Chapter 10: Betrayals

The gates of the estate were open when Wolf returned. He expected Fabiola to be keeping a close watch but it seemed she was content to neglect keeping them locked. Perhaps she was simply awaiting the return of Wolf and Revy. Then again, if Wolf had the right time, he had taken longer than he expected. The men gathered at the café were all dead, but they hadn't made it easy. It had taken much longer than it should have. Nevertheless, it was done now. Wolf was just concerned that he had missed Hawke's arrival. Not only that, but considering his goal was to eliminate Roberta, it was entirely possible he had done so. That was an unpleasant thought, one the assassin pushed from his mind.

As it turned out, his fears were unfounded. He rushed through the gates, gun in hand, only to be greeted by the sight of the Lovelaces ranged before him. That stopped him in his tracks. Fabiola stood to the right with two MAG 7s in her hands. She did not look pleased to see him. To the right, Pius stood with his Skorpion at the ready. He, too, shot the Wolf a look of disdain. And between them both stood Roberta, no longer in her wheelchair. Though she was standing, she did not appear as surefooted and confident as she once was. Regardless, she had an M1911 holstered at her hip. Her outfit, too, had changed. She now wore her old combat gear again, something that clearly bothered Wolf. He had been hopeful that she would remain relatively at peace, undisturbed and unneeded to take up arms again. She looked upset, if a tad conflicted. It seemed like they were expecting an attack from the New Order, but that did not explain their expressions. Something was very wrong. Garcia stood in front of Roberta. Once the assassin came to a stop a few feet in front of them, the boy cleared his throat.

"It's over, Wolf," he said calmly, but there was a slight edge to his voice, a tone that suggested he was annoyed, or perhaps angry. Wolf furrowed his brow and holstered his weapon as a show of good faith. Clearly, there was some kind of misunderstanding.

"What are you talking about?"

"We know what happened," Fabiola spat. "There's no use lying to us."

"We found out what really took place," Garcia went on. "At the café. We know what you did. I trusted you, Wolf. I thought you would help us, I thought you could keep my family safe. I thought you could stop them from taking Roberta." The more he spoke, the more passionate his voice became. He was losing his temper and his emotions were getting the better of him. Wolf was tempted to just let him vent, but he was wasting his breath. Wolf hadn't done anything wrong. This needed to be explained to him in full.

"Is this because I lied?" Pius asked, then. "I know I was dishonest when we first met. I didn't tell you that Hawke wanted you turned over to him, too. Maybe I should have been more honest with you. But that doesn't justify betraying us like this. I heard you'd protected the Lovelace family in the past. I was under the impression you cared about them. Clearly, I was wrong." None of them pointed their weapons at him yet, though Fabiola certainly seemed tempted to.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Wolf growled. He had been happy to let them explain the situation as they knew it, but they had given him frustratingly little information. He was getting irritated now. "What is it you think I did out there? Please, enlighten me."

"You didn't kill those men, did you?" The voice was Garcia's. "Pius outlined his plan to you. If you'd just done as we asked, maybe we'd be safe now. But you didn't."

"Hawke showed up while you were away," Pius told him. "He's been waiting for you. Ashur slipped out when he arrived to go after you. He wanted to bring you back in case the New Order decided to raze the place. He told us about his people, the ones he had standing by just in case. I don't know how you managed to track them down." Wolf was trying desperately to wrap his head around this. From what he gathered, they were under the impression that he had neglected to carry out his assignment and had instead taken out Ashur's associates. What still remained a mystery, however, was why they believed this.

"So, let me get this straight," Wolf began. "You think I went rogue, is that it? You all think I screwed you over." Their silence said it all. For whatever reason, they had taken Ashur's word on this. Wolf just wanted to know why Ashur thought this. Had the New Order orchestrated this, perhaps? Had the men at the café been Ashur's people, switched with the New Order's leaders once they learned of Wolf's assignment somehow? That seemed unlikely, but anything was possible right now. If that was the case, someone had moved to frame Wolf for this in a bid to turn the Lovelaces against him.

"Ashur lost contact with his people shortly after he left to look for you," Garcia explained. "He told us he confronted you outside the café. And that you shot him." Wolf almost laughed at the absurdity of that.

"Excuse me?"

"He is upstairs right now," Fabiola said. "Pius tended to his wounds. He is resting. How dare you walk back in here?!"

"We trusted you," Garcia repeated. "Why did you do this? Did they convince you to work against us?" Wolf assumed he meant the New Order. "Did they offer to pay for your services in exchange for turning on us when we needed you?" Wolf did not answer. He remained absolutely silent, his eyes fixed on the ground and his face partially shadowed from view.

"Answer Master Lovelace," Pius commanded the assassin. "It's the least you can do." Wolf did not respond right away. Instead, he slowly moved his right hand until it was resting on the handle of his Desert Eagle. That movement was spotted by everyone but Garcia. Pius and Fabiola raised their own weapons in case Wolf made a move.

"Let me get this straight, then," the assassin said finally, his voice very low. "Ashur comes back with blood all over him and he tells you all that I've gone rogue. Then, you all buy his story right off the bat, offer him a lovely warm bed to sleep in, and wait for me to come back so you can put me in the ground?"

"Hawke brought the New Order's leaders with him," Pius explained. "They're still alive, Wolf. You were told to take them out." That explained a lot. The men in the café must have been Ashur's people, then. That, or they were expendable stand-ins hired specifically to frame Wolf.

"Well, that changes everything, doesn't it?" Wolf spat. "I went to the café, I killed the men meeting there. If they weren't the leaders you wanted dead, that's your fault, Pius. It was your shitty information, after all." The priest had no response to that. He swallowed, looking quite abashed that he had been so quick to blame the Wolf for this. "And if I'm being honest, I'm a little insulted you all took what Ashur said as fact and threw me to the wolves without a second thought. You really think I'd fuck your family over like that, Garcia? Fucking hell." None of them responded for a moment.

"You think Ashur was lying?" Fabiola asked, less sure of Wolf's guilt now.

"Bingo, princess," he mocked her. "Because I sure as hell didn't do anything wrong. Why don't you be a good little lamb and fetch him for me? Then we can all ask him ourselves." Fabiola was not sure how to proceed but Garcia nodded at her, signalling her to go and bring Ashur to them. Wolf did not make eye contact with any of them during her absence. Instead, he turned his back to them and waited.

"Wolf, I-"

"Save it, Garcia," the assassin interrupted him. "Let's hear it from Ashur. I've had enough of this shit already." Though the boy sounded like he wanted to say more, he held his tongue. This situation was tense. None of them wanted to speak unless it was necessary. They were happy to wait for Ashur so that they could get everything out in the open. Fabiola returned a few minutes later, but she was alone. Wolf shook his head disapprovingly.

"Our guest is not inside," she told them.

"What do you mean?" Garcia asked. "Last I checked, he was sleeping."

"I only treated his wounds less than an hour ago," Pius weighed in.

"Could the shots have slowed him down?" Wolf asked, swallowing his pride for a moment to help the situation if he could.

"No, not these wounds," Pius told him. "He had two shots, one in the shoulder and another in the hip. Neither one had done any serious damage." That was convenient. Wolf didn't want to jump to conclusions, but if this had been set up to turn the Lovelaces against the assassin, it made sense that Ashur would inflict non-lethal wounds on himself to make his story more convincing. Wolf spotted movement towards the interior of the estate, then. Upon noticing this, the others turned around. It was Hawke. He had been staying in the estate's garden with four other men. One of them currently walked alongside him, wearing a clean yellow suit and greasy, slicked back hair.

"Well, well, well," Hawke said enthusiastically. "Look who finally decided to show up. You took your sweet time getting here, I'll give you that. But that's not important. I'm just glad you could make it. Alejandro, you know the drill." The man in the yellow nodded approvingly before whistling. The other three then proceeded to disarm the rest and put them on their knees, Wolf included.

"What are you doing?" Garcia asked, very real panic in his voice. He was concerned from Roberta's safety. Now that Wolf was here, he presumably had authorisation to kill her. None of them wanted that to happen.

"I think it's obvious, don't you?" Hawke asked the boy. He took a walkie-talkie from his belt, then, and began to tune it. "This is it. The main event. I told you as soon as the Wolf arrived, we were going to put things in motion." He pressed the button on the side of the walkie-talkie, then, and spoke into it. "It's time. You can make your way here. Everything's set up for you." There was no response, but they all knew his message had been heard by whoever was on the other end. "I'd like to thank you, Garcia. You really pulled through, after all. I just hope you won't hold what happens next against me."