“Well,” Zoe said, her voice tight and angry, “shoot me if you’re going to. Or would you rather I turn around so you can stab me in the back?”
Seeley slowly lowered his weapon but kept his finger on the trigger and his muscles ready for action. “What are you doing here?”
“Like I said,” McCoy said, stepping up to guard Zoe’s back, “we need to talk to you.”
“How are you—”
“Alive?” Zoe finished.
He could feel the heat coming off her skin. She was restraining herself from ripping him apart. And he didn’t blame her. What he had done to her couldn’t be forgiven. No one had the capacity for that.
“McCoy saved me. He’s been working with Olivia all along.”
McCoy gave him a nervous grin. “Guess we’re just going to jump right in then.”
“What?” Seeley questioned.
“Apparently, not everyone that works for Grantham is the enemy,” Zoe cut in. “Just most.” She turned back to McCoy. “This is a waste of time. He is never going to help us.”
“Help with what?” Seeley asked.
“Rescuing Lucy,” McCoy said.
Seeley opened his mouth to respond and couldn’t think of anything to say.
McCoy jumped in and started filling in the gaps in Seeley’s mind. He explained how he’d been working with Olivia, then proceeded to tell Seeley everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Seeley listened intently, never taking his finger off the trigger. Zoe had moved to the side, never taking her eyes off him. The weight of her stare was suffocating.
“I couldn’t go back in for her alone,” McCoy continued.
“Have you lost your mind, McCoy? They’ll string you up for this,” Seeley said.
“Only if I fail.”
“You can’t beat the system.”
“Not alone.”
Seeley shook his head. “Give me one good reason not to turn you in for treason.”
“Because they’re wrong, and you know it,” McCoy said. “You aren’t like the rest of them. Because you care.”
“I’m the worst among them,” Seeley hissed. “I don’t have the capacity to care.”
“Which is why they blacklisted you,” McCoy said.
“Wait, what?” Zoe said.
“They blacklisted me because I fired at soldiers.”
“You didn’t tell me he was blacklisted,” Zoe snapped at McCoy. “How is he even supposed to help us?”
“Seeley knows that place and those people better than anyone I know,” McCoy said. “And if anyone can get past a blacklist, it’s him.” Then to Seeley: “And you fired at soldiers because you wanted to protect Lucy and Zoe.”
“Protect us!” Zoe barked. “He did nothing when they found us.”
“It’s worse than that,” McCoy said. “He called them and told them where you were.”
Zoe didn’t even look at Seeley, and he was thankful for that. He wasn’t sure he could stand the anger and hurt that would be in her expression.
“I was doing—” Seeley started.
“Your job, but you broke protocol. You risked your career,” McCoy said. “And you can make up a thousand reasons why you did, but I know deep down it was because you care.”
“You have no idea of the darkness in me,” Seeley warned.
“Yes, I do,” McCoy said. “The same kind that’s in us all. You hide behind it because it allows you to build a wall that separates you from reality, but I spent time with you. I saw the way you treated Lucy, the way you looked at Zoe.”
Seeley glanced at the woman standing close and felt his cheeks redden.
“You’re good, using your darkness as an excuse not to face the fact that you want to do the right thing, because doing that is harder. But it doesn’t mean you don’t know what the right thing is.”
“You hardly know me, McCoy,” Seeley said.
“Maybe, but Olivia knew you well.”
The mention of her name sent a shiver across Seeley’s skin.
“She told me you would help. She believed in you, even after working with your darkness for years. Deep down she knew you were a good man and told me to appeal to that goodness you have forgotten.”
McCoy’s words brought Seeley back to the night Olivia was shot right in front of him. You’re a good man. Those had been some of her last words.
“You may be blacklisted, but you’re connected and have deep loyalties. People owe you favors,” McCoy said. “And Olivia said you would help. So I’m trusting a dead woman, because honestly we don’t have a lot of options.”
Seeley took it all in. “You’re wrong about me. She was wrong about me.”
“That’s what I told him,” Zoe said.
“No, I don’t believe that!” McCoy said. “You can do the right thing.”
“I don’t do the right thing, I do the job,” Seeley said.
“Even when you know it’s wrong?” McCoy asked.
The war that had been building reached its tipping point. The two sides of his mind rushed each other, shooting bullets across the divide.
He did care about Zoe. He wanted to deny it but couldn’t with her standing right there. She threatened the darkness he’d become so familiar with. That he’d befriended and fed for years. That side of him warned against the threat of believing he could be more than what the past had made him.
“I told you he’s the villain in this story,” Zoe said. “The woman he loved broke his heart, stole his goodness, and now he’s the bad guy. Right, Seeley? The guy who can’t help but choose his pain over being bigger than his past, even if it means an innocent girl dies.”
Anger flashed through Seeley’s chest. “That’s a lot of talk from the poor, abandoned little girl who can’t trust the world or anyone in it because Mommy hurt her pretty bad.”
Zoe took a step closer so she was nearly in his face. “Don’t you dare talk about me like you know me.”
“I do know you,” Seeley snarled.
The two stood nose to nose for a long moment, then Zoe turned and crossed to the living room. She returned a moment later with something in her hand and slammed it on the counter beside them. It was a photo of a little girl. His Cami.
“I know a thing or two about being the daughter of a villain,” she said. “I know about the pain it brings, the kind that won’t let you sleep. That haunts you even when you’re awake. That you can’t outrun or change.”
Seeley felt his heart tighten as her words drilled into his brain. What would doing the job get him? The question drifted through his mind. More pain and darkness? Didn’t he have enough?
His inner demons roared as the thought started to gain momentum.
“Don’t be the good guy for you,” Zoe said. “Be good for her. Because if you don’t help us, Lucy will die. And this little girl will have a villain for a father all her life. She deserves better than that, doesn’t she?”
Seeley kept his eyes focused on the sweet face smiling up at him from the photo. It was one of the few pictures he had, and the only one that mattered.