“The fuck you will.” Fury made bubbles of anger fly through people’s veins, or maybe that was disappointment. Cade wasn’t sure which, didn’t care which. He just knew he didn’t want Rio to go. Not just yet. “Stay?”
“What?”
Cade’s question caught Rio off guard, he hadn’t expected it. He knew how these things worked. Staying the night with someone could get both him and the man he was with dead. Especially if the fucker that was his father found out.
Cade took his silence as indecision, and he pressed his point home, “It will be dawn in a couple of hours, that’s time enough to go see if the cops are done at the hotel.”
Shit, Rio had to admit, Cade made a good point. Whoever the gunmen had been at the hotel, there was no doubt the place was a shit-show of law enforcement right now. The last place he needed to be was under scrutiny of the law. “Okay.” He would stay here for now. Tomorrow would bring what it would. He could figure the rest out then.
“Good.” Cade went to the duffle bag he had left here the previous night. He had booked a room at the hotel as well. He’d had hopes. Bringing someone back here had not been in the plans. Pulling out some clothes, he tossed a pair of boxers at Rio, “They are clean.” He pulled on a pair himself and went to take a piss and looked for his weapon. Oh, he had a couple of extras stashed around the room, but that gun, that one was his preferred hand piece and having it under his pillow meant he had some hope of sleeping.
“Will it bother you?” Lifting the corner of the pillow, Cade placed the Sig on the mattress.
“No,” Rio shook his head.
Cade pushed the pillow against the headboard and settled himself for the night, before hitting the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. Within seconds, Rio had rolled over, his nose almost touching Cade’s shoulder, each breath reminding them both where they were. Neither knew they had fallen asleep.
Chapter Five
A single beep was all that was needed. As soon as it sounded, Cade jerked awake. “Fuck.”
“Wha—What’s wrong?”
“Alarm just went off.” Cade already had his weapon in his hand, jumping out of bed. Moving to the wall, he approached the door at an angle, his gun up in a firing position. “Move, Rio.” He kept his eyes trained on the door handle.
Rio crawled across the bed and got out behind Cade, “You got a spare gun?”
“Top drawer.” Cade jerked his chin toward the nightstand. He knew he had asked at the hotel last night, but just to be sure he asked again, “You know how to use it?”
“Yeah, I’m better with a knife, but I can shoot,” Rio nodded, then took up a position slightly behind Cade. “Who is it?”
Cade just shrugged, ignoring Rio’s question. If he had been on his own, his ass would have been in the closet for the safe room Ghosts used as a War - Room when they needed to work out of this safe house. However, it was one thing to bring the man back here to the house. It was another entirely to show him all the house's secrets. He cocked his head to one side, straining his ears, listening for any sounds that told him someone was in the house. Nope… he heard nothing. Gesturing to Rio, he hoped the man understood, and breathed out a sigh of relief when the man slid silently to one side of the door.
Cade lifted one hand, with three fingers raised, similar to what he had done back at the hotel, and counted down to a closed fist when Rio depressed the handle and threw the door open.
Cade aimed his handgun directly at the door, safety thumbed off. He braced himself for recoil.
“You better not shoot me, asshole, or I’ll boot your fucking ass all the way to the remotest shithole I can find.”
Oh fuck—my bad—I forgot all about you.“Go buy some CBD-oil toilet paper and calm your ass down, Boss.” Cade couldn’t help himself. The fucker who was his inner self-preservation was obviously on strike, allowing its snarky friend to provide the words for his mouth. He braced himself for the punch he knew was coming when Rock, in full battle rattle, launched himself into the room. Jeez, Rock had dressed for war. Ugh, Cade should have expected it. Rock cared about his team.
The distinctive click of a weapon chambering a round froze all of them in place.
“No!” Cade jumped between Rio and his boss, his hand landing on the muzzle of the gun, pushing it toward the floor. “He’s my boss.” Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Grif’s weapon trained directly on Rio’s forehead. “Don’t shoot him, G.”
“Not for much longer if you don’t learn to answer the damn phone.” Rock growled. “And I swear to fuck, if you brought a piece of ass to my fucking house, you are fucking fired.”
“Shit.” Rio muttered soft enough that only Cade should have been able to hear him, but Rock somehow had managed to boost his listening skills or something because he growled at them both.
“Seriously?”
“Boss, I—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Rock clicked on the Bluetooth-like device he wore on his ear, pressing the volume he turned it up a notch, as if he wanted all of them to hear what was said from the other side. “TOC, this is G One. G Three secured. I have an unsecure line, but I need an ID and facial recon on the…” He frowned at Rio as if considering how to describe him to Harper, “…friend he brought home last night.”
“Affirmative G One.”
“Make it snappy, TOC.”
