“Yeah, but there’s a deck off the living room over the garage that you could probably jump from without injury if needed.”
“I’ll check it out. Not sure if Tiny could do an eight or ten-foot jump like that without injury.”
“I can, don’t worry about me,” Tiny said and Blake’s eyes snapped to him almost like he forgot the man was in the room. What the fuck? Then it hit him, the man was pulling away from him, even though he promised he wouldn’t. Tiny’s eyes narrowed in a glare and he opened his mouth to say something but a slight shake of Blake’s head at him had him snapping it shut. He supposed he could wait for a few minutes but he sure in the fuck wasn’t going to wait long.
“What’s the gap between your house and the stairs?” Blake said.
“About ten feet,” Brent said.
“Lighting?”
“There are motion lights on our porch and the stairs.”
“But also shadows that someone could hide in.”
“Correct.”
“Okay. How do you want to do this? Are the stairs wide enough for a surround?”
“We could probably manage a four-man diamond formation.”
Blake nodded, “I’ll take point,” he said as he slid a gun from the holster under his arm and chambered a round.
Brent nodded and said, “I’m on Tiny. JD will take the rear. Hang tight though. I’ve got Hunter upstairs with a long-range scope on his rifle. He’s going to do a sweep of the yard and let us know if it’s clear.”
Brent touched his earpiece, “Go, Hunter.”
As they waited they got into formation. Blake clasped Tiny’s wrist and pulled him behind his body, “Stay right here behind me, your right hand on my hip, until we are inside the apartment, understood?”
Tiny nodded, “Got it.”
Brent touched his ear again and then nodded, “Okay, we’re a go,” he said as he dropped the key into Blake’s hand. Blake tucked the ring around his finger and the key out of the way of his trigger finger then he nodded to the other men, turned and opened the door to the outside.
The four of them stepped out as a unit, Blake’s eyes sweeping left and right then they quickly moved the ten feet from the house to the bottom of the stairs that led to the apartment. This was the really tricky part because this was when they were completely exposed, vulnerable and at different levels so they couldn’t protect Tiny as well. “Try to crouch a bit,” Brent said to Tiny, voicing the same concerns that were running through Blake’s head. When they got to the top, there was a small, square deck area, just barely big enough for the four of them to level out while Blake put the key in the deadbolt to open it up. He knew without looking that the men behind him were sweeping the yard.
He should’ve felt relief when he heard that lock click open…but he didn’t, not by a long shot.
“Opening door,” he said to let the men behind him know that they were all about to move forward.
He pushed the door all the way open until it hit the wall to make sure nobody was hiding behind it and then his eyes scanned the dark room as best as they could. “Is there a light switch nearby?” he said.
“On the wall to your right.” Brent said.
Blake kept his gun in his right hand but felt around with his left until it stopped at the switch and he flicked it on. It lit up two halogen bulbs in wall sconces on the living room wall so Blake’s eyes quickly swept the room. He decided that the kitchen, off to the right, was the most protected spot that Tiny could be until the apartment was cleared so he said, “Kitchen, moving now,” and began moving that way. He heard the door close and lock behind JD and then all four of them were in the kitchen. JD moved to his side without a word and he said, “Bedrooms or living room and deck first?”
Blake’s eyes swept around, he didn’t like that there was a deck beyond the closed blinds on the French doors leading out of the living room where someone could easily be hiding. But he also knew that Hunter was still inside with his scope and scanning the yard outside so he should’ve been able to see anyone climbing up onto the deck so he said, “Bedrooms,” and, shoulder to shoulder, they began moving down the hall. When Blake reached what he assumed was the bathroom he gripped the doorknob and looked up at JD, “High or low?” he whispered.
“High,” JD whispered back.
Blake nodded and bent his knees in a crouch then he turned the knob and shoved the door open. Together, with arms out and, guns pointed, they quickly swept the room and found it empty so JD backed into the hall and they moved to the bedroom across the hall. It only took a minute or two to clear the two bedrooms and then the rest of the apartment, which, thankfully, was empty and then they returned to the kitchen.
“I’ll take first watch,” Blake said as he stepped into the kitchen, “You go get some sleep, Tiny.”
Tiny frowned at him, just like he’d done back in the kitchen, “Can I talk to you for a minute….alone?”
Blake opened his mouth to protest but Brent interrupted him by saying, “Go ahead, we’ll be staying here anyways so we’ve got you covered.”
Blake frowned as his lips pressed together but he held his hand out inviting Tiny to go first.
“Which room?” Tiny said when he saw the two bedrooms, one on either side of the hall.
“The one on the right, closer to the big house,” Blake said.
Tiny walked inside and he was glad when Blake followed him deep inside the room but he turned away from where Tiny was standing and went over to the window to glance outside, check that it was locked and then pull the shades closed. Then he pointed to the bed, “Stay away from the window, okay?”
Tiny nodded as he climbed onto the bed and sat down, leaning against the headboard, “Yeah, sure, no problem.” He figured Blake would sit next to him but when he looked up, Blake had crossed the room and was leaning against the closed bedroom door.
“Blake,” he said but all the man did was close his eyes and say, “Tiny, it has to be this way.”
Tiny climbed back to his feet and walked right up to the man, boxing him in, “You promised me you wouldn’t run.”
Blake’s eyes snapped open and pinned his and he what he saw in them was so powerful it almost forced him to try to take a step back even though he knew he couldn’t because his back was against the door. “I’m not, Tiny. I just…..you need to understand something.”
“Tell me.”
“I have to do things this way, this is who I have to be in order to protect you. Because I cannot fail at this, I absolutely cannot fail. If I do I will not survive.”
“Blake…”
“No, listen to me, Tiny. Up until now the only thing in my life that has ever meant anything to me is the job, it’s the only thing that ever mattered. But now, goddamn it, you matter, you don’t just mean something to me, you mean everything and I will not survive if I fail you.”
Tiny’s forehead dropped down onto Blake’s, “You won’t fail me, babe, of this I am absolutely certain.”
“All I can think of every time I close my fucking eyes is Foster getting you, stringing you up and doing all that, all that,” his chest heaved as he inhaled, “all that shit that he did to Garrett.”
Tiny kissed Blake’s forehead then pulled the man into his arms, “He’s not going to get me, Blake. You’d never let that happen.”
“But…”
“No, stop, just stop. How many times have you had to protect someone like this?”
“I don’t know, at least a dozen.”
“And have you ever lost anyone?”
“Well, no, but they weren’t someone I cared about, damn it!” Blake yelled as he tried to push Tiny away from him but the man refused to budge.
“Shove as hard as you want, baby, I’m not going anywhere.”
Blake glared at him then the corner of his mouth quivered and Tiny knew he was trying to fight a smile so he leaned forward and kissed the tip of Blake’s nose.
“You’ve got to let me do it this way, okay, Tiny?” he said.
&nb
sp; “Okay but you have to do one thing for me first.”
“What’s that?”
“One kiss, just give me one kiss to soothe me until this is all over, let me just carry one more taste of you with me, please?”
Blake stared up at him for so long Tiny thought he was going to say no. But he finally dipped his chin in a nod and whispered, “Okay.”
And Tiny went in with everything he had…and then some. If this was going to potentially be the last kiss he shared with this man until all this was over? He wanted it to be, not the best kiss in the history of kisses, he wanted it to be, quite simply, the kiss that made Blake Thornton…..his.
His to hold, his to take, his to own, his to cherish, his to care for, his to…..love. Did he love Blake already? No. But he knew that he would, he knew that he could, easily, if only the man would just let him in. That’s what this kiss was about.
Tiny’s rough stubble scraped with Blake’s as his mouth consumed the man, devoured him, inhaled him. Blake moaned loudly into Tiny’s mouth and it took every ounce of self-restraint he had not to grab the man and toss him onto the bed. Instead he slid his hand to the back of his neck and squeezed.
And then the soft knock on the door blew everything apart.
“Sorry to interrupt but Billy’s got something for us,” JD said through the door.
Blake stared into Tiny’s eyes as he said, “I’ll be right there.”
Tiny’s finger slid down Blake’s stomach and over his hard cock, causing him to shiver and hiss out a curse as Tiny said, “I really, really fucking hate Simon Foster right now.”
Blake smirked at him then threaded their fingers together and turned to pull the door open, “Come on, big boy. Let’s go see what they found.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Justice could feel the flight attendant’s fingers as they moved towards his shoulder to wake him and, since he didn’t think the friendly woman wanted a hand full of broken bones, he opened his eyes before she made contact and said, “No need, I’m awake.”
The smile she pasted on her face could only be called a smile of relief, “Oh thank goodness,” she whispered, “I got the sense you weren’t going to be too receptive to being woken up. My cousin is like that.”
Justice really didn’t have anything to say to that, he wasn’t a small talk kind of guy, he wasn’t really an anything kind of guy, especially when it came to women so he just nodded his head and mumbled, “Uh-huh,” as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
He grabbed his bag from underneath the seat and walked off the plane, grateful for his status, with the fake identity he was traveling under, as an Air Marshall that allowed him to carry his weapons with him. He walked over to the VIP side of the rental car counter and smiled at the guy who looked up at him, then he winked too…because the guy was cute and he fucking felt like it.
“How can I help you, Sir?” the young man said.
Justice pulled out his wallet and slid a driver’s license and a black American Express over, “I have a reservation.”
The young man, Tim according to his nametag, typed in Justice’s information, well actually Jay Smyth’s since both cards were fake, and then his eyes went wide and he swallowed hard.
And that’s the moment that Justice knew that his day had just gotten fucked up. He moved his hands from the top of the counter and put them next to his thighs so he could clench his fists without wonder-boy seeing them.
“Problem?” he said as calmly as he could manage.
“Well, you requested a specific car that we don’t usually have in our inventory and when we found one for you well, um well, uh….”
“Spit it out, kid.”
“It was in an accident two days ago.”
“So, you don’t have a sixteen Corvette for me, is that what you’re saying?”
The guy had tears shimmering in his eyes, fucking tears when he looked up at Justice, like he was afraid Justice was going to hit him or some shit like that. “No, we don’t and I’m so, so sorry. Is there anything that I can do to make it up to you? Anything at all?”
A smirk lifted one corner of Justice’ mouth as his eyes roamed up and down Tim’s body, “Perhaps. What kind of muscle car can you give me, Tim?”
Tim’s tongue stuck out to lick his lips as he began typing, “Well, I do have a two thousand sixteen Mustang. Will that work?”
“If you throw in a blow job too, it will.”
Tim’s eyes blinked a few times, “Pardon me?”
“I said the Mustang will be fine if you wrap your lips around my dick and blow me too.”
Justice waited for the insult, the indignation. But Tim shocked him by saying, “You’re gay? Guys as hot as you are never gay. This must be my lucky day,” then he grabbed a set of keys and stood waiting like a dog waiting to go for a walk.
“Um, look kid, I really don’t have time for….”
“I need to give you a ride out to your car, Mr. Smyth. Are you ready?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, sure.”
Now it was Tim who smirked at him, cocky little fucker.
He followed that little bubble butt as it swayed out the automatic doors and out to a Ford Taurus that was parked in a marked spot. The lights flashed as the locks snapped open. “Do you need the trunk for your bag?”
“No thanks, I’ll keep it at my feet,” he said as he dropped into the passenger seat.
Tim drove them around the perimeter of the airport and into the rental car lot until he pulled up behind a gleaming black Mustang. “Here are the keys. All your info was in the system so you don’t need to sign anything.”
The keys dropped into Justice’s palm and he started to reach for his door handle.
“I’m more than happy to provide that blow job too,” Tim said.
Justice squeezed his eyes shut as his dick woke the fuck up and said, oh hell yes.
He slowly turned to look into Tim’s eyes, “If I weren’t late for a meeting, I’d definitely take you up on that, kid. Maybe next time, yeah?”
“Sure thing, hot stuff,” Tim said as he winked at Justice.
That had Justice chuckling as he grabbed his bag and unfolded his six-foot-four frame from Tim’s car.
He popped the locks on the Mustang, opened the driver’s door and set his bag on the passenger seat as he sat down. Then he unzipped the bag, pulled out his favorite Glock and slid it into his shoulder holster, finally feeling fully dressed for the first time in hours. He hated not being able to actually carry it on the flight but since he wasn’t the on-duty Air Marshall, he had to keep it in his bag.
His next task was to slide his phone out and pull up the text from Connor that had the address that he was going to. He fired up the Mustang, waited for its navigation unit to come online then he entered the address. His final step was to sync his phone to the nav unit and dial Connor’s number as he backed out of his parking space.
“Braddock.”
“I’ll be there in,” he frowned as he looked at the map on the nav unit telling him it was approximately forty minutes away, “twenty.”
“How was your flight?”
“Long. Any new developments?”
“We have a few possible locations where our perp might be holding his victim.”
“You want me to go check them out first?”
“I’m not sending you in on your own, Justice, that’s not how this works.”
“And I don’t go in with backup, Connor, that’s not how I work.”
“Yeah, I know. But indulge me a little, okay? At least have us standing by nearby, yeah?”
“I’ll think about it. See you in a few,” he said then he ended the call. Justice Thyme was a fucking asshole….no reason to change that now, he thought as he pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator.
He pulled over to the side of the road next to the split-rail fence that ran along what he guessed was the property line of Connor and Drake’s Ops Team site, put the car in park, opened the door and got out. He pulled a small pair
of binoculars out of his pocket and began looking around the property. After about two minutes, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled his small Bluetooth piece from inner jacket pocket, unfolded it to turn it on then slid his thumb across his phone as it synced and answered, “Yeah?”
“It’s kind of hard to hold meetings with you on the opposite side of the property,” Connor said.
Justice smiled, “Cameras?”
“No, not yet. But we’ve got a first-class sniper and he was getting ready to put a hole in your head when I told him you were one of us….sort of.”
Justice snorted, “No way could he tag me from there. Your house is, what, two miles away and through the trees?”
Suddenly the hairs on the back of Justice’s neck stood up and he dropped to the ground with a muttered, “Motherfucker,” just before the wood in the post that he had just been leaning against splintered as a bullet pierced it and then the loud crack of the rifle firing sent the birds flying into the air.
Justice peeled his eyes open and scanned the trees on the far side of the road, quickly finding where the bullet had embedded. “You are an asshole, Braddock,” he growled as he pushed to his feet and stomped over the tree, pulling his folding knife out.
He snapped it open and began digging around the stuck cartridge until he managed to pull it free.
He bounced it up and down in his hand as he growled, “A 308 Lapua? What the fuck, Braddock? Are you trying to kill me?”
Connor chuckled in his ear, “If Hunter was trying to kill you, you’d be dead. You coming up here or what?”
“You have a sniper named Hunter?”
“I’ve got a lot of things, Justice. None of them scared you before.”
“And they don’t now. I’m on my way, fucker,” he said as he ended the call and tore the Bluetooth from his ear. No, he hadn’t been scared when that shot rang out. It’s not like it had been the first time he’d been shot at. So, no, it didn’t scare him.
Okay, maybe it did. A little.
Fucking Connor Braddock, that asshole.
Justice dropped back down into the Mustang, closed the door and spun the back tires, spraying dirt and rocks as he turned down into the driveway and got the car up to almost sixty by the time the house was in view, at which point he bypassed the garage and parking area, and just drove over the lawn, slamming on the brakes and bringing the car to a stop just inches from the front steps.
Severe Side Winds Ahead Page 15
