Page 44 of Victorious: Part I

We both stare at her, silence washing over the room until she rolls her eyes, punching me in the arm. “Oh, stop it. I’m still me. Just get on with it, will you?” she chimes, a slight smirk crossing her face.

Loki chuckles, turning back to his computer to bring up the file as I continue to stare at her. “You reallyarea badass, you know that?” I stare at her in awe.

She bumps into my side, a light smile touching her lips. “I know. Just rememberthatwhen I’m trying to help you and Val, okay? You gotta trust me, Montana. Can you do that?”

A sense of calm washes through me. I can’t explain it. I can’t grasp why. Maybe because I grew up in a home seeing my father do such horrible things to my mother—a mother who showed me nothing but love and kindness, and watching her do anything, absolutely anything, to protect me, including stabbing my father to death to make sure I was safe—has shown me strength. It’s shown me that even though someone has the ability to take someone else’s life, they also have the same ability to love and a need to guard the people they care about.

I see that in Haven right now.

I see my mother in Haven.

My mother might not have been trained as an elite assassin, but Haven has that same maternal instinct my mother has.

Even if she doesn’t realize it.

Haven may not be able to carry her own children thanks to The Nest, but she has taken all of us here under her wing.

“Why are you looking at me like that, you weirdo?” she snaps, frowning and breaking me away from my rambling thoughts.

Letting out a small laugh, I shake my head and turn to face Loki’s computer. “Poppy’s lucky to have you watching over her.”

Haven tries to fight back her smile as she nudges my shoulder playfully. “Stop getting all emotional on me. I’ve done enough crying in the last twenty-four hours. And birds don’t cry, so Loki, let’s get on with this shit show,shall we?”

Loki rolls his neck and starts typing. “Thank God! I thought I was going to have to get out a violin and start playing.”

The three of us chuckle as he pulls up the induction file for Nighthawk. As soon as her file loads, the three of us jerk back in shock. Gasps flood the room as her name and birth records flood the screen.

My pulse quickens, my hand shifting to the back of my neck, rubbing the tension instantly tightening through my muscles. The silence in the room is like a thunderous roar, screaming ‘danger’ as we all stare at the screen in disbelief.

But it’s Loki who is the first to speak, “I, ah… I can double-check the accuracy,” he states, then begins typing as Haven reaches out, placing her fingers on top of his hands to stop him.

“Loki, the records are never wrong.Youare never wrong,” she states matter-of-factly.

He lets out a heavy breath, sitting back in his chair, feeling the heaviness of this information that only the three of us in the room are now privy to.

“All right, now we know who Nighthawkreallyis. What the hell do you want to do about it, Haven?” Loki asks, spinning in his chair, glancing at her like he has no idea what’s coming next.

Her jaw wracks from side to side like she’s thinking, then she straightens her shoulders. “Can you do everything you can to locate her? I need to get out a coded message about the stuff that’s going down in the prison and with the Cartel. Javier obviously pulled her in to work for him when shit went down with Rico. She’s probably just as in the dark about all of this as I was. If she’s been on mission with Javier for a while, she may not even know The Nest has been disbanded. And I’d imagine she has no idea who she is either. After what’s just happened, she’ll be sitting back in hiding, waiting for a new mission from me, seeing as I compromised her last one with Javier.” She exhales, then begins pacing the room like she’s frustrated.

“She’s probably spinning out right now, wondering what’s going on. Trying to check in with HQ but getting no response. Ineedto get to her first, Loki so she doesn’t go back to Javier for answers and ends up with a bullet in her skull, or worse, he feeds her a bunch of bullshit and turns her against us.”

Loki glances at me, and I give a subtle nod in response, so he spins back to his computer and begins typing. “I’ll find her. It might take me some time, but I swear to you, Haven, Iwillfind her for you.”

She turns her gaze to me, her expression sincere. “When we find her, Itrulybelieve that she can help us with your mother. If Nighthawk’s been Javier’s right hand while he’s been building his version of The Rojas Cartel, shewillhave been keeping tabs oneverything. Trust me, Montana, you might think us birds are only around for torture and death, but we were also trained in stealth. While the big players were doing their thing, the birds were always lurking in the background, taking in as much information as needed. How do you think all those blackmail files we stole were created in the first place? The informationwasn’tgathered by the Cartel. I can tell you that much.”

Loki and I stifle our laughs as we grin at Haven.

There’s still so much we’re yet to learn about her time at The Nest.

But that’s for another day.

“All right. You get a message off to Nighthawk when Loki finds her, but what about in the meantime? Mom’s still in danger in the prison with Javier’s birds in there with her. Who knows how long it will be until we can get a message out for help?”

Haven scrunches up her face and nods slowly. “Yeah… I know, and that’s where this next bit sucks because Alpha’s gonna have to dive straight back into club mode when I tell him that Nighthawk is the daughter of Governor Bennett Marshall, the man we just had arrested.”

Chapter Twelve

ALPHA

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