Chapter Eighteen

Hunter

He sat on the edge of the bed, shaking the sleep from his brain, wishing that coffee would magically appear in his hand. The bed shifted when Seven rolled over and then scooted up behind him.

He smiled when Seven nuzzled his hair. They hadn’t talked last night when Seven had returned to their unit and call him nosy, but he was curious about Seven’s phone call last night.

“So, that phone call you got last night. All okay?” He tossed a light glance at Seven over his shoulder.

“Yeah.”

That was Seven’s standard response. The guy carried the persona of never let anyone get too close.

But then Seven took a deep breath. “My brother didn’t come home last night,” he said, keeping his voice low.

Talk about a punch in the gut. Hunter had no idea that Seven had a brother; he only knew about Lisa. Did Seven have more siblings, a mother, a father? He was burning with questions but suddenly realized how big of a step this was for Seven and how it showed just how much their relationship had evolved over the past several days.

Swiveling around so he could see Seven’s face, he cupped the side of the man’s neck and gave it a squeeze.

“How old is he?”

“Seventeen.”

“Is he okay?”

Looking a bit surprised at his two simple questions without judgement, Seven stared at him for a moment.

“Yeah, I had a friend pick him up and take him home. He sent me a text during the night. Josh is safe in his bed at my house, and I’m to call when I wake up.”

“You’re a good brother.” Hunter smiled and closed his hand over Seven’s. He wanted Seven to share with him. Seven turned his palm up and linked their fingers.

It was nice to have someone to shoot the shit with about whatever came to mind, Hunter thought as they showered together and dressed in Pegasus fatigues.

Tying his boots, Seven stood and pulled out his phone with a frown.

“What is it?”

“A text. I need to call Ice.”

Hunter nodded and when he went to leave the room, Seven caught his hand and pulled him to a stop.

He stayed still while Seven made the call. Surprise held Hunter mute when Seven put the call on speaker.

“Where’s Josh?”

“Still sleeping,” Ice said.

“Wake him up.”

“He’s tired.”

Seven frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s scared. I’ll wake him later, feed him, and get him to call you,” Ice said.

Seven gnashed his teeth, but agreed. “Don’t leave him.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Ice growled.

Seven huffed and Ice hung up.

When Seven gave him a rueful smile, Hunter grinned. “Teenagers.”

“Got that right,” Seven chuckled.

“Shooting range again?” Hunter suggested. “Even though you didn’t shoot yesterday?”

“Maybe I let you win by watching.”

“Ha!” Hunter gave a bark of laughter at the humor gleaming in Seven’s eyes. “Keep dreaming.”

They spent the day either shooting, swimming, or getting to know one another, and Seven got to know some of the Pegasus operatives better.

As late afternoon approached, Seven grew antsy from repeated text messages from Ice that Josh wasn’t ready to talk yet.

All Hunter could do was keep Seven’s mind occupied and since Kellum was still compiling information, it was a consensus between them all to take some downtime to recharge.

“Early dinner!” Theo announced when they appeared in the doorway later that afternoon.

“Good. I’m fucking starving,” Seven whispered, and Hunter laughed, bringing more than a few pairs of eyes shooting in their direction. He didn’t give a shit what they thought.

He squeezed Seven’s hand before he pulled him to the counter—they both snagged plates. Piling casserole, garlic bread, and salad on his plate, Hunter snagged a cup of already poured coffee and returned to the table.

Seven joined him a moment later and dug into the food.

Laughter between Kellum and Theo broke out and Hunter smiled. The kitchen was filled with the rich aroma of garlic bread and baked pasta. Conversations between some of the men sent a low rumble through the room.

Hunter dug into his food before he called out to Kellum. “What did you find out about the money?”

“Oh, yeah! I was going to show you some of this last night, but you two found the pool,” Kellum said.

Seven froze with a piece of garlic bread at his lips and Hunter calmly took a sip of coffee. Kellum snickered and that sound had the men in the room chuckling.

Hunter gave them the finger and the laughing increased. “You all suck.”

Kellum turned the computer to show the money transaction history.

“I found more today so it’s all good. The deposits do coincide with the hits, but the name on the account isn’t linked to Malcolm.”

“But that’s the name on the account,” Theo said bewilderedly.

“Yes, on the surface,” Kellum replied with a nod. “But not really. I dug deeper and found that the deposits came from Erebus but were transferred into a bogus account. Someone switched out Malcolm’s real account and he personally never saw a dime of it. That money was then transferred into an offshore account.”

“What?” Theo gasped. “Why didn’t I see those transfers?”

“Because whoever is doing this is very good at removing information the second it’s entered,” Kellum said.

“Then how did you find it?”

“I called someone better at this than even me,” Kellum told Theo.

“Who?”

“Jordan.”

“How much money?”

“Three million, five hundred thousand and some change,” Kellum said.

“Fuck,” Jaxon growled.

“And there’s something else,” Kellum responded after sending a wide-eyed look at Jaxon. “The hit dates have been altered to reflect Malcolm’s travels, and it took Jordan and me a few once-overs to catch it.”

“So, you’re saying there were no hits?” Jaxon said.

“No, not on the three hits and dates in question. They were fabricated. Those people are still alive and well.”

“Oh, my God. I should have caught that,” Theo whispered.

“Why?” Hunter frowned at his friend. “You weren’t hired to be a techie, you got thrown into the job.”

Theo covered his face with his hands, his dark, curly hair flopping forward.

“Don’t worry, they won’t hide from us for long,” Kellum beamed.

“So, who did it?” Jaxon asked.

“That we don’t know, but Jordan is searching for the IP address and will get back to you.”

“How long will that take?” Jaxon asked.

“Another day, maybe less,” Kellum said.

“So, this brings up another problem,” Seven said, and everyone turned their eyes to them. “Who would set Malcolm up and why?”

Hunter turned to Theo. “Who was it that you overheard talking about Malcolm taking those jobs?”

“I couldn’t see his face. He was at the Redding Room.”

“The Redding Room?” Seven asked.

“It’s a place where people can eat or take meetings without being seen. It has secluded booths where a lot of talk about shit goes down,” Hunter murmured. It was also a place that Erebus and others could go to relax and try to be normal. Anyone associated with Erebus and also those taking hits from the dark net sought refuge there.

“Sounds like cloak and dagger bullshit,” Link said around a bite of bread, and nobody argued.

“You handle Erebus’s money and assignments?” Seven said to Theo, and the man nodded.

“And those fuckers came all the way from where to kill you?” Seven said.

“Chicago.” Theo blinked.

“It seems like a lot of trouble.” Seven shot a quick glance at Hunter, and Hunter shook his head.

“It’s not really when you realize that hits are done all over the world. To come to California from Chicago wouldn’t be a hardship.”

“Where was Malcolm’s last location?” Seven asked, turning his attention back to Theo.

“Quincy, it’s a city on the border of Illinois and Missouri.”

Hunter wasn’t sure where Seven was headed with his questions. “What are you getting at?”

“I’m just curious as to why Solomon would go to all the trouble of sending his men across the continent to kill Theo.”

All eyes, including Hunter’s, turned to Theo. His friend’s shoulders were curled forward and his mouth pulled down. He wished he could ease the fear and pain in their depths, but until this was sorted out and resolved, that would stay a distant wish.

“I told you, Solomon thinks I’m in with Malcolm,” Theo told Hunter, and then recounted the events at the motel for the rest of the team.

“Why would he think that?” Hunter squinted.

“Well, I may have screwed up,” Theo whispered.

“How the fuck did you screw up?” Jaxon growled, hands clenched on the tabletop, and Theo gulped.

“Not helping.” Hunter glared at Jaxon before turning to Theo. “Theo…you can trust us. We want to keep you safe. You don’t need to leave out parts. Tell us everything.”

“I made a call after I ran from the motel,” Theo whispered.

“Did you make contact with anyone?” Hunter asked patiently when Theo hesitated. Jaxon, however, wasn’t very patient and slammed out of his chair.

“You tell us every fucking detail right the fuck now!”

Theo fell back in his chair with a hand to his chest at Jaxon’s display of rage. Hunter did not intervene this time. Theo needed to tell it all.

“I called the office.”

“And who picked up?” Jaxon asked from between his clenched teeth.

“Solomon.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That I had talked to Malcolm and that Malcolm told me he hadn’t done what he was accused of,” Theo whispered with unshed tears in his eyes.

“If you really thought Malcolm was innocent, didn’t it fucking occur to you to double-check and verify every fucking thing?” Jaxon snapped.

“I…” Theo gulped.

Hunter held up a hand to Jaxon, who snapped his teeth together.

“Theo, you didn’t actually ask Malcolm if he was innocent, did you?” Hunter cut in.

“No, but…” Theo waved a hand at Kellum’s laptop. “But now we know he is!”

“We don’t know that though, do we?” Jaxon growled. “For all we know, Malcolm could be the one behind the transfers.”

“Then why use his own fucking name?” Theo shouted.

The room dropped into silence and Hunter agreed, if Malcolm had done what he was accused of, he wouldn’t have used his own name on the account. At least, he hoped not.

“Why would Solomon want Theo dead for talking to Malcolm? Unless Solomon is in on it,” Seven said into the sudden silence.

“It could be as simple as Solomon doesn’t know that Malcolm is really innocent and thinks Theo is in on it by arranging the hits,” Kellum said. “We could send the data to Solomon.”

“And then what?” Jaxon said. “Wait and see? These aren’t people you wait around for. Besides, I doubt Solomon would believe it. And if Solomon is in on this and he thinks Theo knows the truth, he’ll be out for blood.”

“And if Solomon isn’t in on it but thinks Theo is, he’ll be out for blood,” Seven said.

“Then what about telling Dave?” Hunter said about the no-win situation.

“I’ll call him. Get me that IP address from Jordan as soon as fucking possible,” Jaxon snapped at Kellum and abruptly left the room.

Hunter exchanged a look with Seven, but honestly, he didn’t know what the hell was going on.