20. Isaac

20

ISAAC

R eturning back home hadn't been the warmest of welcomes. Matteo was annoyed as fuck that they stayed the night, even after he specifically told Diesel that they were to come right home after Isaac's meeting with his uncle. Apparently, they should have verified Diesel's story before trusting that they had Matteo's permission to extend their stay in Ireland.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Matteo was also pissed as shit when he heard that the prison guard worked for Ares.

Ares got an angry phone call from Matteo at two a.m. when they returned, reminding the international arms dealer that they weren't friends and to stay the fuck out of his affairs.

As it turned out, Ares had been paying a few of the guards to keep tabs on Isaac's uncle and to occasionally rearrange the man's face. When asked why he'd been interested in Isaac's uncle, Ares simply replied, "Because you are." To that, Matteo said his farewells, wishing Ares a wonderful time fucking himself, before smashing his cell phone down on his desk, cracking his screen in the process.

Isaac knew that Matteo had a temper, but for some reason, he always became more explosive whenever Ares was involved. Apparently, the two had some sort of history together, but no one knew the details.

Then, of course, there was Chase. Levi's loving boyfriend and man hired to hunt down all the monsters listed in the Book of Sin —which was what they were calling Edwin's journal.

Chase. Was. Furious.

"How could you all be so stupid?" Chase shouted, pacing around Matteo's office, nostrils flaring as he tore each of them a new one. "Now that you two fucks went to see your uncle, you've taken away the element of surprise."

"Yeah, but the guy didn't know anything," Jared rebutted. "Plus, the man's in jail. Who's he gonna tell?"

If looks could kill, Jared's brains would be splattered across the far wall, and Isaac would be standing next to him, blindfolded, waiting for the scary Canadian to take his next shot.

Yes, Chase was Canadian, but you would never guess with the way Chase was threatening to dismember and murder every single one of their asses. Polite… my ass .

"You want to save the dismembering for after the murdering part. Might make it hard to kill someone when they are lying in multiple pieces," Diesel noted, taking a sip of his whiskey as he watched the festivities unfold.

Leave it to Diesel to make a smart-ass remark when a trained killer was on a rampage.

"Why are you even here?" Chase barked, waving his arms around like he was trying to turn back time.

"'Cus I'm enjoying some of Daddy's expensive liquor while watching the loonie Canadian have a meltdown." Diesel snorted into his drink. "See what I did there? Loonie? 'Cus that's what Canadians call their money."

Matteo threw a rubber stress ball at Diesel and watched as it bounced off his forehead.

"Out. And stop drinking! You're supposed to be in recovery!" Matteo scolded, walking around his desk and stepping in front of Chase.

Diesel shrugged his shoulders, then left the room, but not before grabbing the rest of the bottle as he passed Matteo's bar.

Isaac stepped forward. "Chase, I get why you're mad, but we didn't have time to wait for you to get back from wherever the fuck you were. We needed to find my brother and take down his operation."

"Who is the former cop here?"

"Hey, I am ex-army," Jared chimed in, raising a hand in his own defense.

"Yeah, so you're good at killing stuff, not going undercover and locating hidden people. Dangerous people. People who spend their lives breaking people's bones and boiling their bodies in acid."

"Umm, I beg to differ. I've seen some nasty shit while on tour. People are fucked in the head," Jared added, taking a sip of his whiskey.

Apparently, two a.m. drinking was a thing now.

Chase's boyfriend, Levi, sat quietly on the sofa, watching his man with heart-shaped eyes. The kid really got off watching Chase go all alpha and aggressive on people. He would have loved watching Chase give the smack-down to Oldridge Peabody, the man who had kidnapped Levi last month and held him captive in his "dungeon doll house."

Isaac could see the appeal. He almost lost it when Jared went all alpha-caveman on him and fucked him into next Tuesday. He'd never had a man claim his body and use it for his own pleasure in such an aggressive way before. There was no doubt about it. Best sex ever!

Chase yanked his phone out of his pocket and began scrolling through his contacts. He looked like a madman about to lose it.

"Who are you calling?" Isaac asked, wondering what shit show was about to hit them next.

"I'm calling Marc. Hopefully, he can work his magic and fix the clusterfuck that you all just created." Chase shot a glance at Matteo—the ringleader of this charge. "For now, you all don't do shit unless I tell you."

Snarling into the phone, Chase walked out of the room, shouting expletives at no one.

That had been three days ago. Today, Isaac spent all day trying to avoid Chase, who was roaming the halls snarling at every person who managed to get in his way. It sounded like Chase was no closer to uncovering the location of Isaac's brother than he was when they first returned home.

Hoping to stay out of Chase's line of fire, Isaac decided to spend a few hours with Teo, doing some yoga—to help him relax, apparently. Then he joined him for a few laps in the pool because, whether he liked it or not, if he was going to continue working at La Maison , he needed to ensure his body remained slim… or at least in some sort of shape that would remain appealing to men.

Even though he was going through the motions, his mind was off in a million places. What was his uncle doing in prison? Where was his brother? Had someone new been added to his brother's list of kidnapped victims?

All of it was too much for his young mind to handle. Fuck! He was only twenty-five! He was supposed to be partying, fucking, and not having a care in the world! Instead, he was thinking about evil men, doing evil things, and the helpless people requiring saving.

Normally, Isaac would distract himself by annoying Jared or playing some sort of prank on him, but sadly, Jared had to work. That meant Isaac was left alone with his own demons to deal with and process everything that had happened over the past few days.

Lucky him.

Not having anything else better to do, Isaac decided to take a walk through the gardens to try and clear his head. He subconsciously played with the tiny tracker Jared had secretly hidden on him while they were in Ireland. He wasn't sure why, but having it on him made him feel close to Jared, even when he wasn't around. So, each day, he quickly shoved the tiny metal disk into the bottom of his jeans pocket.

Letting out a breath, Isaac stared up at the stars and wondered how many of them still existed. He had read somewhere that by the time a star's light reaches the earth, sometimes the star had already burned out. If that was true and he was staring up at a sea of dead stars, then stargazing just got a whole lot more depressing.

Clasping his hands above his head, he stopped near Raj's enclosure and let the warmth of the night fall over his body. The sounds of laughter and music coming from the house faded into the background.

From deep within the safety of Raj's enclosure, Isaac heard the large cat let out a low growl.

That was unusual. Raj was used to Isaac and the other guys. He never growled around them.

"What is it, big guy?" Isaac asked, wondering why the giant cat was suddenly so agitated.

Raj let out another dark growl. This one dripping with warning and anger. Something had his attention, and he was not happy about it.

Isaac felt the pit of his stomach drop. He took a few more cautious steps forward before snapping around at the sound of something behind him.

His eyes shot open when he came face-to-face with a man in a black ski mask. Isaac stared, frozen at the man dressed all in black and the deep green eyes currently locked on his.

Raj let out a monstrous roar, jerking both Isaac and the man standing before him out of their frozen stare.

Pain exploded in front of Isaac's eyes as something powerful connected with his face.

Letting out a cry of pain, Isaac stumbled backward.

A moment later, the air was sucked out of his chest when his attacker punched him in his gut.

Fuzzy, disoriented, and gasping for air, Isaac fell to his knees. He stared at the tiny pebbles beneath his fingers and tried to remember why he was facing the ground.

Another explosion of pain cut across his face, sending him toppling sideways, and finally realizing why he was lying on the ground.

He was being attacked!

Was it one of his previous guests out for revenge or perhaps upset about an earlier encounter?

Raj let out another roar, followed by what sounded like his body banging up against his fence.

Was it a jilted partner? Out to beat the man who screwed his husband or boyfriend?

Confused and in pain, he watched as a masked man appeared in his line of sight—standing in front of stars that had no doubt burned out long ago.

Dead stars.

Was this poetic? Dead stars shining down on a dead Isaac?

Was this his end? Beaten and alone in an empty garden by some unknown, jilted lover?

It made sense. He had spent so much of his life feeling empty and alone. Why not in his death as well?

Then his eyes locked with the blazing green orbs glaring back at him from under the mask.

He recognized those eyes.

Was it…

The pain in his head and the ringing in his ears was too much. He tried to remain focused on the dark figure standing over him, trying to end his life, but he just couldn't. The ground beneath him seemed to fall away, and the world around him dimmed. From a distance, he could still hear the sound of Raj's powerful body trying to break through his barrier. Trying to rescue him.

God, he loved that cat.

With that final thought, all sound faded into the background, and he closed his eyes, waiting for death to come.