picking up a bottle of gin before pouring himself about two inches worth inside of a crystal glass.

"Seth wouldn't have left unless Torey made a compelling argument." Denver counters. "Plus, Torey works for the FBI so maybe Seth didn't want to be tangled up in anything. Seth has his own family he needs to worry about." He walks up to Luke and watches as he downs the drink. "You know that isn't good for you, especially not this early in the day."

"It's a fucking trap, Denver! This has T.R.A.P. written all over it!"" He slams the glass down. "IT IS A TRAP!"

"From the sound of it, Seth is going over there with a few men to scout the place right now?" Malyssa said, walking up to the two of them. "If anything is off, we'll know about it soon."

I continue to tap my fingers on the table slowly. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Thinking all of the worst case scenarios in my head and hating the fact that my brain had been trained to do that. I picture things that make my guts churn even worse than they already are. I see Wolfie's little face in my head, those big bright blue eyes inherited from his father. I see the things that'd made me want to get out of this business; things I'd had to do.

Those children... what I've had to do while working for The Watch.

I envision my little brother's lifeless body in my head, my mother's, my father's, and finally my sister's; albeit hers from years later. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Self-defense. They'd called what I'd done to my father self-defense. The stench of cigarettes and vodka fills my nose, something I used to loathe more than anything because it reminded me of the man I'd never wanted to become. Those same smells remind me of another man now, one capable of even more violence than my father, but filled with emotional turmoil; whereas my father was filled with none. Just an alcohol-induced psychotic break in his case.