Page 19 of Exhale (Out for Justice #8)

T he back room was fucking empty.

Owen was going to kill all of them!

Right then, his brother had his hands on both of his shoulders, preventing him from charging.

“Breathe,” Ace ordered. “We question them and get answers.”

He heard the sense in the words, but it took several moments for his bloodlust to cool.

Over Ace’s shoulder, he caught Jordan’s gaze. Sure, there was worry in those blue eyes, but there was also resolve, and Owen was proud to call Jordan his partner on the job.

Giving a short nod to Ace, he stepped around his brother and approached the perps in the other room.

“If I were your boss, where would I go when I left here?” Owen began, fingering the blade he held in his hand.

Nobody spoke until one brave soul said…

“You killed a guy. I want my lawyer!”

Seven stepped up to the guy and smacked him in the back of the head.

“We’re not the cops. Answer the man,” Seven snarled.

Shock swept through every man on their knees, and horror filled their faces.

“He’s probably h…home,” one perp stuttered.

“Address.” Seven smacked the same guy again, and the address was shakily given.

“I didn’t know Danner had an address.” Jordan squinted at the perp who’d spoken.

“Not a permanent one, but he’s been staying there for the last few days. He’s probably grabbing his stuff.”

“Shut up, Cliff,” another guy spat and earned the butt of Eagle’s rifle to the back of his head.

“Does he have two little boys with him?” Owen asked the talkative perp.

“No, only one.”

Jordan turned away from where he was listening and stepped outside.

Pulling up his laptop, he perched on a stack of boxes and sent a message to Seth, who was currently working at the Genesis ranch in Nevada.

I need the location of Black.

It took a moment for the response to come back.

Why?

I need his help finding one of Owen’s sons who’s missing, and I know he’s on site.

Give me one minute, I’m on it.

Seth’s response came back immediately.

Owen came out the door, slamming a new clip into his gun.

Jordan caught and held the man’s gaze.

“I’m going after Danner and my son.” Owen’s voice was a low, menacing growl.

Jordan reached out and fisted the front of Owen’s lightweight vest and yanked him close.

“Watch your back.”

“You’re not coming?”

Jordan shook his head. “I’m trying to get a bead on your other son.”

The gratefulness was stark in Owen’s pale blue gaze and the man yanked him into a tight, hard hug before letting him go.

Jordan took the precious moments to watch the back of Owen’s wide shoulders disappear before he went back to his laptop and Seth’s response.

He said he’s tracking the other perp about sixteen miles from Danner’s warehouse.

Do you have a bead on his exact location?

No, I’ve tried, but it’s not my area of expertise.

Jordan snorted.

Give me Black’s cell number.

The number came through, and Jordan’s fingers flew over the keys of his laptop.

He had Black’s cell located in less than forty-five seconds flat, and that was with it encrypted and shit.

Tucking away his cell phone, he returned his laptop to its case and checked the clip on his gun.

“Where are you going?” Link murmured, and Jordan realized the Pegasus agent must have been nearby the whole time.

“After Owen’s other son.”

“Can I tag along?” Link asked.

“Sure.” The more the merrier, Jordan thought.

“We…we tag along,” Eagle growled in that deep growly voice of his.

Link and Eagle were so opposite it was startling, but they worked perfectly together, like peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, or Starsky and Hutch, Batman and Robin kind of shit.

Adam came out of the room with an arm wrapped around Dalton’s waist.

“I’m okay,” Dalton was saying, while holding a rag to an obvious gunshot wound on his upper right arm.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Adam scowled upward.

Link stalked over and removed the rag to take a look. He probed at the wound, and Dalton hissed.

“The medical kit is out in the Suburban,” Link told Adam and then turned to him. “Let’s go.”

Jordan hustled to catch up to Link and Eagle as they left the warehouse.

Link handed back his cell after gazing at it for a second.

“We should make good time if we cut over and go down 5 th street,” Link said.

“Where you goin?” Creed asked, falling into step with them.

“To get Owen’s other son,” Link said, sliding behind the wheel of one of the black SUVs.

They all hopped in, including Creed.

“You got those flash grenades?” Eagle asked Creed, turning in the passenger seat.

Creed snorted. “Several, why?”

“Just thinking we might need them.”

“Tell me where to turn, Jordan,” Link said, cutting into Eagle and Creed’s conversation.

“Go right, go down 5 th until you get to Mercer, and then hook a left.” Jordan stared at the blinking dot that was Black’s location.

Cody was hurting his arm from holding it tightly, and Elliott didn’t like it.

He cried, but silently so Cody wouldn’t get mad again.

He was glad that Cody found him.

“Just keep your mouth shut. You and your brother are worth a lot of money.”

“Where’s mommy?”

“She’s gone, and I can’t keep you so…” Cody rubbed a hand down his face. He’d thought for a moment he’d be noble and save the boys, but he was jonesing for a hit of fucking skag.

He was no hero. Maybe if he could have gotten clean and settled down with Ginny, he would be something today, but things were different, and she had loved Mark.

“So, keep your mouth shut and keep walking,” Cody finished.

“Hey man, I’ll take the kid.”

A hooker stepped away from the shadows of a building.

Wearing short shorts and a cropped top, his eyes were heavily lined in black, and his straight inky black hair hung past his shoulders.

Fishnet stockings covered his legs with runs in both, and incredibly high heels put the willowy guy over six feet tall.

The man was fucking gorgeous, and it was hard to imagine someone that good-looking was a whore.

“You got cash?” Cody stopped.

“I got H,” the hooker said.

Cody’s heart pounded, and he licked his lips. He could wait and get a lot more money for Elliott, but he really wanted that hit. He could give the guy Elliott, do the hit, and then wrap back around and take Elliott back.

“Yeah, okay, give it to me.”

“Sure, shug,” the guy said, opening the small pouch that hung on a chain around his neck.

Cody reached for the drugs, and the hooker lifted Elliott into his arms.

Elliot screamed, but the hooker didn’t seem to mind, just placed a soothing hand down the sobbing boy’s back before disappearing into the shadows as if he’d never been there.

Cody took a step into the same shadows and met only darkness.

What the fuck?

Glancing around, he walked a few feet and searched the area around the side of the building, but nothing.

Not a sound. Not a soul was nearby.

It was the most uncanny thing he’d ever experienced.

Fuck, he needed a hit. There in the alley, he fumbled, taking out his lighter. The H was already tucked inside a piece of foil, so he heated it up and sucked in the smoke, holding it deep in his lungs.

He never saw the avenging angel come up from behind.

And he went out of this world the way he preferred it.

High as a fucking kite.

Black studied the drug addict at his feet and walked away.

He scooped up Elliott from Micah and carried the boy through the alley, toward the boulevard ahead.

“Where we going?” Micah asked.

“Pegasus is looking for me, and you need to change your clothes,” Black said.

The men of Pegasus were tracking him, and he had made damned sure they would be able to ping his location.

“Can we find mommy?” Elliott asked, gazing up at him through a tear-stained face.

“We can find your daddy.”

“You know daddy?”

“No, but I know some guys that do, and I know your daddy is looking for you.”

“He is?”

Big wide eyes studied him as if they weren’t sure about trusting him.

Black got it.

He was low on the trust category himself.