Chapter Sixteen

Hunter

Glancing up from the disassembled weapon on the table, Hunter gave Seven a quick smile.

He found Seven’s earlier efforts to confirm a commitment between them endearing. And although it hadn’t been spelled out, Hunter knew Seven wanted a relationship with him. The guy just seemed out of his element and Hunter was going to make him sweat a little bit.

He smirked when Seven settled in the chair across from him at the small table for two inside their unit. Running the microfiber cloth over the firing pin before selecting another piece to clean, he glanced up.

“So, did you ever work for Solomon?”

Hunter nodded, even though ‘work for’ wasn’t exactly correct. Assassins didn’t report to anyone, they took jobs or didn’t when the head of Erebus reached out. They had a code they agreed to and followed when they joined, but other than that, there was usually zero contact between them.

“Solomon came on board about a year before I left,” Hunter said, but he was reminded that he really didn’t know that much about the man. “Before Solomon, it was Malcolm.”

“Malcolm?” Seven looked surprised.

“Yeah,” Hunter said with a wry smile. “Malcolm was in charge of Erebus way before Solomon got hired.” He continued cleaning and wiping the weapon pieces before he set the cloth aside and began assembling it back together.

“Did you get along with Solomon?”

“Yeah, I didn’t see him much, but I didn’t have any problems with him. It was Malcolm who’d trained me, so…” Hunter shrugged. “Solomon wasn’t my jam.”

“What do you mean, your jam?” Humor swam in Seven’s eyes, making Hunter smile.

“Solomon offered jobs that I questioned.” Hunter paused, holding the assembled gun.

“Like jobs Malcolm is accused of taking?”

“No, not quite contract-killing jobs, but some of the marks didn’t seem to have been investigated enough.”

“Did you ever tell Dave about Solomon’s questionable jobs?”

“I did. Dave had a lot on his plate back then.”

“Ten years ago would have been around the time of ISIS and the war in Iraq.”

“That’s correct. I know Dave offered Solomon a lot of money to take a contract in Iraq.” Hunter lifted the cloth to polish his weapon.

“So, Dave figured he’d get Solomon out of the country and maybe he wouldn’t come back?” Seven smirked when Hunter shot him a surprised look. “What? I can think like an assassin if I need to.”

“Please don’t.”

Seven searched his eyes for a long moment and then slowly nodded. “Deal.”

Once Hunter was done with the cloth, Seven picked it up and began moving it over the Glock he’d pulled from his shoulder holster. It was a nice 9-millimeter that Hunter had envied.

“So, how does it work?” Seven said.

“What do you mean?”

“You all seem to have moral principles.” Seven gestured with his free hand. “Like a rule of conduct.”

“We had to sign Dave’s code of ethics agreement before we took any jobs.”

“Do you think that Malcolm did what Solomon said he did?”

“Well, Solomon didn’t really say Malcolm did anything. Theo overheard the talk about Malcolm from an outside source and you heard Dave say there’s evidence against Malcolm,” Hunter pointed out as he stood and snatched the cup of cold coffee from the small table and popped it into the microwave.

“Yeah.” Seven tipped his head and studied the gun in his hand.

Something about the way Seven agreed gave Hunter pause.

“What?”

“Do you have any idea of how many times evidence has been planted?”

Hunter frowned. “Theo would have caught that.”

“Why? Is he trained for that?” Seven asked.

“Well…no.” Hunter stared at Seven, who continued wiping the rag over the gun.

“Shit. I’ll have Kellum double-check,” Hunter said, now silently second-guessing the evidence.

Theo might be good at giving out jobs and taking deposits, but he might have missed something. Kellum wouldn’t. The Pegasus techie was at a whole other level. Too bad they couldn’t get Jordan down here from Phoenix; that guy put Jacob and Kellum to shame in the technical department, but then Jordan had been trained by Reboot Hell.

The microwave beeped and Hunter brought his coffee back to the table.

“I think having Kellum check is an excellent idea.”

“All right, I’ll text him.” He returned Seven’s smile. “You know, we really are on the same page.”

“Making our own story.” Seven nodded and Hunter laughed.

“Corny.”

Seven’s smile grew. “You like it, though.”

“Maybe.”

An hour later, most of them sat watching Kellum work his magic on the keyboard. Theo had marched from the room in a huff and Kellum looked concerned.

“Don’t worry. Just do what you do best,” Creed told the techie.

Kellum smiled at Creed like he was the sun shining and Creed turned away, but Hunter saw the flush on the man’s cheeks—a flush that mirrored Kellum’s own.

“You know,” Kellum said, looking up from his laptop. “I don’t work well with you all watching me.”

Creed turned and scowled at the men in the room. “Find somewhere else to be. We will let you know if or when anything is found.”

Surprisingly, nobody argued and everyone filed out of the room. Standing in the foyer with Seven, Hunter noticed that most of the guys had converged into one of the units and the television was blaring.

“What now?”

“Come with me.” Hunter smiled and walked to a built-in wall unit in the foyer. He pulled a book in the middle and hit a button hidden behind. The bookcase folded in and opened, and automatic lights switched on, showing a staircase going down. Once they were both inside, Hunter hit the switch on the wall and the bookcase slid closed.

“Fancy,” Seven murmured.

“A lot of money went into this,” Hunter agreed. Mostly funded by Dave after the explosion that took out the original bunker, but they had all pitched in with the expenses.

Reaching the bottom of the wide staircase, he placed his eye to the scanner and punched in a code. The door snapped open, showing the underground swimming pool with steam rising from its surface.

“Holy shit.” Seven gaped.

Hunter laughed. “Yeah, and over there is the terrarium with access to the back of the building.” He pointed to the glass doors that led to the indoor garden, and above were skylights protected by an impenetrable, military-grade material.

“Back of the building? Like a door?”

“Sort of. It’s not visible from the outside.”

“Wow.” Seven sounded impressed at the amount of thought that had gone into the safe house.

“This is the best part, though,” Hunter said, walking along the swimming pool toward the far end. He opened the door and stepped inside, leaving Seven to follow.

“Holy shit.” Seven gazed around the state-of-the-art gun range facility.

“Yep, and it’s soundproofed.” Hunter went to the glass case and selected a pair of ear protectors and handed Seven one as well before he pulled his gun and stepped up to one of the five booths. Seven snatched up the paper and clipped it to the line and Hunter hit the button that zipped the ink-drawn figure to the end.

“That’s pretty far,” Seven cautioned.

“Don’t think I can hit it?” Hunter tossed Seven a challenging glance.

“With that?” Seven pointed to the Glock 34 in his hand, now without the suppressor. “Maybe. You might be able to hit somewhere on the torso.”

“Hmm.” Hunter studied the target, lifted his gun, and fired five rounds before slapping the button. He tugged off his ear protectors as the paper target zoomed toward them.

“Well, fuck me,” Seven said, pulling off his headphones, and Hunter laughed.

“Now there’s an idea.”

“Yeah?” Seven quirked an eyebrow.

“Have you ever had water sex?”

“Is that a trick question? I remember us in the shower as much as the bed.” Seven smirked and the man’s mouth was so fucking tempting.

“I have a better idea.”