Chapter Three

Erebus headquarters—undisclosed location

“Iwant back in.”

Ice stared at Solomon, who sat behind his wide oak desk inside a state-of-the-art warehouse.

The leader of the Erebus assassins said nothing for a few moments and instead gazed at him as if contemplating something. Solomon was looking him over as if his stare could assess his current state of mind.

The man’s phone rang and he answered it without looking at the caller ID.

“Solomon.” A pause and then, “Come up.” The Erebus leader hung up the phone and continued staring at him.

Ice waited. There was no way in hell anyone could read his mind. He had a poker face and icy blue eyes to match.

When the office doorknob turned, Ice pulled up the neckpiece that would cover his lower face and flipped up the hood of his black sweatshirt. He slid his hand into his pocket where he had his Ruger tucked inside.

Two men entered the office, one slender man was completely shrouded in black, including a hood. Another, bigger with more muscle, had a dark cover pulled up over his face, only his eyes uncovered.

“Rogue, Fisher, this is Ice,” Solomon said flatly.

Ice knew Fisher, the man was an ex-Pegasus operative turned assassin. He’d met the guy several times while hanging out at Creed and Kellum’s place after they’d eliminated the enemy that had plagued Kellum for most of his life. Fisher was a quiet man, but he played a mean game of pool, and Ice had shared a smile with the guy when they’d cleaned up the table during pairs. He’d heard from Creed that Fisher was an unpredictable wild card. Whatever that meant.

Both men flipped their cell phones and IDs down on Solomon’s desk and took the burner phones he handed over. The bigger one yanked open the door and walked out, Fisher turned to him and gave a brief one-finger salute before disappearing out the door and closing it behind him.

“Okay,” Solomon finally said after several minutes. “I talked to Dave earlier. You know what this means, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

Solomon glanced at the laptop that sat in front of him on the large oak desk. “Hunter gave his approval and so did a few others.”

Ice didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that Solomon had probably called Dave after hearing he wanted to rejoin. And Ice knew for a fact that Seven, Stone, Creed, and Wrath had all told Solomon to let him back in. It paid to have friends in high places. Plus, the fact that Ice knew a lot of the members made sliding back into Erebus so much easier.

“Why?” Solomon asked.

“Why what?”

“Why do you want back in?”

What was he supposed to say? That he wanted back in to search for a man he couldn’t get out of his head? That was only part of the reason. He’d been on the fence about returning to Erebus for a few years. Roaming around had become pointless and he sucked at holding down a real job. He’d even checked out Dave’s other specialty teams, like Pegasus and Phoenix. That hadn’t done a damn bit of good to help him make up his mind. He supposed that any one of the units would do, but after meeting Echo, his decision became clearer.

“Stone said you ran into Echo.”

Ice held Solomon’s hard, flat gaze. “I did. I don’t recall seeing Echo the last time I worked here.”

“He was away for a long time,” Solomon said, glancing at his arm and the long pink scar.

Cocking his head slightly, Ice waited Solomon out.

“That was careless of him,” Solomon said with a nod to the old wound. Something dark and ugly flashed briefly in the man’s eyes but was gone in an instant.

Ice didn’t take the bait. He didn’t need to know what beef, if any, Solomon had with Echo or vice versa. All he wanted was to see Echo again, just to confirm something.

“I’ll give you a trial run. One month starting now,” Solomon said before he turned to his laptop. A moment later, the man pointed to the electronic reader on his desk. “Read the rules and sign here.”

Ice nodded and quickly scrawled his signature at the bottom of the rules he knew by heart.

“Turn over your cell phone and ID.”

Ice placed the items on the desk and Solomon slid a burner phone across the desk to him and a vehicle key. A moment later, the burner pinged with an incoming text.

“Take care of the mark that I just assigned to you. Report back to me when you’ve completed the hit.”

There wasn’t much to say after that. Plus, he was never one for idle chitchat. He stood, collected the items from the desk, and walked out of the man’s office.

Ice made his way through the warehouse that had been fashioned into an office building and took the four flights of stairs down to the parking lot. The clicker unlocked a nondescript four-door gray sedan and after collecting Grit from where he was curled up outside of the warehouse door, Ice slid behind the wheel with Grit in the back seat.

“Well, boy, we have our first official job. What say you?”

Grit pushed up between the seats, paws planted on the center console and wagged his tail. Ice took that for a yes.

One week later.

“The job is simple.”

Wrath slid Ice a sideways glance and then gave an up-nod to the shipyard below them.

Ice shifted a bit, settling one knee down on the roof of the building. He gripped his high-powered rifle that sat resting on the tripod and tilted the scope to his eye.

“Don’t overthink it or you won’t take the shot,” Wrath continued and shifted a bit on the metal roof of a neighboring building.

“I’ve done this before.” Ice slowly turned his head and scowled at Wrath. The assassin was shrouded in black with a masked hood that covered his head and face. He’d known Wrath for years—they’d served together as Navy SEALs. Wrath had been one of two medics in their unit while he’d been a sniper, so the guy knew he knew what the hell he was doing.

“Why are you really back?” Wrath sounded exasperated suddenly. “Why would you want to do this shit again? What is it? Did you miss it so bad?”

“No.” Ice squinted at his friend while rubbing at the new letter E tattoo beneath his shirt, it was slightly sore. The letter—inked on his upper left chest—represented Erebus. They hadn’t been tattooed when he’d been part of the group back in the day. Maybe they were keeping track better.

“What about you? Why are working for them?”

“I have my reasons,” Wrath murmured.

“Well, I… have some unfinished business.”

Wrath squinted at him and Ice scowled right back.

“With Echo?”

“How’d you know?”

“Everyone knows he let you live in that bar,” the medic said.

“Let me live?”

“Don’t underestimate him.”

“We have a score to settle.” Ice turned back to the scope and moved it around the area below to get a bead on the entrance to the shipyard and the two exits.

“Let it go.”

“Can’t.”

His gut churned at the thought of not seeing Echo again and he suddenly frowned at Wrath. “Why are you here tonight?”

“To make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Ice snorted and turned his attention back to the shipyard below. Fucking Solomon. That motherfucker was a thorn in his side. Thankfully, Ice had been in Erebus back in the day when Jaxon West had been in charge.

Now that had been some good times. Too bad Jaxon had quit and was now running Cobalt Security. More power to the guy, but being a bodyguard was not in Ice’s nature. He’d rather sit in the dark and take out the scum of the earth.

Fifteen minutes later, his target arrived in a sleek black town car. The creep was a rapist about to leave the country after posting a two-million-dollar bail. The guy had a wealthy father. Money was power—pure and simple. If you had enough of it, you could buy anything, even a one-way ticket out of town.

Ice would send the guy somewhere all right, straight to hell where he belonged.

Two bodyguards got out and opened the rear door. A man wearing a dark suit stepped out of the car and straightened the jacket with a snap.

Wrath held out the burner phone and Ice glanced down at the photo of the mark’s face.

Ice snapped his eye back to the scope, finding that same face. Releasing his breath, he squeezed the trigger. He and Wrath were on the move seconds later. Ice didn’t need to look back or double-check. As a sniper, he knew his bullet had hit the rapist in the head.

He broke down his rifle and tucked it into his backpack while on the run. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it and he imagined it wouldn’t be the last.

“Keep up.”

“Fuck you,” Ice snorted.

“You wish,” Wrath replied and leaped the distance between two warehouse buildings.

Ice followed and landed on the pebbled-covered roof. Ice slipped the backpack straps over his shoulders and hauled ass after Wrath. He kept up easily with the guy, and suddenly wished he could have caught Echo this quickly.

Although, come to think of it, chasing Echo the past week had been a fucking turn-on.

It didn’t matter that Stone and Wrath had both told him to stay away from the assassin. He wasn’t going to listen. He sent a text to Solomon that the hit was complete.

When he got back and after he picked up his SUV, his only focus would become tracking down Echo. While he’d been studying the best way to take care of this job, he’d been constantly searching. However, the assassin had stayed one step ahead of him.

It was frustrating.

It was thrilling.

And damned if his pulse didn’t hum with excitement.

Fuck, he didn’t even know if Echo was into guys. And at this point, he didn’t care. He only wanted to talk to him.

He could always use another best friend.

“Yeah right,” he snorted under his breath.

He did not want to only be friends, but the main problem continued to be that Echo was extremely difficult to locate.

“That’s okay,” he whispered. “Run while you can.”

Ice destroyed the burner phone and left pieces of it buried along the way. After parting from Wrath, Ice slid into the same nondescript sedan he’d driven away from the warehouse and started the engine. Reaching a service road just north of a deserted canyon, he ditched the vehicle in a small gully. He slung the strap of his rifle case over his shoulder and walked up the ditch to a dirt road.

The car exploded behind him.

Within minutes of walking along the road, a pickup truck pulled up and he got into the passenger seat. Grit poked his head between the seats and licked at his arm until Ice caressed behind the dog’s ears.

“Thanks for watching Grit,” Ice said.

“No problem. How’d your first job go?” Stone asked, stepping on the gas to get out of the area ASAP.

“It was fine, Wrath showed up.”

“Was this the rapist who posted bail?”

“Mhmm, he was trying to board a ship out of here.”

“Good job,” Stone said. “I heard that the girls he raped are too scared and traumatized to testify.”

“Yeah. Well, now they don’t need to.”

He had to admit there had been a great deal of satisfaction with this job. Although there were others who thought taking justice into their own hands was wrong, Ice knew the vermin that took advantage of society didn’t give two shits about killing someone just for the hell of it. Or, in this case, hurting several someones just because they wanted to get their fucking rocks off.

Stone dropped him off at his own SUV a few blocks from Solomon’s office and Ice drove to the building. Along with Grit, Ice was buzzed in and he took the stairs instead of the elevator. Striding into Solomon’s office, he found Wrath and another man.

Solomon tossed his ID and his personal cell on the desk.

“Good job,” Solomon told him and then gestured to the man standing at the window, back to the room. “You already know Wrath.”

Ice exchanged a smirk with Wrath.

“I’m sure you remember Real,” Wrath said.

Ice’s mouth dropped open and he gaped at his former Navy SEAL buddy who had his back to him.

Real turned slowly and gave him a smirk.

“Ice.” Real smirked and then cocked an eyebrow at the pup in his arms.

“Wow, dude. I thought you’d never quit being a SEAL.” Ice grinned at the man.

Real snorted and shook his offered hand. The man was younger than him by eight years, but they had managed to serve a year together before Ice had called it quits to pursue other things. They had sometimes kept in touch when Real was on leave, but Ice hadn’t seen the man in a few years.

“When did you get out?”

“Last year…I meant to call.” Real bent and caressed Grit behind his silky ears.

Ice chuckled. “It’s cool.”

“Let’s cut the chat and get to the business at hand.” Solomon cut Real off with a dark look. “We have a job. There are two or maybe three sexual predators in Northern California. There was a recent incident and Dave wants them eliminated before the cops can arrest them,” Solomon cut in with a dark look.

“How long ago was the latest attack?” Real asked.

“Yesterday. However, you won’t be involved with this,” Solomon told Real flatly and then turned to him and Wrath.

“Why the fuck not?” Ice asked when Real had gone quiet.

Solomon squinted at him. “Do I need to remind you that you’re on probation?”

“Do I need to remind you that Dave is one of my closest friends as well as Hunter and Seven?” Ice countered. “Real is in on this if he wants to be.”

Solomon’s gaze turned glacial.

And Ice glared right back.

He didn’t give a rat’s ass if Solomon was pissed.