The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

  Justin stopped in the doorway and looked at Gabriel over his shoulder. “What? With those aggressive Girl Scouts?”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes before he gave Justin a shove toward the kitchen. “I’m talking about back in Kentucky and the drive-by.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Justin’s voice became soft. “I liked that car.”

  “I love this SUV. We’ve got it all broken in, and now it has four freaking bullet holes. Fuckers.” Gabriel snarled.

  “Well, now it’s really broken in.” Justin flashed him a cheeky smile. The relief coursing through his body left him feeling lightheaded. “Any problems with the cops?”

  He placed the bags on the island in the center of the kitchen and started putting the last of the food away. Between what Jess had brought over and the remains Gabriel had, it looked like they had enough for two weeks. There was a mix of foods for Jake. It was doubtful that Jake and Devlin would be with them for another two weeks, but it was best to be prepared.

  Gabriel slid into one of the pub chairs at the breakfast bar. “They had a knife and a gun. I had a tire iron. It was clearly self-defense. The cops didn’t give me a bit of trouble. They were mostly impressed with how I protected myself and wanted to swap stories.”

  Justin snickered and shook his head. “You made fucking friends with the cops?” It was just too insane to believe. They were freaking mercenaries. Former assassins. Hired hitmen. Okay, so most of that life was in their past, but it was still absurd to think that the cops were making friends with Gabriel.

  “It doesn’t hurt to be on friendly terms with your local police. We’re the good guys now.”

  “Yeah, you explain that to the cops after you tell them about your little escapade through your family,” Justin said, pointing the box of spaghetti in his hand at Gabriel.

  “Gabriel!” Jake shouted as he ran down the hall. Pete was directly on his heels, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. “Are you okay? Mrs. Jess said that some bad guys found you.”

  Gabriel smiled at Jake, watching as he quickly climbed up into the seat next to him. “I’m just fine.”

  “What about your face?”

  “The man caught me by surprise, but I got him. This is just a little bruise.”

  “And you still saved the popsicles!”

  Justin loved the cocky smile that spread across Gabriel’s lips. “Well, that was the important thing.”

  Jake cackled, looking lighter now than he had after the attack on him and Repeat in the woods the previous day.

  Justin was surprised to see Devlin wander down the hall from the office where he was working, a concerned expression drawing lines on his pale face. Since coming to stay with him and Gabriel, it looked like Devlin was starting to put on a little weight. His clothes didn’t hang on him quite as badly as they originally had. Justin wasn’t sure if Devlin had stopped eating after the death of his husband, when he was accused of the murder, or when he’d gone on the run with Jake. Maybe it was a mix of all of it.

  Regardless of the actual cause, Justin was glad they could offer the man a safe place to stay so he could at least start to take care of himself again. Jake needed him.

  “Everything okay?” Devlin asked a bit hesitantly. His hands twisted together in front of him, and he looked as if he was going to break his own fingers.

  “I’m fine. Everything is fine,” Gabriel said firmly.

  “We can talk more after dinner tonight,” Justin added. Things were becoming far more dangerous, and they needed to make some plans to finish this once and for all.

  “I…I was thinking that I could make dinner tonight. To celebrate.”

  Justin arched an eyebrow at the man and realized that more than just his worry about Gabriel was making him anxious. There was an excited energy about him as well.

  “You finished, didn’t you?” Justin whispered in awe.

  Devlin gave a nod, blinking back some tears. “The last of my peers replied. They could come up with no more questions or concerns. I just published it. They’ve also begun spreading the information.”

  “Congratulations!” Justin shouted, throwing his hands up.

  Gabriel jumped to his feet and extended his hand to Devlin, who gave a choked laugh as he took it. Gabriel surprised them both by pulling him in for a brief hug, and Justin could hear him say over Jake’s shouting and the dog’s barking, “Adam would be so proud of you.”

  Devlin stepped away from Gabriel and wiped his tears with the back of his hand. “I wish he could be here for it. He was always worried about our carbon footprint and recycling. He wanted to make sure we were creating a better world for Jake’s generation.”

  “You’ve taken a huge step in the right direction for that,” Justin said. “You’re making green, renewable energy accessible for everyone.”

  “By this evening, thousands of people will have looked at my work.” Devlin picked up his son, hugging him close as he looked at Justin and Gabriel. “Companies can start retooling, creating newer and cheaper products. There’s going to be some pushback, but there are enough big leaders in this field who will jump on it. It’s the beginning.”

  Gabriel looked over at Justin and could clearly read the question in his eyes. When would the person who issued the contract take it down? There was no stopping the information now. It was traveling at lightning speed around the globe, reaching other researchers, engineers, and companies. If the goal was to stop the research from being completed, it was too late. It was illogical to spend the twenty-seven million on killing Devlin.

  Was it a matter of hours? Days?

  Killing the contract would get the assassins out of Justin and Gabriel’s backyard and allow Devlin and Jake to return home. But the job wasn’t done yet. Justin couldn’t let someone just walk away from killing Devlin’s innocent husband and threatening a scientist and his son. No, he didn’t work like that any longer.

  “Well, I’m not going to fight you if you wanna cook,” Justin said, waving toward the fridge. “Gabriel got us all filled up again. The kitchen is yours!”

  Devlin laughed. The sound was freer than they’d ever heard from the man. “Let’s not get your hopes up too high. I’m pretty good with steaks and I can make some pretty awesome fried chicken.”

  “There!” Justin declared, pointing at Devlin. “I haven’t had any good old-fashioned fried chicken in so long. I think Gabriel even grabbed some corn on the cob while he was at the store. Mmmm…maybe some mashed potatoes.”

  Gabriel chuckled and grabbed Justin before he could start digging around in the fridge. “We’ve still got a few hours until dinner. Why don’t we let Jake and Devlin grab a snack and watch some TV while we get some work done.”

  “What about Repeat?” Jake demanded, standing in front of Gabriel and Justin before they could leave the kitchen. “I thought we were going to get him today.”

  “The vet called a little while ago,” Justin explained. “He’s having a little trouble with some of his medication. They want to keep him one more night just to be safe. He’s still doing okay.” Jake nodded, but they could see his happiness fading by the second.

  “Can you keep Pete company so he doesn’t miss Repeat?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yes!”

  With Devlin, Jake, and Pete settled in front of the living room television with popsicles, Justin and Gabriel escaped to the basement office where several computers were churning away, analyzing seemingly endless amounts of data.

  Justin had loved his setup back in Kentucky. The secure room he’d built in the basement had held three different computers that he used for hacking and data analysis. He’d built them all from scratch. He’d made a few other toys from scratch for his work. But in the end, the basement had still felt like a basement. A place for him to hide from the world.

  But when they moved to Colorado, Justin had immediately started sketching out a new work area, one that could comfortably accommodate both of them. No more hiding from the world. At least, not alone. Gabriel was pr
etty handy on a computer, but he didn’t have the hacking skills that Justin had honed over years. But that didn’t mean he wanted to remain alone in his computer room. He needed Gabriel to feel comfortable in that room as well. Regardless of what they’d planned to do next with their lives, he wanted to make sure Gabriel was right there with him.

  Now he had a long table with several computer stations set up and a vast array of monitors, each stacked on top of each other, offering television news stories, data streams, security monitors, and more. Two of the walls were also covered in massive whiteboards with various colored notes scratched out in their ugly handwriting. Everything was in a gibberish coded language that both he and Gabriel tended to fall into when talking about a job.

  And funny enough, his favorite were their roll-y chairs. The stupidly expensive computer chairs were so damn comfortable that he didn’t mind spending hours of his day in them.

  “Repeat?” Gabriel asked softly after he locked the door behind them.

  “There’s no problem with his meds. I called the vet after I heard from Jess. Asked them to board him one more night and they assured me it wouldn’t be a problem,” Justin said. “With things ramping up, I was worried about having him underfoot and injured. I don’t want him to get hurt worse than he was.”

  “I understand. It’s smart.” Gabriel dropped into one of the chairs and slowly turned it to face the whiteboard listing their top guesses for the contract owner. “Brent Mills and Charles Dent.”

  Justin glanced at the board but didn’t see the names that Gabriel had just said. “What? Who’s that?”

  “The men from the grocery. A pair of assassins.” Gabriel folded his hands over his stomach, frowning at the board. “I ran into Brent once on a job in New York. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, as you would say. He’s usually on the smaller jobs. Abused wives looking to get rid of their husbands. Angry husbands looking to get rid of their bosses.”

  “So, this is a step up?”

  Gabriel nodded. “A payday like this one that’s gone wide will drag everyone out for a shot at it.”

  “And his companion?”

  “Charles Dent is also known as Pierre Renaud. He worked his way through France until he killed some mob boss’s mistress by mistake. Now he’s sticking to the US and some of Latin America to stay alive and off the radar.”

  “That’s a lovely pair you had on your ass.”

  “Not the best the mercenary community has to offer, but I appreciate that I wasn’t getting the best while standing in a crowded grocery parking lot in the middle of the day. Things would have gotten a lot messier, and I wouldn’t have been able to finish with the police so quickly.”

  Gabriel would have also more likely been shuttled off to the hospital, assuming he’d survived at all. They’d gotten lucky, and Justin didn’t want to count on luck to keep them alive and safe for another day. They needed answers. And a plan.

  “Devlin’s completed research should take the heat off. Once the contract issuer learns that the information is free and available to everyone, the contract will be closed,” Gabriel said.

  “We’re not walking away from this,” Justin replied in a cold, hard voice. “He lost his husband. He’s been on the run with his son for months. This person deserves to be taken out.”

  Gabriel smirked at his lover. “That’s what I expected. Have you turned up anything yet?”

  Walking over to the whiteboard with his tight block lettering, he crossed his arms and glared at the info there. Four names had been crossed out. Two remained:

  Albert Coleman

  Wayne Oliver

  “Coleman is the head of Apex Drilling out of Texas,” Justin said, rattling off the facts from the top of his head. “The company has made some huge investments in new equipment and took on a lot of debt during the last oil market crash to keep operating when a lot of companies stopped spending money on new wells. He is known for being incredibly anti-green-energy. He has talked about it being a fad and people wasting their money. He has made comments personally attacking Devlin and his work, calling him a snake oil salesman.”

  “He stands to lose a great deal of money if Devlin finishes his work.”

  “From what I can see, the company is slowly climbing out from bankruptcy, helped by the fact that oil prices are up. Devlin’s work gets out, demand for oil drops, and Albert Coleman loses everything.”

  “What about Oliver?”

  “Wayne Oliver is actually the head of Sunshine Panels.”

  Gabriel sat up in his chair, frowning at the board. “You mean he actually runs a solar company? How could he not support Devlin?”

  “His company is overleveraged. It’s got way more debt than money coming in. Devlin has spoken with him as well as the CEO of nearly every solar panel company around the world. He’s told them about his work and for the most part, they are excited. They’ve never been able to sell in high volume because of various costs. The ones who aren’t excited, like Wayne Oliver, are in financial trouble. They can’t afford to change their process midstream to offer customers a less expensive, more efficient product.”

  Gabriel dropped back in his chair, rubbing the dark whiskers on his jaw. “And anyone who doesn’t use Devlin’s research won’t be able to compete with the market. They will lose customers.”

  “And be forced out of business.”

  “Has Devlin had any run-ins with Oliver?”

  Justin shoved one hand through his hair, twisting his fingers around the strands to pull in frustration. “Devlin said that he met the man once at a conference about two years ago. Devlin had been in the middle stages of his research. Just working on the cells. He gave a presentation. Oliver heckled him and then cornered him after the presentation. Was offensive. But Devlin said he thought the man had also been drunk.”

  “These look like two good targets to dig further into. Why don’t you seem happy?”

  Justin glared at the board again for a moment before turning away from it in disgust. “It’s the twenty-seven million. That’s a lot of fucking money, and these guys are leveraged to the hilt. Where are they getting the money for a contract like that?” Justin paced back to his chair and dropped into it with a huff.

  “How much is Apex Drilling valued at?”

  “Almost a billion dollars.”

  “Even with the debt, I bet Coleman could use it as collateral for a loan. His personal finances can probably be cleaned up enough to get a loan that big as well.”

  “Sunshine is valued at only one hundred and fifty million dollars, and there’s no hiding its debt.”

  Gabriel gave a little shrug. “And maybe Oliver is an idiot. He could be thinking that he may never have to pay.”

  Justin barked a harsh laugh. “Really? Not pay a hit man? That’s suicidal.”

  “Yes, it is,” Gabriel agreed. His voice dropped to a low, frost-covered tone that nearly had Justin shivering. His eyes widened as he stared at his lover.

  “You had someone stiff you?”

  “I had someone attempt it. I located the contract owner and squeezed what funds he had out of him. It wasn’t enough to cover the original bounty, but he paid the rest with his life.”

  Justin gave a long, low whistle. He’d been lucky that in his past life he’d never had a contract owner attempt to not pay him. Marilyn had always been great at digging around on contracts and confirming that they were legitimate. He knew Gabriel had used Marilyn as well, so he didn’t know if one slipped past her eagle eye or he’d taken this contract without her.

  “I don’t put my life on the line for free.” Gabriel paused and gave a self-depreciative eye roll. “Well, I apparently do now, but not in the old days. I was in it for the money.”

  “And the thrill,” Justin corrected.

  “Well, there was always that, but thrills don’t pay the bills or buy me expensive clothes.”

  “Prima donna,” Justin said, but even he could hear the love in his voice. Yeah, maybe on paper he and Gabriel we
re a different as they could be, but there was no missing that they worked so damn well together. They fit as if they’d been made for each other.

  “Some of us have standards,” Gabriel said primly, brushing some dirt from his plain navy T-shirt.

  Justin closed the distance between them in a couple of steps. Placing his hands on the arms of the chair, he leaned down so that his face was level with Gabriel’s. “Looks like you tossed them when you decided to fall for me.”

  “There was no deciding to fall for you,” Gabriel murmured. “You tripped me with your charms. Also, your honor and loyalty forced me to raise my standards.”

  “Sweet talker.” Justin snagged a soft kiss and then another, loving the lush, velvety feel of Gabriel’s lips against his own.

  “We need to finish this,” Gabriel reminded him.

  With a groan, Justin pushed away and straightened. He looked back at the board. Gabriel was right. They needed to locate the culprit. Once the contract was canceled, the trail would go cold. They were running out of time.

  “I’m going to send this information to Marilyn and Kai. Maybe they can see or find something I can’t.”

  Justin didn’t hear Gabriel move, but he wasn’t too surprised when a pair of strong arms wrapped around him from behind. “I’m assuming you haven’t gotten anything new from them.”

  “Just information that knocked a few people off my list.”

  Gabriel pressed a kiss to Justin’s neck. “We’ll find the person. Make them pay for hurting Devlin and Jake.”

  Justin wanted Gabriel to be right. He just wasn’t sure he believed it.

  Chapter 15

  Standing in the kitchen, Gabriel turned off the water and grabbed one of the hand towels next to the sink. He dried his hands while looking over the clean counters. Devlin had done a great job with dinner, but the man had made an enormous mess. Dirty pans, bowls, and dishes had been piled everywhere. And for some strange reason, everything seemed to be lightly sprinkled with flour.

  He’d been embarrassed by the idea of Gabriel cleaning the kitchen after he was done, but Gabriel hadn’t minded. In fact, it gave him an excuse to slip away from the group slumped in front of the television, watching an action movie while in various food coma states.