Leo (Vigilance 3)

“I bet it did.”

I started talking before he said something that really pissed me off. “Six and Muffin captured a couple of guys looking for a way into my building.”

“Fuck. Swain’s getting more aggressive.”

“Yeah. Devil’s going to work them over for me, and we’ll see what we find out.”

“You didn’t want to handle that yourself?”

Ezra was still watching me, but now his eyes were wide. I stroked his hair and tried to give him a comforting smile.

I put my hand over the phone. “I’ll take care of you, sweetheart.”

He still looked uncertain, and that was exactly why things would never work between us, no matter how much I wanted him. He shouldn’t be in constant danger.

“I needed to stay with Ezra. I’m not going to leave him unprotected.”

“If Six and Muffin are there, then he’s not—”

“It’s how I chose to handle it.” I refused to explain myself, and I didn’t want to spend any more time thinking about why Ezra needed closer protection than anyone else I’d ever guarded.

“Ah. So that’s how it’s going to be?”

“Look, X, I know you—”

“I trust Devil. He’ll take care of it. I don’t want anything to happen to Ezra. He’s innocent in all of this.”

“That’s right, and that’s why I’m not leaving him.” That was part of it anyway.

“I have news for you.” X’s tone had turned serious and I tensed. Ezra looked up at me. He was frowning, which made a crease in the middle of his forehead. I tried to smooth it away with my thumb.

“Walsh called me. He’s sure Swain was hiding out in Maine. Two mutilated bodies were found in a cabin near Bangor. Their descriptions match Lavender and Tiberius perfectly.”

“Fuck. No wonder we hadn’t been able to locate them.” When we’d gone after the other members of the trafficking ring, we’d discovered that Walsh was also investigating them. Lavender and Tiberius provided sexual entertainment for the group, and Swain had rescued them before we’d taken the group down. Apparently they’d had a falling out, or Swain had just decided he was over them.

“Walsh thinks Swain’s back in Boston now. Emilio has evidence to confirm it. Swain’s accounts are showing activity around Boston, and there’s footage showing his car back at his home.”

“He’s coming for us.”

“Yes. I think he’s decided to take the offensive. He realizes if he doesn’t eliminate those who know his secrets, his time is limited.”

“Goddamn right it’s limited. If he shows his face, I’ll break his fucking neck.”

“Leo, we have a plan.”

“I’ll make it look like an accident. You know I’m damn good at covering things up.”

“Remember, we’ve got to be more careful than we’ve been with anything else we’ve tackled.”

I huffed. “I’m used to working with high-profile people. I’ve made plenty of people disappear when they had government officials looking for them.”

“But not in the town where you want to live. Where we all want to live.”

“I’m not going to fuck up your—”

“This isn’t about me. This is about all of us. We’re going to end him, but we can’t make a single mistake.”

Putting Swain in the ground was more important than sticking to a plan. “I’ll take the blame if we do. None of the rest of you will be involved.”

“No fucking martyrdom. That was one of the rules we established when we started Vigilance. You know I put this team together because when you combine all our skills, we are a fucking force to be reckoned with.”

“Sometimes there has to be sacrifice.” Ezra tensed, and I realized I’d fucked up. When I looked down, the fear in his eyes made my chest tighten. Fuck, what was I doing thinking—

“Leo, I know you don’t like taking orders, but everyone agreed I have the final say. I’m telling you to stick with our plan. If you want to amend it, you have to go through me.”

“I can handle this.”

“Not alone.”

“Fine, but we need to move up our timetable if he’s back in town. We need to end this before the next session of Congress starts.”

“Agreed. I’ve got Emilio watching him as closely as he can. If we can keep tabs on him, we might be able to figure out his next step.”

I wanted to hunt him down that second. As an operative, I’d been infinitely patient, but with Ezra’s life at stake, that was no longer possible. “I’ll go along with the plan, but if he comes for me or Ezra—”

“If he makes the first move, take him out. You know I’d never ask you to back down from defending yourself, but we’re not going after him until we’re sure we know everything we can.”

“We can’t always—”

“We can always have a plan and a backup and a backup for the backup.”

“But that didn’t help when—”

“What happened in the sandbox wasn’t your fault or mine. People who promised to have our backs didn’t, and people who promised to support us looked the other way. Fuck, one of our own betrayed us.”