"It's all quiet, guys," he reported to the mic that sat in his ear. "No guns. No police. No dogs. No shouting."
"Get him. Get out," Cain said quickly. "Three entrances," Cain interrupted. "One front, two rear. All alarmed."
Manny passed over entrance one and stopped outside two as the breeze that moved the leaves in the trees made the flimsy door move slightly. It was open and the security panel to one side was unhinged. Clearly Josh wasn't waiting around with this one. Although why anyone would spend money on A, such a crap system and B, on a door as fragile as this one, was beyond Manny. He moved in as quietly as he could, gun at chest level and every nerve ending in him alive.
"Don't get caught," Cain said very carefully.
I never get caught, Manny thought. He followed the sound of a raised voice. Seemed like one person had a lot to say and get it off his chest. Manny stopped outside the door that was open. He chanced a quick look but all he could see was the back of tall, dark, and handsome whom he clearly identified as Josh. Josh was the one doing all the talking.
"…naive to think I wouldn't find out. What was it?
That day at the club? Was that you muscling in on someone who you could keep your eye on?"
"Josh, please—"
"What did you do, E?"
E? Eric Santez. The lawyer's eldest son.
"He's my dad. He said it was important—"
"Did you report back to him every time I let you bend me over the sofa? Or the night we fucked in the back room—"
"He'll hear you—" Eric was sounding way past overwrought and working his way up to really damn worried. "You need to go."
"Did you ever mean it?" Josh's voice again. "When you said you loved me?"
Manny thumped his head back against the wall.
Shit. Why had no one joined the dots? The boyfriend Josh wanted to say goodbye to was the Bullen lawyer's son?
That made an awful lot of shit-filled sense. Josh had been played. Clearly he'd found out.
Cain's voice echoed in his head. "Jennifer called in.
There's a load of intel that Josh has pulled together on Emilio Santez and Eric Santez. It's all on the PC. Josh wasn't hiding what he found. He broke the code on the shutdown."
"I didn't," Eric was saying. "I couldn't love you. It was never going to amount to anything—"
Manny heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh, followed by the noise of someone falling back on maybe a table. Fuck. Josh was going to be bringing down a rain of crap if he didn't cool it.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Manny entered the room gun high. He catalogued the room in an instant.
Eric Santez sprawled on the floor, his chest rising in a breath and blood trailing from his nose. Josh Headley stood over him with cold fury etched onto his face. Then Josh looked at Manny with glassy-eyed shock.
"I hit him," was all Josh said as he raised his hand and shook it disbelievingly at what he had done. "Shit."
Shit indeed.
"Hands where I can see them."
"I'm not going anywhere—"
"We're leaving," Manny instructed brusquely. He indicated with the gun and Josh got with the program fairly quickly. He strode out of the door with his hands high and Manny followed. Only after they passed out of the main room with the unconscious Eric did Josh try his luck. With a move worthy of a man who watched too many action
movies he twisted on his heel and grabbed for the gun.
Manny allowed him to move his balance and in a practiced move of his own he had the other guy face to the wall and one hand pushed up and held hard with the barrel of the gun in the small of Josh's back. Six foot of man was effectively imprisoned between wall and hold. Manny felt a small thrill that yet again someone had underestimated him based on his size and felt he would be an easy target.
"Manny Sullivan," he whispered harshly.
"Sanctuary. Stop fucking fighting me and get yourself out and over the damn wall."
Josh relaxed in Manny's hold and without turning he moved out of the house as soon as Manny released him.
Lights began to switch on as they reached the wall and as they dropped to the other side the sound of an alarm from inside the house interrupted the silence. Manny put his gun back in the space at the small of his back and started to half jog to his car. Josh was on his heels and without argument he climbed into the passenger seat.
Within a minute they had moved away from where Manny had parked, and the car was pointed back to Sanctuary.
"I'm sorry—" Josh started.
"Shut the hell up," Manny snapped as he exited the housing area and entered the city again. Josh did as he was told and in a few more minutes they were back in Sanctuary's underground parking and out of the car to the elevator. Josh remained quiet when Manny pressed in the code for the right floor and then leaned back against the wall.
"What—"
"I said shut up." Manny was pissed. Why did Sanctuary bother with any of this shit when people like Josh screwed it all up?
Josh bristled and stood away from the wall. Clearly he had something to say. Manny simply pulled his gun from where he'd placed it, made a show of checking it and refused to meet Josh's eyes. Josh in return heaved a sigh and relaxed his stance.
CHAPTER 2
The elevator doors opened and Manny stalked out onto the office floor not even telling Josh to follow him but assuming he was anyway. Jake met them just outside of ops and Cain was hovering in the background.
"Okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Idiot knocked out the lawyer's son. Eric. Who it seems is his boyfriend."
"Why didn't we know that?" Jake looked from Manny
