“I, I, I, I don’t have a home,” he managed to choke out. He’d given up his apartment long ago, sold everything he had except for his car to go on this manhunt.
“You do now,” Morgan whispered into his hair.
And somehow, Ten knew that was the utter truth.
Thirty-One
Ten’s phone buzzed on the table next to his hand. He smiled when he saw who was calling. “About time, fucker,” he said as he answered.
“Put your fucking guns back together and get your ass out to my cabin. You’ve got a job to do,” Morgan said.
Ten smiled as he began piecing his firearms back together. He wasn’t shocked that Morgan knew what he was doing. Nothing about the man shocked him anymore. Morgan Doyle was the powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing mythical creature that Sawyer had always talked about.
But then he frowned, “Wait. Did you say your cabin? Did something happen there?”
“Yes. But everyone is okay, or at least they will be. I need you to pick up a lawyer and bring him out there. He will be your asset during the trial. Don’t let anything happen to him, Ten.”
“I won’t, Morg. But trial? What the fuck?”
“You’ll be briefed when you get to the house. Just get the lawyer there safely.”
“I will. You have my word, Morgan,” he said.
He could hear the smile in Morgan’s voice as he said, “I know I do, Ten. I have no doubt,” and then the call ended. Ten stared at his phone for a few seconds and saw it light up with a text:
Sebastian Monroe, 324 Highland Dr, Centennial, CO
So, this asshole lawyer lived in a ritzy suburb just outside of Denver. Of course, he did. Ten finished reassembling his weapons, grabbed his always-ready go bag from the closet and stepped out of his door.
He climbed into his Jeep with the cloth cover and vinyl windows, windows that didn’t roll down, and smirked. Mister fancy-pants lawyer was going to hate this windy, cold bouncy pile of nuts and bolts. He was probably used to some fancy luxury car, maybe even something like Ten’s sweet, new Camaro that he glanced at longingly. But there was no fucking way he was driving his Camaro up into the mountains. You never knew when you were going to get snow up there. Hell, freak snowstorms sometimes happened even in the middle of summer up there, and here they were at the end of fall, knocking on winter’s door. So, stuffy Mister Sebastian Monroe was going to have to suck it up and ride in his Jeep, fuck him if he didn’t like it.
She fired right up and Ten backed her out of the garage, waiting until the door closed before he plugged the lawyer’s address into the map app on his phone and headed down the street.
*************************
Sebastian ‘Bas’ Monroe growled into the phone, “Morgan. I do not need a babysitter.”
“Bas, please. Trust me on this. This case is going to piss a lot of people off. Just do me this one favor and let me stick one guy on you, just one guy, okay?”
Bas sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “Fine. But you owe me, asshole.”
“I usually do. He’ll be there within the hour,” Morgan said.
“Wait, he’s picking me up?” Bas shouted and then he realized that he was talking to dead air because Morgan had ended the call.
“You fucking asshole,” he growled into his room as he grabbed more of his clothes. “Not only a babysitter but a driver too? I want to drive my own car, fucker.”
Even though he wasn’t still on the phone, Morgan would know what Bas was feeling. Morgan knew everything like that, he was weird that way.
He grabbed another of his power suits and laid it carefully in the open garment bag on his bed. He frowned down at it. He had five suits in the bag, another five in a second bag. He knew he’d eventually need more, or have to get these cleaned somehow, but that would be difficult with him being chauffeured around like a fucking rock star.
He growled again, silently directing his anger at Morgan.
A sharp knock on the door had him turning and stomping down the hall. He yanked the door open, took one look at the man, with blonde hair that flowed in silky waves down to his collar, the cold, disinterested, slate blue eyes that gave him a quick once-over, the black leather jacket, tight white t-shirt, blue jeans that hugged every curve, dip and bulge in his lower body, and the wicked-looking black biker boots on his feet……Bas shook his head, muttered, “No,” and slammed the door in the fucker’s face.
What the fuck was Morgan thinking?
His phone was out and dialed before he could take one step away from the door, “What?” Morgan snapped.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Bas said as he glanced back when his door slammed open and mister brooding and way-too-tempting stepped inside.
“What’s wrong?” Morgan said, his voice a little calmer now as the concern bled through.
Bas ignored the heated presence behind him and walked down to his room to try to get a little privacy and, who was he kidding, some distance from man by his door.
He stepped just inside his door and leaned against the wall beside it, thumping his head back as he closed his eyes, “Fuck, Morg. How am I supposed to work with this guy?”
“Ten is one of the best I have.”
“Ten? His name is Ten?”
“Yes, why?”
“Is that just a reference to his dick length?”
Morgan snorted out a laugh, “Oh.”
“Morg, I can’t work with this guy. He’s going to be a….distraction.”
“A distraction?” Morgan said and Bas could hear the smile in the asshole’s voice.
“Yes, fucker. A distraction. You know my past, Morgan. You know the kind of guys I’m attracted to. They all look like him and they all treated me like shit. After Finley broke my heart I swore to myself that I was done with guys like this. And now you’re dangling this fucking treat right in front of me. Fuck you, Morg, just fuck you.”
“Bas?”
“What?” he snapped as his eyes popped open and he turned to see….him…..leaning casually against the wall across the hall…with a smirk on his face. Fucking hell, had he heard what Bas had said? Just fucking great.
“Don’t judge too quickly, Bas. I’ll say one thing about Ten but it’s all I’m going to say because his story is not mine to tell: he’s lost, Bas, has been for a long time,” he said and then he ended the call.
Bas sucked in a sharp breath as he stared, his heart pounding in his chest. This cold, hard-looking man was somehow vulnerable? No way, just, no fucking way.
But then he saw a brief flicker in the man’s eyes, a momentary flash of something other than the hard, emotionless gaze that had been staring at him since he opened his front door. Something so brief, that if Bas hadn’t been watching the man so closely, he would’ve missed it. Could Morgan be right?
Bas shook his head. It didn’t matter whether Morgan was right or not, there was no fucking way Bas was going to get involved with this man, no way in hell.
He turned away from the man with a muttered, “I’ll get my stuff,” as he walked over to his bed.
“Did you remember to pack your pink fuzzy slippers?” Ten said with a snort as he stepped into Bas’s doorway and sneered as he glanced at the two garment bags on the bed.
Bas yanked his duffle off the floor, grabbed both his garment bags and spun around, “I used to rearrange the faces of insubordinate assholes like you during the war. I’d be more than happy to show you those skills,” he said with a growl.
Ten’s eyes went wide, “You served?”
Bas dipped his chin, “Twelve years.”
Ten’s eyes squeezed shut and pain washed over his features, so much pain that Bas found his feet stepping forward as a need to comfort this man invaded every cell in his body.
“With Morgan?” Ten whispered barely loud enough for Bas to hear, but loud enough that his words froze Bas in place.
Bas frowned, “Yes, he was my CO, why?”
For a moment, it looked like Ten was goi
ng to ask him something, something that was going to hurt. Bas studied Ten’s face, inhaling sharply, almost as if he could actually feel the pain that was obviously coursing through Ten’s body.
But then Ten’s eyes snapped open with a glare, “You ready to fucking go or what?” he snapped.
Okay….so much for small talk and opening up, Bas thought as he nodded, “Lead the way.”
Ten grunted as he spun and stomped down the hall.
Bas followed, stepping through the open front door behind Ten then pressing his code into the electronic lock and listening as the deadbolt slid into place. But when he turned around and he saw what was parked in his driveway, his foot stumbled.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he mumbled.
Ten grinned at him, “What? Not fancy enough for you, mister big-shot lawyer?”
Bas glared at Ten, “I have to maintain an appearance during the trial, a certain decorum must be maintained or the jury will dismiss me based on my disheveled look and not listen to one fucking word I say,” he growled as he stomped over to his garage, “We’ll take mine.”
“Now wait just a goddamned min…….” Ten stopped short when the garage door rose up and he saw what was behind it. Bas had to bite back a laugh as Ten’s gaze bounced back and forth between Bas’s garage and his face.
“You have a Hummer?”
“I do.”
“A full-size Hummer?”
“Yes. You got a problem with that?”
Ten frowned at Bas before finally saying, “I drive, dickhead.”
Bas tossed him the keys, “Whatever floats your boat, Ten. You can put yours in the garage to keep it safe until your assignment is over.”
“Thanks,” Ten mumbled as he walked into the garage.
“That must’ve hurt,” Bas whispered with a chuckle as he followed the man inside.
Thirty-Two
Noah looked up from the couch when he heard the familiar voiced by the door. “Ten?” he said as he slowly rose to his feet.
Ten’s eyes moved from where he was being introduced to Kelly and Cole and fell on Noah’s face. A slow-motion smile spread across his features as he grinned, “Fucking-A, Noah Pierce. It’s good to see you, man,” he said as he walked over and pulled Noah into a tight hug, being mindful of his arm and shoulder that were still bandaged and in a sling.
Ten stepped back, his hands still clasped on the sides of Noah’s neck as he said, “So you got this assignment too? This injury from it? Who’s your asset?” his eyes swept over the room, finally landing on Jesse, who was still seated on the couch.
Noah took a step back, “Um, me?” he whispered.
“What?” Ten said as his head whipped back to Noah.
Noah held his hand out to Jesse and pulled him to his feet, “Jesse and I are the ones who will be testifying.”
Ten frowned, “Testifying? On what case?”
Noah’s eyes dropped to the floor, watching as his toe made circles on the hardwood planks, “Um, Morgan didn’t tell you?” he whispered as he barely glanced up long enough to make eye contact and then dropped them down to the floor again.
What the fuck? This wasn’t the strong, confident man that Ten had known and worked with for years. A bad feeling started churning in his gut along with a memory – one of him and Noah holed up in a crappy motel room during an assignment, forced to share the same bed and Noah screaming himself awake, his body shaking with tremors in the aftermath of his nightmare. Of Ten cradling Noah on the floor of that room as the man cried and then quietly told him about his past, about what caused those nightmares, or more specifically, who caused them.
Ten glanced around at all of the faces staring at him, hoping desperately for one of them to come to his rescue and tell him what the fuck was going on.
Oddly enough, it was the man who had endured Ten’s bad attitude and silence for the last few hours that stepped up to the plate.
Bas pulled a thick folder from his briefcase, slapped it against Ten’s chest and mumbled, “This one,” as he walked down the hall to find his room.
Dread pooled in the pit of Ten’s stomach as he gripped that folder in his hands and pulled it open.
“Oh, Jesus,” he mumbled when he saw the words at the top of the page:
The People of the State of Colorado
Vs
Jacob Knight
Ten’s eyes lifted as he glanced up at Noah and then back down at the page. He found the list of witness names and saw: Noah Pierce and Jesse Miller.
“You’re Jesse?” he said as he looked at the man hovering behind Noah’s shoulder.
Noah turned, wrapped his arm around Jesse’s waist and pressed a kiss against his temple as he whispered, “Yeah, he is. Ten, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Jesse Miller. Jess, this is Tenley Pinkerton. We call him Ten.”
“Pinkerton?” a voice said from behind Ten and he turned to find Bas staring at him with wide eyes.
Ten narrowed his gaze, “Yeah, why?”
“As in the Pinkerton detectives from the Old West days?”
“Yes, I’m related, why?”
“Huh,” Bas said with an incredulous look on his face as he turned and walked back down the hall.
Ten frowned at the man’s retreating back but then turned when he heard, “That is so fucking cool.”
He turned and found Jesse’s eyes sparkling at he grinned at Ten and Ten couldn’t help but smile back, “Yeah, it is, kid.”
But then he frowned again as he looked at Noah, “So, you’re really doing this? Finally going to take that fucker down?”
Noah shrugged, “Have to. He came after us. Tried to take my Jesse back. He needs to be stopped.”
“Take him back? You mean……”
Noah nodded, “Jesse was with him for a decade.”
Ten’s stomach plummeted into his feet, “Ten years? But, but, how did you survive?” he whispered as his eyes darted between the two men.
Jesse frowned, “Jacob wasn’t the same with me as he was with Noah. I never got the violent side of him, just the cruel, manipulative side.”
“That doesn’t make it any better,” Ten mumbled.
Noah’s eyes locked with Ten’s, “No, it doesn’t. But my Jess is a fighter. He’s an amazing, strong man.”
“I can see that. I, uh, I better go read this so I know what’s going on. We’ll catch up later, yeah?”
“Yeah, sure thing, Ten,” Noah said.
Ten knew he was taking the chicken’s way out but, fuck, this was a lot to digest.
First things first, though, he needed to fix something.
He walked down the hall, glancing into the open bedroom doors until he found the one he was looking for. He watched, unnoticed, for a moment as Bas unzipped his garment bag and carried his suits into the walk-in closet. When he came out, Bas’s eyes snapped over to Ten, who was leaning against the doorframe.
“I, uh, I think I owe you an apology,” he mumbled.
Bas frowned at him for a moment before he resumed unpacking his clothes, “No, you don’t.”
“Yeah, I do. I didn’t realize what case this was.”
“Does it really matter?”
“Yeah, it does. Noah is my friend. I know some of what that fucked up asshole did to him and it amazes me every day that he’s still walking around on this planet. A lesser man would’ve crumbled a long time ago.”
Bas stared at him for a moment before he mumbled, “You sound like a man who knows what it’s like to crumble.”
Ten glanced away, “You have no idea. Look, I’m sorry I was such an asshole, okay?”
“I’m a lawyer. I’m used to assholes.”
Ten’s eyes flicked back to Bas’s and he found the man smirking at him.
“Touché,” he said as he pushed off from the wall. “I’m going to go read the casefile. You want some coffee?”
Bas frowned at him as if he was confused by this nice side of Ten.
Trust me, that side confuses the shit out of
me too, Ten thought.
“That’d be nice,” Bas finally replied slowly. “I’ll be out in a few.”
Ten dipped his chin in a nod, turned and made his way down the hall. He could feel Bas’s eyes on his back as he walked and he realized with a frown that he liked them there.
Fucking hell.
Thirty-Three
Niles listened to the voice on the other end of the phone as he walked down the stairs into the basement, “I understand. Yes, I will make that happen, you have my word. Understood. Tonight,” he said and then he ended the call and handed the phone to one of the men standing guard on either side of the door.
“How is he today?”
Craig, the same man that Niles had sent to help Jacob, along with Henry, before Niles was aware of where they were going and who they were trying to kidnap, frowned. “He is….difficult, as usual.”
“Of course, he is,” Niles said as he punched in the code to open the door, “His stay here ends today,” he said as he pushed the door open.
Craig lifted an eyebrow as he met Niles’ eyes. Niles shook his head, “No, not like that. Aleksy is on his way.”
“Oh.”
Aleksy was Niles’ nephew, and a detective with the Denver Police Department.
Niles stepped into the room with Craig right behind him.
Jacob sneered up at Niles, “I am so going to fucking end you,” he spat.
Niles chuckled as he shook his head, “Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. Do you not understand this yet? How many laws did you bend to keep my people free? How many did you break? I have conversations with you, taped conversations, where you and I discussed what I should and shouldn’t disclose. And you and I both know that some of the advice that you gave me was highly illegal. There is nothing you can do to me that won’t hurt you a hundred times more.”
Jacob swallowed hard. This was hardly the intimidating, confidant man that Niles had known for the last few years. Jacob’s hair was a greasy, matted mess, sticking out all over the place, his clothes were dirty, his skin was grimy. He looked, and smelled, awful.
Blackbird Fly Home (Doyle Global Securities Book 1) Page 18
