I stood off to the side and watched her with my arms folded as she puttered around Connor and Dani's kitchen. I gave each one of the ungrateful fucks sitting at the table the death glare to let them know there will be consequences if they made her feel bad about her cooking. I wasn't sure what she could do in the kitchen since she'd been playing it shy up until now, but whichever way it went, these fucks had better not hurt her feelings, or I'll shoot their asses. "Ty, you fuck sit down." He was hovering like a starving orphan. At least he wasn't looking like murder central any longer, shoulda known his greedy ass would be like this. He just grinned at me like a simpleton, but I wasn't sure I trusted that shit either. The kid was acting like he was stuck to Cord's side, and my brother, for once, wasn't trying to get away, weird. He caught me looking and shrugged. "Kid's got brains; you should see what he can do with a piece." I just lifted my brow at him, but he interpreted th
The women were at my house today, and the place was on lock. We'd given the workers the day off; they can have a long weekend. Thank fuck; the job was all but done and only needed the cosmetic finishes before we handed it over. One less thing to worry about. Just as I expected, the phone rang with the same unknown bullshit as before. "Yeah." I motioned to the others, and the place went quiet except for the squeaking of the chair the kid was swiveling around on as he watched cartoons. "Sorry, we missed you last night, until next time. You can consider that a pre-warning; next time, we won't be so generous." "Is that what that was? You, army boys, have a lot to learn. There were holes so wide in your little scheme, my brothers and I walked right through them. It wasn't even as good as a made-for-TV movie plot. And who uses kids to do their dirty work? What are you, a bitch?" Come on, asshole, lose some of that control. "Listen, you seadog, that will be th
The day had been long, and the night promised to be longer. Cord was the main attraction; he and the female that was caught between shooting daggers at him with her eyes and mooning over him, that shit was making my teeth hurt. The kid had proven himself to be more of a bottomless pit than Ty by eating me out of house and home all afternoon, while the women fawned all over him like he was three. Connor was understandably preoccupied with his woman and their unborn child, and we'd already had a meeting, all of us, about the need to protect them at all cost. Security was beefed up, and Connor was working on getting her to stay home until we got shit squared away. I knew Gabriella was gonna give me shit, but I was gonna insist she stay her little ass put too. We were taking a break, and every man was off doing his own thing. Cord had taken his new shadows with him, and I was alone with my woman. Things were gonna be a little hectic around here for the next few da
Either way, it looked like we had bought some time, which with the news of Con's impending fatherhood, was most welcome. Chances are we'd end up scrapping the mission because of this turn of events. It was a hard call to make, but we worked together or not at all, and I wasn't about to take my brother into combat under these circumstances. We'd done our bid ten times over and were free and clear. It would've been a favor in the old man's memory, but getting to the bottom of this shit now took precedence as far as I was concerned. It was more important to me to make sure our own backyard was safe than some hellhole in some remote part of the world that would just go back to the same old same old ten minutes after we cleared out. While I'd been taking care of that, each of the men was taking care of other things, gathering more information. We now knew that the closest base was ten and a half miles away, which wasn't far at all, and that the man in charge was well known
We ended up meeting up in the yard. No one wanted to go to the old man's place because we had all unofficially decided to take a break since there was nothing else to be done for now. Connor was the last to join us; I'm guessing in the next few months, it's going to be like that. The decision not to go anywhere was getting easier and easier. "Listen up, Gabriella's in there making some kinda spread." The pigs started rubbing their bellies and grunting already. That would be Ty the ringleader, Devon, and Quinn. Zak just smiled, and Cord was looking over at where the two kids were setting up to play ball. When is the last time any of us had used the court? It had been a while. "I don't want you freaks overworking her with this shit, or this would be the first and the last time." Connor had had to have this same discussion weeks ago; for all the good it did him, I figured I could at least try. "What's she making, Cap?" how the fuck should I know? "Tyler,
"For the love of fuck, Ty chew." There was no question that dinner was a huge hit; she'd really outdone herself. There wasn't an unloosened tab in the place. She had the biggest fucking smile on her face, and that's all I cared about, though I could wish the wildebeest at my table had some damn manners. "What's for dessert?" I closed my eyes and counted to ten; there's no point in trying to control his greed. She got up from the table and headed for the kitchen, and I got up to go help her. "Cap, sit your ass down, no hokey pokey while I'm waiting for dessert. If you're anything like Connor, we will end up waiting half an hour while you do who knows what in there, and some things just don't taste the same cold." "Ty, learn to cook or, better yet, find a woman who can, that way, you don't have to worry about what goes on in my kitchen." "Ooh nasty, I'm just saying." He wasn't fazed by my tone, not even a little bit. I ignored his dumb ass and went in search of
Vanessa gave the signal for us to open the gate, and we all stood around as it slid back to give her entrance. She stopped in the middle of us and hopped down with a big grin. It had been some time since we'd seen her, almost a year, I think, if not more. However long it was, it was way too long; she was good people. "Lieutenant." I walked over for a hug and, at the last second, hoped like fuck that Gaby wasn't spying on me from somewhere in the house. If there's one defect in my baby, it's her wide jealousy streak. She doesn't give a fuck who it is, and no amount of explanations work when she gets that shit in her head. "Captain, it's good to see you." I patted her back and released her before my Tasmanian devil came running to put her down. I hadn't told her too much about what was going down, just that we were expecting a visitor, and I expected her to show her all the hospitality due a guest. Gaby, like I said, gets her hackles up when there's a female involved, a
She opened her mouth to speak from her place on the dusty floor in the middle of us, but I held my hand up. "Before you open your mouth to lie, I think you should know that we know a lot more than we did last time, and if you bullshit me, I will let one of these fucks slit your throat since we know these guys killed our Commander." Her eyes gave her away before she opened her mouth again. "I had nothing to do with that; I was just the scapegoat for the money thing." Her eyes were even more afraid than before, and I felt the shift in the room. It was one thing to suspect and quite another to have verification. Con moved to stand next to Tyler, but I wasn't sure he was the only danger. She might not have offed the old man herself, but she was in bed with the fucks who did it. "Tell me everything you know, from the moment they contacted you to now." She swallowed hard and looked around for an ally; there was none to be had. Right now, I might be the only thing keeping her