Chapter Twenty-One

W alking through the hallway with a gun in his hand was a new one for him, but Ryker thought it better to have the weapon out than tucked away.

No way did he want to have to draw down on someone…like in the movie John Wick.

The intruder he had previously knocked out was no longer at the bottom of the stairs.

A small white object lay resting on the seventh stair from the bottom. It was the same place he'd kicked the fucker in the head. He reached down, picked it up, and discovered it was an earpiece.

He popped that into his ear.

"Anyone have eyes on the kid?"

Kid? Who were they looking for? Aspen? Silence came through the earpiece and Ryker continued down the stairs.

"Someone took out four of our men," another voice came through the earpiece.

"Get our men out of here," another voice ordered. The guy sounded like he might be the one in charge.

"They're dead," the other responded.

"Get the bodies the fuck out of here then," the same voice snarled. "You guys have fucked up from the minute you failed to jam the cell phones."

"Sorry, boss, they were jammed, but the device went down again. I'm working on it now."

"Useless!" the man snarled. "And find me Langston's kid."

So, he was the kid.

Fat chance of finding me, fuckers. Ryker thought. He knew this place inside and out.

In fact, when he heard approaching footsteps, he slid into another hidden access panel and eased the wood closed.

His family would know to hide in them, so it made sense to hunt inside these secret hallways rather than exposed out there.

Had they already captured his father? And where was his mother?

Ryker had heard the cops arriving several minutes ago, but none of the attackers seemed concerned. That meant whoever was here had power or money.

Probably both.

Pulling out his cell phone, he saw six missed calls from Marshal.

He dialed the man's number and waited.

"Ryker…" his name was breathed into the phone with so much emotion, Ryker held his breath.

And while all the misunderstanding from the hurtful words were still there, he wanted nothing more than to be in Marshal's arms right now.

The bodyguard's voice was so tight and gravely, it was almost unrecognizable.

"I'm here," he whispered, swallowing around the lump in his throat.

"In the walls?"

"Yeah, I have my weapon." His voice was hushed, almost inaudible.

"Do you know how many there are?"

"A lot. They seem to be moving in groups of two or three."

"Have you seen any of the bodyguards or FBI?"

"No, but I know who these guys are after."

"Who?"

"Me."

Marshal couldn't breathe and he squeezed his phone so tightly, he heard the case crack.

"Stay in the passageways," he gritted the words out, his mind racing.

"I can fight."

He almost had a fucking heart attack right then. "No, baby. Don't fight. Stay hidden."

The silence came over the phone so long that Marshal feared he'd lost the connection. He pulled the phone away and looked, but he was still connected.

"Ryker?" Marshal hissed, his voice filled with fear.

"You called me baby."

Had he? It must have been subconscious, but fitting.

Even before becoming intimate, Marshal had always felt that Ryker was…his.

And that was a big fucking problem. He'd come into the younger man's life under the guise of being someone he was not.

He'd lied his way into that house and into their lives. Sweat trickled down his nape and soaked the armpits of his shirt.

He was a liar.

But right then, there was bigger shit to deal with.

"You do like me," Ryker breathed out the words with conviction. "Don't you? You were lying to Bishop."

Marshal closed his eyes and turned away from the curious gazes of the officers.

"I do. I was. So listen to me and stay hidden."

"Am I your boyfriend?"

"What?" He pressed his free hand at the bridge of his nose when a headache started.

"Am. I. Your. Boyfriend?"

"Do you want to be?" Marshal countered, afraid to get his hopes up.

"Very much, but your words are telling me something different."

"I didn't mean them," Marshal breathed out the words.

"I want to believe you."

The agony in Ryker's whispered, tear-filled words crushed his heart.

"You can believe me. Please, baby, will you stay put?" he asked, needing the younger man's reassurance.

"Why after all these years? Why didn't you give me a hint that you were into me?"

Ryker was full of questions, but Marshal couldn't answer that one right now.

"Later," he promised.

He needed Ryker calm and he also needed to have Ryker where he could grab ahold of him.

Because when he did tell Ryker the reason he'd kept the wall of distance between them, the man was going to do one of two things.

Either run.

Or kill him.

"Marshal?" Ryker asked when the silence went on too long.

"Yeah?"

"I found one of their earpieces. I'm listening to their conversations."

"Is it the press and hold kind to talk or do they hear you when you speak?"

Fear made Ryker feel suddenly sick. "I don't know," he whispered, freaking the fuck out. He went back over his conversation with Marshal. He hadn't said anything about the hiding places and hopefully, they wouldn't be able to hear Marshal's part of the conversation.

"It's okay, you didn't give anything away," the man assured him. "Crush it under your boot. Then, move through the walls until you reach the garage exit. I'll be waiting."

Ryker hung up the phone and tucked it away. He took out the earpiece and crushed it beneath the heel of his black John Varvatos boots. As he ground down on the small white object, he couldn't keep the silly grin from his face.

Marshal had called him baby.

Right then, though, was not the time to think about any of that.

The situation was dire.

Which brought back up his family.

His dad was an asshole for sure and as much as they fought, he would die saving the man. Robert Langston was a tough son of a bitch and could handle himself. It was his mother whom Ryker worried about the most.

And while he was going to work his way through the passageways toward the garage exit, he was going to search for his parents along the way.

Marshal grabbed the garage door opener from his jeep just as Jaxon West and Hayden Thorne rolled up onto the scene followed by five black SUVs.

The bodyguards arrived in a show of force that was impressive. All dressed in tactical gear carrying fully automatic weapons.

Marshal expected to be ignored after the shit he'd pulled, but it was to him that Jaxon strode to.

He held his boss's gaze.

"Brief me."

"I called Real," Marshal admitted.

"Old habits?" Jaxon smirked.

Caught off guard, Marshal could only stare, feeling stunned. Nobody knew that he had worked for Real in the past, but it appeared his secret was out.

"How did you know about that?" He kept his voice down to avoid being overheard by the cops.

"I used to run Erebus and Real handles Genesis," Jaxon quietly reminded him.

Erebus was a group of assassins that ran in the deep, dark underground. The group reported to the former Secretary of Defense.

Genesis, on the other hand, was an ex-military assassins unit that answered to the current SecDef. And while they were two very different teams, they were both connected to POTUS.

He should have realized Jaxon would find out all there was to know about him prior to his employment.

But did the man know everything?

"I've been in touch with Ryker," Marshal swiftly changed the subject and turned toward Scott, handing the SWAT officer his phone that displayed the video feed. "If you can get us inside the garage, I have a way into the house."

The bodyguards and police officers closed in around him and Jaxon and the phone. After watching the feed for several moments, Scott handed him back the phone.

The SWAT officer flipped open a paper map and pressed it flat to the hood of one squad car. Stepping closer, Marshal realized it was the plans for the Langston estate. Thankfully, it didn't show any of the hidden hallways and panels on the blueprint, so that meant the perpetrators inside may not know about the secret passageways.

"The place was built during the civil war, there are hidden access panels and hallways all throughout the main house that these plans don't show," Marshal told Jaxon and Scott.

"Can we all make an entry?" Jaxon asked.

"It'll be a tight fit. Single file." Marshal nodded his head. "The hallways are about four feet wide in most places. You'd want to stagger in teams of two as you go in."

"That will work." Jaxon checked the clip on his weapon and Hayden shoved a spare clip into his own jacket before taking the lead toward the garage.

Jaxon and Hayden were together and when they did jobs, they moved together as one. Like they were in tune with each other in a way that Marshal had rarely ever seen.

It soon became clear that SWAT and the Cobalt bodyguards were also in sync. It wasn't uncommon for Denver PD to work with Brick and Jaxon, so Marshal wasn't all that surprised.

"Ryker is making his way through those hidden halls to the garage and I'm going to meet him," Marshal said, taking up a position at the edge of the building.

When everyone was ready, Marshal hit the garage door opener and SWAT converged into the wide entrance. After a moment, Scott deemed it clear. The perps hadn't taken time to secure the garage, and that would work in their favor.

Marshal settled in, staring at the panel that should open up when Ryker came out of it.

And he waited.

And waited.

"He should have been here by now. I'm going in," Marshal said after five long, excruciating minutes.

"I'll go in with you," Felix said, coming up to stand next to him.

"No, you won't," Gunner said with a scowl.

The two men had worked together for years and as far as Marshal knew, they typically worked as a pair.

"You won't fit, big guy," Felix smirked at Gunner. "So, you stay put and I'll back up Marshal."

Gunner looked like he'd swallowed a thundercloud and was ready to go off. Whatever that shit was, the two men would need to deal with it another fucking time.

"All right," Marshal agreed with Felix and then turned to Jaxon. "Give us two minutes and then send in another team of two."

Hayden handed him and Felix communication devices and Marshal tucked that into his ear.

Using his utility knife, he wedged open the access panel and slipped inside with Felix on his six.

When Jaxon and Hayden popped the panel back in place, Marshal flipped on his penlight and led the way.

He had only one thought in his mind…

If one hair on Ryker's head was missing, he'd kill them all.