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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Talk about a weird morning. Then again, the last several hours had been one surprise after another.

He certainly hadn’t expected to have Jay in his bed last night.

Had he fantasized about having Jay in his bed, which he would neither confirm nor deny, it hadn’t involved kissing tenderly, cuddling, or discussing shark loofahs.

Ryden had always been aware of Jay’s sweet, affectionate side, and if he were honest with himself, he’d admit he’d been a little jealous of all the folks on the receiving end.

He only had himself to blame. Instead of acknowledging that he’d been attracted to Jay and being an adult about it, he’d acted like some schoolboy with a crush.

Then again, they both had a talent for pushing each other’s buttons.

Didn’t matter. He had no time to think about any of that right now. Those assholes had tried to hurt Jay, and they were going to pay for it. But first, they had to be found. By now, Jack had likely dug up what he could on them. Time to find out what they were dealing with.

Ryden walked into the conference room and closed the door behind him. Turning, five heads shot up simultaneously, making him jump. These fuckers had been hanging around one another way too long.

“Fuck’s sake. That was terrifying. I would appreciate it if you all stopped acting like you’ve been body-snatched. King will be along in a minute. He’s talking to Jay.”

Ace straightened, a shit-eating grin on his face.

Great. Here we go. Ryden braced himself.

“How was your evening?”

Who did Ace think he was fooling? Ryden arched an eyebrow at him and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you tell me, Anston? You obviously saw the surveillance footage.”

“The surveillance footage didn’t show us what happened after,” Ace replied. “It was a really sweet embrace, though. You two look so cute together.”

“Shut up,” Ryden grumbled, sitting at the conference table far from the front where the others were huddled. He should have gotten himself another coffee. He’d not had enough caffeine for this. “You wanna know what happened last night?”

“Yes, please.” Ace leaned forward.

“Oh, so much happened. A whole lotta nunya business.”

Joker snorted. “Told ya he wasn’t gonna spill.”

Thankfully, the door opened, and King walked in, followed by Jay, whose gaze went straight to Ryden.

The smile that appeared on his face made Ryden’s breath catch.

Damn, he was beautiful. Jay sat in the chair beside Ryden, facing the others, and King made his way to the front, choosing to stand at the head of the table rather than sit.

“Before we get to what Jack found, Jay insists on being involved. Try to contain your shock.”

No one was shocked.

“Since Mason and Red are off-site with clients, Saint, you’re officially assigned to Jay as his protective detail. I’ll get a contract drawn up after this.”

As expected, Jay did not look happy. At all. Saint gave Jay an apologetic smile.

Jay shook his head. “King, I don’t?—”

“This is not up for debate. You want to be involved? You’re assigned round-the-clock protection. Official. That’s the deal.”

“I could do it,” Ryden said.

King barked out a laugh that quickly turned into a deep frown. “Absofuckinglutely not . ”

“I figured that from your expression. Didn’t expect you to say it out loud, but sure, no, I get it.” Ryden cleared his throat. This was going to get awkward. He could feel it.

Jay groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can you please put that thing away, King?”

Ace jumped back, his horrified expression making Ryden laugh. “Put what thing away?”

“King’s judgy eyebrow,” Jay grumbled.

“I do not have a judgy eyebrow.”

“You do,” Joker said. “It’s the left one.”

“Oh, for the love of—Fine. I have a judgmental eyebrow. That does not change the fact that Saint is going to be Jay’s protective detail because everyone in this damned room has fallen in love with someone they were supposed to protect.

Saint’s already in love, so I don’t have to worry about another damned romance happening during an assignment. ”

“Um, excuse me.” Jack put a finger up. “But I think you’ll find none of us were officially on duty or assigned to protective detail when said romances happened. Ace is the only one who fell in love with his client while on protective duty.”

Ace threw his arms up. “What the hell, bro? It only took him like a fucking decade to get over it.”

“Who says I’m over it?” King growled.

“Fuck my life.” Something seemed to occur to Ace. “Wait, you were protecting Leo when you two hooked up.”

“First of all, we didn’t ‘hook up.’ We were in an underground government black site, not a nightclub. Secondly, I wasn’t hired to be his protective detail. I was asked to keep him safe as a favor. There was no contract.”

“There was a verbal one,” Ace offered smugly. “Between you and General de Loughrey.” King narrowed his eyes, and Ace grinned wickedly. “I’m just saying. Your romance with Leo falls into a very gray area.”

King crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re about to fall into a very gray area.”

“That makes no sense,” Ace said, clearly amused.

“My point is, I’m not taking any chances.” King waved a finger between Ryden and Jay. “Keep it in your pants. At least until this is over.”

Jay’s cheeks flushed a bright pink, and Ryden wasn’t sure whether to run for the hills or crawl under the table.

Did everyone think they were sleeping together?

Since when? Glancing around the room, no one seemed surprised by King’s words.

Wow. Ryden had always considered himself very observant. So much for that.

“On to business. What have you got so far?” King turned his attention to Jack, who picked up his tablet and started tapping away. The screen on the wall came to life, and profile images of the Marines who’d been at the wedding appeared.

“These five here,” Jack said, highlighting everyone except their fake Marine, “were all discharged, but I haven’t found info on their official discharge.

I’m still working on gathering intel, but they were involved in several special ops missions, so I need to tread carefully.

Our friend Martin, as Ryden suspected, is not a Marine. He’s not military at all.”

“So, who is he?” Ryden asked.

“Martin Smith. He and his Marine pals are consultants for Bullard Business Import and Export Solutions, an international shipping corporation based in Luxembourg with offices in Tampa Bay, Fort Pierce, and Miami.”

King frowned. “Some of the biggest shipping ports in Florida.”

It was all starting to come together, and Ryden didn’t like the picture forming one bit.

“So we have a bunch of Marines who just happen to be in town for the same wedding who work for a company with offices in major shipping ports, and then yesterday, the owner of Gibson Global, a major import-export company in St. Augustine, gets blown up.”

“Martin mentioned that he knew the groom through mutual acquaintances,” Jay said. “How they all met once a week to play basketball and have a few beers.”

Jack nodded. “That mutual acquaintance is the groom’s brother-in-law, Drew, whose boyfriend, Kyle, works for—drumroll, please—Gibson Global.”

“Well, that sure as hell isn’t a coincidence,” Joker said.

“Did I mention,” Jack added, sounding very pleased with himself. “That Drew is a Marine? That’s how the groom met his bride. She’s Drew’s sister. Drew wasn’t at the wedding because he’s on deployment, but Kyle was there.”

Jay sighed. “So it was them. Martin said, ‘This would have been so much easier if that asshole had just agreed.’ and then the other guy replied, ‘He didn’t, so we need to improvise, adapt, and overcome.’ They must have tried to get Gibson to agree to something, and when he didn’t, they killed him.”

Lucky nodded. “It fits. Especially with how desperate Gibson was for a meeting with us about executive protection.”

Joker pursed his lips. “Do you think Kyle is working with them?”

“I don’t think so,” Jack replied. “I’ve been looking into his financials, checking security footage of him at Gibson Global, and following his digital footprint.

Nothing suggests that he is anything other than a regular guy who works in the loading dock.

When Gibson was killed, Kyle was at work, and he gave no indication he knew what had just gone down with his boss. ”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Ryden said. “If Kyle isn’t workin’ with them, there’s gotta be something else. You said Kyle works in the loadin’ dock. Has there been any weird activity with his access? Could they have stolen his access code or card?”

Jack shook his head. “I checked the company logs, and he was on site every time his access card was scanned.”

“What do we know about Bullard?” King asked Jack.

“You mean other than the fact that the company doesn’t exist?

” Jack tapped the screen, and what almost looked like a stock photo of a building appeared.

“They did a damned good job making it look real, but it’s a front for whatever shady shit they’ve got going on at these shipping ports.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were looking to expand. ”

Ryden frowned. “But St. Augustine doesn’t have a cargo shipping port. It’s mostly air cargo and small marinas.”

Jay threw his arm out and grabbed Ryden’s wrist. “Oh no.”

“What?” Ryden asked, covering Jay’s hand with his. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, but he didn’t care. Something had Jay freaked out.

“St. Augustine might not have a cargo shipping port, but there’s a big one not far from St. Augustine.”

The blood drained from Ace’s face. “Shit. I need to call Colton.” He darted from the room without another word.

“What just happened?” Saint asked.

Ryden cursed under his breath. “JAXPORT. Joshua said that Gibson had a contract with Connolly Maritime, and Colton had lunch with Gibson the day before he died.”