Eli let that statement sit for a moment, and then his eyes raked Talon up and down. “Your intimidation tactics work for shit on me.”
Talon scowled, but he unfolded his arms and yanked a chair out from under the desk. He sat and waved sarcastically at the other chair in challenge. Eli sat jerkily. Why Talon thought a dick-measuring contest was gonna work, he had no clue.
“I need you for this case.”
Daniel opened his mouth obviously to object, but Eli’s disinterested scoff was epic. “Sure.”
“It’s a pedophile ring, and you know one of them.”
Eli stilled. He almost heard his heart cut the engine.
“Talon, you—”
“Who?” Eli said, ignoring Daniel’s de-escalation effort.
“Max Caffrey.”
Eli had a brief second to process the name, and the flood of nausea to his system had him bolting from the room. He barely made it to the bathroom and thanked fuck he hadn’t eaten that morning. He heaved once, twice more, then felt a hand on his shoulder and took the wad of tissues offered. “You bastard,” he croaked out and wiped his mouth and his blurry eyes.
“Probably,” Daniel acknowledged.
Eli’s head jerked up. Daniel? He’d assumed Talon had followed him.
“Talon’s gone back upstairs. He says to join them when we’re ready.”
“Fuck.” Eli spat again into the toilet, flushed it, and leaned back on the door wondering if his knees were gonna let him move as far as the sink. Caffrey. But that was impossible. He’d killed him. That was why he’d spent nine years in hell. Eli blinked and forced the memories away, the touch. He couldn’t cope with that today, and he buried it along with everything else.
After a minute’s silence, Eli walked to the sink to wash his hands and rinse his mouth. Eli glanced at himself in the mirror and immediately regretted it.
“You all have an odd relationship,” Daniel remarked as Eli dried his hands.
Eli huffed. “Talon knew it would have made no difference stringing it out.” He clamped his mouth closed, realizing he was defending him when he should have punched him. Not that there was much chance of that. The man was made of granite, and now Talon could imitate Eli’s ability, Eli couldn’t so much as give him sunburn. He agreed it would look odd to an outsider, but they’d promised themselves a long time ago they wouldn’t bullshit each other.
But then they’d always said they’d have each other’s back as well, and Talon hadn’t stuck to that promise either.
He pushed the small voice down telling him that statement wasn’t fair.
“You’re good, then?” Daniel asked with a certain amount of disbelief and reaching into his pocket, offered Eli a stick of gum.
Was he?
But Talon would know he wouldn’t turn down the chance of putting Caffrey away. Not that he’d get that far if Eli had anything to do with it. The man wouldn’t see jail.
“Who’s Max Caffrey?” Daniel asked, pushing the gum back in his pocket after Eli had taken one.
Someone that wouldn’t be alive for long. “He was a foster parent.”
Silence.
“Okay.” Daniel drew the word out. “Then who exactly is Max Caffrey to you?”
Eli glanced at Daniel. Wasn’t it obvious? Or was it. Vance wouldn’t gossip. “I lived with him between the ages of seven and nine.”
“Until?”
Eli swallowed. “Until I burned his house down.”
“When you transformed? Accidentally or deliberately?” No judgment. Just a straightforward question.
“Accidentally. If it had been deliberate, I’d have done a better job.”
“You thought he was dead.” It hadn’t been a question. He’d been told that was why he was there. By the time he got out of kiddy jail, he was concentrating on simply staying alive, and three years later he was on the team. It had never occurred to him to look. It would have made no difference anyway.
Eli nodded. “I was told he was but…” He hadn’t exactly been in a position to find out.
Daniel waited clearly to see if Eli was going to volunteer anything else. He was going to be disappointed. “Is there anything I should know before we go upstairs?” Daniel asked.
Eli met Daniel’s brown eyes for a second. “You want this about as much as I do.”
Daniel stayed silent for a few seconds. “I want to be on the team.”
“Then you won’t be stuck with me for long.” Eli shrugged before Daniel answered. “I don’t give a fuck. We get Caffrey and I’m out of here.” Eli walked out of the bathroom without waiting for an answer.
He carried on upstairs into the room with the team knowing Daniel was right behind him and went straight to get himself a bottle of water from the ones lying next to the coffee that the rest of the team drank. The chair next to Sawyer was free, so he slid into it, still not looking at anyone.
“Agents, now we are all here, maybe you want to explain the case background?” Talon said smoothly.
Lin still seemed shell-shocked. “Umm. Yes of course, but—”
“I’m afraid no one gets seconded from this team any longer. If you want Agent Stuart’s help, then you get us all. That’s the deal.”
Eli didn’t feel sorry for the guy. He expected a free ride. They’d had hundreds of requests like this in the last six months, and even though it was now impossible for any of them to go undercover because the team was regularly blasted in the newspapers, it seemed like everyone wanted them. Some were genuine and respectful; some were fuckers that heard what they could do and wanted the extra firepower.
Or not all. Certain abilities were kept quiet, just the team. No one—for example—knew all that Sawyer could do. If anyone ever saw him walk through a solid object, they would lose that advantage.
And Eli didn’t have any cool abilities. Control of fire was like some circus act. He’d never been able to do anything remotely useful with it. Talon had been better than him, and now Talon could mimic everyone’s ability, he didn’t even have anything unique.
Or nothing helpful at least.
Eli took a breath and looked up. He would do what he had to, and then he was gone. Lin looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Not that being under Talon’s microscope didn’t make everyone feel like that, but Lin hadn’t been expecting this. Wright seemed cooler about the whole thing. She was just quietly sipping her coffee and listening to what was being said.
“It’s just ASAC Cabrera—”
“Is fully aware of our stipulations,” Gregory interrupted walking into the room and catching Lin’s words. “I just called her and she’s looking forward to our working together.”
Eli kept his focus on Lin and noted the flash of annoyance that was quickly hidden. He almost smiled.
“You were saying, Agent Lin,” Gael prompted.
Lin finally met Eli’s gaze, but it was Lin who looked away first. “As I was explaining, we have been following what we thought was a low-level pedophile gang for some time—”
“Following?” Gael asked. “What do you mean by following?”
“I mean one of our agents took part in a chat room typically visited by thousands of teens and preteens. He was able to let himself be groomed steadily and then in another persona distributed images on request—”