Chapter One

Five Days Before Christmas…

T he inside of the department store was packed with people in the rush to get last-minute presents purchased. “Jingle Bells” blared through the overhead speakers with only an occasional interruption by an employee announcing a sale.

Aaron Kellum, the younger brother to Pegasus operative Daniel Kellum, otherwise known as just Kellum, stood in line holding a Transformer car box in his hands. He could picture his little brother’s face when he got the gift for Christmas. Dylan was four years old and obsessed with Optimus Prime. In fact, if Aaron had to watch the TV show one more time, he was going to go ballistic. Hopefully the toy would take his brother’s focus from the television.

“You found it,” nineteen-year-old Joshua Walker, brother to Pegasus operative Shane Walker, otherwise known as Seven, said from his spot right next to Aaron.

A startled sound emerged from Aaron’s throat and Joshua grunted with a smile. It hadn’t been all that hard to surprise Aaron because of the boy’s past. Yet, Joshua still held out hope that with enough time the thirteen-year-old would calm down a bit. Aaron’s big blue eyes gazed at him from beneath shaggy bangs of blond hair. There was no doubt about it, the boy was as good-looking as his older brother.

After a hard swallow, the flash of fear in Aaron’s eyes faded, and he gave Joshua a tentative smile. “I found this,” Aaron said and held up the box in his hands.

“Dylan will love it, I’m sure,” Joshua said and shot a quick glance to the other boy next to them. “What do you think, Travis?”

“Definitely,” nineteen-year-old Travis Hillcrest, the younger brother of Pegasus operative Gage Hillcrest, said.

All three boys were brothers of big shots who worked undercover as elite operatives in a secret team known only as Pegasus.

The three of them had come inside the large department store to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

Joshua and Travis were the same age, lived near each other, and had attended the same high school. More recently they’d become boyfriends. In typical teenage style, both young men were still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.

It had taken a while, but several months ago, Joshua had finally convinced Travis to go on a date with him. Things had escalated and before long they had become an official couple.

What they hadn’t done yet was share the news of their relationship with their immediate families. Of course other close friends, like Aaron for instance, knew about them.

Yet so far neither had taken the plunge to tell their older siblings.

Joshua didn’t need to be a fortune teller to know exactly what his brother would say if he found out.

No fucking way!

You are too young to date.

Wait until you’re older.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Those were all the things that Joshua didn’t want to hear because when it came to someone saying anything negative about him and Travis, he wasn’t going to listen.

Joshua had staked his claim on Travis, and he had done it with intent. That way there would be no chance of the other boy getting snatched up by someone else.

“What’s that?” Joshua glanced down at something Travis had hidden in his hand.

“Nothing.” The teenager jerked his hands behind his back, tipped his beautiful face upward and gazed up at him with wide green eyes. Dark hair cascaded around the boy’s head and his slender frame was relaxed. Laughter-filled eyes gazed up at him. The humor was so much better than the never-ending fear that had lingered in their depths for what had seemed like forever. Thankfully, the fear had faded over time.

“Lemme see, lemme see.” Joshua teasingly tugged on Travis’s arm.

“It’s a surprise,” Travis hissed, pulling his arm away and shaking his head.

“Okay, I won’t look,” Joshua promised, and Travis moved back to the spot beside him, close enough to bump his shoulder and then press closer.

“Um, guys,” Aaron whispered.

“What?” Joshua grumbled. Were they going to catch shit from Aaron about PDA?

“Do you see that?” Aaron gestured with his chin toward something just out of Joshua’s field of vision.

Both Joshua and Travis glanced over in the direction of Aaron’s gesture.

At first, Joshua saw nothing, so he inched a bit past Travis and casually glanced around. It was ingrained in Joshua to be cautious, and he was glad to have a brother who had taken the time to teach him things that other teenagers didn’t know. Things like surveillance, spotting a perp, reading the room, knowing when to get down, and knowing when to run.

Sweeping his eyes over the next line, he didn’t see anything odd about the woman with the toddler in a shopping cart filled with toys. In the line on the other side of the mother, an older couple was conversing with two teenage girls. Nothing unusual about that.

Joshua kept looking, one more line over he found what Aaron had spotted. Damn, the kid was good, but then Aaron lived with two Pegasus agents so it stood to reason that the kid would know his stuff.

The tall, thin man wearing beige coveralls a few checkout lines down from them cradled a gun against his chest. The weapon was positioned in a way that nobody could really see unless they happened to look very closely, like Aaron had.

Out of curiosity, Travis stepped forward to get a look, but Joshua wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder to stop him.

Joshua moved Travis over next to Aaron. With one slow measured step, Joshua placed his bigger body between the two slighter boys and the gunman.

Other people in the store seemed oblivious and Joshua hoped that it stayed that way.

If anyone panicked, it could cause a chain reaction of terror.

The gunman juggled one present, a box filled with a squirt gun, and another box containing a brown, toy revolver and plastic handcuffs.

Fuck . Joshua released a long breath. It’s a toy. For a minute there, he thought it had been a real gun.

“It’s a toy,” he muttered at Aaron.

Aaron flushed and shrugged. “Sorry.”

“No worries.” Joshua released another deep breath, feeling his nerves calm a bit.

Shit. He was becoming super paranoid just like his older brother. In some ways what his brother taught him was good, in other ways not so much.

“You guys need to hurry up,” Tyler Carson said, stepping up beside them. The tall, blue-eyed, sixteen-year-old wasn’t related to anyone they knew, but the boy did live with Pegasus operatives Link and Eagle. And if Joshua were to be asked, he’d say that Tyler was just about as observant as he was. Tyler had some skills, too. He’d sparred with the teenager not too long ago.

“The line is long, dude.” Travis glared at Tyler.

“Stand down, I come in peace,” Tyler joked with a smirk.

Travis gave a wobbly smile, and it was the most beautiful thing Joshua had ever seen.

“But seriously, the guys are getting restless in the car,” Tyler said, moving up to stand next to them after assuring the customer in line behind them that he wasn’t buying anything.

“Let them wait,” Joshua said. “We’ve waited plenty for them.”

It was true, and none of the boys could argue with him. They all spent a lot of time waiting at home for the men who raised them to come through the door.

But with the jobs those men did, was it really any wonder they were seldom home?