Chapter Four

Eagle

Jordan pushed open the door and stepped inside.

“All good?”

“Just dandy,” Eagle smirked.

Jordan huffed and shook his head. The guy stood several inches shorter than him, but that still put Jordan at about six feet two inches if Eagle had to guess. With curly dark hair and bright blue eyes, Jordan was a head-turner, but what really sealed the deal was the twenty-four-year-old’s quick smile.

“Run into Link?” Eagle asked.

“Yeah, you threw him off his game.” Jordan smiled and Eagle snorted. Picking up a piece of charred wood at his feet, he brought it to his nose. Chemical and soot, but definitely a homemade bomb. At least they weren’t dealing with a professional.

“Jordan!” Link yelled from the other room.

“Guess that’s my cue,” Jordan laughed and moved quickly out of the kitchen, letting the door swing shut.

“You can come out now,” Eagle said, and then smirked at the guy standing in the shadows.

Ice stepped out and shrugged. “It didn’t seem like a good time to interfere.”

“Nah, Jordan’s nice.”

“I wasn’t talking about him.”

“Oh, you meant Link? Yeah, well, it’s never a good time between me and him right now.”

Ice picked his way over the carnage of the site. The man was tall, on the ripped side, with a lean build and blond hair tied in a ponytail at the back of his head. Eagle thought the guy got his nickname from the color of his ice-cold eyes, but he wasn’t sure.

As a favor to Ace, Eagle had taken Ice with him on the McCade sex trafficking case he had been working.

“Test him,” Ace said. “See what he’s got to offer.”

“So, a new member then?” Eagle said.

“Maybe, he’s been putting his feelers out. He did a few jobs for Erebus, then Phoenix before they went on vacation.”

Eagle frowned. “And they didn’t get a feel for his skills?”

“The mission wasn’t small enough and all Roscoe could tell me was that Ice showed up when they needed.”

“Why didn’t they put someone on him to gauge his skills?”

“Like I said, the mission was just too big to babysit someone.”

“You think I’ll be babysitting?”

“No, I have a feeling about him. Just let me know your findings. I don’t want him ending up at Erebus,” Ace said.

“Why not?” Eagle shrugged. There were worse things than joining up with the SecDef’s team of assassins.

“You’ll see.”

And Eagle had seen. He’d found out he and Ice had a few things in common besides both being ex-military. And all Eagle could say by the end of the job was that Ice was fucking good. Like scary good. Eagle still didn’t know all of the man’s background, but the guy’s skills of combat, stealth, and marksmanship had been through the roof. Ice came highly recommended by Seven. Other than that, Eagle knew next to nothing about the ex-Navy Seal.

Owen pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside. The two men sized each other up, gave a cordial nod, and that was that. Owen and Ice had previously met over a month ago during a job to help Pegasus operative Hunter and Seven with a friend. Seven wasn’t technically with Pegasus, but the man was with Hunter and that was good enough for both Ace and Eagle.

The kitchen had been saved from most of the blast, but one side looked like structural damage had occurred from the impact. Dishes were in piles on the floor, cabinet doors hung on broken hinges, and a few light fixtures swung loose from over the two large ovens. He hoped the owner had insurance.

Owen stacked several small, burned-out pieces of explosive parts on the kitchen counter after clearing it with his arm. “Got these from the center of the blast area.”

“The crime scene techs missed that?” Ice joined Owen at the counter.

“Yeah, but they got most of it. This piece,” —Owen shuffled through a few pieces with his fingers and held up a piece of shrapnel, “was embedded in a crushed wall.”

Ice lifted up a small, tangled wire and the pair immediately started discussing the ins and outs of what had caused the blast.

Eagle stopped listening. Not that he didn’t care about what the hell had happened, but he cared more about taking down the sons of bitches who had set the charge that killed so many people. His motto was pursue, apprehend, and beat the shit out of them. The chase was fun and zip-tying those fuckers was better, but fist to flesh? Well, that was a whole hell of a lot more satisfying in his opinion.

Stepping over broken dishes and debris, he made his way into the hallway that separated the kitchen from what looked to be two back rooms. The first door he opened was a storeroom for extra supplies. Food stocked the shelves and a large walk-in freezer stood at the far end. He closed the door and opened the one across the narrow hallway. This one was the office.

A scratching noise in one corner had him slowly pulling out his Glock. With quiet steps, he eased around the perimeter. The blast had toppled things, so it was slow going.

“Come out of there,” he growled when he finally reached the corner where a whiteboard had fallen over.

No answer. A short scuffling and then silence. Eagle reached out with his free hand, gun held tight in the other, and flipped the board back.

“Ah shit,” he muttered.

A very young puppy gazed at him with fear in his big brown eyes. Where had he come from? Had he been here a whole fucking week? Tucking his gun away, Eagle crouched and held out his fingers. Slowly, the pup smelled them. That allowed Eagle to lift the dog up and cuddle him in one arm. A pink, wet tongue tried to lick his face off and he angled his head slightly away. His free hand ruffled the short brown hair.

If he had to guess, he’d say it was a small breed, about two months old. He knew next to nothing about dogs, though.

“I bet someone’s missing you,” Eagle said to the dog, who continued licking and wiggling.

Huffing out a small chuckle, Eagle retraced his steps.