Page 21 of Exhale (Out for Justice #8)

O wen glanced through the photos Jordan had given to Eagle.

“He said he’d be back?” he asked Eagle again.

“Yeah.”

“And these were people he knew?” Owen searched Eagle’s face.

“It looks like it. They’re from his past. One’s the assassin they call Black, the other is a step-brother.”

Owen nodded slowly and tucked the photos of him fishing and the one with Ginny into his shirt pocket beneath his tactical vest.

“Your son is in the SUV with Link, eating fries and a shake,” Eagle said, pointing to the dark vehicle.

Owen approached, tearing off his vest, his hands were sweaty, and his chest tight with nerves. He opened the door and slid into the passenger seat and turned slightly to get his first look at one of his sons.

The boy was tiny, with dark curly hair that matched his own. When Elliott glanced up, the blue eyes that gazed at him were identical to his.

“Hi,” Owen said softly.

The boy’s eyes went wide, the fry in his hand poised midway to his mouth.

Owen slowly reached into his shirt pocket and took out the photo of him with the fish and showed it to Elliott. Surely the boy would have seen it on the wall? Then he showed Elliott the picture with him and Ginny.

“Hi, Elliott, I’m your dad.” Owen pointed to the pictures.

Elliott dropped the fry and stood in the back seat. The rest of the burger would have ended up on the floor except that Link saved it.

Owen thought the boy was running, but then tiny, too-thin arms reached for him, and Owen hauled the boy over the center console and into his arms.

Harsh sobs broke out in Elliott’s small body, shuddering and quaking in his arms. Owen ran his hand soothingly up and down Elliott’s back.

Not trying to stop the storm of tears, but holding him tightly to let him know without words that he was safe.

For the life of him, Owen couldn’t stop the burning sting of tears in his own eyes and barely managed to stop them from falling.

Now wasn’t the time to break down. He needed to find Weston and then Jordan, in that order.

“Daddy,” Elliott wailed, wrapping his arms around his neck, clutching him.

“I’m here, baby,” he soothed, choking, rocking Elliott.

“Where’s Wes?” Elliott asked in a hiccup sob.

“I’ve got to go get him,” Owen whispered, holding Link’s gaze over Elliott’s shoulder. “Can you stay with Uncle Link until I come back?”

Link shook his head and pointed to himself while mouthing the words… I’m going.

“I need you here,” Owen said roughly.

“Elliott, I’m going to introduce you to Kellum, he has a brother about your age. He can show you pictures on his phone,” Link said with a scowl at Owen.

“He can?” Elliott pushed up from Owen’s shoulder and gazed around at Link.

“He can.” Link shot a text to Kellum.

Kellum, who had been stationed inside a Suburban, appeared in seconds, and Link introduced them.

“My brother is about your age,” Kellum said with a smile.

Elliott gripped him tightly, and Owen cradled the boy.

“Go with Kellum and I’ll bring back Weston,” he said.

Those eyes so much like his own gazed back at him, gauging whether or not to trust him.

“I promise, Elliott, I will be back,” he said.

“With mommy?”

Owen tried to smile, but he knew it was a failed attempt and pulled Elliott in another tight hug.

“Let me get Weston first, and then we’ll talk about mommy,” he promised.

“Okay,” Elliott said and held out his arms to Kellum.

When the SUV door shut after Kellum and his son, Owen rubbed both hands on his face tiredly.

“Don’t think you’re going to cut me out, bro,” Link admonished him.

“Sorry about that, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Apparently,” Link snorted.

Owen agreed. He hadn’t been thinking when he’d suggested Link be a babysitter. Sitting Link on the sidelines would have made things much more difficult, even with Seven and Hunter out there, along with Parker and Oliver.

Link was one of the best, if not the best, in their unit.

Knuckles wrapped on the side of the SUV and Owen jumped out with Link following closely.

“You two ready?” Ace said.

Along with Ace stood Creed and Jacob, fully geared. Eagle waited patiently in the background.

“I will be,” Owen said, walking over to the open end of the Pegasus suburban where they kept gear and ammo.

He pulled back on everything that he’d taken off to greet his son.

Pulling on his vest, he tucked extra ammo and flash grenades into pockets and strapped the sheath of his knife to his thigh before tucking his blade away.

Picking up his nine-millimeter Luger, he double checked the clip.

“We got a lead on Danner’s location. He carjacked a vehicle on 7 th , two blocks from here. The car has a vehicle recovery system,” Ace said. “Kellum pulled it up.” Ace showed Owen the blinking dot on the phone.

“Send that to my phone,” Owen said.

Ace grimaced. “Jordan’s the expert in that shit.”

“He’s busy,” Owen said.

“Here.” Jacob took Ace’s phone and tapped on it before handing it back to Ace and then holding his hand out for Owen’s phone.

“Thanks,” Owen said, handing Jacob his cell. It took the techie a few moments, but he had the ping up on his phone working along with a new app for it.

Ace slid into the Suburban, and Owen followed, and with Jacob riding passenger and Link driving, he, Ace, and Eagle took up the back.

“Eagle told me that Jordan knows Black,” Ace said.

“Yeah, it’s two people from his past that showed up,” Owen murmured.

“Small world,” Ace said.

Yeah, Owen agreed, but he wasn’t buying it. Those two, along with that Lucas guy at the Pegasus gate, seemed a bit much. It was odd that all of them showed up almost at the same time.

All men in the vehicle were quiet.

They had all heard the story, or rather a version of Jordan’s history, before he was saved by Seth, Frost, and Storm from the streets of Oakland.

It made Owen sick to his stomach thinking of the circumstances that had caused Jordan to live that life, and he hoped that the three men from Jordan’s past were not here to cause any shit.

If they were, then he’d deal with them one at a time.

Assassin or no assassin.

During the next twelve minutes, they sat in silence as the vehicle barreled through the night towards Danner’s location.

“Seven and the guys are already on the scene. We are rolling up dark,” Link murmured and killed the headlights as they rounded the corner onto the street.

The Suburban rolled to a quiet stop, and Link shut off the engine.

Silently, they exited the vehicle as one, slipping like water through the night.

Meeting up with Hunter, Seven, and the others, Ace used hand signals to communicate.

Pegasus was a deadly force encroaching through the dark as they converged on the house with the stolen car parked outside.

They had one goal in mind.

Taking back one of their own.

Viper, the head of a group of military assassins, stepped out of the shadows.

“What do you have?” he asked the man who stood before him wearing all black.

“I should have a bead on him soon.”

“You’ve known about this for six months and you haven’t had a bead yet. Do I need to put someone else on it?”

“No, he made a mistake recently, and I’ll have him neutralized before the week ends.”

“Is Micah going to be a problem?”

“No.”

“Make sure that he’s not.” With a curt nod, Viper stepped back and disappeared into the dark shadows.

Black thought he could see the man’s wide shoulders as he walked away, but it must have been a trick of the light because instead of gravel crunching underfoot, only silence greeted him.

With a sigh, he turned and made his way back to his vehicle.

He had a job to do.

One that he wasn’t looking forward to.

The only downside was that Micah would never forgive him.