Page 26 of Exhale (Out for Justice #8)

J ordan leaned back and gazed out the window of the chopper.

Kellum had called them a few minutes ago and said he and Creed were bringing Elliott to Oregon so they’d meet them at Diesel and Triton’s place.

Owen was talking to Weston over the phone. After the first piercing wail of Daddy, the conversation was too quiet to hear over the loud blades of the chopper.

Micah and Black said they’d keep in touch, and Jordan hoped so.

They still had Remy’s Boss to take care of. Plus, he wanted to know why Black hated Lucas so much.

He smiled when Owen ended the phone call with his son and reached over to link their fingers.

“How’d it go?” Jordan asked, turning slightly to face Owen.

“He wouldn’t talk past calling me daddy, so Triton told me he’s doing surprisingly well.”

“That’s good. Plus, it will be different when you see him in person,” Jordan soothed.

“I hope so,” Owen murmured, squeezing his hand.

The call came in over the chopper radio, so they all heard the announcement through the headphones.

“There has been an assassination attempt on the former Secretary of Defense.”

“Shit,” Jordan muttered, fumbling for his phone and shot a text to Stone asking if everything was now okay.

Owen leaned over to read the response from Stone when it came.

“Threat has been neutralized. SecDef is safe,” Stone responded.

“Thank god.” Jordan breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that both Dave and Stone were safe.

When the helicopter landed in a deserted parking lot in Fern, Oregon, he and Owen slid into a waiting car.

The kind driver behind the wheel told them that Former Special Forces soldier Diesel Gannon and his husband Triton lived a few minutes away from where they’d landed.

The little town of Fern was located in the middle of nowhere. The area was thick with trees and a forest so dense it was hard to believe unless seen.

The town was small with only a few streets, as if it had stopped growing, stuck in time, and nothing had been allowed to change it.

A train station was the main hub of the town. With one main street, a few doctors’ offices, a dentist, a laundry mat, and a liquor store, everything felt…simple…slower. Nice.

Across the street from the train station, down a ways next to the Fern Feed Store was Tauber’s Pool Hall, owned by US Marshal Whiplash Tauber.

“Brothers, US Marshal Axel Bains and Sheriff Memphis Bains work with Whiplash at the bar when not handling law enforcement duties,” the driver told them.

Jordan knew all this because he’d done his homework on the flight, but he smiled at the guy.

“They have a really protective dog,” Jordan told Owen.

“Who?”

“Diesel and Triton, her name is Molly.”

“And you said he was wounded in the military?” Owen asked, because they had discussed during the flight what he’d found on Gannon.

“Diesel, yes, that’s when he retired from Special Forces.” Jordan nodded.

“He sounds like a nice guy.”

“From what I could research, Diesel and his husband Triton are honest and reliable. Their Facebook profiles are filled with friends, laughter, and love,” Jordan said.

“Just like ours will be?” Owen smiled and linked their fingers.

Jordan heard the question in the words and searched Owen’s eyes. The pale blue depths were bright in the afternoon sun.

“Yes,” Jordan breathed the words. “Just like ours will be.”

He would have said more, but the car pulled to a stop in front of a charming house on a street with no sidewalks. The yard was filled with flowers and lush grass with a white picket fence surrounding everything.

Jordan was in love with the house at first sight.

“Wow,” Owen said, sounding impressed.

They both slid out of the car and approached the front gate.

A dog barked, and soon the front door opened.

A large Labrador retriever came barreling out the door and down the steps of the house, barking up a storm.

A large man stepped out onto the front porch.

“Hush, Molly,” the man said, and the barking stopped immediately.

“Diesel?” Jordan asked.

“Yes, and you must be Jordan and Owen,” Diesel said with a smile.

“I’m Jordan, this is Owen.”

“Molly, inside,” Diesel said, and the dog turned and trotted back into the house. “Sorry about that,” Diesel said, unlatching the gate.

The house was just as charming inside as it was outside, and Jordan stepped into the warmth ahead of Owen and Diesel.

His eyes went immediately to the couch and the small boy sitting with a slender blond man on the cushions.

For a moment, Owen couldn’t speak as he took in the tiny replica of Elliott. The boys were identical twins, with Elliott being the smaller of the pair.

“You must be Weston,” Owen said, pointing to Triton. “And I’m guessing you’re Triton?” Owen said, squatting in front of Weston.

The little boy giggled. “No, silly, I’m Weston.” One small finger pointed to his own chest.

“Ahhhh, well, I guess I was wrong,” Owen chuckled.

“What’s your name?” Weston asked.

“I’m your daddy, and my name is Owen,” Owen said, sliding out the picture of him holding the fish and one of Ginny and him out of his shirt pocket.

Weston took the picture with the fish and looked at it for a long time, and then gazed up at him.

“Where have you been?”

The innocent tragedy in the words coming from his son was gut-wrenching, and Owen’s heart broke for his small family.

“I didn’t know,” Owen whispered brokenly. “Mommy didn’t tell me about you.”

Weston dropped the picture and reached for him. It wasn’t the launch into his arms that Elliott had done, but Owen would take it.

From there, it was dinner time, and they ate casserole and garlic bread around the kitchen table.

Weston had an amazing appetite for a five-year-old and Owen soon discovered that his son was a chatterbox. He asked a million questions of him and then turned and did the same to Jordan.

Jordan seemed to take it all in stride; in fact, the techie seemed more at home around his son than he did.

A knock on the door sent Molly into a tizzy, and Diesel shushed the dog.

Elliott, Kellum, and Creed arrived, and the twins were reunited.

“I lost you!” Elliott wailed, clinging to Weston.

“You dufus!” Weston said. “I told you to hold Cody’s hand.”

Elliott sniffled and nodded.

Triton invited the new arrivals to stay for dinner. He had made enough to feed a small army, and with a few folded chairs, they made it work.

After dinner, Triton and Jordan bathed the twins, and Kellum and he cleaned the kitchen while Creed and Diesel got the fire pit in the backyard going and placed the chairs around it.

It was later, after the twins were sleeping in one of the spare bedrooms, that Diesel told the story of exactly how he’d rescued Weston.

“We’re such a small town,” Diesel murmured. “When we got the word from Dave, we mobilized not only Fern law enforcement, but the citizens as well.

“It was Sally from the train station who noticed something was up. A woman came through with a crying young boy, and Sally got a gut feeling. She pulled up the photo and recognized Elliott right away.”

“She tackled her,” Triton cackled, and Diesel chuckled.

“That she did.”

“Why is that funny?” Creed wanted to know with his lips twitching.

“Because Sally is seventy years old, but she’s spry, and she wasn’t letting Elliott leave with that woman.”

“Ah, okay,” Creed chuckled softly.

Owen found himself smiling at the thought. “Tell Sally thanks for us.”

“I will.”

“Where is the woman now?” Jordan asked.

“She’s being held at the sheriff’s station here in town.”

“We want to question her about the whereabouts of Danner.”

“I figured as much,” Diesel nodded. “We can contact US Marshal Axel Bains.”

“The Marshals run the Sheriffs now?” Jordan looked confused.

“They do both in this town.”