Chapter Nineteen

Hunter

“Hunter?” Owen said from the kitchen doorway after Jaxon’s abrupt exit.

“Yeah?”

“Someone is approaching the safe house.”

Every single chair in the room scraped back along with Hunter’s and when he crossed the foyer to the comms room, everyone followed.

Creed and Jaxon took a look at the monitor and Jaxon pulled on a light windbreaker.

“It’s Stone. I’ll go get him,” Creed said, and when the man left, Jaxon followed.

Hunter nodded and sank into the chair to zoom in on the man casually walking from his parked vehicle toward the safe house door without a care in the world.

“Whoa…” Owen said.

Seven peered at the screen on the wall. “He’s the spitting image of Creed.”

“Yeah, I heard they get mistaken for twins,” Link murmured from nearby.

“Where’d you hear that?” Eagle grumbled.

“At Rossi and Stefano’s house. You were with me. You met Stone then,” Link said, throwing Eagle a frown.

“Yeah, and I didn’t like him,” Eagle barked and walked out into the foyer.

When Eagle disappeared from the room, Hunter turned to Link.

“Are you two going to be okay on this job? Because I can send Eagle back to headquarters,” Hunter told Link with a flat look.

Link blinked as if surprised and then quickly nodded. “Don’t send him back. As much as we fucking argue, there’s no other person on earth I’d want watching my back.”

Enough said. Hunter nodded and stood from his seat to leave the room. He waited for Seven and then entered the foyer along with some of the men.

His mind kept going over the question of the money and altered hits. Who had done it? And for that matter…where the fuck were Malcolm and Solomon?

All Hunter had was more fucking questions and by the time Stone entered, Hunter hoped the man had answers.

Hunter had been surprised that Dave had called Stone in the first place after the history between the pair. That was one situation that Hunter didn’t want anything to do with.

Creed came through the door, yanking off his coat. A few moments later, Stone stepped inside and closed the door before throwing the locks in place.

“Jesus, it’s true. They could have been twins,” Owen whispered.

“They get mistaken often,” Jaxon agreed quietly, coming up from behind them, obviously done with his call to Dave.

Hunter swept his eyes over Stone and Creed. The only differences between the cousins were that Creed appeared the younger of the pair and Stone had more crinkles at the edges of his eyes and a few gray hairs in his beard. Hunter didn’t know if the men were in their late thirties or early forties, but they both wore their age well. Stone wore ripped blue jeans and a leather jacket, and tattoos covered his forearms when he pulled off the jacket. Dark hair kept relatively short was swept away from a wide forehead. With a square jaw and unshaven face, Stone looked every bit of the badass his reputation spoke of.

With a don’t fuck with me squint, Stone’s hard gaze swept around the room before landing on Hunter.

“Hunter.”

“Stone.”

Yeah, they’d met before, and Hunter liked the fact that they hadn’t come into contact since. Stone had a sketchy past. Most of the men in Dave’s created units, even Phoenix and Pegasus, had some shit in their backgrounds, but Hunter had a feeling that Stone’s past went to a whole other level.

Link stepped up. “Hey, Stone.”

“Well, hello, Link.” Stone’s low, rumbling voice held a suggestive silky tone.

Eagle heard the way Stone greeted Link and straightened to his full height—aiming a murderous stare at Stone.

One side of Stone’s mouth quirked at Eagle. Before anyone could blink or fucking stop it, Eagle stepped forward and punched Stone in the mouth.

“What the fuck?” Link lunged at Eagle to hold him back, but the big man easily shook Link off and squared off against Stone.

Other than taking a few steps back at the punch, Stone didn’t respond. He lifted a hand and tested his jaw, mouth partially open, eyes amused.

“I’ll give you that one, Declan. But that’s all you’re going to get.”

Eagle sneered and stalked back into the unit he’d slept in, leaving silence in his wake.

Stone’s eyes traveled over Link again for far too long, causing Link to gnash his teeth.

“Dream on,” Link told Stone, but there was no real anger in the words. “Why do you goad him like that?”

“Because he’s too easy,” Stone smirked.

“Who’s Declan?” Theo asked, confused, from the open doorway.

“It’s Eagle’s real name,” Hunter said. “And now that the fucking drama is out of the way, do you have any info for us?”

Stone gave an abrupt nod and when Hunter gestured to the open door where they’d eaten dinner, the assassin headed that way.

Seven pulled Hunter to a stop.

“You know this guy?” Seven murmured.

“Yeah. We used to work together.”