After hearing that Asher was on the team since the Seeker organization was started, it made sense why Ritter was after Lucas. They found out that Ritter was Morgan Leap’s son after the government thought they killed his lover and the child he was carrying, along with the rest of his test subjects. Daniel Ritter had killed all the members and informants that were involved in the case, except Ethan Beaumont’s father was already dead. James Beaumont was the man who had killed Leap’s lover and child. Based on the information they had, they were on their way to the warehouse with the help of the Washington D.C. FBI field office. Tucker, Seth, and a few other Seeker agents were following behind them.
“You know everything is going to be fine, and we’re going to find him alive, right?” Jaxson said as he hung up the phone. Tucker had stopped listening to Tyler about five minutes into their conversation, his only focus was getting to his husband in time.
Tucker nodded unable to speak at that moment, his fear, and anxiety gnawed at him. Mentally he wanted to blame Asher for everything that was happening, but he knew that he couldn’t, he wasn’t the one that pulled the trigger.No, he just gave the fucking orders.Tucker saw how worried Asher was. He loved Lucas and was worried about him, like any father would be in this situation. No one expected that years down the line, one of Leap’s children would seek revenge. But the government should have cleaned up their own mess. Leap was their mess, and they did a piss-poor job of making the situation go away.
Tucker opened the door as the standard utility vehicle came to a stop in front of the warehouse. He couldn’t wait for the truck to come to a complete stop before he was trying to get out.
“Boss, wait.” Jaxson clapped onto his shoulder.
“What? What the hell am I waiting for?” he snapped.
“The rest of the team,” Jaxson told him. “Look, I know you want to run in there guns blazing, but we don’t know how many people are inside.”
Jaxson was right, and that’s what a rational person would think, but Tucker wasn’t in the right frame of mind to think things through. If his husband was in that warehouse, he wanted to get him out of there. He pulled away from Jaxson’s hand and got out of the truck. Checking to make sure his gun was loaded, he fastened his bulletproof vest and got his cap. His head snapped up just as he heard a gunshot. Without waiting for anyone else, Tucker ran inside of the building and up the stairs. He heard footsteps behind him and knew that it was his guys. He gave them the hand signal to fan out and look in the other rooms while he went to the top of the warehouse. He found two dead bodies, both shot in the head.
He kept his back to the wall as he made his way to the only room at the top. Peeking in the room, his breath caught in his chest when he saw Lucas’ body slumped over a body. They both looked unresponsive.
“Lucas, oh gods, please, baby, don’t be dead.” He ran over, turning his husband over and tried not to scream seeing all the blood covering the front of him. Checking for a pulse, he breathed a sigh of relief when he found one.
“Get an ambulance up here,” he called out. “Hurry.”
He raised up Lucas’ T-shirt, and tears rolled down his cheeks seeing how black and blue his chest and abdomen were, noticing the bleeding, signs that his stitches came undone. Pulling off his vest, he ripped off his shirt applying pressure to Lucas’ stomach.
“Come on, baby, open your eyes for me, let me see those pretty green eyes of yours.” He heard loud footsteps and looked up when Tyler and Seth ran into the room. “Where’s that fucking ambulance?”
“They are on their way,” Seth answered as he walked over to Ritter’s body.
Tucker didn’t look. Frankly, he didn’t care. He simply wanted Lucas to open his eyes and say something sarcastic to make him laugh. Tyler kneeled beside him, with a hand on his shoulder. He was getting very impatient because Lucas’ blood was seeping through his shirt and he didn’t know what would happen if he lost any more blood. He kept checking Lucas’ pulse that seemed to be getting weaker by the second.
“He’s going to be fine,” Tyler said, but Tucker heard the tremor in his voice. “He’s too stubborn to die, and I can’t lose a part of me, not yet.”
Tucker went to say something but stopped when he heard footsteps again. He sighed in relief when he saw the paramedics run into the room. One went over to Ritter and another over to Lucas.
“He’s dead. My husband is the one that needs help,” Tucker yelled.
The guy nodded and started helping his partner. Tyler pulled him away so that the paramedics could do their jobs. Tucker looked down at his hands and realized they were covered in Lucas’ blood. He made it in time. He wasn’t going to lose his husband, the love of his life.
“Come on, let’s follow them to the hospital,” Tyler said.
“Yeah, okay, sure,” Tucker mumbled as he let Tyler and Seth steer him out of the room.
* * *
Lucas openedhis eyes and knew something was wrong. The last thing he remembered was his scuffle with Daniel and the gun going off. “I guess I’m dead, well, that fucking sucks.” He closed his eyes and struggled to sit up wondering why he could still feel pain if he was dead.
“You’re too stubborn to die.”
He opened his eyes and looked to his right, seeing Rebecca standing beside his bed. She looked different, almost as if she was bathed in an illuminating light.
“If I’m not dead then where am I?”
“Waiting,"another voice beside him said. Turning his head to look at Rochelle looking down at him. She was also bathed in the same glowing light as Rebecca.
“I'm seeingghosts, and you say I’m not dead.”
They both giggled at him.“Never lose that sense of humor, Luc.”
“I . . .” He didn’t know what to say, there were questions he was supposed to ask. “Why am I here then if I’m not dead?”
