Page 51 of Breathe
The vehicle was borrowed from Dave’s fleet, and the former SecDef told Real to keep it for as long as he needed.
Rip was right.
How long was he going to sit here and watch Azrael?
He found it odd that Azrael had taken one of the names on the list and called the YA team to check it out. It was probably due to Apollo still being in the hospital and Azrael feeling helpless.
They had very little to go on about Apollo and Cash’s attack, but they did get video.
“Let’s meet up with Crow and check out the information Stone found on the college surveillance one more time,” Real suggested, starting the vehicle.
Crow had accompanied them back to California. The assassin was never far from Rebel for long. Which made sense because Crow never stayed at the ranch for long, since Rebel was currently working out in California.
Rip nodded. “I think it’s worth it. Some of the kids said that they had seen the guy at the sandwich shop not far from campus. I bet if we canvas that area all the time, he’ll eventually show up.”
“Maybe, but I’m not convinced,” Real muttered and flipped a bitch to drive away from where YA had been scoping out a large house where a young assassin named Freedom lived.
“Looking at the way he shot up a dorm room, I’m convinced he won’t disappear without finding you, or something you care about,” Rip said.
“Hence the reason we are keeping an eye on YA.” Real felt the need to point that out.
“Yeah, but don’t forget those are two assassins back there,” Rip countered and took a sip from a soda sitting in the center console.
“You do realize there were three…that Boston was there…” Real tossed him a frown.
“What?” Rip scowled.
Real chuckled darkly. “Yeah, he was crouched down on the other side of Rebel.”
“Son of a bitch! He was not!”
“He was. He was wearing that brown Kansas City Chief’s t-shirt you bought him.”
“Fuck, let’s go back.”
“He’s been running around for over a year learning from Erebus, no sense in coddling him now.”
“Yeah, but I didn’tknowhe was doing that. This is different,” Rip grumbled.
“He’s safer right where he is. Besides, if you start trying to control him, he’s going to balk and might even run. You don’t want that.”
“No, I don’t want that,” Rip sighed, nodding in agreement.
Real understood just how hard it was to stand back and let the younger generation find their own way.
Sometimes it felt like the hardest thing in the fucking world to do.
Damn it.
Two days later…
Everything smelled metallic.
Wiping at his face, Azrael’s hand came away wet. Some part of him knew it was blood, but another part was numb.
He stumbled over something on the ground and went down hard on his knees. His head rang and he reached up to finger the knot forming on the back of his head.
Nothing had gone as planned and he had lost Rebel in the dark. Pain shot in one knee from something sharp on the floor and he figured it had to be glass from the broken mirror. The jab let him know a piece was embedded in his kneecap. That was going to be a bitch when Wrath tried to extract it.
