So, it was ahim… “Yeah, that’s good and all, but where is he?”
“He’s down here. In the locked area, working. Before you interrupted me, I was going to say, why don’t we approach this as if we know nothing? And see what he does. We could learn more that way. It’s possible he is using someone else to get the information to Preston.”
“No. We aren’t playing any long games now, Cyrus. There is no time to waste. In fact, I’m fine with just breaking in and taking Seri back.”
“We—”
“They kidnapped him. We know this. There is no other evidence needed,” Severo said stiffly. “With all the names Seri gave us, what’s the point in waiting?”
“We need to know where Seri is being held, and we need time to put everyone in place. We can’t just break in. It would be a suicide mission with how locked down Preston keeps his properties. To add on, we could accidentally put Seri in danger by being so rash. It’s a miracle Seri managed to break out the first time. I’m not sure if at the time Preston’s guards had gotten lax, or he had just gotten lucky that there was no one there to stop him.”
Severo growled in frustration. “Fine. We will ‘plan’. But I won’t wait longer than that. I won’t leave Seri in Preston’s hands. So again, who?”
“Jorah.”
Severo’s eyes widened. “Jorah Parise… He’s been with us…” He trailed off.
“I know… And it’s likely he has always been working for him. I didn’t notice before, or I would have removed him much earlier than this. But the threads don’t always tell me everything. They keep their secrets for however long they want to keep them. But when I look now, I can see the corruption. I see how far back it goes.”
“Son of a—” he growled. Surging to his feet, he swept Skya into his arms and stormed forward, slamming out of the room.
The two men followed him, neither moving to stop him.
All this time… That man… There were times things fucked up. Times missions went wrong, times people died. Where he thought no one was to blame, but…now… How many times had Jorah sold them out?! How many agents had the bastard sacrificed for money?!
Severo mostly worked alone, but when going after large groups, they’d paired them together. There were so many cases he could link to the man when he used to hold Killian’s job...before he moved to financials… When things just…went wrong…
He paused at the locked door, standing there letting the fucking thing scan his eye. As he waited for the damn door to open, he forced himself to take a calming breath and blank his expression.
Pushing in the second it beeped, Severo glanced around. The walls to his left and right were identical, with evenly spaced metal doors that had tiny four by four windows on them, and a slot for meals. The walls, doors and the interior of the cells were made of tungsten. The metal being twelve inches thick, it was perfectly capable of holding all kinds of Cryptid prisoners.
Severo only made it past a few doors when he found Jorah. The man coming out from his office, one of the few rooms down here that didn’t have a lock on it.
Smiling, Jorah glanced over, eyes going from Severo’s face to the baby. The Harpy’s expression didn’t change at all, the smile remaining in place.
“Severo. When did you get back? Are you here to interrogate someone? Want me to hold the baby for you? I don’t imagine a little girl so young should be there for that,” the man asked, approaching.
He grimaced at the thought of letting Jorah even come near Skya, let alone touch her. The audacity of this man. Severo turned to Cyrus, who was standing there tense beside him. As he should be—he was about to beat this man’s ass. Severo smirked at the bruise he saw already forming on Cyrus' jaw.Good, I hope there are more in other places, he thought.
Killian was oddly still on his phone, brow becoming increasingly more pinched.
Ignoring the Siren, he held out his gummy bear to Cyrus. “Hold.”
She frowned in such a way that just screamed ‘Seri’ as she was passed off to another stranger—the look made his heart ache.
Turning to Jorah, he forced a neutral smile on his face and asked, “How much?”
Jorah blinked. “What?”
His smile turned into a sneer. “How much did Preston pay you to sell us out?”
“What?! W-what are you talking about?”
“I ASKED…HOW MUCH DOES IT TAKE TO SELL OUT YOUR MORALS, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Severo roared. He swung, landing a punch on the man’s right eye, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Jorah fell back with a grunt. Severo didn’t hesitate to surge forward. Pinning him to the floor, he punched him again. It was almost too easy, but then, the Harpy had never been a fighter.
“Tell me, Jorah!” He grabbed him by the collar and shook him. “How much are the lives of innocent people worth to you?!” He swung again, not caring about the ache forming in his knuckles. “How much are the lives of a father and his child worth?! Tell me!”
