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“I wonder why they want us here?” Beck asked as they trudged across the dusty paddock toward one of the main buildings.

Boston walked silently at Azrael’s other side, along with Freedom.

It was just after dark on a Thursday night and Azrael had the same thought, but then he was reminded of Will’s words back at the YA house.

And while everything had been relatively quiet, they still hadn’t apprehended Micky or Titus. Apprehended wasn’t exactly what they did, but if Titus had boys like Tanis had, then they would need to keep him alive until they got the locations.

“Because Titus has it out for Real and all of us are targets,” Azrael said, finally answering Beck.

“I know that part, but why are we included in the meeting?” Beck asked.

“I don’t know.” Azrael frowned as they reached a large ranch building that housed a meeting hall.

That was his own unanswered question. If YA was to be there at the ranch to take the targets off their backs, why were they being included in the meeting hall?

Perhaps this wasn’t to discuss Titus, but rather something else.

All Azrael had were more questions as he stepped inside the large building first, followed by Beck, Boston, and Freedom.

The noise assaulted him, the room was overrun with conversations and joking between the men and women. Nobody noticed or seemed to care when YA walked inside, and the loud noise continued.

Azrael was glad for it, and he caught sight of a familiar face when Crow waved from where he sat with Rebel on a bench against one far wall.

The room was huge, with long tables lined with benches on either side. Benches were also strung along each wall, affording more seats.

The place, this building in particular, was hands down the biggest meeting room Azrael had ever been inside of. In comparison, the rooms in the Erebus warehouse were much smaller.

There must have been close to thirty men and even several women inside. He had noticed the female population on his first day at the ranch. He couldn’t be sure if the women had been there the last time he had visited, but that time he hadn’t really paid attention to the people or the layout.

The barracks for the women were separate from the men, and while the two buildings weren’t all that far from one another, it was clear which building was which. The women had laundry hanging on clothes lines and flowers planted along the front on either side of the front door.

The men’s building? It had none of that. If there was laundry, then it was sitting in a bag on the front porch waiting for the service to pick it up. As for flowers? That was a big fat zero.

“Looks like Crow saved us seats,” Boston said with a nudge, and Azrael glanced around as they headed that way.

Up at the front of the room, Azrael noticed Real sitting behind a long wooden table at the head of the room.

Next to Real was another man wearing a military uniform. All Azrael knew was that they called the man Viper. He didn’t know what branch of the service Viper was in, but the guy commanded respect.

Just like Real commanded respect. It was one of the things Azrael noticed when they had arrived.

Stone sat next to Viper.

Some might find it odd that Stone was here instead of Savage, but Azrael knew that Savage answered to Stone. Not many people knew that tidbit of information, and the only reason he did was because he had overheard Dave and Stone talking about it in the library one night.

“Isn’t that the Aries guys?” Freedom whispered, and Azrael caught sight of King, Levi, and Nash, along with a few other Aries members.

“Looks like it,” he said, following Boston, Freedom, and Beck. They all squeezed in beside Rebel and Crow on the long bench.

Again, Azrael’s eyes went back to Real.

The warrior’s gray-blue eyes were locked on him, and Azrael met the man’s heated stare. He settled on the hard wooden seat and tipped his chin with a smirk before licking his lips.

Fire lit Real’s gaze, making his eyes more of a Pewter gray, and the need and hunger in those gray depths felt nice. It was nice to know that he affected Real to such a degree.

Viper stood and lifted a hand. A series of shushes traveled through the crowd, and the room fell silent.

“We’ve located the place where Titus’s right-hand man landed,” Viper said, picking up a small black device on the table and pointing it at one of the large wall monitors.

The screen flicked on. “An estate on the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. Make no mistake, this is not the compound where Titus resides, but we might be able to get to Titus if we can get our hands on Micky.”

“Tell them the implications of doing business as normal,” Stone told Viper.

“That’s the tricky part.” Viper looked out over the mass of assassins gathered. “You are all trained killers, but think of the impact if you kill Micky or Titus and there are children locked away somewhere, starving to death.”

Viper let that sink in.

“So, we’re taking them alive,” Viper concluded.

A murmur ran around the room, but Azrael’s eyes were locked on Real. His warrior didn’t seem surprised about the news, and really, neither was he. It made sense to catch the assholes and torture them for information rather than go in guns blazing or in most of their cases, knives flashing.

Azrael stood, and several pairs of eyes snapped to him as well as Stone’s and Viper’s. He lifted his hand.

“Yes, Azrael?” Stone said.

“What is YA’s role?”

“You will accompany us to the location. Once we get the information on potential victims, I want you on hand to help with the young ones.”

“I’m not sitting this one out,” Freedom charged, getting to his feet.

“You’re underage,” Viper cut in before Stone could answer. “You’re lucky to be included at all.”

“Screw this. There are plenty more places that need wet work done,” Freedom spat.

Viper studied the boy’s angry face. Freedom was a perfect fit for what they did. He was so beautiful, like an innocent boy next door, that people didn’t see him coming.

“Freedom, see me after this meeting,” Viper growled, and Freedom’s chin tipped, fire spat from the boy’s bright blue eyes.

Shaking his blond curls angrily out of his eyes, Freedom plopped back down on the bench.

Stone turned his attention back to him, and Azrael waited.

“If we find children or young adults inside of this compound, they will be brought to you. It will be YA’s responsibility to keep them safe. Protect them at all costs. Do you understand?” Stone asked.

Azrael nodded. “Understood.” He turned to Freedom and glared at the teenager.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Azrael asked Freedom, who looked contrite.

“No problem, sorry,” the blond boy muttered and ducked his head.

“I have an objection,” Missy Brown said, standing from the table where the women sat.

Viper and Stone gave her their attention.

While Viper, Stone, and Real ran the ranch and assassins, Missy was an honorary leader of the women.

With her short dark bob, hard green eyes, and tall build, people took her seriously.

It could have been the way she had handed several men their asses during training, but Azrael didn’t think so.

Missy was nice until you got on her bad side, and he wondered if that was going to be the case here.

“What’s that?” Viper asked.

“I think the children will be more comfortable with the women,” Missy said.

“I doubt they are young children,” Viper said, frowning.

“Are you kidding me?” Azrael stared at Viper in disbelief. From what he recalled, there had been a three-year-old inside Tanis’s bunker when they’d completed that rescue. “Do you even know the age of Tanis’ victims?”

“Watch your tone,” Stone warned.

Azrael glared. “One of those boys was three. Three fucking years old.”

“Do you want to sit this one out and have the women do that part?” Viper asked.

“Woman’s work?” one of the women spat. “I’m not babysitting.” More loud outbursts rang through the female population.

“That was my mistake,” Viper told Azrael. “I knew they were young, but I honestly think that YA will be better to keep the kids safe until the whole thing is settled. Besides…” Viper said, gazing at Missy. “We need you in the fight as part of this op.”

“Yeah, so sit your ass down and quit trying to make us mothers,” Sheila Donner snapped. Sheila shook back her long platinum blonde hair and glared at Missy.

“Bite me,” Missy sneered. There was no love lost between the two women.

A chair scraped loudly in the room, and Azrael looked around.

He hadn’t seen the man sitting in the crowd, but he noticed the cut of Dave’s shoulders when he stood.

When Will had SecDef things to do, it was left to the former SecDef to handle problems at the ranch.

Azrael didn’t know how Dave did it all. The man had to be exhausted.

The guy was sixty-two this year, but not many people would know because Dave carried his age well.

Only the lines near his mouth and the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes and a small smattering of gray at his temples belied his age.

A quiet hush settled over the room.

“We won’t be going in visible to the target,” Dave said. “Every single one of you will stay in your assigned teams and move through the darkness undetectable to the naked eye.”

Dave made it to the front of the room as he spoke, and Stone stood from his chair, gesturing to it for Dave, who waved off the offer.

“We are taking hostages. If you don’t think you can handle that and your assigned jobs from Viper, then I will bring in Phoenix and Pegasus, who can indeed complete an op without casualties or arguments.”

A low murmur ran through the room.

Dave gazed at numerous faces.

“You can sit this one out, nobody’s judging you. But if you do, then you might think about moving from Genesis to Erebus,” Dave said.

What Dave said made sense. Genesis was more designed to take prisoners, while Erebus was not.

The reminder coming from one of the most powerful men in their world sunk in…

Not a soul said a word.