29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Xavier

C ome on you son of a bitch, be a coward already. You know you want to."

I could see Axel on the screens, standing in a room with two other men, but I couldn't figure out where he was. I would have rather silently made my way through the building until I got to him, but the security system made it impossible—apparently there were access codes and electronically locking door mechanisms , though I still couldn't wrap my head around all of it.

Kade read off a string of numbers over the phone, then punched something into the main computer. Apparently, that was all Jensen needed. I was too engrossed watching Axel on the screen and waiting for Nathaniel West's reaction to pay attention to the information being relayed. It didn't matter—if we got out of this alive, I'd hand deliver that flash drive to Jensen with a thank-you card and flowers.

He'd warned us that the exterior of the building was more heavily guarded than the inside, and Kade and I had taken that information to heart and gone through nearly a dozen men to gain access to the front gates. The interior of the building was just as heavily guarded, but Jensen was confident that the bulk of that responsibility went to their security system... which meant we needed to shut it down if we wanted access to everyone inside.

"I hope Jensen is as good as he says he is." Saying it aloud sounded ridiculous. He'd already proven he was by getting us through the gate remotely, even though that was as far as he could touch without the codes we'd given him.

Kade shrugged, looking around the room. He was practically vibrating with the need to start moving, tensed and coiled and confident. I'd probably be confident too if I literally handcuffed my boyfriend to the bed to make sure he didn't follow me. Seth had promised he'd stay back at the hotel and wait for his call, but his word alone didn't seem to be enough.

Kade wasn't very trusting, it seemed. And honestly, from the look on Seth's face, I had a feeling he'd been right to cuff him there—he probably would have followed us.

Now wasn't the time to ask Kade how they made their relationship work—how Seth still let him be the person he obviously was without losing his mind every time he did something dangerous.

I needed to rescue Axel before I worried about convincing him to let me keep working. And honestly, seeing him on the screens was driving me to the point of completely losing it. He was hurt . There were bruises on his face, a cut on his lip.

Finally, an alert that a door had been locked lit up on the screen. Down the hall, one level below me.

That's where Axel was.

"Gotcha, asshole."

I took my finger off the intercom button and turned to Kade.

"Whoever touched Axel is mine."

For just a second, we shared a look, and I could feel the connection between us. We both knew what it was like to be willing to burn down the entire world around us if it meant we could protect the people we cared about.

Kade had been here before with Seth. He knew what this meant.

He knew how I felt.

He nodded sharply, then turned his attention back to the phone. "Are you ready?"

Whatever Jensen said on the other end of the line seemed to be enough, because Kade hung up. When his eyes dropped back to his phone, I knew what he was thinking about.

Seth, cuffed in a hotel room and waiting for him.

"Call him and tell him you love him." He stuffed his phone into his pocket as I said it. "You and I both know the last time kind of sneaks up on you."

Kade didn't say anything—he just turned to the computers in front of us and frowned. "Jensen said the complete facility shut down was only going to last for ten minutes once we got him access to their security system."

Almost like his words had ushered it in, there was a soft humming noise and the screens in front of us all went blank one by one.

"Go time."

He didn't seem to care that they knew we were coming. Of course, Kade was armed, and confident that they couldn't use their automated locks to keep him out.

We split off at the end of the hallway. I was pretty sure he had full intentions of starting his way from the front and making sure that every person in his path was dead. I'd heard him say it softly to Seth before we left. Every last one of them, I promise.

I didn't care about every last one of them—I just wanted to get to Axel while I knew they couldn't hide from me. He'd probably be angry that I'd just stormed the building without a better plan than shutting down their security and bringing a lethal killer as backup.

I didn't care .

I just needed to find him.

I could almost feel him close by, like some tether drawing me deeper and deeper underground. Every second we'd been apart was slowly peeling away my nerves, leaving my entire body raw and burning.

I had to find him. He had to know that I remembered everything, that I understood the words he had tattooed on his back.

That I loved him, and I wasn't going to let anything come between us—not this fucking facility, not time, not death.

As I stepped down the hallway, the eerie glow of backup lighting flickered to life and illuminated the white brick walls in a dull glow. It was enough for me to see where I was going, and it was enough that when a man came around the corner, I could see the way his eyes widened a second before I jammed a blade into his throat.

Somewhere behind me there was gunfire. Kade was being purposefully loud—his bravado would be the perfect cover for my stealth. With any luck, he'd chew his way through most of the people funneling up to him while I made my way deeper into the building. There really weren't as many guards inside as there had been outside; it was apparently a much smaller location than the one where Marshall worked—the one that Kade had burned to the ground.

Jensen had been right. They apparently trusted their security system to keep them safe in lieu of firepower.

Mistake.

I cut through four people on my way to the stairwell, though they seemed more scientist than security.

It made killing them easier, and I didn't give a shit if any of them were as innocent as Marshall Lister had been.

Every step I took was bringing me closer to Axel, and by the time I turned the corner of the stairs and pushed the heavy door open, I was practically running.

Maybe that was why I missed the body that I nearly bounced off of. The man was broad and big, and he looked like hired muscle. I wasn't sure if he'd been heading up to find Kade, or if he'd been ordered to block off the area since their locks weren't working.

"Any chance you want to get out of my way and make this easy on yourself?" I said it with a sweet smile, but I was already reaching for the gun at my side. I didn't want to make noise, but I also didn't want to get incapacitated trying to carve this guy down to size.

"Who the fuck are you?" His eyes flicked from the bloody knife in my hand to the open stairway behind me. Maybe he wasn't here to guard the hallway, but if he hadn't realized the lights had gone out and their security system wasn't working, I wasn't going to explain it to him.

"Just here to pick up my boy from daycare, sorry I'm a little late." My eyes swept his frame, and I frowned—I was reaching for a gun, but he already had one.

Not exactly optimal.

"Oh? Which one? The twins in the backroom, or those three assholes Otto's with? Or…" He tilted his head and looked me up and down. "Are you here for Axel?" The way he smiled told me he knew who I was here for, which meant he probably knew who I was.

No… not optimal at all.

When I didn't say anything, he lifted his gun and pointed it at me. "He's a little worse for wear, but I promise I didn't break him. Yet. We were waiting for you to get here first."

I didn't break him .

"Were you the one who hurt him?" It came out soft. If the fucker had any idea who I actually was, he wouldn't have smiled in response.

"You look like you'll break easier than him, though. My orders were to bring you alive… Nate never said anything about being unharmed."

I needed to be smart about this, but the fury that welled inside me was blinding and white hot. It wasn't normal , and I didn't have time to process that it was my own anger colliding with the sensation and ability to feel that Marshall had left behind.

It was a deadly mixture, and so all consuming that I was swallowed up by it without realizing. I pulled my gun, but he was fast. He didn't shoot me—he surged forward and slammed the door I'd thrown open back into me. The heavy metal smashed against my extended hand and sent me crashing into the railing.

It took me a second to realize the metal clang, clang, clang sound was my gun falling from my fingers into the blackness below.

Well, shit.

Fine.

I liked doing things up close and personal, anyway.

"Fucking cowardly move. A big guy like you, you'd think you'd want a fair fight. But you really are just hired muscle, aren't you?"

"Shut the fuck up," he said through the half-open door. I took a second to steady myself and pull my knife back out. If I could goad him into losing his temper, I could gain the upper hand.

"Come on then, come in here and get me. Nate obviously doesn't give a shit about you if he set you up against a killer who was armed. And I promise you, I'm going to carve you to fucking pieces for every time you touched Axel. Can you feel that?" I shifted slightly when he swung the door open and stared at me. "That's death, creeping along your spine. Your boss left you here to die, dumbass." I lifted my hand as I spoke, and swung—the light above me shattered, sending shards of glass raining down and throwing me into darkness.

That struck a nerve… maybe I'd been a little dramatic. I threw myself to the ground when I heard the first pop —shot after shot that made my ears scream in a high-pitched whine and left me almost dizzy. Maybe he was fast, but he really wasn't that smart. It sounded like he emptied the whole damn gun, losing his temper and trying to incapacitate me because I'd… what, freaked him out? Threatened his ego?

For a second, there was just silence—either that, or I'd lost my hearing from the echo of gunshots. When the door flung wide open and let in the low light, I rose to my feet and lunged.

My knife thudded squarely into his side, and he reeled back with an angry shout. When he scrambled for the hilt and yanked it out, a hot spurt of blood washed across my shirt.

It wasn't enough. Stabbing him once wasn't enough.

He'd hurt Axel, and stabbing him once couldn't begin to make up for it. I threw myself forward and rammed into his center mass, using leverage and his shitty stance to send us both tumbling to the ground. My fingers slid upward, along his neck, his jawline, tangling into his hair, and I lifted his head.

The sound of it cracking against the ground once was satisfying, even though I felt him writhing beneath me. It took me a second to realize what the sudden pain in my shoulder was—my knife.

He still had my knife.

Well… Technically I had it again since he'd stabbed me with it, but I didn't have time to care. I lifted his head and slammed it down again.

He spasmed beneath me.

"I wish I had more time," I snarled, slamming his head harder. "I'd take you apart piece by piece for touching him. Maybe I'll find their drug and bring you back just so I can kill you again." I lifted his head and threw my entire weight into it.

He wasn't moving anymore.

Fuck, it hadn't been enough. He'd hurt Axel, and I'd barely had a chance to return the favor. My hands were shaking and slick with blood, and he was already dead. The only thing I could do was tell myself that he'd just been a messenger, that the real person who'd hurt Axel was holding him captive while I straddled a dead body.

When I pushed myself to my feet, I swayed. The knife hadn't landed anywhere vital, but my entire arm was already aching with it. My entire body was aching.

If this was emotion, if this was feeling and caring so deeply… I wasn't sure how people lived through it. Maybe this was why psychopaths weren't capable of so much depth. It was dangerous.

My eyes flicked down to the body on the ground. Blood and something thicker was seeping out of the back of his head, and I didn't feel satisfied from killing him. I would have been satisfied before.

I was just aching, and worried, and I wanted Axel.

At least I was smart enough not to pull the knife from my shoulder as I righted myself. For just a second, my eyes flicked back to the stairwell and my lost gun.

I didn't have time to look for it, but I did have time to bend down and scoop the dead man's gun from the ground. When I checked, I realized I was right.

He'd emptied the entire thing like a jackass in a Western movie, and a quick search of his body showed me he didn't have any more bullets.

What a fucking amateur.

It was a good thing no one else had to know that. I was close now, the office was just down the hall. I could feel him waiting for me.

The room was empty when I rounded the corner—I probably would have moved too if I'd heard that much gunfire. My head fell against the doorframe and I took in a slow breath; my body was aching, my gun was empty, and I had to find Axel.

I had to find him.

"You know they're going to kill you, right? Your best bet would be running while you have the chance."

Relief struck me so violently I almost went limp at the sound of Axel's voice drifting to me from down the hall. He sounded fine—maybe a little worried, but he was okay . I knew I still had to deal with the people in the room… with a gun that didn't have any bullets. And I probably needed to figure out the blade still sticking out of me, but…

Well, I didn't have time to worry about any of that right now. I just hoped in my next life, my fucking birthmark wasn't a slash on my shoulder.

I made my way down the hall to the double doors at the end, and rounded the corner.

There was a tall, slender man with dark, curly hair who had a gun pointed at Axel… and there was an older man in the corner who was looking at me with a grin. I recognized him from the pictures we'd seen—Nathaniel West.

I pointed the gun at his smirking face and said a silent thank you that I'd brought it with me, even if it was empty, because the smug expression wavered for just a second before he forced it back into place.

"So nice of you to join us, Mr. Benham."

He knew who I was—that was good. At least I didn't have to pretend to be Marshall.

"Why don't you tell your little friend to stop pointing his gun at Axel and let him go? You don't want him, right?" It took everything I had not to turn my full attention to Axel, to rush to him… to ask him if he was okay and run my fingers over all the places where his skin was marked. I needed to touch him.

"Otto." Nathaniel's voice was calm. "Kindly keep your gun on Mr. Fetterman. As long as you do, I have a feeling the situation will remain under control."

He was so wrong—everyone in this room who'd had any part in Axel getting hurt was going to die.

"You don't have to do this, you know." Axel's voice came out soft, controlled… and it took me a second to realize he wasn't talking to me or the man I had my gun leveled at. "You're not part of this, Otto."

I frowned. Not part of this? Otto had a gun pointed at Axel. Of course, he was part of this.

"He's every bit as much a part of this as I am, regardless of the circumstances that brought him here. Do you think you can sway him with pretty words?"

Circumstances that… Was the man pointing a gun at Axel like me? Like Kade? Something about the way Nathaniel West looked at him with a proprietary expression told me he was.

"Listen, I don't give a fuck who anyone is," I snapped. It drew all eyes in the room back to me, though Axel's instantly dropped to my shoulder and the knife sticking from it. "All I care about is getting Axel out of here safely. So, let's make a deal, hm? What do you want?"

"Xavier, don't—"

"Do you remember anything from your past life, Mr. Benham?" Nathaniel's voice cut off Axel's protest, and I smiled at him.

"Of course," I lied. "I remember everything."

Axel fell quiet while the man in front of me smiled. "Perfect. If that's the case, you wouldn't care to come over here and prove it, right? Draw up a syringe with an appropriate dosage of FM87s."

Fuck, I didn't even know if that was the name of the damn drug I'd been injected with. It sounded familiar from the file I'd read, but I hadn't realized I was going to be quizzed on it.

"I said I remembered everything, I didn't say I was stupid. I'm not putting my gun down unless he does, too."

My empty gun. Shit.

I needed the upper hand. I needed a few seconds where Axel wasn't in danger, and I'd kill them both. I needed—

"Come on now, Mr. Benham. Show me you still have the information I need trapped in that head of yours, and we'll release Mr. Fetterman."

He was lying. I think we both knew it, but that didn't stop me from walking to him with the gun leveled at his chest.

"Fine. Show me where everything is."

He moved as I moved, putting the table between us and shifting closer to Otto.

Closer to Axel.

I didn't like it.

He gestured to the table in front of me, picking up one of the syringes in a slow movement and holding it out to me.

"Well?" He sounded impatient.

"I—" I picked up a vial of blue liquid with a frown. I just needed to stall long enough to get into a better position… or for Kade to make his way down here, or—

The label on the vial just said Re-X2.

Well, shit . I'd failed that little bit of bullshitting spectacularly.

"Disappointing, Mr. Benham. Very disappointing. Though I'm sure with enough time, we can figure out how to bring those memories back to the surface."

I forced myself not to sway—blood loss was a bitch.

"Xavier, how hurt are you ?" Axel could tell, if no one else could. His voice was strained, and when he shifted forward like he meant to come to me, Nathaniel tsk 'd.

"Shoot Mr. Fetterman if he moves again, Otto. We don't need him anymore."

I froze—his gun was still pointed at Axel, and even though I knew I could kill Nathaniel West, I wasn't sure if I'd be fast enough to kill them both.

Not in this body.

Not with my injury.

And not with an empty fucking gun.

"Or you can just go," Axel said calmly, though I could see his hands shaking. His eyes kept flashing to me. "Xavier didn't come here alone. This place is going down one way or another, Otto. There are others like you, people who have been hurt by all of this… and they want revenge." Axel paused, his expression imploring, almost pleading. "This isn't your fight—you didn't ask for this shit. Time to break the leash, right?"

"Otto." Nathaniel sounded furious at the implication his pet might betray him.

"Others? Here?" He completely ignored Nathaniel's command, his attention fully on Axel.

"Yeah, others. If I'm right and they're here with Xavier, this whole place is going up in flames. He's probably making his way from room to room killing everyone he comes across. The guards, the scientists," Axel paused, then added, "the test subjects. Everyone. "

I noticed the man tense for just a moment, his expression going hard before smoothing out completely.

"Okay." Otto's voice came out cool, calm. Reasonable. "I'm taking what's mine and I'm leaving." He turned to me and tilted his head. "I can do that, right?"

I stared at him—on one hand, Kade wanted to kill everything breathing in this building. On the other… Was it really his fault that he was here? He was apparently part of their experiment, just like the rest of us.

"Don't go out the front if there's another way." I honestly wasn't sure where Kade was anymore, but that was the best I could give him.

Maybe it was dangerous, letting him run loose. But Axel seemed to trust him on some level, and I was positive Kade was more than capable of taking him out if he ran across him. Either way, taking the loaded gun out of the equation was the right decision.

"I can handle that."

He sat the gun he was holding on the table beside Axel and walked out of the room without looking back.

Suddenly, Nathaniel West wasn't as secure as he thought he was.

"Otto!" he shouted after him. "I gave you back your life . I own your life, you ungrateful bastard."

"You can't own a person, you shit." My voice came out a little thicker than I meant it to, and I swayed again. Nathaniel was staring at the doorway with an incredulous expression, but Axel's eyes were all for me.

"Baby, are you okay?"

"If you're okay, I'm okay. Let's shoot this jackass, and we can go home."

I gestured toward Otto's gun, but Axel's voice cut me off. "Wait."

"Why?" I was tired. I was so fucking tired now that I'd found Axel and I could see he was safe. Whole. Intact, and worried about me.

"Where are the others?" He turned his attention from me and back to Nathaniel.

"Others?" I hated that I sounded confused. I hated that I felt confused.

"There are other places like this, other people he wants to hurt. I want to know where." I'd never heard Axel sound like this. I knew he was capable of killing if he had to, but the way he talked to Nathaniel West told me he wanted a reason to pull the trigger. The fact that there were other people in danger wasn't a concern to me. I didn't care about any of that. I just wanted Axel and me to walk out of here in one piece.

Nathaniel West apparently didn't care anymore, either. He knew he was outgunned and outmatched—the man in front of us let his dark eyes drift for just a second from Axel to myself, then he nodded. "There's too many for me to tell you. Take me to my office and I'll give you the files."

Bargaining. He was still bargaining, as though he had a chance of getting out of this alive. Was he so arrogant that he thought he'd be able to talk his way out of his fate?

"Do you know where his office is?"

Axel flicked his eyes from his target long enough to glance at me. "I do." He was moving toward Nathaniel.

"Then why do we need him to give us anything? Get Otto's gun. I'm done with this."

I wasn't sure if he realized when I asked Axel to get the gun, or if he was just desperate enough that he was willing to risk it. Whatever the reason, I think Nathaniel West knew that he wasn't getting out of the room alive, and he was going to make sure that he took one of us with him. I was already moving around the table, but an empty gun was useless, and I realized a second too late he hadn't put down the syringe he'd picked up earlier—the syringe that was full of blue liquid.

I knew what the drugs did.

And I saw the way his eyes focused on Axel.

I didn't think. It might have been Marshall's muscle memory that told me exactly what happened next. Or maybe it was knowing that I'd die if it meant keeping Axel safe. I'd found him once… I would find him again.

The gun in my hand fell to the ground, and I twisted the knife from my shoulder with a scream—the blade took Nathaniel in the side just as he lifted the syringe up and the needle slammed home in my chest.

The man in front of me was grinning—a knife in his side wasn't enough to kill him, but the sudden echo of gunshots was.

One pop, then another. He fell to the ground with two holes in his head, his blood and brain matter splattering across the floor.

I turned to see Axel holding Otto's gun and Kade standing in the doorway.

"Took you long enough," I murmured. It sounded less scolding than it should have, since I was swaying where I stood. The needle was still sticking out of my chest, and I yanked it free a second before I felt it. The burning sensation along my muscles, tearing across my body where the drug had seeped in.

White-hot heat… and for a brief moment, a flicker of memory, like a light flaring bright before it went out completely.

Seth standing in front of me—only it wasn't Seth, it was a man named Clay—and a needle jamming into my skin. Falling to the ground and hitting my head. The betrayal, the fact that I'd just wanted to help them.

I stumbled back with a low groan and nearly fell against the desk.

This was how Marshall had died.

The ground suddenly came rushing to meet me, but I didn't remember falling.

I just remembered Axel running to catch me.