Jayden turned to him, and a small grin graced his face. Combined with the man’s empty black eyes, it was chilling. With that, he made sure his mental walls were shut tight. An action that only caused that unnerving grin to widen. Sin had heard the young man’s powers were growing, but he hadn’t expected this.
“There are just some immortals that cannot be read. So far, no reason has been found. Though from what I have seen over the years, the majority of the individuals are arcadians. Nothing to worry about in this case.” And as if he hadn’t been the one to derail the conversation in the first place, Adrian chided, “We really should get back on topic. Now, what did you find out, Jayden?”
Jayden wasted no time getting to the point. “Luckily, Cecil’s father is…well, his walls are pathetic. A good thing, I guess. I had no interest in actually touching him. Unless it is with a knife, of course,” Jayden said with a devilish smirk. “The information you gathered is correct, Sin. The man is up to his knees in immortal trafficking. Unfortunately, he’s too low level and won’t be able to lead us to anyone of any importance. He is connected to the rest, but was told nothing about who was in charge or even who was above him. Him and his group of assholes, we can take down though. The majority of those he works with actually live around your other branch in Dusburn.”
Sin sighed. “I suppose the timing is fortunate. I’ll be returning to the other branch soon.”
Part of him wished to be the one to take Ernest Baxter in, but he had to go back. On top of needing to orchestrate the takedown of Ernest’s partners, he had positions to fill. The second-in-command of Dusburn had recently retired. He had replaced him at the last moment with two men—twins, in fact. However, the twins had been his only enforcers. On filling the position, he had created two new openings.
Sin had already put it off longer than he should have. In all honesty, it would have been beneficial if he had multiple enforcers at each main branch. Having more than two would spread out the responsibilities, so they were not constantly traveling.
“So we are at a dead end once again?” Adrian mused.
“It appears so.” Xavier sighed.
“We will keep looking. With Jayden’s powers, we are sure to find something eventually,” Dante assured.
“Please, tell me I can kill whoever I find,” Jayden groused.
Dante and Adrian burst out laughing. Sin personally didn’t find murder particularly entertaining, necessary or not. Well, most of him didn’t—the shadow in his mind quite enjoyed it.
“When we are done with them, they are yours,” Adrian promised Jayden darkly.
As if he were listening to something, Jayden’s head tilted, his eyes glazing over for just a moment before he said, “We can accept that.”
The ‘we’ confused him at first, before he remembered Jayden’s entity.
No doubt having picked up on the ‘we’, Adrian asked, “Oh, how is Bow? Stephan has told me he is quite excited for the baby.”
Jayden appeared relaxed, but he was vacantly eyeing King Adrian. Sin wouldn’t exactly call it a friendly look, but then he didn’t know the man well. “He’s fine. And, yes, he is.”
“You know, I really would like to meet him. You don’t suppose I could…” Adrian started to reach out toward Jayden.
“Adrian,” Xavier growled.
Adrian stuck his bottom lip out. “What?”
“Don’t.”
“I just wanted to…” Adrian trailed off. He must have noticed the change in Jayden’s posture.
The man was no longer relaxed, he appeared stiff, as if waiting for an attack. It hit Sin then, that even knowing bits of Jayden’s history, he hadn’t thought of him the way he thought of Cecil. There was no denying Jayden was deadly, but the fact remained, he had been abused just as much, if not more so. Of course, an individual’s suffering should never be compared to another’s.
Jayden expected Adrian to give him no choice in the matter. The man was preparing for the feeling of vulnerability that came with allowing someone into your mind—someone he didn’t trust.
“I’m sorry,” Adrian said gently.
Jayden’s eyes widened at the apology, and he gruffly replied, “No harm done.”
Jayden found it amusing watching adults melt into babbling idiots when around a baby. He promised himself then to never talk to his daughter that way.
Besides him, the only one to stay back was the leader of the Draven Zaytari group, Sin. His eyes were on them though. Specifically, on the young man named Cecil.
When he’d first met Sin, months ago, his walls had been firmly in place. Steady, like all the others in the same position. But his mind was distracted now.
Or Jayden’s powers had grown again, which would suck. He heard too much already. So, in denial, he was going to go with ‘distracted’.
“He has a doggy,”Bow chimed happily.
