Seattle WA, May 20, 2003
Stephen Sloan muttered a curse as it started to rain. He was walking along the streets of Seattle, trying to figure out just where his crazy little sister was. He knew their father was dead; the assassins had taken care of that for him when they rescued Shelby in Arizona. He was only partly glad of that. 'Woulda liked to do the old man in myself...' He thought as he trudged along.
He knew the Guild members didn't trust him, and he couldn't blame them for that. He also knew that Questa looked at him as possibly the only way to bring Shelby back to him. He spent only a few days with the Guild, but that small amount of time was enough to see just how devastated Questa was. He left without knowing where Shelby was, but rather than roam around the country forever looking for his sister, he had decided to call the number Questa gave him after a few weeks of searching. He spoke to one of the thieves, Theoren Marceaux, who told him that Shelby had called on Questa's birthday. The call was traced to Seattle. Armed with that knowledge, Stephen headed for Seattle with the hopes that it wouldn't be too hard to locate his sister. And if there was one thing Stephen Sloan had to do, it was find Shelby.
'What in the name of all that's holy was she thinking, leaving him? I'm her brother for Pete's sake, and I can see plain as day that that man loves her more than he loves anything else in this world. If she doesn't know that, she's blind, and if she does know it and broke his heart anyway, she's crazy. You don't just throw something like that away.'
In an attempt to get out of the rain, Stephen ducked into a small cafe and shook the water off his coat. He got the surprise of his life when he heard his name being called from one of the corner booths. It was Shelby, smiling at him over a latte.
"Steve!"
Stephen crossed the room and sat down across from his sister. He wasn't sure if he should laugh or scream. He smiled instead and ordered a cappuccino when the waitress came to take his order. "They traced your phone call." He said by way of an opening.
Shelby looked down at her latte. "Figured they would. If there's one thing I learned in my year living in that house it's that Theoren and Emil are technical geniuses."
"Look, little sister. I spent a few days at the safehouse with them. Heard more stories about the past year...it was incredible. They made me feel like I'd been there, even if they didn't trust me enough to leave me alone for two minutes." Stephen decided to just get to the point and get some answers. "It's obvious they care a great deal about you...consider you to be family even though you're not. Why on earth did you leave?"
Shelby couldn't look her brother in the eye. "What did they tell you about why I left?"
"I spent a great deal of time talking to Questa." Stephen stated calmly. Shelby's head snapped up at the mention of the name, a look of pain and guilt crossing her pretty features. Stephen raised an eyebrow quirkily at her and smiled. "Thought that would get your attention. He told me about the night you left. The things that you said. And honestly, little sister...I don't buy it."
"But..."
"No, Shel. Listen to me. I figured out he's got some problems...that's kind of obvious. But if there's one thing that's also obvious, it's that he loves you more than he knows how to express. I have a pretty good idea that you knew that already. So if you know that, you'd have to be crazy to leave like that and break his heart and probably your own as well. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't do that. You're not crazy. So I don't buy the story you told him. Why'd you really leave?"
Tears welled up in Shelby's eyes. "I love him so much, Steve...more than I ever thought I could love anyone. Being away from him has nearly killed me. But I had do this. I'm not finished yet. It broke my heart every single day to see him, haunted by memories and fearful of every shadow or noise outside. The men who made him the way he is...abused him every day of his life for fifteen years and quite a bit after he'd grown up too. I saw what they did to him the day I found him here. Unlike Dad, they're still alive. And he lives in fear every moment of every day, because they know where he is. They can come back at any moment and take him because he's powerless to defend himself against them. They can do it again and again...whenever they want. He can't move on...can't heal from his past wounds...until they're dead."
"You're hunting them down. You're going to kill them." Stephen blinked. A voice in his head told him he should be surprised, but yet he wasn't. This was his sister talking. She'd been abused, she knew what Questa was going through. She had taken it upon herself to put an end to the threat hovering over the man she loved so they could both heal and move on, together.
"Yes. They're here. They set up some kind of home here after I helped Questa escape from them last year. I've been here for a little over a week, and when the time is right, I'm going to kill them. After that, I'm going back to him." Shelby was very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. "There's one thing that I'm worried about though."
"What's that?"
"What if he can't forgive me for lying to him and hurting him like I did?"
Stephen thought for a moment. He remembered the look of sad longing in Questa's dark blue eyes. The only thing the man wanted was to have Shelby back. "I think he'll forgive you, especially once he finds out your true reasons for doing what you did. But why did you lie to him anyway? Why didn't you just tell him the truth? Wouldn't that have made it easier?"
Shelby shook her head. "If I told him the truth before I left, he would have stopped me, and if he didn't succeed, the others would have. The men I'm going after are former assassins. They're dangerous. If I told him the truth in a letter after I left, he would have come after me, and I didn't want to risk them getting hold of him again. I figured if I hurt him, he wouldn't come after me and wouldn't be strong enough to stop me. I was right on both counts, but it hurt me just as much as it hurt him."
"You are going back though, right?" Stephen asked.
"Yes of course! I can't stand being away from him any more than he can stand my being gone!" Shelby exclaimed.
Stephen nodded, thoughtful. "How are you planning on killing all of them...how many are there?"
"Five. And I have a couple of guns and silencers. I don't want them to know what hits them, so I'm planning on playing sniper one of these days. Why?"
"I want to help you. Since the assassins beat me to killing Dad, I have all this pent up desire to destroy something and helping my kid sister kill five bastards should do the trick." Stephen grinned. "That is, if you'll accept my offer to help."
"Steve! Are you sure? I mean...I'd really appreciate the help, but do you know what it means?" Shelby was astonished. She couldn't believe her big brother had just said what he said.
"Of course I'm sure. Hell, sis, you're dating an assassin aren't you? You've obviously accepted that and accepted the fact that you're going to kill five men to help him. They'll probably make you an honorary Guild member when they find out. I'll move to New Orleans...I noticed there's a house not far from the safehouse that's for sale. I'll even live in the attic of the safehouse if they don't think it's a good idea for me to live on my own. I don't care. This means a lot to you, and I already know how you feel about Questa. I want to help you accomplish this so you can go back to him and be happy. We'll be careful...and no one will know the difference. No one will care that five ex-members of the criminal underworld are dead anyway."
"Thank you, Stephen. You have no idea how much this means to me." Shelby said, her eyes glistening.
Stephen smiled. "Yes I do. Now come on, let's get out of here so we can get a plan together and end this crap once and for all."