“So that’s why you delayed for two days?”
“Mmhmm.”
“You should have led with that first, ya clown.” His brother squinted at him.
He grinned. “Sorry. He wants to be exclusive.”
“I knew something was different.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, you look…” Diesel searched for the word. “Content.”
“I am.” He studied his coffee and took a swallow.
“He told me he loves me.”
“Well, that’s obvious. Even I could see it the way you two danced around each other.”
“It wasn’t, ‘I love you’, it was more of a ‘love you’ when he went to hang up.” He didn’t know if it had been a knee jerk reaction on Isaac’s part, but he didn’t think so.
“How do you feel about it?”
“Scared. Elated. Happy.” He snorted, tossing his brother a glance. “Terrified.”
“Terrified? Because you’re not out?”
Was that the reason? “No, I don’t give a shit about that, not anymore.” Isaac was more important than keeping some damn secret. And honestly, he could have kicked himself in the ass for being such a dolt.
“I’m not going to shout it from the rooftops, but I’m not going to hide it.” He held his brother’s eyes.
“Good. Then, what’s got you terrified?”
“I told him I wanted a relationship. What if I fuck it up?”
“Why would you think that?”
“I’ve fucked up every one I’ve had before.”
“You’ve never had one with a man. Maybe that’s why you kept fucking up.”
He swung a surprised look at his brother. Could that be the reason? They dropped into silence for several minutes.
“What else?”
“It’s Isaac’s BFF.” He took a deep breath and filled his brother in on the debacle between Jo and Lacy.
“Wow, that doesn’t sound like Jo.”
“That was my thinking after I saw how Lacy acted toward Jo that day. Jo seemed genuinely upset while Lacy appeared uncaring about the whole thing.”
“What does Isaac think?”
“He believes Lacy.”
“But you think Lacy is causing trouble?”
“Yeah.”
He filled his brother in on the run in with Lacy in Isaac’s kitchen on the morning he left.
“If she is causing trouble, she’ll show her true colors soon enough,” Diesel said.
He agreed.
“I still want to talk to Isaac about her.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Diesel stated.
Now, he just had to figure out how to best approached Isaac.
Isaac
Three days later
“Fucking North Dakota,” Eagle bitched, stomping snow and mud from his boots.
They’d found a relative of Eddie Chambers who might know his location.
“Snow, yippie,” Spencer cackled.
“Come in from the west and we’ll box him in,” Link ordered.
When Eagle glanced at him, Isaac gave a nod. Fury had recently upgraded to a four-man team with the addition of Beckett, but Beckett wasn’t there. He’d injured his ankle during the altercation with Lance and Brewster.
Still, though, he felt unnecessary, like Fury was fine without him being there to fuck up their groove.
“Don’t worry about fitting in,” Eagle murmured when he brought it up. “Spencer is new too.”
“Shut up,” Spencer groused. “I’m not new, Beckett is.”
“But Beckett’s not here,” Eagle smugly smirked.
“Maybe not, but there was a third before me,” Spencer said.
“Oh yeah?” Isaac glanced at Eagle. “Who was it?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Link snapped. “And get into position.”
“I’m in position, asshat, so what’s the fucking call?” Spencer snapped back.
“I’m going in,” Link said.
“Shit,” Eagle mumbled and broke the lock on the garage door. The job was to get in and apprehend Carl Chambers. He was a piece of the puzzle they hoped would lead them to Eddie.
“Why didn’t Infinity take this mission?” he mused aloud.
“Their unit is too big,” Eagle responded.
“Damn straight,” Link growled. “You don’t need a unit of twelve when only a few will do.”
Isaac couldn’t argue with that, but he was used to working with a bigger team and it felt weird that they didn’t have a dispatch.
Eagle took point and entered the structure and Isaac brought up the man’s rear and pulled the door closed to keep out the light, but also to alert him if anyone came in behind them. The scent of sweat and grease permeated the room.
“So, I hear you got into trouble with my man,” Spencer’s whisper came over the mic.
“That’s an understatement,” he said, still feeling the sting of Liam’s verbal thrashing.
“Heard Zane got put on leave,” Eagle said.
“Yeah. Two whole fucking weeks.”
“Why was he in the gym then?” Link asked.
Looking for me, he smiled into the dark. Zane had come looking for him for a last goodbye before Oregon.
He ached to check his phone, but it was in the vehicle. Had Zane left him another message? Was it as sexy sounding as the other messages? His body still ached in places it hadn’t for a long time. He’d put off having full blown sex with Royce, other than a few jerk offs before he’d ended it with the guy after his party.
With Zane, he’d gladly taken the bottom to help him feel more comfortable. It was fucking cute the way Zane had fumbled his way around his body, eager but unsure. Isaac wouldn’t trade that for anything in the fucking world.
“I don’t know,” he finally responded.
“And you were sent to the dog house,” Spencer cackled.
“Fury is not the dog house, motherfucker,” Link snapped.
“It’s better than what happened to Zane,” Isaac muttered over Spencer’s laughter.
“Yeah, that bites,” Eagle replied.
“Quiet down,” Link grumbled.
Sudden voices drifted through the warehouse. Running in a crouch, he and Eagle worked their way toward the suspects.
“Federal officials!” Link shouted.
Eagle charged toward Link and Isaac followed, lunging around the side of a car. A big guy was hunched over a car engine and he pointed the barrel of his weapon to the back of the guy’s head. The suspect lifted his hands away from the sawed off shot gun resting on the engine of the car and lifted his arms.
Eagle got in a scuffle with one of the perps, but Isaac concentrated on the man he had.
“On your knees,” he snarled and zip-tied the suspect’s hands when he complied. Lifting the shotgun from the engine, he kicked it beneath the car and out of reach.
Eagle had the one guy
