Chapter One

“How’s the wound?”

Brick gaped across the wide desk. Was his boss for fucking real?

The pain stabbing into Brick’s side pissed him off and Jaxon West asking stupid questions wasn’t helping.

“How the hell do you think it is?” It fucking hurt like a bitch and he was going to kill the motherfucker who’d stabbed him.

Stabbed him!

With a fucking steak knife of all things.

Jaxon pressed his hands flat to the glass top of his large desk and the leather chair creaked when the big man shifted, and that was when Brick noticed the humor in the guy’s eyes.

“Fuck you.”

Jaxon coughed into his hand and spun around to gaze out of the wall of windows in his downtown Denver office. From Cobalt Security’s vantage point at the top of the high-rise building, Jaxon could see a good portion of the Colorado city that sat beneath the cloudy January sky. It was pretty from up there with the snowfall blanketing the buildings. He didn’t leave Brick to stew in his anger for long and spun back around.

“Sorry. I know you and Fighter—”

“Don’t say his fucking name!”

“All I’m trying to—”

“Just leave it.”

“If you’d—”

“No.” This time, Brick growled. “Pull up the job list.”

The man, who was his boss, smirked. Silence settled over the large office and Jaxon tapped at the laptop in front of him for a moment.

“Oh! How was your date last night with Cliff?” Jaxon asked, wisely changing the subject away from Fighter.

“It was Colt…”

“And?” Jaxon probed.

“Same as they all are.” Brick scowled and eased back into the large comfortable chair in front of Jaxon’s desk.

“What does that mean?”

“Dollar signs in their eyes.”

“What did he do?”

“You don’t want to know.” And Brick didn’t want to go over it. He was fucking done with the whole dating scene and so tired of being used.

“I do,” Jaxon said, placing his elbows on the desk.

“No, you don’t.” Brick shook his head.

The phone on the desk rang, and Jaxon snatched it up like it was a lifeline. A few seconds later, his eyes flew to Brick’s.

“What?” Brick returned the wide-eyed stare.

“Someone is making a scene in the lobby.” Jaxon slammed the desk phone down.

Not waiting for Jaxon, Brick shoved up and out of the wide leather chair and clenched his jaw to stop himself from wobbling from the shooting pain in his side. He unsnapped the strap that held his Heckler and Kotch in his shoulder holster and headed toward the door.

What the fuck now?

Jaxon was on his cell phone as he rounded the desk. “Gunner, get Felix and meet us in the lobby now. There’s a disturbance. Be smart,” Jaxon snapped into the phone.

Brick slammed out of Jaxon’s office and into the hallway and went for the stairs. There were over twenty floors in the building and he was going to feel every fucking step down, but they never took the elevator in situations like this.

“Where are you going?” Jaxon asked, following him.

Brick hesitated with his hand on the door that led to the stairs. “What?”

“Get in the fucking elevator, Brick,” Jaxon roared and the doors pinged open. “I need you to heal.”

Brick made sure his sigh of relief was buried with a quick jerking nod. The pain sizzled in his side, keeping alive the anger that he’d lived with since the incident.

“You need to sit this one out.”

“The fuck I will,” Brick barked out, tired of the bitching and moaning, plus the coddling like he hadn’t been Army Special Forces for years. He seriously could teach Jaxon a thing or two and maybe when this was over, whatever the hell it was, he’d meet Jaxon on the training mat in their recently remodeled facility.

“Gunner and Felix are on their way from the training area.”

Brick nodded. The training facility was on the sixth floor. That meant the two bodyguards would get to the lobby first.

The doors closed and the elevator raced downward with barely a sound. Brick braced one foot behind him, the other forward a bit. He welcomed the familiar weight of the weapon he’d grown rather fond of over the past few years and raised his arms, pointing the business end of the H and K forty-five at the doors.

Jaxon did the same with his own Glock twenty-two.

The doors pinged open and the hall beyond stood empty, but a noise that sounded like shouting came from the lobby.

Brick dodged a quick look out the opening and down the very long hallway. He spotted a familiar figure standing at the desk.

“Fuck me,” he muttered at the sight of Arthit Suwan, otherwise known as Fighter.

Gunner and Felix along with several new training recruits had already arrived ahead of them and Gunner clamped a hand on Fighter’s arm—presumably to escort him from the premises.

Brick could have told Gunner not to grab Fighter, but it was too late. Fighter spun with a move so fucking fast, Gunner was taken unaware.

“Shit!” Jaxon growled when Gunner landed on his ass.

Felix crowded closer with the trainees and shouting broke out.

Gunner rolled to his feet with a wince and swung at Fighter, who ducked.

Seconds later, Fighter’s men swarmed through the front doors. Of course, the asshole wouldn’t come alone.

Not here, anyway.

More shouts and angry words accompanied the sudden shoving matches.

“Stand down!” Jaxon’s voice boomed out, but it didn’t make a damned bit of difference.

Jaxon broke out in a run, tucking his Glock away, probably hoping to quickly end the altercation. Brick, on the other hand, wanted…no, he fucking needed… to punch that motherfucker in the mouth.

He owed Fighter one.

Brick didn’t run. Instead, he looked for an advantage and figured he’d come around from the left of the front desk, which would give him a clear shot at Fighter.

The level of shouting and screaming threatened to bring back Brick’s headache. Behind the long front desk, the receptionist and an office clerk ducked—their screams filling the air.

Pushing and shoving, the two teams squared off just as Jaxon reached them. Brick wasn’t sure which side of the two groups threw the first punch, but he figured it all started because Fighter had knocked Gunner down.

All hell broke loose, and Suwan Guardians exchanged blows with Cobalt Security in hand-to-hand combat that Brick would later find impressive. No weapons were in sight that Brick could see.

“I said, stand down,” Jaxon yelled.

Brick had only one focal point, and that was the slender, dark-haired man who had turned around when Jaxon shouted.

“He’s mine,” Brick growled, holding those dark eyes across the short distance.