them in from other regions,” he said almost kindly. “They wouldn’t even know what to do. You and Cassius have handled this for a long time, so no one else has had to.”
“I’m going to have to bring him,” I said, running a hand over my sweaty hair, pulled back in a ponytail. “I’m not allowed to leave him alone for very long, and a trip to the prison generally takes a long time.”
“I can up security for your visit if that worries you, but I would rather you bring him here than piss off our bosses. Callahan made it clear he didn’t appreciate the ‘air of laziness’ the prison gave from its lateness with reports. Dian and Eliphas also got phone calls, chewing them out. I think Hasan is making the Tribunal clean house,” Tarak mumbled, a little bitter. “That fucking werecat. Comes back and stirs up shit.”
“I barely know him. Only met him the once and really don’t want to meet him again,” I said, ignoring Tarak’s tone. I also recognized the names of the fae Warden and the witch Warden. Between the three of them, they had what felt like a small army of Tribunal guards who could handle anything. They had two types of magic and a pack of wolves.
Only the best criminals ever escaped, then they became mine to deal with.
“You were trained by his son,” the werewolf reminded me.
“Yeah, and?” I snorted, walking for the door of the gym. So were a handful of other Executioners and a couple of freelance assassins, pretending to be normal bounty hunters. “I can be there in two nights. Does that work?”
“Yeah. Sooner the better. I’ll put you on my schedule, and if anyone calls and bothers me, I’ll at least be able to tell them you’re on your way. Let me know what sort of security you want for that…”
“Yeah. His name is Raphael, and I don’t know what to call him, either.” Chuckling, I opened the door and walked to the elevator, waving at the janitor who handled the common areas of the building. He was the only supernatural who operated in the building other than me. A troll who could make a human glamour, he stayed out of everyone’s way. I’d known him for over two decades and got him the job in the building when it was built. “Let’s just call him human for now and leave it at that.”
“We can do that,” Tarak agreed softly. “Well, two nights from now. See you then.”
“Yup.” I hung up and stepped into the elevator when it opened. Leaning on the back wall I resisted the urge to dent the metal with a punch as I thought about dragging Raphael to a prison.
I walked into my condo and looked around, frowning when I couldn’t find said not-human. I jogged up the stairs to the bedrooms and knocked on his.
“Hey, Raphael?”
“Yeah?” he called out.
“We need to talk. Something came up, and I want to get it all planned out ASAP.”
“Give me a moment.”
Shrugging, I walked back downstairs, noting how he neatly put all the dossiers I made on supernaturals on the small table that was becoming his desk. I didn’t need to eat for a few more days, but I knew I needed to make a plan if I was going to be exposing myself to the criminals of the prison. I grabbed a premade protein shake from the fridge.
I should eat tomorrow, so I’m not sluggish, but I have energy. I can’t survive on shakes. Not if I’m going to maybe run into…
As I finished the shake and threw the container away, a cold rush hit me.
Ah, shit. He’s still going to be there. He’s always going to be there.
I tried to take a deep breath, tried to banish the face from my mind, but it was difficult. It was hard to forget the face of one of my own people—especially that one.
“Are you okay?”
I looked up and nodded, glad for his sudden appearance.
“Yeah, I’m fine. So, I just got off the phone with a colleague, Tarak, one of the Wardens of the prison. The Tribunal is giving him a hard time about getting a report done and turned in. We’re a little late, so we need to go down there two nights from now and do a walkthrough.” I was rambling, but the longer I looked at him, the more I relaxed. There was no reason to worry about Nakul. He was behind bars. “It should