Page 122 of Crossover
A fresh punch to my gut threatened to make me panic, but I needed to hold it together. No matter what he said, I couldn’t comply. I would never turn on my family or country like that.
In fact, I needed to focus, not on his words, but on my actions. Vosch showing up here was an opportunity to end him once and for all.
“Your brother Jace. He’s quite the look-alike to you, isn’t he?” Vosch scrubbed his temple. “Ever worried he’ll pretend to be you and screw your girl?”
If I timed this right, I could disarm the first man and use him as a shield while I put a bullet in thug number two’s brain, followed by Vosch.
“Bryson. He hasn’t gone into work yet today,” he mused. “Wonder if he’s taking the day off?”
That was it. With one last glance at Vosch, I lunged for the thug closest to me. He looked more like a businessman than a killer with clean-cut hair, a sharp business suit, and a freshly shaven face. But I could see the killer in his eyes the moment I came at him.
In one fluid motion, I wrapped my arm around his throat from behind and used him as a human shield while I drew my weapon from the back of my waistband and aimed it at the second henchman. Who reached for his gun.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The calm certainty in Vosch’s voice made me pause. He locked his wrists behind his back and took a step toward me. “Perhaps I failed to mention one important thing.”
The man in front of me tried to elbow his way out of my grip, but I deflected it with ease.
“At this very moment, everyone you love requires your cooperation.”
The ground seemed to open up beneath my feet. Our eyes locked, and in that instant, a cloud drifted over the city. The sudden dimness felt like a shroud, smothering every last flicker of hope and optimism as the realization hit me with crushing force—there was no way out.
Not for me and certainly not for those I held dear.
67
GRAYSON
“It’s funny how we think we know exactly what we would do in someone else’s shoes until we’re in them ourselves.” I slumped against the wall, the cool, rough texture of the stone seeping through my shirt. The great room of my brother’s house enveloped me like a false sanctuary.
The rich, smoky aroma of peated scotch filled my nostrils as I lifted the crystal tumbler to my lips as I stood with my brothers while Luna and Ivy talked in another area of the house. After explaining Vosch’s threats to everyone, we’d all fled to the relative safety of Hunter’s house—including Ivy’s mother and grandmother. But a bitter voice in my head whispered that nowhere was truly safe anymore. Not until Vosch got what he wanted.
“Before Vosch gave me this ultimatum”—I massaged my throbbing temple—“there was no question in my mind that I would ever leak intelligence to a mass murderer. And I had told myself there was no excuse for Daniel to have complied, no matter the threats he faced. But now that it’s my family on the line…” I shook my head.
How dare I long to be absolved ofmysins while condemning my old mentor for his. Daniel had taken things much too far, butwhere, exactly, was that line? How far did he go before he no longer resembled the moral person he once was?
Where was the line when someone was no longer worthy of forgiveness?
The biggest question was, how would I not cross it while keeping my family safe?
“How could I have not seen this coming?” I wondered angrily.
Hunter put a hand on my shoulder. “No one would have.”
But his words rang hollow.
“Daniel warned me Vosch wouldn’t let us go.”
I should have anticipated Vosch’s next move, should have protected them better. Now, my failures, my sins, had come home to settle their tab, and my family would pay the price. The room fell into suffocating silence, a sinister fog seeming to permeate the very air.
“What did he ask you to do, exactly?” Jace asked.
“He gave me a test,” I replied. “An assignment to gain intelligence to help him.”
“What kind of intelligence?” Hunter asked.
“He wants to know the emergency protocol for an active threat on an “L” train.”
Translation: what safety protocols were in place should someone target an “L” train full of passengers. By having that information, someone could circumvent those safety protocols and ensure mass casualties.