Link went through the office door at the end of the room.
“Big mistake, buddy,” Spencer snapped and ducked when a perp swung at him. The soldier took the man down with one punch to the face.
“Ouch,” Eagle grimaced when the perp’s nose cracked loudly in the room. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
Isaac swallowed his snicker. In a way, they reminded him of Infinity minus the number of soldiers.
Spencer jerked a groaning suspect up from the floor, cuffed him, and pushed him toward the others just as Link stepped out of the office with a gun on Carl Chambers.
“Where’s Eddie?”
“You’ll never fucking find him!” Carl growled, hocking a loogie at them.
Link stepped back, avoiding the flying spit, and then put the barrel of his weapon against Carl’s forehead. “You have two seconds to tell me where he is or I’ll shoot you and my report will say you were killed during the raid.”
“He’s hold up at Jed Sawyer’s place.”
“And where does Sawyer live?” Link pressed the gun harder, creating a crater in Carl’s head.
“North Carolina.” Carl’s voice shook.
“Well, that went reasonably well,” Eagle chuckled and shoved Carl toward the door.
Spencer slapped the garage door opener on the wall and with a crackle of metal and a slight bang, the door slid upward.
Outside waiting was a barrage of local PD and SWAT.
“Thanks, Captain,” the SWAT commander said coming to take Carl Chambers off Link’s hands.
“Anytime,” Link replied, unsnapping his vest.
“So, you guys help with local. I thought that was only us and Phoenix,” he said as they walked to the Hummer.
“No, we help wherever Dave wants us,” Eagle said.
“Did you just call the Secretary of Defense by his first name?” Isaac blurted on a laugh.
“Eagle and Dave go way back,” Link informed him with a grin.
Zane
He left another message on Isaac’s phone.
Fury must still be out of state. He wasn’t privy to where the missions took place. Sometimes, these teams thrown together were so top secret that nobody fucking talked about them, ever. He only hoped to get one call back, but it wasn’t in the cards this time.
Taking care of something he’d been meaning to for a few days now, he took a chance she’d be home and drove to Jo’s apartment.
Rapping his knuckles against the door, he knocked insistently until she finally opened it.
She’d done her makeup as if ready for the day, but seeing him, her smiled died and lips trembled.
“What?”
“I believe you,” he said and after a moment’s hesitation, she launched herself into his arms. “Get your coat, let’s go for coffee.”
She grabbed her coat and followed him out the door.
“I need to take my car, I have to run by my parents later.”
He pulled up and parked next to her car at the local coffee shop the unit frequented.
“Why this place?” The coffee house was close to Isaac’s place.
“You guys like this one,” she said and entered when he held the door open.
Once they had their drinks, they sat at a table next to the window. It was gray outside, like the weather couldn’t decide to keep the gloom overhead or dump a shit load of rain on them. Just as that thought ended, the first drop of rain hit the window.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I should be asking you that. Are you?”
“Yeah. It just hurt, you know? I don’t want our friendship to be over.”
“I’m sorry, I won’t let that happen,” he assured her and she reached for his hand and squeezed it before tucking her cold fingers back around the coffee cup.
“So?”
“Hm?” He blinked.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m…” He swallowed and took a deep breath.
“What’s the matter?”
This was the happiest he’d ever been in his life, but he didn’t want to be insensitive and hurt Jo.
“Tell me.” She reached across the table again and placed her hand over his.
“I have feelings for Isaac,” he whispered.
“So, you’re gay?”
“No.”
“So, it’s just Isaac?”
“Yeah. No, it’s not only Isaac.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I mean, it is him, just didn’t start out with him.”
“So, you like guys and girls?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass and tell you it’ll be easy, because it won’t. But I will tell you that you have a ton of people around you, including me, who love you and won’t turn their back on you.”
He huffed under his breath and then smiled at her. “You amaze me sometimes.”
“Hey, just because I hide behind my airhead façade, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about people.”
“Why do you hide like that?”
“It’s easier.” She crossed her arms. “It keeps me from getting hurt.”
He took a sip of his coffee.
“Just like you. You hide your softer side behind a gruff attitude,” she continued. “Like a lone wolf. You’ve been so afraid to label yourself gay all these years because you think people will see you as weak.”
“That’s not true.”
“It’s not?” Both of her eyebrows lifted.
“Maybe, but if you have to label me, I’m bisexual,” he said with a smug smile.
“Whatever. I call dibs on being your BFF.” She smiled at him.
“Agreed.” He laughed and reached for her hand.
When he walked her to her car, she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He opened her door with a flourish.
“Fast food and a movie soon?” she asked. “You can even bring Isaac.”
“I have to talk to him first,” he said with a grin. “But yeah.”
He stood watching her car pull out of the parking lot when he caught sight of Lacy. She glared at him before marching to her car and slipping behind the wheel.
Lacy gunned it past him and out of the parking lot. Good, he had no desire to talk to her.
He pulled out his phone, still no messages from Isaac.
Isaac
“Come in!”
He took a deep breath and opened Colonel Cobalt’s office door.
“Sergeant.”
“Colonel, got a moment?”
“A few minutes before a meeting.”
“I want to be back on Infinity and
