Chapter Two

“ I t can’t take this long,” Azrael huffed.

He watched as Tyler disappeared through the Target store doors. The teenager had volunteered to go in and get the others.

“Maybe they can’t make up their minds,” Seven said from where he sat behind the wheel.

Hunter, who sat in the front seat, lifted his shoulders and said, “It hasn’t been that long.”

“Long enough to make my ass numb,” Creed grumbled from one of the middle rows of the passenger van that could hold twelve people. Next to Creed sat Kellum, with little four-year-old Dylan out of his seat belt and climbing over everyone and everything he could reach.

In the far back of the vehicle, Ice snoozed with the hundred-pound Labrador retriever next to him.

On the other side of the dog sat Echo, scrolling through his phone with his free hand running over Grit’s back and scruff. Echo paused long enough to snort.

Azrael twisted around to glance at Creed, who was also scrolling through his phone. Azrael remembered being in awe when he caught a glimpse of Creed and Stone standing side by side. The two men were cousins and looked almost identical, with the exception that Stone appeared slightly older.

As if feeling his gaze, Creed glanced up.

“What? I’m not lying, my ass is numb,” Creed scoffed.

The man’s face was ruggedly sexy with piercing blue-gray eyes and dark hair. Creed was big, muscled, calm, and solid. Azrael could see why Kellum was in love.

Creed reminded Azrael of Real in size and good looks, but that’s where the similarities ended. Creed was gentle. Real was not. It made sense that Creed would be gentle with Kellum—since the two men were married.

Would Real become gentle when he fell in love? In a way, he hoped not. He liked Real rough and tough. Azrael shook off his thoughts—only trouble and heartache waited by thinking that way.

“I promised Link and Eagle I’d watch out for Tyler. If anything happens to him…” Azrael let his voice trail off.

“Link will kick your ass,” Creed murmured.

“And then some.” Azrael was normally fearless, but messing with Link and Eagle wasn’t something he wanted to tackle, ever. Azrael had previously met Link, Eagle, and Tyler at Dave’s place.

Dave had a habit of having round table discussions with his specialty members. There were some badass motherfuckers who came in and out of the former SecDef’s place. And because Azrael lived in Dave’s house, he knew the names of almost every single person who worked for Dave, plus their families.

“Tyler should be fine,” Echo murmured without looking up from his phone.

“I’ll text Travis.” Seven sighed and picked up his phone.

“I’ll see if I can spot them.” Azrael slipped out of the passenger van before anyone could say another word.

The icy parking lot was overlaid with snow, and Azrael slid a bit until his snow cleats bit into the ice. Not for the first time, he was thankful he wore winter gear in the frigid Colorado weather.

He really needed his head checked for being here in the first place. But when Dave had suggested the holiday vacation over the next week, the thought of getting away from everything had been welcoming.

Azrael tugged the beanie tighter on his head as he sucked in air and blew it out in a long white puff.

“I hate the friggin’ winter,” he muttered beneath his breath.

If anything happened to Tyler, it was not all on him. Dave had brought him, Tyler, Boston, and Beck to this holiday celebration.

Azrael hadn’t wanted to come at first. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d celebrated Christmas. Last year had been a brief exchange of presents between him and his twin, but no celebration to speak of other than the tree in Dave’s living room. In truth, Azrael was looking forward to spending time with his friends and fucking off for a week.

There was another reason Dave had wanted to come here to Colorado. A reason he wasn’t supposed to know about, but he had a habit of curling up in Dave’s library to read and had overheard Dave talking with Stone.

Dave planned to build a facility out here in Colorado. From what he could hear of the conversation, it was supposed to be a training facility that also doubled as a school.

He had made a sound of surprise and Dave had discovered him there.

“I know you don’t want to go on this holiday trip with us, but I need your opinion on the site for the new facility,” Dave had murmured, holding his gaze.

It only took him a few seconds, but then Azrael jumped at the chance to go with Dave and Stone.

When Azrael told Real he was leaving for Christmas, Real hadn’t put up any argument. Azrael figured it was Real’s way of getting him out of his hair for a while.

Yeah okay, he had been a pain in the ass lately, but it was all Real’s fault. The guy took bossing him around to a whole different level, and if Real wasn’t careful, Azrael was going to get gone for good.

The doors squelched open, and Azrael entered the store. He skirted around a family of four wheeling out a cart filled to the brim with holiday presents and wrapping paper.

“A Holly Jolly Christmas” was playing from the overhead speakers and warmth hit his cold cheeks. He tugged his gloved hands from his heavy coat pockets.

He hated being inside around so many people and fought the need to shudder. He glanced through the crowd of people.

It was easy to spot Joshua because the nineteen-year-old stood over six feet tall. Joshua was almost to the checkout with about five people ahead of him. Customers stretched behind Joshua to the door. Travis, Aaron, and Tyler were joking around by bumping shoulders, causing nearby people to smile.

Azrael gave a sigh of exasperation and scooted over to lean against the wall.

It took about another minute to realize that none of the customers in line ahead of his friends were moving.

The cashiers were standing still, except for one, but the people in the front of the lines were like statues.

“This is bullshit,” a customer in the back of the line complained.

“I should have gone to Walmart,” another customer joked.

Two customers started talking smack to each other and a tall thin woman dropped her items to the floor and walked out.

Lifting on his tip toes, he could see the top of Joshua’s head. Nobody was moving in the line.

Perhaps someone ahead of them had a return?

Now that was just bad luck.