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Azrael pov:
"What are you doing here? What are you planning?!" I stand and yank against my cuffs, wishing to rip his throat out.
"Quick to anger, are we my dear Azy?" I felt my blood boil when he used that name. Breathing hard through my nose I sit down and try not to let this man get to me.
"No one's gonna see or hear us... it's just you and me Azrael." He points to the camera and tilts his head, hiding his face behind the mask.
"So what? You out me and hope the justice system takes care of me? I'll have them paid off in an hour." He laughs and shakes his head, leaning back in his chair.
"No, I know better than that. I just needed to get close to you. You've been hiding and it's been hard keeping track." I felt my stomach drop, this was nothing more than flushing me out of hiding.
"What do you want then? There's not much you can take from me right now." I lean forward and stare him down, trying to call his bluff.
He lets out a deep sigh and reaches up to his face, removing the mask with a black gloved hand. My throat goes dry seeing his face, it was never easy seeing it, I know I'm the cause of it. We don't say anything for a moment, both of us just staring at each other with cold eyes.
"Sometimes... I wish things didn't turn out this way." I could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke, the agony in his deep green eyes. They're darker than the last time I saw them.
"It's not too late... this can all stop." I reach out and hold the scarred side of his face in my cuffed hand.
For a second I can see the bright green I remember from childhood. I can see the boy I grew with, the one I cared deeply for. I saw him, I could see the hope fading quickly the longer I stared. Jerking back he stands and removes himself as far as he could from me.
"I'm in too deep now. There's no going back, Azrael." He lowers his gaze to the floor, the hurt boy from childhood flashing in my mind.
"I-its not we can-"
"I CAN'T GO BACK! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" His voice is raised as he shouts at me, slamming his fists on the metal table.
"There is no hope for me..." His voice quiets down as he whispers the last part.
"Ryker-"
"Ryker is gone. Greenwood is all that remains." His eyes shine like a bright flame, showing his hatred for me in seconds.
I stare at him, memorizing his face and trying to find any bit of Ryker inside of his eyes. He huffed and kicked a chair over, screaming in anger as it fell over and crashed against the wall.
"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID! I HATE THAT YOU TURNED ME INTO THIS! AND I HATE THAT I MISS YOU!"
His words make me feel ill. Even after what I've done, what I'm willing to do to keep Amilia safe, he still misses me. I stand and try to move but the cuffs stop me from moving around too much.
"Maybe... maybe I could live with this anger if I didn't miss you. I hate that I miss you. You've ruined me Azrael... and I'm just so angry." I see a tear slip from the unscathed side of his face.
"Ryker-"
"GREENWOOD!" He shouts, leaving me stunned. Nodding my head I try again.
"I'm sorry. If I could go back I would've stayed, I would've helped you if I knew..." I speak calmly to him. He scoffs and shakes his head, running a hand through his slicked back hair.
"You know what hurts more than anything?" He stepped closer, making me back away as far as I could with my hands still cuffed.
I'm backed against a wall as he stands close to my face. I shake my head and wait for his response, waiting for him to blow up again.
"You left me in that fire... but you saved Amilia in hers." My eyes widened at his words. I didn't think of it like that, I never realized.
"You saved her... but not me." His voice shakes as he backs away again, moving to the other side of the room.
"I wasn't good enough." He laughed to himself, rubbing his face in frustration.
"No that's not true!" I shout. It never had anything to do with that. I was just scared, I was a kid, I didn't know what to do.
"IT IS! YOU RUSHED IN TO SAVE HER BUT RAN FROM ME. I BEGGED YOU TO STAY, I NEEDED YOU!" He slammed his fist into the wall repeatedly. I could hear the bone hit it, even through his glove.
I just listen and watch him vent his anger out into the wall. When he calmed down he rested his forehead against it with a solemn look on his face.
"I'm tired, Azy... I'm so tired." His eyes find mine and I feel guilt press into my chest. He looked tired, his eyes showed so much exhaustion.
He pushed himself away from the wall with a tired sigh and moved back to me. He stopped a foot away from me, removing the glove from his hand. Reaching out he caressed my hair gently, his eyes showing the much kinder Ryker I knew.
"You were the sun in my eyes." He whispered to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I should've looked away." He looked angry again but it wasn't for me, it was for himself.
He put the glove back on and moved to the table, putting the mask back on his face as well. In an instant, I saw any softness fade away. The cold vile fury was back in his eyes.
"I can't find your friends but I have you here, so I'll take what I can-"
He's cut off when an explosion rocks the building. His eyes show so much more anger at the interruption. Men and women shout outside the room as we stay inside the room.
Gunfire lets off as we stay inside the room, neither of us making sudden movements. He sighs and tosses me a key before heading for the door calmly despite the loud obvious fight outside.
"I won't be so kind the next time I see you." His voice is even and monotone, no sign of any emotion.
"Ryker..."
"Let go of that boy, he's been dead for a long time." His hand grips the handle as I speak up.
"I know he's still in there." I chanced one last look at him, feeling my guilt worsen when I didn't see any sign of Ryker.
He scoffs and leaves the room without another word. I quickly work to remove the cuffs, putting the key in and getting them off me. Going to the door I throw it open and see a warzone out here.
Gunshots sound out as cops shoot people I recognize, fire billows around the front and smoke fills the halls. Running away from the room I quickly take down a cop and steal his gun, running away a second later.
"Az!" Turning around I see Damien with a worried look when seeing my current state.
"I'm fine. Where's Amilia?" I look around for her, hoping she wasn't anywhere near this place.
"She's safe. She's with Jeremy. We need to get you out of here." He pulls me with him, putting a ski mask on as he takes me out of the facility.
Moving with him he leads me to a van and shoves me inside as my men fall back to safety. He hands me a wet wipe with a worried look. Taking it I clean up the blood on my lip and nose, ignoring the stinging pain.
"What the hell happened? He just outed you to everyone?" He sounded pissed, holding his gun tighter in his grip.
"He jusy needed to see me, he knows I can clean this up quickly." His eyes darken when he heard that I was near him. One of the last times I was with him, landed me with scars littering my body.
"Did he hurt you? What'd he do? What'd he say!?" He inspects me closely and is too overbearing when looking me over. I push him back and motion him to calm down.
"I'm fine, this was because of the cops. He just wanted to talk." He still looked pissed, ready to kill the man.
"What are we gonna do?" I hold the wipe to my lip and think, trying to figure out what's next.
"I'm not sure... we just need to end this soon. No one else needs to get hurt." He nods and leaves me to fester in my own thoughts.
I'll fix this...
_______________
Making it to a safe house I saw some of the others there and someone I wasn't expecting. Running up I pull Amilia into a hug, inhaling her scent for some sort of comfort. I kissed her quickly before my eyes landed on someone I missed.
"Claudio... When did you wake up?" He hugs me tight and gives a happy laugh.
"About a week ago, amigo. You don't look so good." He holds me at arm length and smiles. His mustache and goatee is grown out into a beard and has a scar on his left eyebrow.
"I could say the same to you." He laughs and pulls me into another hug before sitting back down.
"What happened? Why's he suddenly calling you out?" Amilia looked worried and I hated it, I didn't want her stressed out while pregnant.
"He just wanted to talk. He tried taking me but Damien got there in time." She nodded but still held a worried expression.
"So what's the plan?" Lily sounded tired, rubbing her temple in irritation.
"I don't know but we need to end all of this. It's getting out of hand." They all nod and agree with me. Pulling a chair up I have Amilia sit down while I try to think of where to start.
"What do we know? From the ambush on my Father and Claudio, the attack on me, and the fires. What do we actually know?" They all sit for a moment trying to remember anything.
"Greenwood's men attacked me, some men and women but they didn't say much. I do remember a woman in charge though. She uh, she was telling them to not kill me." Claudio offers up first, none of us really knew what happened that night beside him.
"I remember a girl too. She was pretending to be a maid before she attacked me. She sounded really familiar. I swear I know who she is." Jeremy groaned in frustration. Nodding my head I think back to my attack and could only focus on Ryker cutting into me.
"Did either of you get a good look or was it only the voice?" I looked at them and they shook their heads.
"I only saw her eyes. She kept her head turned from me." Jermey sighs in frustration. Damien grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"Same. She was wearing a mask." Claudio also looked upset. Thinking for a while I came up with an idea.
"Only the eyes, huh?" Moving out of this room I go to another, finding an office with a computer.
I turn it on and grab pictures of everyone I know, printing them out for the guys to look over. Printing out a mask picture I take it and cut holes in the eyes hoping they could figure it out this way. I didn't take a chance on anyone, even people in my inner circle had pictures printed out.
Moving back to the others I have them sit in another room and place the pictures on a table before placing the mask cut out over it. They groan and sigh as they shake their heads to each person I put under the mask.
They cleared everyone in the room which gave me comfort to know no one would betray me. I felt my body tense and stomach drop when they pointed out a specific person.
Taking my phone out I pull up my voice-mail and let them listen to the voice inside it. They are confident on who it was when they hear the voice, telling me it was a 100% match.
Going back out to the others I slam a photo down in anger, feeling my blood boil at the image in front of me. Damien's eyes widened and looked just as pissed.
"They're sure?" He said through gritted teeth. I nodded my head, too sick to say anything.
"Who is it?" Amilia pushes through and finally gets a look at the photo, covering her mouth in shock.
"Josephine?"