Life Without Them (On Hold)

Chapter 16: Crucial Information

She moves her head to look up at me, her bright green eyes wide and shining with unshed tears.

"Oh thank fuck," I sigh.

My heart pounds in my chest as I look into her eyes. My throat constricting as my eyes begin to burn and I feel the tears gathering.

I'm so fucking happy that she's back from wherever the hell she went, that I don't even think, I just slam my lips down on hers. We have a rule in place. We're not supposed to initiate until she gives the ok or does so first. I know, another fucking rule, but right now I couldn't care less about some shit rule. My Trouble's back and her lips are just as fucking perfect as I remember.

Soon enough the kiss changes. I'm no longer pushing my lips against hers, she's pushing hers against mine. Her grip on my shirt tightens as she pulls me impossibly closer, her body plastered against mine, and damn does it feel good. She tilts her head as she parts her lips, deepening the kiss and licking the seam of my lips. Opening up for her, her tongue slides in my mouth, drawing my tongue out to play. She moans as her tongue meets the cool metal of my tongue ring and my hand tangles in her hair. Her silky, perfect fucking hair that I haven't been able to touch.

With my right hand in her hair, I'm able to control the kiss, as my left hand finds a home at the small of her back, pulling our lower halves together. She tastes so fucking perfect, like the sweetest thing in the universe. Better than I remember...I wonder if everything tastes the sa—

"Hey! Paws the fuck off!"

Sang and I break apart at the sound of Axel's booming voice, but she doesn't get far. I keep my hand on her lower back as I remove my hand from her hair and place it on her waist. She releases the death grip on my shirt, and now holds my waist loosely.

Fucking Axel.

Her lips are plump and dark pink, her eyes dilated in a good way; half lidded and filled with desire.

"Sunshine," Axel calls her. Her eyes move from mine to his, but it looks like she's having difficulty doing it.

Fuck yeah! Talk about a fucking ego boost.

When her eyes are firmly fixed on Axel's, his eyes soften as he looks her over.

"Are you ok?"

"I—" she stops to clear her throat. "I am now. Gabriel helped me."

"Yeah, I can see that," he responds with narrowed eyes in my direction. "Why don't you two join us in the living room. Owen says you've figured out who Volto is."

"No," Trouble shakes her head.

"No?" Axel asks with his head tilted.

"No, I mean, no we haven't found out who Volto is," she replies, walking over to him. "It can't be him, it's not possible."

~Kota~

How could my dad be Volto!? The Academy got rid of him years ago. We haven't seen or heard from him since they had to drag him away. We've had absolutely no contact from him since he's been gone and it was supposed to stay that way!

Oh God, if that's him in the photo, and he knows about Sang, has he tried to get to mom? Are her and Jessica safe? How the hell did he find us? How does he fit into all of this? Can he really be Volto? Did he ever really leave?

I hate that all I have is more questions. Now that we know who Volto is, we should be closer to putting a stop to him and moving on with our lives, but all I have are more unanswered questions. The biggest one being, why?

When Axel, Sang, and Gabriel walk out of the kitchen, Sang's shaking her head. She looks more aware than she did going in there, and for that I have my brother to thank. We all saw what happened in there between the two, and even though he broke the rule, we've decided to let it slide since he was able to bring her out of whatever daze she fell into. No, we didn't stop them, we saved that job for the Toma's.

As soon as Axel and his team came inside and saw Gabe and Sang in the kitchen, Axel zoomed over there to break them apart. Raven and Brandon laughed as they walked over to the couch across from us and joined Silas and North. Victor moved over on the couch next to me to make room for Corey, as Marc leaned up against the wall with Owen. Nathan and Luke went and got a couple of chairs from the dining room, and are now seated in front of the tv.

"It can't be him," Sang says to me. "It can't be your father."

"Wait a minute," Marc interrupts. "That Volto creep is Kota's dad?"

"No," Sang groans. "Weren't you listening? It can't be his dad. It's not possible."

"Sang, the kids saw him," Victor says gently.

"It can't be him," Sang protests.

"Sang, why do you think it's not him?" Owen asks her.

"Because he's too old, you idiots!" she growls. "That is not the same Volto we were dealing with eight years ago."

"Then how does this guy even know about Volto?" Brandon asks. "Of your guys for that matter."

"Yeah, I thought your problematic blood family was taken care of," Corey adds.

"He was," I grit out. "I haven't seen or heard from my father since I joined the Academy."

"Then how does he know about Volto?" Marc asks.

"You guys really are idiots," Sang grumbles, placing the heel of her hand on her forehead, and shaking it slowly.

"Sang, would you just spit it out?"

Everyone looks at me in complete shock for my outburst. Everyone except Sang. She's looking at me with a small smirk and warm eyes.

What the hell is that about?

She winks at me before turning back to the rest of the room.

"See if you can all follow me, yeah? Ok, so this guy approaches the kids calling himself Volto, which means we can assume he's at the very least familiar with what we went through at AW, yeah? So, the Volto we dealt with back then was non-violent, he actually went out of his way to make sure I was never physically hurt. That guy wouldn't have put a knife to my throat while I was sleeping and told you guys to leave me. That Volto would've just kidnapped me again. And why not? He has the perfect opportunity. You were gone, and I was vulnerable, why not take me?"

"Because he wasn't the same guy you've already dealt with," Corey murmurs.

"Exactly!" Sang continues. "This Volto switch happened years ago. Which means when our original Volto went radio silent, he either found this new guy, or the new guy found him."

"So...what? Are we dealing with two Volto fuckers now?" Gabe questions.

"We have to assume so," Victor answers. "There's no way Kota's dad is tech savvy enough to have evaded us for so long and kept watch over Sang to make sure we didn't contact her."

Sang visibly shudders at that, causing Gabe, who's still the closest to her, to wrap her in his arms. She doesn't push him away, or even flinch.

How could they have gotten back to normal so quickly? The rest of us can only hope that it'll be that easy for us. What if she doesn't want me after this? My father tried to kidnap our kids. He held a knife to her throat. My god, she's never going to want to be with me now. I've lost her for good.

"Hey, 52," Sang calls out, causing me to look up in surprise.

She never calls us by our old nicknames. Could it be—

"Get out of your head and get in the game. We've got a bastard sperm donor to find."

North grunts, "How the hell are we supposed to do that?"

"Easy. Victor? Corey?" Sang calls then with a smile.

"We have his face," they say together.

Victor smirks, "We know who he is, and now we know what to look for. To find the old Volto, all we have to do is look in the new Volto's past."

"Time to nail this bastard," North grunts, causing Silas to grunt in agreement.

"He won't get away this time."