Page 30 of Seeking Salvation

“Okay.” Maya drew out the word, not sure she was doing the right thing but knowing she’d need to go on her instincts with this.

“Good.” Watchdog retrieved something from his pocket and handed it to her. A silver anklet with a heart charm.

“What’s this?”

Watchdog shrugged. “An ankle bracelet. You should wear it.”

Maya didn’t understand the gift, but he was so nonchalant about it, she decided to just go with the flow.

“Does this mean we’re friends now, Watchdog, since you gave me a friendship anklet?” She was teasing him, wanting to put a smile on his face.

“No, it means nothing. It’s necessary.”

Maya didn’t argue or push, as Watchdog retreated behind his walls. “Thank you.”

“Just stay safe, we can’t lose anyone else.”

Chapter 9

Titan had no idea where he was going when he got in his car and gunned it away from the chaos of his thoughts. All he knew was the urge to run and to fight was riding him so hard he couldn’t stay in that room and not tear it apart. He was always so calm, so in control and relaxed about situations but this was out of his control and he hated it.

Ever since his ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’ at Shadow, he’d left behind the man who’d been the leader of the Onyx Vipers and, with it, all anger and fear that went with that life. He’d nothing left to lose. Yes, his team meant a lot to him, they were his chosen family, but since his ‘death’, he’d felt a freedom from the ties of blood and now he felt it coiling tight again. He had a son, a child of his blood, who shared his DNA. He’d vowed to never have a family, to never risk that kind of loss or rejection again. Yet now here he was, with a child and a woman who made him damn near lose his mind in under twenty-four hours.

His car slid into the empty spot beside Decker’s Audi at the Eidolon complex and he wondered why he’d felt drawn here. Why his instincts had driven him to seek out the one person who should hate him more than any other.

Mitch.

His old friend, the man whom he’d almost destroyed when he’d kidnapped his woman and child. Shame slithered through him when he thought back to that time, which he did often. His quest for vengeance over the loss of his older brother, Devon, had almost cost him his life. In some ways it had.

A knock on his window made him jump and he looked up to see Mitch looking at him with a raised brow.

“You getting out or you want to finish listening to your love ballad?”

Titan felt his lips twist in a smirk. “Dick.”

He switched off the engine and pushed out of the car, coming face to face with his old frenemy. Mitch clasped his hand and pulled him into a one-shouldered hug.

“How you doin’?”

“Good, man. Good.”

Titan leaned back against his bonnet and Mitch mirrored him, hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed. “How do you do it, man?”

Mitch cocked his head, the slight flecks of grey in his hair caught by the sun and giving away his age. He was late forties now but still heavily muscled and strong, his body kept in peak physical condition by his job here at Eidolon. “Do what?”

“Look at me without the urge to kill me?”

Mitch smirked. “Who says I don’t want to kill you?”

Titan chuckled but it held no humour. “If you wanted to, I’d be dead and we both know it.”

“Maybe.”

Mitch looked off into the distance as the silence around them settled into something almost peaceful. Titan found the tension in his chest easing, the fire burning under his skin cooling.

“You know why we send you those pictures of our kids, Titan?”

Titan shook his head. It had puzzled him since the first one had landed in his inbox. “No.”

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