“On it,” Thorne answered automatically. “You got a ride for us?”
Keys was already a step ahead of him. “One of our clients’ planes has had an accidental flight plan change. His jet will be arriving in Morgantown shortly.”
“Remind me to stay on your good side. We’re Oscar Mike,” he reported before hanging up.
Keys exhaled, feeling slightly better now that Poison had some backup coming her way. TheNon Crascould certainly handle their own, but there was a high possibility the three men coming after her wouldn’t live long enough to identify themselves, let alone answer any other questions. Then he pulled up four simultaneous feeds and got to work tracking all five moving pieces, because if Thorne and Grimm didn’t reach Poison’s location first, Keys was going to need a contingency plan.
He was so deep in the feeds that he didn’t hear Rose come back out of Oscar’s room until she sat down on the soft cushion next to him. Picking up the tablet, she caught herself up on the events she’d missed while taking care of her son.
“Oscar?” he asked without looking up from his screen.
“Finally back to sleep.” She rested her head against his shoulder as she continued to read through the data. “Thorne and Grimm?” she asked curiously.
“Thorne mentioned to me earlier in the week that Grimm’sbeen antsy since the explosion. Getting him back in the field will do him some good,” Keys answered evenly. “His nightmares aren’t as bad as they were, but they’ve returned.”
He felt Rose frown against his bare shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know it turned out not to be our fault, but the entire situation still sucks. Those greedy assholes who wanted Ranger and Becks’ inheritance deserve to rot in Hell.”
Keys nodded, agreeing completely. He had no doubt that Ghost had already personally ensured that it was a painful journey down. Pulling his glasses off his face, Keys pinched the bridge of his nose. “I really want to go back to sleep, but I also should keep working on this.”
Rose turned her head to press her lips to his skin. “We can’t do anything until Thorne and Grimm have boots on the ground. Why don’t we go take a shower, get some breakfast, and actually make an effort at being human today?”
“That sounds positively dreadful,” Keys mused. Then realizing what he’d said, he corrected, “The latter part of your statement. The former sounds incredible.” He felt Rose’s smile. “And when you say ‘we’…?” he inquired pointedly.
“I mean, you and me and some hot water with a soapy loofa.”
Her sentence wasn’t even completely out of her mouth before Keys was up and running towards the bathroom.
* * *
The jet was exactlywhere Keys said it would be. Thorne didn’t ask, nor did he want to know, how a private aircraft had developed an accidental change to its flight plan in the middle of the night. He’d worked for Keys long enough to understand that some questions weren’t worth asking, and while he considered himself a well-educated man, he doubted he’d be able to understand the answer, anyway. The important thing was that the plane was there, fueled, and pointed in the right direction.
He and Grimm were wheels up and out of Morgantown before four in the morning.
The cabin was small, and thankfully quiet. Grimm had taken the seat across the aisle and was studying the target data Keys had pushed to both their phones. With his jaw tight and his eyes moving with careful precision, Thorne knew his brother was running through the countless scenarios of what they might encounter.
Thorne watched his little brother out of his periphery. There was no way that Grimm didn’t know he was watching, but that didn’t mean Thorne had to make his observation obvious.
Grimm looked steady, but looks could be deceiving. Thorne knew that better than anyone. His instinct would always be to keep one eye on his objective and the other on his family. He was the oldest, the protector. It was his job to keep his brothers in line, no matter their ages.
“Three targets,” Grimm said without looking up. “Converging from different points. They’re not traveling together. Rose was wrong about how big Kennedy’s reach was.”
Thorne nodded evenly. He’d picked up on that, too. “She was nineteen the last time she spoke to or saw Kennedy. It’s understandable that she would have some information wrong. He was in jail, and she had good reason to believe he was working alone.”
Grimm’s expression darkened. “Fucker deserves to have his dick cut off and fed to him on a hot dog bun.”
Thorne chuckled at his brother’s cynicism. “I’d grill it first.”
“Before or after you cut it off?” Grimm asked, looking up for the first time.
Thorne contemplated the question for a minute before answering. “On him.”
That earned a brief almost-smile from his youngest brother. It faded quickly, the way Grimm’s smiles always did lately, like he wasn’t quite sure he’d earned the right to smile. Thorne chose not to comment. Pushing Grimm was the fastest way to lose him, andThorne had learned that lesson the hard way after Grimm had come home from his last deployment with something broken behind his eyes. Goose and Thorne did what they could, often giving up assignments to keep Grimm busy. The worst thing someone could do to a man like Grimm was make him feel like a liability.
Sometime later, Thorne broke the silence. “I’ll take point on the two coming from the east. You take the third.”
“The one coming from the north.” Grimm was already nodding in agreement. “He’s the furthest out. I’ll have him secured before your two know what's happening.”
Thorne appreciated his brother’s cockiness, but still cautioned, “Remember to keep him breathing.”
