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It wasn’t long before his friend showed himself in. After another round of introductions, Hector’s patience was over.
“Tell me what this is about.”
“What can you tell us about John Decker?” Husk asked.
It felt as if the air was sucked from the room. All Hector could see were John’s dead eyes staring up at the sky.
“This isn’t Twenty Questions,” he growled. “You came here to tell us something. I’m not answering shit before you tell me what it is that has the Bureau sending two of its finest to my humble abode.”
Husk turned to Achilles, but his friend shook his head.
“What he said. Don’t make this a guessing game. Everything about what happened overseas has records. We can’t tell you anything more than you already know. Our unit came under fire, John Decker got killed, and we had to leave him behind. We didn’t want to, but those were our orders. We had to leave his body behind.”
“What do you know about his family?” Gonzales asked.
“Decker didn’t have any family, aside from a younger brother.” Hector had tried to reach out to him, to pay his respects, but the kid had been deployed at the time.
“He has a brother, a few years younger. Has served one tour. Got out when he heard about what happened to his brother. No one has seen him since.”
“No one but Decker’s former unit mates,” Gonzales said pointedly. “There were six of you that day, weren’t there?”
Something in his voice made Hector’s head snap up. “Tell me why you’re here.”
Gonzales cleared his throat. “Three of your former unit mates are dead. A fourth barely survived and is currently in the burn unit. Up until him, the deaths of the other three were considered to be accidents. They died within a few months of each other, and no one saw a connection with Decker’s brother. Not until he tried to kill Seth Hawk.”
“He got to Hawk?” Fuck. It was nearly impossible to sneak up on him.
“Decker didn’t hide from him. Apparently, he wanted Hawk to know who it was that was going to kill him. According to what we’ve heard from Hawk, Decker is unhinged. He believes that his brother was murdered by his unit. He thinks it’s one big cover-up. We believe he has mental issues.”
When Gonzales took out a picture, Hector took a sharp breath. He knew that face. Private Decker looked a lot like John. From a distance, it was easy to confuse Decker with his brother. The visions during daylight, when he thought he saw John, started to make sense now. It explained the eyes he had been feeling on him for the past few months. The slashed tires.
I’m not crazy.
I’m not losing my mind.
“You think he’s after us.”
“Yes.”
“Why now?” Achilles asked. “It’s been over a year since John died. Why wait all this time?”
“Because Decker had to finish his tour first. When he got out, the killing started. We believe he first learns everything there is to find about his target, then he swoops in. I believe he chooses his target by level of … domesticity, as odd as that may sound.”
A chill went up Hector’s spine. “Meaning?”
“He chooses them by level of… happiness. He waits until they are with their loved ones. Hawk would have been his easiest target, living the nearest by, but he didn’t go after him first. He took out Sweeney first.”
“Shit. Sweeney. The guy has four kids.”
“Exactly.” Gonzales gave him a look of pity. “I think the reason he hasn’t targeted you two before is because you didn’t have your own family. Smith still doesn’t, but you do.”
For a moment, his limbs became paralyzed, and his tongue turned into stone, too heavy to lift and turn sounds into words. All he could see were Mary and Zoe. Decker had waited in the shadows, biding his time, until he could destroy him when he was finally fucking happy. In a sick, twisted way, it made all the sense in the world.
“What’s his M.O.?” Achilles asked. “What exactly are we up here against?”
“He’s a demolition expert,” Gonzales said.
Fucking great. They were being hunted by a grunt who liked to blow things up. When did his life turn into a bad action flick?