Warning: there's a fair bit of swearing in this chapter!
16th December 2013
The whole family were waiting in the back garden for the moment Evander Hawk would arrive. Only Georgie, Vivienne and Elliott weren't there – they'd gone next door to the Williamson's house to keep the kids out of all this.
When they finally saw a figure emerge at the line of the woodlands behind the house, they all moved on instinct. Stood in a line, they looked like a strong unit as they guarded their house and made a point to Evander that he wouldn't get the best of them.
The figure, Evander, walked down the hill towards them. He was dressed all in black, the clothes tight on his muscular body. When he reached the wooden fence surrounding the garden he hesitated for just a moment before he heaved his huge body over the thing. He walked forwards until he was just a few steps away from the family.
Xav was surprised by how much Evander looked like Ireland. They had the same defined jaw, the same confidence in their walk, the same amber eyes. There was definitely a family resemblance there.
"You knew I was coming," Evan said in a gruff voice. "Let me guess, you have a future-seer among you?"
"Thought your dad would have told you that, Hawk." It was Victor that answered him, body tense. "Mind you, you have been prison for a while. Risky move, coming here. There's two people here who can arrest you and take you straight back to that place."
Evan shrugged as if he doubted that would happen. It reminded Xav of Ireland when he had first met her. They both had that arrogance to their personality, like they ruled the world and nothing could get affect them. "Do it, I don't care. But you won't get to hear what I came to say about my sister."
Xav froze. What if he had come here to say that Ireland was dead, that her dad had killed her at last? No. Surely he would have felt through their bond that she was dead, right? Right? "What about her?" he spat out.
Evan turned his eyes on Xav. "You're the one, aren't you? You're her soulfinder. My dad told me about you, told me about Ireland's plan for you."
"What plan?" God, why did his chest feel so tight? He felt like he couldn't breathe.
"It was her idea to come running to you, saying that she'd ran away from our dad. She planned on getting close to you to find out your family secrets and dynamics. Apparently she was in touch with my dad the whole time. I don't know what she reported to him. She played you, my man."
"Maybe at first, but not towards the end." Surprisingly, it hadn't been Xav that had jumped to Ireland's defence. It had been Uriel. "I was around the two of them all the time and she cared about him."
"She offered to give up Oliver's location before she left," Trace joined in. "In that moment, she chose Xav. It was only when we tried to arrest her and take her away from Xav that she went back to Oliver."
Evander listened to the two of them before his eyes glanced back over to Xav. "Well? Tell me. Do you think my sister cares about you the way a soulfinder does? Do you think she loves you? Because this conversation is only going to go the way I planned if you tell me the answer I want to hear."
Xav paused, thinking things through. It was true that he felt betrayed and a part of him was telling him that it had all been an act.
But then he remembered how she'd melt when he kissed her, how she'd cling on to him in her sleep. He remembered when they had an argument over a film because she was rooting for the bad guy, followed by both of them bursting out into fits of laughter. She'd had his sense of humour, had easily flew out comebacks at his jokes. She'd been so at ease around him, trusting him enough to let him into her mind. He pictured her smiling, her eyes free of worry. She'd looked at him like he meant the world to her and like she had nothing important to hide from him.
"She loved me," he said as the realization came to him. "She never said it, was probably scared of it, but I know that she did." It was true. The way she'd spoken to him and trusted him showed that she loved him. Knowing this warmed his whole body. "Was that the answer you wanted?"
Evan didn't answer at first, looking straight at Xav as if trying to decipher whether or not he was being honest. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw on the younger man's face, Evan nodded once. "Yeah, it is." He looked at the whole family. "You all contributed towards my family being torn apart. You put me in prison." He met Victor's eyes. "You personally killed Quinn. I don't like any of you, but I want to help Ireland like I couldn't help my other sister and I think you lot are the way of doing that."
"How can we help her?" Uriel asked. "What makes you think she even needs our help?"
"Because my dad is a pure evil bastard," Evan replied, hate evident in his voice. "He made us believe our whole lives that his power was simple mind manipulation, but it's much worse than that. He has the power of personality. It enables him to have complete, constant control of a person without even having to tell them what to do or even being around them. It wouldn't surprise me if half the people working for him have his power at work in their mind. Hell, maybe he even did it on my mum.
"I found out about his power the hard way. When I was fifteen, I wanted to leave. Told him I didn't want to be like that anymore, didn't want to fight. The next day, I suddenly wanted to stay and do everything he said. I didn't remember him messing with my mind until a couple of months later. When I started realizing what he'd done, he'd do it all over again. And I'd forget again.
"I guess he has to redo it every couple of months because it faded away when I was in prison and he didn't come to see me. I thought about Ireland when I was in there. She was always brilliant at combat and so intelligent, just what my dad wanted. But like me, she didn't want to fight. She wanted a normal life. I had a feeling he was going to manipulate her mind and I think I was right. Robbie, a girl who works for my dad, was telling me what Ireland is like now. And that's not how I remember her being like at all."
"He did mess with her," Xav informed him. He couldn't believe Oliver had done the same thing to his son, but then told himself he was silly for not thinking him capable of that. If he'd done it to one child, why not another? "We worked as a family to help her though. She knew there was something wrong but didn't know what. I'm a healer, so I managed to get the personalities to stop controlling her."
"Right," Evan nodded slowly. "That makes sense, actually. Since she got me out of prison I haven't seen any signs that he's mentally controlling her."
"Is she doing what he says though?"
"I think so, yeah. He's being so nice to her, it's stupid. It's obvious that he's just manipulating her to keep her on his mind, but it won't surprise me if he uses his power on her again soon. I heard him talking to his second-in-command, he knows that he's not in control of her anymore."
"What makes you say that?" Victor prompted Evan to continue when he stopped talking.
"I can go invisible, and I hung around my dad's place a lot without anyone noticing. I saw Ireland's face when my dad talked about killing people, and she always looked reluctant to go along with it. He's showing her affection though, something he's never done before, and I think she craves that from him. She wants to have his approval for some twisted reason. She's confused, all over the place.
"There's one thing that my dad wants her to do, that he's wanted her to do since she came to stay with you. She still hasn't done it, and I think it's just a matter of time before he asks her again."
"What does he want her to do?" Xav asked, worry in his gut.
"He wants her to kill Saul – killing the head of the family, the ultimate revenge. He asked her months ago, but she won't do it. She's going to refuse him when he asks again, I really think she will. And when she does, he's either going to control her mind again or kill her. Or do something a lot worse."
"What could be worse than killing her?" Hazel asked what was on everyone's mind.
"Believe me, my dad is capable of a lot."
"How can we help her?" Xav asked, desperate to save Ireland from her cruel father.
"I'm going to tell you where my dad and his people are. You're going to kill my dad, the bastard doesn't deserve to live anymore." He specifically directed his next words at Xav when he spoke again. "You have to be the one to find Ireland and approach her. She'll be wild, driven by her need to stick with her family. I'm praying to God that you'll be able to talk some sense into her. You're her soulfinder. She loves you. Try and get her on your side again."
With determination in his voice, Xav replied. "I will. I promise."
When Ireland returned to the hotel, she was startled by the sight of people rushing about. They were pulling on bulletproof vests, strapping weapons all over their bodies, and talking loudly with one another. It was chaos. How was her dad letting this happen? He normally hated disarray in his home.
Seeing Robbie and her brother checking their guns over, she walked over with her hands in her jeans pockets. "What's going on?" She asked.
Her friend looked up at her with a huge grin on her face. The girl looked like she'd won the bloody lottery or something. "It's fucking mental!" She exclaimed giddily. "It's finally happening, babe. The bastards are going to get sent to fucking hell, halle-fucking-lujah."
Accustomed to Robbie's vulgar mouth, Ireland didn't even flinch at the language like others often did. She frowned. "Yeah, I still have no idea what you're talking about."
"Go see your dad." It was Richard who had answered her. He was much more relaxed than his sister, looking grim instead of excited. Why wasn't he enjoying himself right now? Everybody else seemed to be. "It's not exactly great news," he continued. "Most of us are probably going to end up dead."
Robbie rolled her eyes and gave her brother's shoulder a little shove. "Have a little faith, idiot. We've waited for this for so long, it's about fucking time something happened."
A rush of foreboding ran through Ireland. There was only one thing that the group and the leader had been waiting a long time for. Leaving the siblings be, she pushed her way through the crowd of people. Most of them stepped out of her way when they saw her, thankfully remembering what she could be like when she was angry. One time she had knocked four men out in the dining room just for laughing at the state of her hair when she'd already been having a hard day. Since then, people knew to just stay away from her.
When she reached her father's office, she pushed the door open with brute force. It slammed against the wall behind it. Her father was sat at his desk, calmly sharpening one of his favourite daggers. He always did prefer daggers to guns unlike Ireland, finding that he got more satisfaction from a hands-on kill. He looked up and smiled. "Love, did you kill Sam Bowe for me?"
She pulled the backpack off her shoulders and dumped it on his desk. She'd decided on her way back not to mention that she knew he had already been paid. "No. But he gave me the money, with interest. So I left him alive." Don't ask him if it's okay, she told herself. Look confident, not nervous. He responds negatively to nerves.
"I see," he said slowly, his face revealing nothing about his thoughts of their little dilemma. "Well, we'll have a talk about that soon. But first, I have a new job for you."
Ireland stopped breathing. In a deep tone she said, "let me guess. You want me to kill Saul Benedict."
"Well, yes. I want him dead and I admit I planned for that to be your next job."
"What's changed?"
Still in that calm voice of his, Oliver told her what she'd missed whilst out doing her job. "It seems that your brother has decided to leave us and betray us."
Ireland, taken aback, was at first under the impression that her father was making some silly joke. When she saw the seriousness in his eyes – and remembered that he never cracked jokes – she was still in disbelief. Evan had betrayed them? Why? God, what had prison done to him? He used to be the first person to side with their father and she had thought it would be that way now with the Benedict's. Albeit, he hadn't been himself since she broke him out of prison, but she'd thought he'd just needed some more time and then he'd be back to his bad old self.
"I don't understand," she whispered, meeting her father's eyes. "Why would he do that? What's he done?"
"I believe he thinks he is doing the right thing," Oliver shrugged. Strangely, he didn't even seem bothered about the development despite him being the man who always said that family should stick together. "I had Gray use his power to track him. Your brother is currently at the Benedict household."
This was getting even more unbelievable the more the conversation went on, she thought to herself. Out loud she said, "he's gone to their side."
"It would seem so, yes. It's only a matter of time before he tells them where we are, if he hasn't done so already. That's why all that racket is going on in the lobby; we're all getting ready for the siege the Benedict family are about to bring upon us." Suddenly, Ireland understood his calmness about her brother leaving them: this was giving Oliver the chance to finally destroy the Benedict family. He was getting exactly what he wanted.
"They're going to come here."
"Yes."
"They're going to kill us."
"They're going to try to," Oliver amended. "In the end though, it will be us that kill them."
"What do you want me to do." Not a question. A command. She knew that he was going to ask her to do something specific considering he was putting Saul's death to the side for the time being. No doubt she wasn't going to like his new request either, but she would do her best to appease him. Isn't that what she always did?
Oliver's smile grew. "I have no doubts they'll bring your soulfinder along with them." He said the word soulfinder as one might talk about a disease. "I want you to lure him away from the fight and I want you to kill him. I don't care how as long as you get the job done. Once you've done that, you will have earned my full trust in regards to your loyalty. Will you do that for me?"
Heart pounding in her chest, Ireland gulped. She looked up at her dad as he rose from his seat.
With no emotion in her voice, Ireland replied. "I will. I promise."
A hint about the next chapter: Snippet - 'In the corner sat Gracie, knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs. She was rocking herself back and forth and staring into the center of the room with a haunted expression on her face.'
I promise it's going to be a big chapter, a lot is going to happen! 6 people will get hurt, maybe even die... I'm interested in knowing who you think it will be? Leave me some reviews and comments! :)