“Yeah,” Sam said.“I heard.”He didn’t say anything about the conference room.He didn’t say names.He didn’t have to.“Again.”
Ty worked the bolt and sent five more because he liked a man who didn’t make him talk before the rifle had wrung him out.Sam called every shot, steady and exact, until the groups made a ragged clover that pleased only the part of Ty that needed proof.
Sam set the scope down and stretched, joints cracking.“When I came into the relationship, Nick and Aiden were already a done thing,” he said, conversational like they were on a porch instead of in a box that smelled like powder and oil.No prologue, no warming into the conversation, just jumped straight in.“I had to figure out what the hell my role in the relationship was besides being pretty and making breakfast.”
Ty’s mouth tipped.“You do make very good breakfast I here, pretty boy.”
“What can I say, I’m multitalented, and fuck you,” Sam said sweetly.“I am also a protector.It took me a minute to admit that’s what I am, the role I play in our happy threesome.I stand next to Nick when hell tries to take a number.I stand in front of Aiden when some idiot with a grudge decides to play with fuses.”His tone went flat for one breath, the memory not finished with him.“We almost lost him to a bomb-stalker who had opinions about Aiden’s success and wanted to take down the master.Spoiler alert—success is not the problem, unhinged assholes are.”
Ty eased the rifle safely to the ground and rolled to sit.“I read the report.”
“You read the paperwork,” Sam corrected, mouth quirking.“It doesn’t say what mattered.What mattered was looking both men in the eye and realizing there was a potential reality where I didn’t get them home.That understanding can burn.”He shrugged.“I don’t care if we never get another client at the farm again and go bankrupt.I care that I go to sleep with my men breathing beside me.Days and nights are better with them in it.”He lifted a brow.“Insert innuendo here.”
Ty huffed.“Consider it inserted.”
“Dangerous promise,” Sam said, pleased.He sobered without losing the ease.“Point is, you’ve got a job in your triad that only you can do.You coax Oren out of the bunker in his head.You temper Dale when the growl gets louder than the words.You hold the shape so they can move.Nick does it with us.I do it with them.It’s not less than.It’s the reason anything we build stands.”
Ty worked his jaw.The words landed in the places that had been bruised since last night.“I didn’t need Dale to tell me I’d screwed up.”
“No.You needed Dale to tell Oren he didn’t have to do it alone,” Sam said.“And you needed someone to remind you that thinking isn’t a sin.It’s a tool.Use it on the problem, not each other.”He tipped his chin at the target.“You stand for your men.And you stand for this outfit.That’s family.It’s not a slogan.It’s what you do at 2:00 AM when the easy stuff is asleep.”
Ty looked down the line, into the slice of light.“I’ll fix it.”
“Good,” Sam said.“And if Dale tries to turn it into a head-butting contest, tell him I said to take a breath and shut the fuck up.”
“He’ll love that,” Ty said.
“He can put it on a t-shirt,” Sam said.“Black.Block letters.Very alpha.”
The humor loosened something that had gone taut.Ty picked up the rifle again just to prove he could without shaking.“Run me one more string?”
“Send it,” Sam said, glass back to his eye.
Ty sent it.The world narrowed to breathe and squeeze and the clean thump of recoil.Sam’s voice threaded the space between shots—“good, good, hold, break”—and the group landed where Ty told it to.
The comm behind Ty’s ear chirped.Bateman’s voice, tight and steady.“Heads up.Deefer’s flagged a camp inside the perimeter.Looks slept-in.Aiden’s marked it and holding.”
Ty was moving before his head finished catching up.Sam was already packing the spotter scope, rifle slung.The room felt smaller.
Marsh came over comms next, no nonsense and no extra words.“Oren missed the link-up.He’s not at the barracks.He called me ten minutes ago.”
The air left Ty’s lungs like someone had opened a valve.He didn’t look at Sam.He didn’t need to.They were already at the door.
“Copy that,” Ty said.“On our way.”
They hit the outside and the trail leading back to the barracks and communications center on site at a sprint.The range door thumped shut behind them like a punctuation mark.
Sam matched pace, voice even.“We’ll find him.”
“We will,” Ty said.He could feel his pulse in his teeth.“And I’m done letting Carson write our timing.”He didn’t say the rest out loud, but it sat clean in his chest anyway.I will protect my men.I will do what’s necessary.The shape of it came with a name and a promise he meant down to the bone.
Carson had Orsen?Ty would end him.Period.
They broke into the morning light and kept running.
****
Almost everyone wasalready there when Dale hit the area outside the barracks—Pathfinders filling the space with too much tension.Nick standing just off to the side.Aiden was still up at the campsite he and Deefer had found.Eli and Blake had taken the kids into safe rooms up at the Ridge House just to be sure.All of them were loaded for bear.
