Rock watched Cade’s progress along the catwalk until he left the War - Room and the door clanged shut. The locking mechanism from overhead sounded loud where they stood. “You think he’s still feeling the effects of the drugs?”
“I don’t think so,” Grif crossed the War - Room to the office they both used. “He kind of reminds me of Matt with Jonah.”
“Or any of us who have found the other part of our souls.” Rock muttered.
“That’s pretty profound, coming from a badass like you.” Powering up his computer, Grif navigated to his emails.
“You love my badassery,” Rock leaned over Grif’s shoulder, his nose nuzzling into his hair.
“You know it.” Grif opened the email from the lab. “I wish Allie and Lex were here.”
“Me too.” Rock wasn’t afraid to admit it. He loved their girls with everything that he was. He knew Grif did too. Being away from them left a gaping hole in both their souls. But it just wasn’t safe. If Allie and their kiddo showed up here, he was going to spank her ass. She was safe in Texas and besides, this close to having their baby, flying was not an option. Nope, better she stayed in Texas with Micah to hover over her like a mother hen. Kinda helped that Allie’s skillets didn’t quite reach all the way to Mexico when he and G pissed her off. Pregnant Allie was twice the badass he and G were.
“Fuck.”
“What?” Rock leaned in over Grif’s shoulder to look at the email. Not that he could make sense of the results, all it showed to him were a bunch of numbers and freaking codes.
“Cade’s blood results,” Grif pointed to them, “The Heroin and tranquilizer we knew about. The other narcotic is LSD.”
“Fuck.” Rock watched Grif type the results and various other parameters into FRED. He already knew what G was doing. He was looking to see if there were any matches in any law enforcement system worldwide that could give them an indication of who the fuck shot Cade.
“Babe?”
Rock’s eyes widened when FRED immediately spit out some results. “Damn.” He frowned at the screen.
“It says this CIA agent, Rios, was found dead in Brazil the night we were there for Cade and Rio.” Grif read the report, mentioning the highlights even though he knew Rock was reading the same information as he was. “He was meant to meet with an asset who was to provide intel on a plot between displaced Hezbollah members and the cartels.”
“You think Rio was involved?”
“Don’t be a dumbass,” Grif nudged Rock in the ribs with his elbow, “We don’t jump to conclusions, remember. We let the intel lead and we follow.”
“Gah, ‘kay.” Rock placed one fist on the table next to Grif and leaned in to hit print on the keyboard. “I still don’t like him.”
“You don’t like anyone who represents change.”
“True.” He much preferred order and rules and regulations, thank you very much. People going lone wolf or doing shit they wanted without considering the bigger picture… those annoyed the hell out of him. Rock was responsible for not only his team but also all the rest of the people who worked in Dreamland. And after the fiasco with Sharr, he refused to allow another fox in the damn henhouse. “I’m going to make some calls. See if I can figure out if someone in the CIA knows what that meeting between Rio and the CIA agent or the intel Rio was to hand over was to be about, or if this is another plot or red herring which tells us jack shit.” He turned to leave the office, but paused and asked, “That combo of drugs, will it be out of Cade’s system by now?”
“Yeah, it’s been more than twenty-four hours,” Grif didn’t have to look this stuff up. As a medic with Delta Force, he had seen weaponized narcotics more times than he could remember. “If he’s not showing effects and tripping, then we are good.” He hit copy paste and put a copy of the email in Cade’s medical file. “If he was tripping, we’d know about it as he wouldn’t make much sense.”
“Cade never freaking makes sense, he’s Cade.”
“This is true.” Grif snorted out a laugh, “Go on, I’ll finish up here and come find you.”
“Okay.” Rock went through the door, “Love you, G.”
“I love you too.” Grif felt his lips curve into a stupid smile, hearing that Rock loved him, yeah that was never going to get old. Especially when it was less than a year since he had nearly lost him. Thank fuck Allie had helped him show Rock that bruised is not broken and the winding, twisted path that was their lives, that path had a destination he wanted to stay at forever. Happy Ever After was a pretty damn good place to be. Now he just had to persuade Rock that Cade deserved the same chance they had grabbed with both hands.
Chapter Eleven
Cade tapped the code into the door leading to the cages and Victor One. “Hey Angelo.”
“Fanculo,” Angelo dropped his boots onto the floor, reaching for his handgun which lay on the desk beside him. He had a round chambered and the weapon pointing at Cade before he registered who it was. “Mi scusi.” Recognition hit him and Angelo lowered the gun and apologized, “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Day dreaming?” It was kind of a running joke between them at this stage. At this time of year, around Halloween, Angelo’s missing memories tried to push to the surface. Over the years, they had speculated as to what information he was missing.
“You could call it that.”
“You could ask Rock or G?” Cade didn’t know what it was like to have most of your life as a blank. They knew Angelo was Italian, knew he had been a raider in Italian Special Forces. Knew he was a Comsubin, but other than that, Angelo had requested no information, had insisted Rock and Grif not give it to him.
