Page 13 of Son of a Witch

Astra’s father had warned Tor not to call him the big D word.

Tor shrugged, enjoying the scene playing out. “What else can you take from me?” He hit his lifeless legs and slumped in his wheelchair.

Fuck. I swiped at my face, feeling shitty for the guy when he couldn’t walk or go on a mission again. Blaming and hating myself for being responsible. Guilt pulling like a torn muscle in my neck.

Would the Guardian parole board let him use his bounty points to get out of here or would he be stuck here for another five years? Everything slipped from our grasp faster than we could fucking hold it.

Loco clamped his fingers over Tor’s shoulder and shook him. “Don’t you give up, you hear me? That shit’ll make you spiral into depression. You don’t want that.” Seemed the old crazy had some pearls of wisdom.

Tor’s face twitched as if he wanted to break down, and Astra held him tighter and so did Loco. Her father might be psycho when it came to violence, biting off people’s ears, and viciously cutting down and ending the lives of his attackers, but he had a heart, and that made him human.

“I could have given up, admitted defeat, and accepted my fate locked in top-level security.” Loco leveled Astra with a longing gaze and her high, tight shoulders lowered. “But I never gave up on seeing my daughters again. And look?” His wild gaze softened when it landed on Astra. “There’s always a way.”

He continued to stare at her with a strange expression. Part fascination, part pride, part curiosity that prickled inside me.

I felt some of Astra’s hostility burn away.

Days ago, in the hall, he’d mentioned the potential of her power. One of the reasons he was locked away. Suddenly, I couldn’t help but think they connected somehow.

I glanced at Serena, surprised she hadn’t cut the reunion short. Her eyes glazed over with tears. She’d lost a child, too. Perhaps a husband.

The empathetic part of me reached out to clap her shoulder, but I stopped at the last minute. I’d not show this woman an ounce of compassion when she stole my team from me. She needed to understand she wasn’t welcome. Hopefully she’d leave and join another team. With numbers low, Vancor might restore me to team leader.

Loco coughed into his hands. “As for you, young lady,” he addressed Astra. “You lovedBackstreet Boys.I bought you their albums every birthday or Christmas. You want me to go on?”

Shock and frustration flickered over her face. Too much shit had gone down the last three days. Finding out that her dad was a Guardian and lived in the same prison couldn’t have been easy after she thought he’d abandoned her family. That her absent father wanted a relationship with her.

By the air sawing in her mouth, this was all too much for her to deal with right now on top of all the shit that brought her and the team down. Tor’s creeping depression and trying to save face. Pascal scolding himself for a mistake in which I played a part. Losing Raze and her wolfy mate.

Overwhelmed by it all, she grabbed the handles of Tor’s wheelchair as if steadying herself.

“Keep that psycho away from me,” Astra said to Serena, and rolled Tor away, dodging bits of debris.

Shitty thing to say. Unfair, too. I knew she didn’t mean it. Words that came from a place of burning, twisting hurt. Same place my irritation at Serena came from.

Time to have a word with my woman. So much time I spent hating my father for being a prick, only to turn my back on him when he was terminal with cancer. I was lucky to get the chance to say goodbye and have my peace with him. Astra might not get that chance if Loco fell in his first mission outside of the prison in god knows how many years. Chances of that were high if he was unfit, untrained, and unqualified to be going out.

Vancor must be stupid and desperate to retrieve all the prisoners to put our team and Loco in jeopardy like that.

I moved to go after her, but Serena raised a palm. “Stay.”

Fuck. With her onboard, it’d make a relationship between Astra, Tor, Pascal, and me very tricky. Awkward as fuck with Loco, too. But I got the impression he was only helping us with the clean-up duties.

“What’s the story there, sir?” Serena again, probing Loco. Perceptive. Solution-oriented. “Is it going to be a problem?”

“The name’s Loco, miss.” She gritted her teeth at his reply. “Astra, my daughter, and I were recently reacquainted. She thinks I skipped out on the family. Not true. Got locked up in here. I saved her ass, his too, but she …” He sniffed and wiped his nose. “How do I say this? Doesn’t like my means of dealing with problems.”

“What means is that?” I had to give Serena credit for trying to understand the team dynamics and work through potential problems before they blew up.

God knew we had enough shit to deal with between Tor, Pascal, Astra and me. Add in a crazed lunatic and a straight-shooting new leader and we were bound to clash like steel swords spitting sparks.

“Violently and efficiently killing people,” I blurted, earning a critical eye from Serena and a cold glare from Loco.

Loco huffed and smiled, pleased with himself. “I take care of pests. Pests that almost murdered you and my daughter if it wasn’t for me.”

Serena put a figurative boot on his chest at that. “Not anymore. We do things by the book. Earn every damn point we can get and get the heck out of here. Got me?”

Play by the rules. One thing Serena and I had in common. Hopefully, that and the team’s best interests, were the only things we had in common.

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