Chapter Twenty-One

Hunter

Hunter walked to the desk inside the comms room, Stone and Jaxon, plus Seven, following him.

“Why’s he here?” Stone scowled at Seven, who looked unfazed and strode over to sit in the chair behind the desk.

“Because I say so,” Hunter snapped.

“What? You two partners now?” Stone looked between them.

When Seven winked, Hunter smiled. “Yeah, we’re partners.”

“All right.” Stone gave Seven a nod. “Sorry about earlier, but we can’t be too careful when dealing with…” Stone waved his hands about.

“Hitmen?” Seven supplied the term a bit sarcastically, but Stone only smirked.

“You can take Pegasus and go, you know,” Jaxon cut into the exchange, speaking directly to Hunter.

“Sure, I can do that.” Hunter turned on Jaxon. “And leave you here to deal with Malcolm and Theo, and possibly Solomon?”

Jaxon thought about that for a moment and then shook his head. “Yeah, no. Stay.”

Theo cleared his throat from the doorway and Jaxon had the grace to look a little guilty.

“Here’s the text.” Theo handed over his phone to Hunter.

Malcolm: Tell Hunter to meet me at Sal’s Liquor store on Fifth—four hours from now.

Theo: Where are you?

There was no response to Theo’s inquiry.

Hunter frowned. “Sal’s Liquor Store?”

“Yeah, I looked it up. It’s about forty minutes north.”

Fuck. Seven lived south of here.

Why four fucking hours?

It would be dark by then. Hunter flipped the phone to Seven and they stared at each other.

“You have to meet him,” Seven said.

“I can go with you and be back by then,” he argued, but Seven shook his head.

“Not enough time.”

Seven was correct—including the drive time both ways, traffic, plus finding Uncle Lark and figuring out the truth—it wasn’t humanly possible. Seven could get to his house in under an hour and have this Lark fucker handled by the time Hunter met with Malcolm.

“Fuck,” he hissed and typed a message on Theo’s phone.

Theo: It’s me, Hunter. I can’t do four hours, what about now?

Malcolm: I can’t, my plane doesn’t get in until then.

Hunter: Then get someone else!

Malcolm: It’s you or nobody.

“Fuck!” Hunter yelled and tossed the phone on the table.

Seven lunged from his seat, caught his wrist, and pulled him from the room.

“Look, you handle Malcolm, I’ll hand this fucker, and we’ll meet up afterward. If I get done first, I’ll come to you, and if you get done first, then you come to me.”

Hunter’s lungs felt like they were bursting. For some reason, he didn’t want to let Seven out of his sight. For days, they’d been together, and he fucking liked it and wanted more of it…but Seven was right. They had two separate jobs to do.

Hunter closed his eyes and when Seven pulled him close, he sucked in a deep breath of the man’s faint cologne.

“I can go with Seven,” a voice said quietly from behind them.

Hunter pulled from Seven’s arms and turned to Fisher. It wasn’t often that the man came inside, so he was really surprised.

“You will?”

“Yep.”

At Fisher’s response, Hunter flipped his eyes to hold Seven’s gaze. “Will you let him help?”

“Yes,” Seven answered.

Hunter walked with Seven and Fisher down the stairs and to the backdoor of the safe house and Fisher ducked outside.

Seven fisted his shirt and yanked him closer. Hunter’s pulse thundered and a lump grew in his throat. Seven brushed his lips against his. Hunter returned the kiss, not giving a fuck if someone saw them. He was staking his claim.

“Be careful,” Seven said.

“Careful’s my middle name,” Hunter smirked.

“Why don’t I believe that?”

Hunter huffed and then cupped Seven’s face. “Go. Find out if this guy did it.” And kill him, Hunter wanted to say, but he didn’t need to, he saw the banked rage in Seven’s ocean-colored eyes.

“I will.” Seven backed away from him slowly.

“And don’t get dead.”

“I won’t.” Seven bumped the door, held his gaze for one more moment, and then stepped outside and closed it behind him.

The feeling of loss hit Hunter hard. Placing his hands flat on the closed door, he placed the top of his head against the steel. After a moment, he shook himself and set the alarm on the side panel and made his way back upstairs.

“Hunter?” Jaxon called from the comms room doorway as Hunter stepped into the foyer.

“Yeah,” he replied, clearing his throat roughly and hurrying into the comms room.

Every man remaining was seated around the large conference table. All of the unit had come into the room, along with Theo, and seemed to be waiting for him. After all, he was the one Malcolm had requested.

“You’re not going to meet Malcolm alone,” Jaxon said.

“Obviously,” Hunter murmured to Jaxon. “Did you get ahold of Dave?”

Jaxon let out a heavy sigh and seemed to come to some decision in his head before he spoke. “It’s complicated.”

“What about Dave?” Stone growled, his hackles rising.

“Calm down. I don’t think Jaxon means it romantically,” Hunter told Stone.

“I don’t either!” Stone growled, glaring daggers at him.

Hunter stopped himself from rolling his eyes and left the guy alone. Whatever was between Stone and Dave was not his problem and he turned his attention back to Jaxon.

“What do you mean by complicated?”

“Dave is pissed that the information was altered, but either way, he’s going to replace Solomon and Malcolm,” Jaxon said.

“Wait. What the fuck? What information? And why would Dave can Solomon or Malcolm?” Stone snarled with a frown. “Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“Didn’t Dave tell you when he called?” Hunter asked.

Stone shook his head. “He just sent a text to meet up with you and Jaxon and gave me this address.”

“Well, shit, sorry,” Hunter murmured and swung his attention to Jaxon.

“There was money removed from Erebus and put into a bogus account with Malcolm’s name on it. It’s a frame job.”

Stone’s eyes moved around the room. “Everyone here knows about Erebus?” Stone’s voice grated and Hunter watched as Kellum inched closer to Creed as if to hide behind the bigger man.

“Knock it off,” Creed snapped at his cousin.

“I’m just surprised, is all.” Stone shrugged. “Go ahead, Jaxon, continue.”

Jaxon paced and filled Stone in on what had transpired in the earlier meeting Stone hadn’t been a part of.

“Well, fuck that,” Stone spat. “Cleaning house isn’t the way. If you ask me, Dave should take the hit on this one.”

“Wow,” Creed jumped in. “You really hate Dave, don’t you?”

“I do not,” Stone rasped.

“Even if it’s not something Dave is guilty of, do you know what taking the fall would do to his reputation?” Creed growled.

Stone turned away and stalked to the window. The glass was bulletproof, but Hunter thought it best to walk over and start lowering the blinds, causing Stone to look at him like he’d lost his mind.

“Just in case,” Hunter said as the blinds dropped into place. “It’s been days of silence from Solomon and I don’t like it.”

Stone looked annoyed and crossed his arms. He looked so much like Creed at that moment, Hunter could only gape.

“Did you pick a room to stay in?” Hunter asked.

“I did. I’ll sleep on Theo’s couch if we’re here that long, but I hope we are not.”

“True.”

Hunter agreed, the sooner they wrapped this up the better. He had somewhere to be.