Chapter Thirteen

Seven

As he ran, Seven tugged at the collar of his black, skintight, long-sleeved shirt.

Earlier, when they’d met up just shy of the block where the safe house was located, Owen had thrust a bundle into his arms, along with pants Seven was sure were Eagle’s. They were roughly the same size. Seven now wore the same garb as the other Pegasus members—black shirt and pants.

He knew what the offering of gear meant. They’d accepted him as one of their own. They also expected him to give Ace an answer when this was all over. Granted, he did feel less exposed in the dark clothing, but he’d be damned if he’d be forced into working for Pegasus.

It would be his own choice.

“Creed, Eagle, copy?” Link’s voice kept repeating into the earpiece.

Seven caught Hunter’s arm and pulled the impatient man to a stop. When Hunter swung around on him, Seven held out the small comms device. Sheepishly, Hunter tucked it into his ear before sprinting forward again.

Seven suspected that he and Hunter had a fuck ton to talk about, but it would all have to wait until they had some down time. And he’d make damned sure they had that down time.

Reaching the line of trees that sat parallel to the safe house, they spotted one man holding a gun on Creed, who didn’t look too happy, if the scowl on his face was any indication.

Fisher came up just as fast as they had to the warehouse. The guy was super fucking quick. Seven had run into Fisher several times while tracking Pegasus from the shadows. They’d recognized something in each other—that they both wanted the same thing. Fish wanted to keep Pegasus safe, and while Seven did care about Pegasus, his main focus had been on Hunter. From that point on, it wasn’t unusual to find them both lurking in the same shadows, and on occasion, they’d backed each other up.

“Shit!” Hunter hissed, catching his attention. “The door’s fucking open!”

“How the fuck did they get inside?” Link muttered and lifted the M16 in his hands. With one shot, Link put a bullet in the man holding the gun on Creed. The round punched a hole in the guy’s chest and Creed sidestepped to avoid the spray of blood.

Hunter sprang forward and Seven stayed on the man’s six. Together, they left the safety of the trees and sprinted across the parking lot to the safe house.

Lifting a hand to press the earpiece, Link snapped, “Eagle, you better fucking answer me.”

Silence was the only response.

“Creed, where’s Eagle?” Owen asked this time as they grew near.

Creed lifted his gun from the ground and jerked his head toward the open door before checking the clip on the weapon. “Inside with Jaxon.”

“How’d the door get open?” Hunter asked.

“Two fuckers came up on me after Eagle and Jaxon went inside.” Creed grimaced.

“Okay, let’s plan—

Owen’s game plan speech was cut off when Link disappeared inside the open door of the safe house.

“Yeah, Sport,” Seven said. “You stay here and plan.”

He didn’t wait for Owen’s response, instead following Link into the building. Hunter was at his back and behind Hunter came Owen. Creed opted to stay outside and remain guarding the door.

Hunter slapped at a kill switch on the wall just inside the building and the lights and power went out.

“Fuck,” Link hissed, but didn’t complain further.

They all knew it was better to move through the dark than it was to get picked off one by one in the light. It took moments for Seven’s eyes to adjust. Hunter fiddled with the wall and then pulled open the small door of a hidden cabinet. He took out several things, one of which he handed to him and then the others. They were flash grenades.

“There’s only one more perp, right?” Seven murmured.

“Yeah.”

He could barely make out Hunter’s nod.

“Do you think they called backup?” Seven whispered, placing the grenade in his pocket.

“Maybe? I’m not sure,” Hunter responded just as quietly.

Link and Owen melted into the darkness and Seven would have done the same, but he felt compelled to stay with Hunter. He needn’t have bothered, though. Hunter eased through the dark just as easily as the others, and Seven’s respect for Hunter’s skills increased. He had a pretty damned good idea of just how Hunter had acquired his skills, and as much as Hunter shared Pegasus stuff with him, there was a shit ton the man kept hidden.

Even though Seven’s eyes were adjusted, Hunter was hard to follow, and Seven’s heart skipped a beat when he momentarily lost sight of the man in the large foyer-type entryway. Calming his breathing, he stilled and swept his gaze over the darkest areas, the blackness where danger lingered, and it was there that he found his quarry. Hunter was creeping up to a black gaping doorway. Silently, Seven made his way closer. When Hunter crouched, Seven sank to his hunches beside the man.

Snick, snick.

A silencer echoed in the dark and they waited a few more moments until the quiet was broken.

“You asshole.” Link’s hiss came from inside the dark room.

“Clear,” Eagle mumbled.

Hunter stood and raced back across the room to deactivate the kill switch and the lights and power came back on simultaneously.

Seven stepped into the open doorway to find Link crouched in front of Eagle, who was sitting on the floor, leaning against the edge of the bed. A dead perp sprawled face down on the carpet with a bullet in the back of his head. Theo Kada was sitting on top of the bed with his knees pulled to his chest, rocking, eyes wide on Jaxon, who had a gun pointed at Theo.

Hunter placed a hand on Seven’s shoulder and eased past him and into the room, going straight to Theo.

“You okay?” Hunter shouldered past Jaxon.

“Yeah.” Theo gulped and Hunter turned to Eagle.

“What happened?”

“It was my bad,” Eagle grumbled. “I wasn’t paying attention and Jaxon had his weapon tucked away while he interrogated Theo.”

“You’re trained better than that,” Link snapped with a hot glare of anger at Eagle. The fingers Link had in Eagle’s hair told a different story. They moved softly through the strands and Eagle closed his eyes.

Link suddenly sat back on his haunches. Eagle’s eyes popped open and Link glared. “You have an egg-sized knot on your head.”

“I’ll live,” Eagle smirked.

“Take that smirk off your face or I’ll wipe it off,” Link snapped.

“You can try,” Eagle responded silkily.

“I was going to pull and shoot the bastard when the lights went out,” Jaxon said with annoyance.

“So, what, like…gunfight at the O.K. Corral?” Hunter rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be your huckleberry,” Jaxon said with a smirk.

Seven’s blood boiled and he stalked over to Hunter near the bed before sliding his arm around Hunter’s shoulders—Seven gave Jaxon a flat, dead stare.

“Knock it off,” Owen said from the open doorway. “We’ve got to make a plan. We don’t know how long we have until their backup gets here.”

Link shoved away from Eagle as if a hot poker had stuck him in the butt and stalked out of the room. Seven moved from Hunter and held out a hand to Eagle. After a moment, Eagle caught his grip and let himself be pulled to his feet.

“You good?” Owen asked when Eagle swayed.

“Yeah,” Eagle said. “I have a hard head…ask Link.”

“I’d like to know who put you in charge,” Hunter said, squinting at Owen.

Seven stilled. It wasn’t like Hunter to be confrontational. He was more of a go with the flow type of guy. This new side of Hunter was surprising albeit sexy as fuck.

“Ace did. You have a problem with that, then take it up with him,” Owen growled and stalked from the room.

“Making friends left and right I see,” Seven murmured.

Hunter squinted at him. “You guys don’t know what the fuck you’re dealing with here.”

“Then enlighten us,” Eagle cut in.

Seven wasn’t backing up from Hunter’s anger. Yeah, it hurt like hell that Hunter had secrets, but there was no way he was letting Hunter push him away.

He wanted to hear all of Hunter’s secrets.

Ignoring the others in the room, Seven lightly gripped Hunter’s wrist.

“Talk to me.”