“Their grandmother died. As far as we can tell, Eddie and Mike didn’t attend school past the eighth grade. They were raised from that point by their grandparents, Melissa and Sheldon Chambers. We suspected Sheldon of a bombing a few years ago.” Forest flipped the screen to pictures of Sheldon, Mike, and Eddie and the bloody images disappeared. “We could never find enough evidence to charge him.”
“So, grandma kept the brothers in line?”
“More or less. We know that Mike spent time in a mental institution when he was eight and then released into his grandparents’ custody after the boy’s mother died. The boy showed psychopathic tendencies. What we know of Eddie is from his ex-wife whom we have in protective custody. He’s pure evil.” Forest flipped the screen again and a woman appeared along with photos of knife carving wounds on her torso. “She’s lucky to be alive.”
“What are we looking at?” Maddox spoke up.
“Good question.” Forest nodded. “The Chambers brothers’ resources are numerous, their coalition members range up to fifty men strong by our count, but it could be higher.” The man sounded suddenly tired. “We just don’t know. The FBI has lost three agents trying to apprehend these brothers over the past month, but these fuckers are cunning.”
“What’s going on? We don’t normally handle murders.”
“Every attempt by law enforcement to arrest the brothers for the murders has met with deadly resistance. After every raid on the brothers’ known hideouts, they bomb a public place,” Forest said, his mouth pulled down, his eyes tired.
The room went deathly quiet. Christ. He didn’t envy Forest his job.
“Sources claim the brothers got their hands on several pounds of C4. I don’t need to tell you what damage that can do.”
The room remained quiet. A few throats cleared, but that was it. He could only imagine the hell law enforcement and the FBI were going through, plus losing a few of their own.
This wasn’t new to Infinity nor Fury. Both top secret military units provided help, domestic and foreign. They should have called them in earlier.
Forest snatched up a bottle of water, took several swallows, and nodded at Liam.
“The brothers have a coalition loyal to their grandfather located throughout the country helping them escape, hide, and regroup,” Liam said and gave the room back to Forest when the man capped his water bottle.
“What we need from you.” Forest cleared his throat. “What we need from both Infinity and Fury is to get inside. My hope is that they won’t see you coming.”
“Captain Maddox will fill you in on the details,” Liam said when Forest indicated he was finished. With those words, Liam, Forest, and the suits left the room.
Every pair of eyes, including his, swiveled to Maddox. “Most of you haven’t had the chance to meet our three new members of Infinity and one new member of Fury.”
Maddox gestured to the back of the room. “Sergeant Colin Savage, Staff Sergeant Archer Hall, and Sergeant First Class Joshua Greene will be joining Infinity. We don’t have time for any trial runs so play nice,” Maddox warned.
Colin, still dressed in all black attire glanced around the room with suspicious eyes. Archer gave everyone a briefly raised hand. Greene sat hunched in his chair with a cup of brewed coffee in his hands with legs splayed, combat boots untied, face unshaven, his beard thick, and steely red-rimmed eyes narrowed.
“We also have Lieutenant Sam Beckett temporarily reassigned to join Fury.”
Zane swiveled in his chair with surprise and Beckett waved at him with a grin. He gave the curly haired man a smile before facing forward.
Maddox began rolling out the details of the mission and Zane let his eyes wander around the room. Eventually, they landed on Isaac. Their gazes locked and held and he couldn’t look away from the sky-blue color. And neither could Isaac.
Isaac finally snapped around, giving him the back of his head, and gave Maddox all his attention.
Zane pulled his fingers down his cropped beard, remembering the brief kiss in the hallway. Press of lips, really. It didn’t matter how short the kiss had been because one thing became very clear, there was something between them. Something that went beyond mere friendship.
Now, he just needed to convince Isaac he wasn’t crazy.
Isaac
One week later
“Thorne, you copy?”
“Copy, Captain.” He adjusted the mic in his ear.
At his side, Pia gave him a thumbs up.
Leads starting coming in about the Chamber brothers a few hours after the meeting. None of the locations had panned out except for this one in Arizona.
His step was light, being back with his unit was like a dream come true. There was only one bummer, Maddox had separated him and Zane this past week.
He stepped around the black SUV that sat parked in the secure area and pulled on his vest, double checked his weapon, and closed the back of the vehicle.
He gazed at Pia. “You ready?”
“In a heartbeat,” she said, slamming a clip into her weapon, and stepped in front of him. Disconcerted, he stopped. It had been like this all week. Why couldn’t they have left things the same? He always went first with Zane on his six. Why had they messed with a good fucking thing? Had it been a good thing, though?
He scowled, ignoring that niggling voice. Zane was paired with Blade and there wasn’t jack shit he could do about it.
“Hurry up.” Pia had stopped when he didn’t follow. She wasn’t happy being paired with anyone but her usual partner.
This wasn’t his idea, he wanted to snarl at her. Maybe this had been Zane’s idea all along. Was it because of the kiss in the hallway? Zane probably wanted to forget it ever happened. Well, that was just fine with me.
“Are you with me?” Pia hissed, and he realized she’d said his name more than once.
“Of course, I am,” he managed and waved her on to keep going. She snorted and crept through the dark closer to the
