Ryden shrugged. “It was something you enjoyed. Guess it was my way of feelin’ close to you, even if I never woulda admitted it to myself.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Finch grumbled. “Can’t you two be all disgustingly romantic some other time?”
Jay glared at his brother. “Don’t make me throat punch you again.”
Finch threw his gloved hands up in surrender and turned away.
“Gotta go,” Ryden said, kissing Jay’s cheek. “Stay in the van like you promised. You’re on intel. If anything looks suspicious, report it just as we discussed during recon, and if you’re about to be compromised in any way, drive like a bat outta hell. We’ll catch up when it’s safe. Be back soon.”
Jay nodded, then remembered something. “Oh wait!” He reached into one of the large pockets of his tactical pants and pulled out his fuzzy little green friend. Ryden’s smile was huge. “I named him Pascal. He’s going to look after you.” Jay tucked the pipe cleaner chameleon into one of Ryden’s pockets on his tactical vest.
“Thank you. I’ll be sure to bring him back to you.” Ryden jumped down to join the others, rolling his eyes when Ace, Lucky, Joker, Jack, and Saint quietly teased him.
Jay grabbed his brother’s sleeve. Finch turned, his gaze questioning. “Please keep him safe.”
Finch’s expression softened. “Sure thing, Jaybird.”
“And, um, you stay safe too, okay?”
“Careful there.” Finch winked at him. “Someone might get the impression you care about me.” He didn’t give Jay time to reply, just jumped down and closed the van doors.
“I do care about you,” Jay murmured. He and his brother might have a lot of unsettled issues to work through, but that didn’t mean Jay didn’t care what happened to him. With a heavy sigh, he dropped down into one of the chairs at the security console.
Well, this sucked.
Jay hated that the guys were all out there, risking their lives to catch these bastards, and all Jay could do was watch. Supposedly, he was there to provide intel and offer support from the van, but Jack’s cybersecurity vans weren’t like any other surveillance vans. The damned things were so high tech that they had minds of their own. It was cool yet creepy. It also meant Jay didn’t have much to do because the van did it for him.
Several screens were laid out in front of him. One of the screens was divided into eight feeds, four on the top and four on the bottom. Each feed belonged to a camera that the guys wore on their vests, similar to those worn by police officers.
Another screen showed an aerial view with infrared imaging of the guys, thanks to one of Jack’s drones, which was controlled by the van. It had also hijacked several of the port security feeds so that only they could see what was going on, giving Jay a good visual of the area surrounding the cargo ship and container yard. The second drone was in stealth mode and scanning the cargo ship. All of it connected to the small tablet Jack had in his hands.
“I swear, if you start talking, I’m outta here,” he muttered at the console, side-eyeing it. “I’ve watched enough movies to know it’s all going to lead to an uprising, and I’m too pretty for post-apocalyptic fashion.”
And he was talking to a computer. Thankfully, it didn’t respond.
The guys moved in pairs, rifles at the ready, using hand signals as they went. Jay had observed them during various training exercises over the years, so seeing them move like a unit wasn’t new. The Kings and Wild Cards were always perfectly in sync because theyhadbeen a unit.
With so many security agents at Four Kings Security being former military personnel, the Kings ensured that agents could work together as one, regardless of the branch they’d served under. That didn’t mean that when agents of the same branchended up working together, they didn’t fall back into moving as a unit.
Despite Ryden and Finch never having served together, they moved together like they’d been doing it for years. Jay followed Ryden on the screen, tapping the keyboard to adjust the surveillance cameras for a better view.
“Jay,” Jack said over their comms.
“Yes?” Jay sat up straight, ready to spring into action. “I’m here, what do you need?”
“For you to stop touching the cameras. I need to be able to see something other than your boyfriend.”
Oops. “Sorry.” Jay quickly tapped the keyboard, and all the cameras returned to their previous position.
“Does that mean you two are dating?” Finch asked. “Or?—”
“Yes, Finch,” Jay hissed. “We’re dating. He’s my boyfriend.”
“Aw,” Lucky cooed. “Look at Ry’s face. You just made him so happy, Jay.”
“It’s about freaking time,” Joker muttered.
“Approaching the container yard,” King said, and everyone fell silent.
