“Call me if you need backup.”
“You would go against your Orders for me?”
“I’ll land on the side of justice and right.” Ever cryptic as fuck, Noble answered. “I pay my debts. As long as Black Squadron haven’t crossed a line, my people will back yours.”
“Thank you, my friend.” Claudio lifted his hand in a salute. “I appreciate it. Look after my guy.”
“As if he was one of ours.” Noble confirmed. He hit the button to switch off the screen. He grabbed the coffeepot and filled himself a mug. “Now that we have the revelations outta the way, let’s get to work.”
“Boss, who the fuck is Black Squadron?” Reese asked.
“Red Squadron is the tip of the spear.” Noble took his seat at the table. “We are JSOC’s assault weapon. Black Squadron is Reconnaissance, Intelligence, and Surveillance.”
“Shit,” Drax whistled softly. “How many more colored squadrons are there?”
“That’s classified.” Noble raised an eyebrow, as if daring Drax to push for more.
“Bah, and I don’t need to know it, so you won’t tell me?”
“See, Drax, I knew you were trainable.”
Chapter Eight
“Take your places,ladies, enough dicking around.” Noble looked to where Max was seated in front of his computer setup. “Tell me what you got?”
“Noah called some of his contacts in Interpol.” Max flicked through the screens, looking for the one he wanted. “They sent him this.” He hit the command on the keyboard to send it to the big screen.
“Noah?” Rick whispered to Saxon.
“Drax’s man,” Saxon replied. “He has connections here in Europe and is always happy to help us out.”
“You have something to add here, Boom-boom?”
“Sorry, Boss.” Why the hell did it always feel like he’d been caught talking in class when Noble took that tone of voice. “Just explaining who Noah is.”
“Shit, we didn’t do introductions, did we?” Noble shook his head in disgust at himself. He’d been raised by a Southern momma, and he prided himself on his manners. “Sorry about that, Rick. I forget that not everyone wears name tags these days, especially not in this team.”
“No worries.”
“Boom-Boom you know.” Noble pointed to Saxon. He didn’t wait for Rick’s acknowledgement before moving on.
“Next to him is Peanut, aka Reese.”
Rick nodded at the man. He didn’t recognize him at all. But then, the guys who had rescued him with Saxon had been in combat gear, so it was possible he just looked and sounded totally different.
“Then we have Castiel and Drax, who were exfil when we rescued you.”
Rick nodded at both men, okay so Drax was the one he’d nearly hit with his boots when he’d ziplined down from the balcony.
“Second from the end is our 2IC, Zenko, and Shaun finishing up the table.”
He recognized the driver and front seat passenger from last night, too. Zenko Marks he had heard of from his time in Coronado.
“Behind you at the wall are Roman and Saxon’s brother Luc.” Noble pointed over their shoulders in the direction of the wall. “I’m Noble, which you already knew, and that’s Max, our TOC.”
“You have a brother?” Rick looked over his shoulder at the two men propping up the wall behind them. The dark one couldn’t possibly be Saxon’s brother, that had to mean the blond was. “You look nothing alike.”
“A brother by choice.” Saxon told him. “Although, some days I can’t figure out why I chose that lug to be related to me.”
