Chapter Eight

Storm

“Shouldn’t Wild and Rossi be back by now?” Storm asked.

Roscoe glanced at his watch and frowned. “Yeah, well, at least Wild.”

“Wild isn’t returning my text messages or answering his phone.”

Roscoe pulled out his phone and checked it. “He hasn’t responded to mine either.”

“I’m not okay with this. Let’s go look for him.” Storm shoved up from where he’d been on the couch—half watching Reggie play video games.

Both Roscoe and Quick stood when he did and followed Storm across the room. They all entered the kitchen and found Lash, Fear, Caleb, and Wolf having a snack. Jagger, Noah, and Mac were outside on the patio.

“We’re going to look for Wild,” Storm said gruffly.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Caleb asked, dropping the half-eaten croissant on the plate. When the younger man shoved to his feet, so did Wolf, Lash, and Fear.

“He should be back by now.”

Noah spotted them in the kitchen and came through the sliding door along with Mac and Jagger. “What’s going on?”

“Wild isn’t back yet and he’s not answering our calls,” Storm said.

“I sent a text to Rossi a few minutes ago, but no response,” Reggie said from the doorway behind them. Jordan stood next to the techie.

Noah pulled his phone out and hit the call button. It went straight to voicemail and Rossi’s voice filled the kitchen.

Leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

“Let me get my weapon,” Wolf said and spun toward the stairs, and Noah launched after Wolf with Mac on his ass.

Nobody else moved for a few seconds and then everyone was going for a weapon. As far as Storm was concerned, it was better fucking safe than sorry.

Storm stopped at Frost and Seth’s closed room door and rapped. A few moments later, Frost pulled open the door.

“Wild and Rossi aren’t back, so we’re going to look for them.”

Frost squinted. “Did you call?”

“Several times, and nothing.”

“We’ll meet you downstairs,” Seth said, poking his head from behind Frost.

With a nod, Storm hurried down the hall and found Roscoe already almost dressed. Storm yanked off his shirt and pants and pulled on his tactical gear.

“What about me?” Reggie asked suddenly from the doorway.

Storm slapped a clip into his Glock and tucked a spare into his pants.

“Stay here,” Storm said, tossing a glance at Reggie, who was joined by Jordan.

“You want me to stay with him?” Jordan asked.

“Yes, you two stay here in case Rossi or Wild show up,” Roscoe said, taking charge—which was fine with Storm. He was an enforcer, a sniper; Storm didn’t give orders. He left that to his love. Besides, Roscoe was damned good at it.

The unit met out on the lower northside balcony, where the stairs led to the driveway. Every single one of them were armed to the teeth and geared. They didn’t look all that odd, though. Instead of the traditional military camouflaged tactical gear, Phoenix wore all black. Even their vests were black, as well as the ski masks they could pull down over their faces if needed.

Storm looked over the group. They resembled a bunch of ninjas.

They were also hot as hell, he knew it because he was sweating beneath his gear, but he’d been through worse during the war and so had several of the others.

“Let’s move,” Noah said, and Storm detected more than a hint of worry in the man’s voice.

Jagger got behind the wheel and started the van, blasting the air while the rest of them loaded up.

“They are going to laugh at us,” Caleb said.

“I’m going to kick their asses, so there won’t be any laughing,” Lash said.

“They shouldn’t have gone dark,” Noah said. Mac reached over and clasped his hand over Noah’s.

“Wait…” Roscoe said before Jagger could put the van into drive. “We need Reggie.”

“Why?” Caleb asked.

“He can pinpoint their cell phones.” Roscoe rubbed a hand down his face and Storm knew the worry was getting to them both. Storm had already worked himself up to kill something. Roscoe was a bit calmer, but not having Wild by their side… well, that was unacceptable. Storm reached over and placed his hand on Roscoe’s shoulder and the man gave a brief nod as if collecting himself.

“I got it,” Caleb said and called Reggie on his cell phone. “Reggie, both you and Jordan get your gear on, grab your laptop, and meet us at the van.”

Roughly five minutes later, both men emerged and climbed into the van.

“Find Rossi’s and Wild’s cell phones,” Roscoe told Reggie, and the techie jumped on it.

“I’m going slow in case we come across them walking,” Jagger said and pulled the van out of the driveway and slowly down the darkened street toward Barry’s place.

“We’re going to look damned silly if they’re walking home,” Reggie murmured as his fingers tapped on the laptop keys.

“Then they shouldn’t have gone dark,” Storm growled. Yeah, okay, they were heavily geared and armed to the teeth, but so the fuck what? When he got his hands on Wild, he was going to… well, kiss the shit out of him first.

“Found it!” Reggie crowed in the next instant. “They’re both in the same spot on the beach.”

Storm leaned over and gazed at the three glowing dots. “What’s that?”

Reggie glanced up with a big smile. “Rossi and Wild found Stefano.”

Noah

Rage didn’t begin to describe the feeling tightening his chest and it took Caleb a couple of tries to gain his attention. He brushed the sand from the phone in his hand and had to gasp for breath.

“Noah?” Caleb’s voice finally penetrated.

His head snapped up from his dad’s phone.

Reggie handed Wild’s phone to Storm. Roscoe stood rigid at Storm’s side, holding on to Stefano’s phone in one hand and Wild’s Glock in the other.

They all knew what this meant. Something shady had gone down. There was no way in fucking hell Wild would have left his weapon. There was also the fact that they all knew that the three men would have contacted them by now… if they could have.

“Noah,” Mac said softly this time.

“What?” he rasped, his hand squeezing the cell tightly. Every single person on the beach looked at him through the slight lighting that two pole lights provided on the beach at night.

Mac stepped in front of him, blocking out each concerned gaze. Mac gripped the back of his neck and gave him a little shake. Their eyes met, gazes colliding.

“You ready?” Mac growled. And Noah knew the fierce anger in his husband’s eyes was reflected in his own. How had he gotten so lucky to have this man in his life? Mac had stood by his side time and time again and still to this day, he was the number one person he could count on. His silent and strong US Marshal, who never said much but could convey so much with his eyes. Noah reached up and traced the scar that ran down Mac’s face and pulled him into his arms.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding into Mac’s shoulder.

When Mac released him, Noah held Roscoe’s gaze from a few feet away. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re taking the house.” Roscoe pointed to Barry’s house in the distance. “Fear slipped closer to the house and just reported back that there are two men upstairs. We don’t know if they are friendlies or not.”

“Let’s find out,” Noah said. Pulling his weapon from the back of his pants, he checked the clip.

“You three take the front,” Roscoe ordered, pointed to several, and whipped a finger toward the house. Wolf, Lash, and Quick melted into the darkness toward the northside driveway and disappeared in the shadows.

“You four.” Again, Roscoe motioned, and Jagger, Jordan, Caleb, and Storm went around the beach side. “Reggie, get in the van and monitor our comms. You’ll be our eyes out here.”

“Mac?” Roscoe said to the US Marshal. “You good watching Reggie’s back?”

“I’m good with that,” the big man drawled.

Noah knew his husband shouldn’t work with Phoenix or even be involved with something like this in a foreign county, but not having Mac at his side made his gut sour.

“Thanks,” Roscoe told Mac and then glanced at Reggie. “Go.”

“On it.” Reggie darted back toward where they’d parked the van on the road above the signal from the three cell phones.

Mac turned to him and Noah closed the small space between them and gripped his husband hard. Mac cupped the back of his head and cradled him close. After several moments, Mac’s grip eased and Noah forced himself to step back.

Worry gnawed at Noah’s gut, but he refused to think of anything happening to his dad, Stefano, or Wild. His dad was a fucking badass in his own right and with Stefano and Wild by Rossi’s side, they’d be an unstoppable force. He had to hold on to that thought and pray like fucking hell.

“I’ll be back,” he whispered, holding Mac’s gaze.

“You better,” Mac growled and then spun away to follow after Reggie.

Noah watched Mac’s wide shoulders until the man disappeared before he turned to his boss.

“We’ll take the stairs,” Roscoe said, and Noah followed the Phoenix lieutenant toward the steps that would lead to the first level.

Frost had disappeared.

But that wasn’t unusual. Not many saw Frost coming and if those men inside the house were perps and Frost got to them first, Noah didn’t think he’d get a chance to punch anything.

And he really wanted to hit something.