Chapter Eight

Hunter

“Really, Theo, you can put the gun away.”

“I can’t. What if we’re being followed?”

“Look behind us,” Hunter ordered.

Theo glanced out the rear window before he turned around with a sigh and finally tucked the gun away in the side of the door.

“I don’t know what to do,” Theo said for the tenth time.

“I know. I should have gone inside for Seven. He could have helped us.”

“He doesn’t like me,” Theo huffed. “Besides, the men chasing us will put a bullet in his head.”

“Anyone who tries to shoot Seven is a dead man.” Hunter squeezed the steering wheel and took a deep breath before continuing. “And don’t take it personally. Seven doesn’t like anyone.”

“He likes you,” Theo pointed out.

Hunter smiled and eased over into the fast lane. Seven did like him. In fact, they were together—even if Seven was balking. It would only be a matter of time.

Theo sniffed.

“When Seven gets here, you’ll have to come clean.”

Theo turned to look out the passenger window. “He doesn’t know where we are.”

“He’ll show up, trust me.” Hunter knew without a doubt that Seven would find them soon enough.

His lover knew exactly where he was at this very moment via a tracking app on Hunter’s phone that Seven had installed several months ago. Hunter liked the idea that Seven was tracking him, keeping tabs on him. He found it funny as hell that Seven thought he didn’t know about the app. He was a Pegasus operative, and one of the first things they did was check their fucking phone on a daily basis. Of course, Seven had been very skilled at hiding the encroachment; so much so, Hunter had been fucking impressed.

“Tell me who wants to kill you,” Hunter said.

“I don’t actually know,” Theo murmured quietly, gazing out the side window.

“You know enough to know the men after us are killers. What else?”

“I…don’t know.”

He squinted when Theo wouldn’t look at him, a sure sign that he was lying. The guy had a pretty good idea what the fuck was going on, but for some reason, Theo didn’t trust him and that irritated the fuck out of him.

“You don’t know why you were being shot at?” Hunter snapped, squeezing the wheel. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Don’t you think I know that!” Theo charged back, chin tilted, refusing to enlighten him.

And Hunter knew in that moment that the time for holding back was at an end.

“Look, I know about Erebus.”

Theo turned in his seat toward him, face pale, mouth gaping.

“How much do you know?” Theo finally whispered.

“More than you realize.” Hunter rubbed at where his shirt covered the dragon tattooed on his chest—a symbol of the society.

Theo’s fists clenched on his thighs and Hunter felt the man’s gaze burning into the side of his head, but he didn’t take his eyes from the road.

“How much more?” Theo’s voice grew tight.

Hunter blew out a breath. “I know that Erebus Society reports to the former SecDef and has for years.”

Theo gasped, his mouth hanging open for a moment before snapping closed. Hunter heard the guy’s teeth click together.

“Well, fuck. If you know that, then you know everything,” Theo whispered.

“Mhmm.”

“How did you find out?” The man’s voice sounded bewildered. “About us?”

Hunter tapped the steering wheel. There were only a handful of people on Earth who knew of Hunter’s past—including Dave. There were more who didn’t know of his past and that included his older brother, Parker, and Seven. Hunter had only kept Parker in the dark to protect him. And he hadn’t talked to Seven about his previous employment because frankly, the guy didn’t stick around long enough to talk. But fuck it, keeping secrets was no longer an option.

After a moment, he decided to be honest with Theo since he wanted the same in return.

“Let’s just say…I’ve walked your path.”

Hunter had Theo’s complete attention before the guy gave a bark of laughter. “How did I miss that?”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Before or after we met?”

“I left Erebus around the time we met.” Hunter avoided answering the question directly and changed lanes to take the nearest exit. After five years of friendship, Theo still knew nothing of Hunter’s involvement in his recruitment. Hunter intended to keep it that way. It had all started when the SecDef had approached him to scope out Theodore Kada for a possible position in Erebus. During Hunter’s investigation, he and Theo had become friends. Not best friends by any means, but friends who shared a drink or watched a game on occasion at the local sports bar. At Hunter’s recommendation—and unbeknownst to Theo—Hunter had given Dave the green light.

“I can’t believe you didn’t fucking tell me you are part of Erebus.”

“Was part of,” Hunter corrected Theo. “You were coming in as I was opting out. There didn’t seem to be any point.”

“Any point? We’re friends.”

“Do you tell all your friends what you do for a living?” Hunter turned the tables.

Silence rang in the cab and then Theo sighed. “No. Shit, you’re right.”

“Besides, you never told me you were with them,” Hunter pointed out.

“But you knew,” Theo said.

Yes, and so do a handful of other trusted people, but he kept that to himself. Erebus wasn’t that far removed from Pegasus and Phoenix. With one or two major differences…where the teams backed up and assisted law enforcement, Erebus didn’t. Where Phoenix and Pegasus had rules, Erebus didn’t follow rules. Where the units worked as a group, Erebus members worked alone.

The flat-out reality was that Erebus assassins were cold-blooded killers.

Hunter shrugged instead of speaking.

“Okay, okay. I get it.” Theo gave a small huff.

“So, what’s going on?” Hunter asked. Now that he’d come clean with Theo, he hoped the guy would do the same.

“We have an internal problem,” Theo murmured.

Hunter frowned. “What’s that?”

“It’s Malcolm. He took a few murder-for-hire jobs without Solomon knowing,” Theo said in a rush.

Murder for hire jobs usually involved innocents being killed for greed, jealousy, and a whole host of other trivial reasons. The money for those jobs was usually off the charts.

“That doesn’t sound like Malcolm.” Hunter squeezed the steering wheel again.

Had Malcolm changed that much over the years? Maybe. And if he had changed, then it made sense for Dave to call Jaxon.

Hunter still questioned why Theo had come to him, but that could wait.

“Does Dave know about Malcolm?” Hunter said.

“No, I don’t think so, but I told Solomon when I found out. Maybe he called Dave?” Theo crossed his arms and seemed to fold into himself.

Solomon Mercy was one bad ass motherfucker who ran Erebus Society for the SecDef. Although Hunter knew him to be a fair man, if Solomon had proof that Malcolm was taking off-the-books jobs, Malcolm was as good as dead. Hunter rubbed at the sudden ache in his chest. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“How did you find out about Malcolm?” Hunter frowned.

“I overheard a guy who does murder for hire. He was bitching one night that Malcolm stole several of his contracts. I went to Solomon.”

Hunter stopped at the traffic light just off the freeway before making a right and continuing into the warehouse district.

“Where are we going?” Theo glanced out the window.

“I know a place we can lay low.”

“Where’s that?” Theo looked suspicious.

“A safe house until we can figure this out.”

Hunter wasn’t sure of anything at this point. All he knew was that Theo had men trying to kill him. Had Malcolm sent them? On the heels of that thought, Hunter wondered how close Solomon was to catching Malcolm. He knew personally that it wouldn’t be easy taking Malcolm down. And he had serious doubts Solomon had the capability to do it alone. There was no doubt Solomon’s skills were excellent, but Malcolm…he was old school. Malcolm could come in the daylight when a person thought they were safe and end it all.

Hunter pulled into a deserted warehouse parking lot a block from the safe house—which was hidden inside another warehouse. He eased through the empty lot and flipped a U-turn before backing into a spot at the end of the building that butted up against a hill with trees. Shutting off the engine, Hunter sat watching their surroundings.

“Theo?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you really come to see me?”

“Malcolm asked me to.”

“Don’t you mean Solomon?”

“No.”

Well fuck, that put a whole other spin on things.