Isaac turned to him and Zane pulled the man against him. They hadn’t shared a hug in a long fucking time, but they did right then.
They both needed it, he needed it. And in the face of Greene’s tragedy, Zane hung on.
Sometimes, life was too fucking short to waste one second of it.
Isaac
The drive back was silent.
Not tense or anything like before, but Zane didn’t say anything and Isaac didn’t have a clue how to bring up the kiss. If you could call it that. The press of lips had been so brief, it felt surreal, almost like he’d imagined it. But he hadn’t, it had been real.
Entering base, Zane strode toward the barracks and he stood gazing after the man’s wide shoulders with a lump rising in his throat. Hurrying to the meeting room, he found a seat. He was early, like thirty minutes early.
River dropped down into the chair next to him with a shoulder bump.
“Wazzup.”
Zane kissed me at a crime scene and we were caught by a cop and then followed it up with a hug.
He swallowed down the words and said, “Oh, you know, the usual. I’m back.”
River chuckled. “So I heard.”
“Welcome back,” Dillon said, taking a seat right behind him and River.
“Thanks.” He turned in his chair and returned Dillon’s fist bump.
Turning sideways gave him a view of the door as people started arriving.
“Why is Forest Taylor here? I heard he quit the FBI,” Dillon whispered, leaning closer.
“He quit the FBI?” Isaac’s gaze flew around the room until he spotted a group of suits standing near one wall. Sure enough, Forest Taylor stood among them conversing with both Liam and Maddox.
“He did quit,” River murmured.
“So, what’s he doing here?” he asked, turning to River.
“As a favor to the Secretary of Defense, he’s temporarily back in a supervisory field position with the Counterterrorism Division.”
“And why is the Counterterrorism Division here?” He frowned.
“I can’t say,” River murmured. “There’s things that Maddox can’t even tell me.”
“Right,” he let skepticism drip from his quiet chuckle.
River squinted with a small quirk working at the edge of his mouth. “I’m not at liberty to say, but I’m sure this meeting will clear things up.”
Dillon rubbed a hand over his mouth to hide a smile and sat back in his chair.
“Okay,” Isaac said.
“Okay?” River raised one eyebrow at him.
He normally didn’t let things go this easily, and Isaac opened his mouth to press the man anyway, when his attention was stolen by the large hunk appearing in the doorway.
Okay, keep it together. Just turn around and keep your eyes up front. Easier said than done when the kiss was all he could think about. His gaze locked like a laser, zeroing in on the sexy soldier fresh from a fucking shower.
Zane’s dark hair fell just shy of his shoulders in wet tendrils, and he was searching the room for someone. Me. He’s searching for me. He knew it. When Zane’s eyes landed on him, he lost his breath and glanced away.
What did it mean? What did that fucking kiss and the hug at Greene’s house all mean? It was nothing. You know he’s straight. He’s always claimed to be. But was he? Sure, the hug had felt like comforting his best friend, but what about the kiss? Did that mean anything, or had he been an experiment?
He turned in his chair, facing forward, eyes locked on the huge monitor on the wall.
But for the life of him, he couldn’t get his mind to shut up.
Zane
“You’re late,” Holden said from behind him.
Zane smirked. “So are you.”
Holden returned his smirk and stepped past him into the room, taking a seat in the back. Special Forces soldiers from both Infinity and Fury filled the room.
He easily found Isaac with his bright blond head of hair and he held the man’s gaze for a brief moment before he was presented with the back of his head. He had no chance to do anything further when the room went dark and a huge wall monitor flipped on. He slid into a chair next to Holden.
“Eyes up front,” the colonel said, and the room grew quiet.
The screen filled with a video of chaos. The scene wobbled and the harsh breath of the person filming swept through the speakers. Screaming and gunfire followed. People went scrambling for cover and several of them fell as they ran. It took a moment to realize the scene was from outside of a restaurant. Patio chairs and tables toppled, the glass on the building front shattered with the impact of bullets accompanying shouting, screams, and sobs. The automatic gunfire echoed and then died. He thought for a moment it was over just before the front of the building exploded outward in a spray of bricks and glass. A bomb. Public place, gunfire, explosives. He ran over every detail of the video. Terrorist attack? Personal vendetta?
The screen went dark.
Oliver flipped on the lights.
“That was the scene outside of a New Orleans restaurant early this morning. Two brothers are claiming credit, Eddie and Mike Chambers. The men are ruthless. This was the third attack in a matter of days,” Liam said.
Everyone in the room knew about the bombings, it was all over the news. So, it was domestic terrorism, but why show Infinity, when that was normally handled by the FBI? Several men in suits stood off to one side of the room.
“I’d like to introduce Supervisory Special Agent Forest Taylor of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. Some of you may already know him,” Liam said.
“Thank you, Colonel.” A slim, fair-haired man in a coal black suit stepped forward. Forest flipped on the screen. Several pictures appeared on the monitor. Each person in the picture was dead, killed brutally.
“Mike and Eddie Chambers are wanted in connection with several murders in Louisiana over the past six months.”
River raised his hand.
