12 Understood

~ ZEV ~

Before Sasha could ask again, Zev leaned forward and popped the glovebox, pulling a small phone from its shadowed depths. Continuing to scan the road ahead and the mirrors behind for anyone that might be tracking them, Zev got the phone turned on and pressed the speed dial for Nick, his handler.

"Interesting night." The voice on the other end was deep and clipped, apparently unconcerned about Zev's rebellion.

"Call them off," he growled, glancing at Sasha in the rearview who was staring back at him, her face a mask of fear and confusion.

"You left a hunt, Zev. You aren't sixteen anymore. They aren't going to slap you on the shoulder and say boys will be boys."

"Call them off," he snarled. "They don't need her. I'll get her out of here and I'll be back. A few hours, tops. This was only training anyway!"

"I warned you about this, Zev. You didn't listen."

"What were they doing circling her house?"

"They were watching you, and you know it."

"Bullshit, Nick, you had a guy posted in the parking lot."

"Because you had an escape kit there."

Zev trembled with an overwhelming wave of anger and frustration. He'd made sure they were aware of many of his back door plans—he'd wanted them to be. But it had been specifically to distract them from this one.

This one he'd thought was airtight. Shit.

Did that mean they knew about—

"Zev, take her home, come back to the hunt, then come see me. We'll work something out. It doesn't have to end like this. You know that."

The words were so reasonable, so… friendly. And it was true, Nick had saved his ass more than once. He'd kept the powerful eyes away from Sasha when they were teenagers. Of course, he'd also been the one to force Zev to abandon her—and his people.

Their relationship was… complicated.

Zev sighed like he was thinking about it, but inside his mind was spinning. He had to get this call ended quickly and leave the phone somewhere they would believe. He'd been told that the analog ones were harder to trace. He knew it was bullshit.

They lied. A lot.

But he'd only recently figured out exactly how much.

"I don't know, Nick," he muttered. He couldn't be seen to give in too quickly or Nick would know something was up.

"C'mon, Zev. Have I let you down before?"

Yes, but Nick didn't know that Zev knew about that. Zev swallowed and glanced at Sasha in the rearview again.

His stomach literally clenched at the sight of her. His hands were already shaking. His hands hadn't trembled in five years. Not even after his first kill. That was the effect she had on him. And she didn't have a clue. She thought he'd left her because he stopped caring.

Holy fuck.

"I'm taking her home and you're making sure there's no one there, Nick. If I get so much as a sniff of a suit, we're gone, and you never see me again. I can do it. You know I can."

Nick didn't respond well to threats, but Zev needed him to think he was cracking.

There was silence on the line except for the tap-tap-tapping of a keyboard. Nick was in the office tonight.

"Fine," he sighed thirty seconds later. "I called them out. But there's a perimeter, Zev. I can't remove them completely. It looks too suspicious."

Zev breathed easier then, but he couldn't let Nick know.

"They don't touch her."

"Zev—"

"Non-negotiable, Nick."

"You brought her into this, not me!"

"I don't give a fuck. You want an obedient dog, you reward good behavior."

"Good behavior? You are shitting me right now."

"They made contact before I did, Nick. They broke the rules."

"AFTER you followed her. Again. We aren't stupid, Zev. And I'm not your mother, I'm not going to kiss your boo-boo. I told you to leave her alone. You didn't. You brought this on yourself. People are starting to pay attention."

"Well, you can tell people to back the fuck off. Unless you're toothless suddenly?"

Nick grunted.

Zev took the next turn at speed. Luckily it was getting late and the city streets were starting to clear. Sasha sucked in a breath and grabbed at the Oh Shit handle above the door, but she didn't say anything.

He looked at her in the mirror again and when her eyes met his something snapped between them—a moment of… something. Understanding? Relief? Grief? Desire?

All of the above.

He couldn't tell her everything. He couldn't even tell her a lot. But he could let her see that he'd never stopped loving her. Had, in fact, only left because he loved her.

Teenage love, Nick had said back then. Just lust disguised as emotion. Get her out of your system then get out.

He'd been young enough and stupid enough to listen back then. And he'd cursed himself for it every day since.

"Zev?"

Shit, Nick had been talking and he hadn't heard a word. "I'm driving, Nick. You'll have to say that again."

"I said, they'll leave her for now. But she's going to have watchers. If you get within a mile of her, they're going to take her. They want to know how she's got a hold on you. I told them she was just holding your prick, but they don't believe me anymore."

Zev grunted as he would if he was grateful, but inside he seethed.

How much of it was lies? How much had Nick created this? And how much was just his uncanny ability to know what Zev was thinking before Zev did?

Nick was the closest thing Zev had to a father. A very sick, very powerful, very manipulative father.

"I'm taking her home," he said quietly, turning the van again and roaring back in the direction they'd come from. "But if she doesn't sleep peacefully tonight, if she sees even one suit, I'm ghosting. You hear me, Nick?"

"Be very, very careful right now, Zev." Nick's tone was dark and deep and utterly immovable. "You don't want to get yourself in any more trouble than you already are."

"You know me, Nick," he said bitterly. "Always a good boy."

Nick spluttered a laugh, but it rang false. Zev felt better. Nick wasn't as certain of himself as he liked to make out.

"You rejoin the hunt within two hours."

Two hours. It wasn't enough. "Four."

"Three—and I swear to god, Zev—"

"Three. Fine. I can do three," he snapped. "Don't get your panties in a twist."

Nick was silent—no laughter, no growling correction either. It was crazy how he could unsettle Zev by what he didn't say.

"That'll make it exactly two sixteen am, Zev. Don't fuck with me."

"See you then." He hung up the phone and heaved a sigh of relief. He could do this. Three hours would be tight, but he could do it.

He slowed the van, scanning the buildings that were all so similar, though he knew hers like he knew his own. If they could just—

"Zev?" her voice was high and quavering, but full of conviction. "What the hell is going on?"