Page 2

C aleb jerked his coat closed and gripped the elevator railing when the car lurched. He grappled with what Wolf had told him. His husband hadn’t taken the job? Why was that?

“We need to work on our communication skills.”

Wolf scowled at him. “I wasn’t the one who left.”

“I wasn’t going to be gone more than three days,” Caleb said.

“Three days? Why?” His husband glared, oh, he hadn’t liked that answer.

“Three days was the amount of time you were going to be gone,” Caleb said.

“Three?” Wolf squinted, mulling that over. It didn’t surprise him that Caleb had found out how long the Central America job was supposed to be. His husband was tricky and also had close friends in Phoenix, like Seth and Jordan, who were both techie geniuses. “That doesn’t include travel time,” Wolf murmured, earning a glare from Caleb.

When the elevator stopped, it did so with a slight bang on the second floor. The doors popped open to reveal several women waiting. They all got on and squished Caleb and Wolf into the back corner.

When Wolf stepped closer, the familiar rush of being near his husband swept over Caleb. A few of the women gave them knowing glances and he noticed the name badges some of them wore were of a writers’ convention.

Bang!

Everyone jumped, including him, when the elevator’s door slammed shut.

Oops. The doors had been fine before he’d shoved Wolf into them.

“Oh, my gawd. That scared me,” one woman said and others laughed.

“Sounds just like the landing of my plane earlier,” another one chimed in—causing more laughter.

Caleb snickered and Wolf snorted.

“Are you two enjoying the convention?” one woman turned toward him and Wolf.

Caleb caught the scowl on Wolf’s face and elbowed him. “Yes, very much. You?”

“Oh yes, it’s going to be so much fun.” She smiled and then her eyes swept to the matching rings on their hands. “Married long?”

“Six months,” Caleb admitted.

The elevator saved him from responding further when they reached the first floor—rather than stop efficiently, it landed with a slight slam. Some of the women made sounds and others just stood with calculating gazes.

“It’s possessed,” a person said.

“A ghost at midnight!” another one claimed.

No, Caleb wanted to respond, it was just me and my husband making out against it. But he only smiled and imagined how broken the doors would be if he’d done what he’d wanted, like rip off Wolf’s clothes and have sex against that door so he could watch in the mirror.

Bad, bad thoughts, Caleb , he silently admonished. Jumping his husband’s bones right then wasn’t an option. They had stuff to figure out, but he was sure he had made his point.

He just had one more thing to do to get it into Wolf’s head that coddling him and leaving him out was no longer going to be an option.

Caleb was tired of it and it needed to end. When Wolf leaned further against him, Caleb sent a scowl up into his husband’s face.

The doors opened and the women spilled out on the bottom floor.

Wolf didn’t move from crushing against him.

“Move,” he hissed.

“Let’s go back upstairs.” The thickness of desire in Wolf’s voice almost made him cave, but this was too important to put off.

Of course, Wolf would know he had gotten a room here. It had been an unexpected cancellation. Phoenix normally didn’t handle jobs in this neck of the woods—on the East Coast, but the suspect they were after had run clear across the country.

“No, we are not going to my room. Now, move,” Caleb whispered and shoved at Wolf’s chest.

“Coming?” One of the women held the elevator door open with one hand and Wolf had no choice but to move.

Caleb hid a smile and strode quickly down the wide hallway toward the front desk. Wolf prowled at his side.

They drew more than one pair of eyes. It was Wolf, though, that they looked at. His husband was a walking fantasy with unique blue eyes so light they looked silver. With wide shoulders, a muscled build, and dark, windblown hair, Wolf turned heads. The stubble on the ex-Special Forces soldier’s strong jaw gave him an untamed vibe. That combined with a deep voice and tattoos made Wolf hands down one sexy fucker. His husband was dressed similarly to him wearing Phoenix tactical gear—which made him look like a ninja. The coat Wolf wore matched his, but Caleb had only felt the familiar Glock thirty-four tucked inside.

“Where are you going?”

He smiled at the irritation in Wolf’s voice and tossed him a glance after they turned the corner away from the reception desk and toward the doors that would lead them either outside or to the parking garage.

“I’m on a mission.”

“What mission?” Wolf scowled.

“I took a mission that Rossi needs completed.”

“He didn’t tell me about no stinkin’ mission,” Wolf snapped when they stepped outside into the cold October air. Thankfully, there wasn’t any snow on the ground, but Caleb didn’t think it normally snowed there this time of year. He really wouldn’t know since he lived in a city just outside of San Francisco, California.

Caleb waited until they walked past the smokers and went to the end of the parking garage where cars came in and out before he swung on Wolf.

“Don’t act like Rossi doesn’t tell you about all the jobs he gives to me.”

“I … um…” Wolf rubbed a hand at the back of his neck and glanced away.

“You’ve been vetting my jobs since day one.” He scoffed when Wolf snapped to give him a surprised look. “You don’t think I didn’t know that?”

“You knew?”

“Mhmm. And I didn’t mind because we were on those jobs together and when there were more difficult jobs, we took them together as a unit.” He hoped to god he was making his point. “But when you took this job and left me out—”

“I didn’t take the job! I just went to the meeting,” Wolf growled, but Caleb was going to finish his say.

“Fine,” he corrected. “But you still left me out. How do you think that made me feel?”

Wolf had no response.

“So, I’m going to finish this job that Rossi assigned and I will see you at home.”

Wolf looked like he had swallowed a lemon and Caleb wanted to laugh so badly, but he held it in.

This was too important.