Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(57)

         
       
        

"Come on, Viking. I ain't got all day. Get your pretty ass over here."

Six pulled the door open.

"Louisa's payment cleared, so all systems are go," Cabe said, walking into the house with a weapons case.

Mac followed close behind. "Figured you might want to double down on protection." He jerked his chin toward the gray metal box.

More reinforcements were a great idea, although he had a collection of his own in his gun safe. Job one was to teach Louisa how to fire one of them and get her a permit so she could have a gun in her home. A friend of his had some hard-core acreage about forty minutes east. The middle of nowhere would be safe enough to teach her the art of firing a weapon. But that would take time they didn't have right now, so they'd have to manage with a quick primer on how to load, aim, and fire safely enough in the event of another break-in. "Thanks, bro. You guys had coffee yet?"

"Nah. Would love some. Louisa around?" Cabe asked as he followed Six to the kitchen.

Six tilted his head in the direction of the bedrooms, careful not to indicate one room or the other. "Still sleeping," he said, pulling the coffee out of the cupboard.

"Look, man," Mac said, grabbing three mugs. "About yesterday. I know it seemed harsh, but we can't run this place like a charity. We aren't the Equalizer."

It pissed Six off that Mac was right. "What if Delaney were in trouble?" Six asked anyway, referring to Brock's younger sister and the only woman Mac had ever loved as far as Six could tell. "Would we charge her?"

"Fuck you. That's a low blow and you know it. Delaney would be different. We'd look out for her because of Brock. She's family. You've known Louisa what? A week."

Six shook his head. It was impossible to explain his feelings to Mac when he couldn't even explain them to himself. "Never mind. How is Delaney? Do you know?"

Brock's death while they were in college had left them all with scars, the emotional kind. And Mac carried the brunt of them. Even though the findings had cleared Mac of any wrongdoing, he still blamed himself. Mac had attempted to stay close to Brock's family, the only way for him to absolve himself of the guilt he carried from Brock's death, but neither Delaney nor her mom had spoken to him in years.

"Still doing some crazy-ass investigative journalism. I find out like the rest of you do when her stories hit the headlines."

"That's so Delaney, though," Cabe said. "Heck, we all know Brock intended to enlist after graduation. Maybe in her own way she's continuing Brock's need to serve his country or something." 

Six nodded. While she hadn't enlisted, her form of journalism-tracking down the world's most wanted and feared-helped keep the country safe.

The coffeepot began to splutter, and Six poured them all a cup. "I had some feelers out overnight and was just going to check on them," he said, grabbing his laptop. They walked to the dining room and sat down.

"You still make god-awful coffee," Cabe said with a shudder.

"And you've nuked your taste buds with all those extra-hot wings you eat, man." The team joked that Cabe had an asbestos mouth. The guy would eat anything claiming to be hotter than Hades. That said, it was unusual coffee, a Moroccan blend that he'd gotten a taste for while doing work-up exercises off the coast of Morocco and which he now ordered online. It was strong as shit. Funny, Lou had drunk it without so much as a comment.

"Ivan seems to have gone to ground. No sign of him at the lab or his home," Mac said. "Buddha went in last night and placed a camera that covers his driveway and door so we can watch it without being there. We do much more, though, and we're gonna need to be more transparent with the police. You know that, right?"

"I know. But we have resources they don't. They've got the plates of the car, our statements  …  They have everything we have so far, so let's see how fast they work. We find anything, and we hand it over. We should have an eye on his finances today," Six said, opening his laptop. "Do you think we should be watching the old man?" His gut wasn't giving him clear direction on Vasilii yet.

"Was wondering about that myself," Cabe replied. "He might lead us to Ivan. Let's see what today turns up."

Six scanned his email. His friend at vehicle licensing had come through. "We got an address for the van from the first attempt. Let's check it out this morning."

Louisa walked into the kitchen wearing the shorts and cami she'd bought, no bra, which of course Cabe noticed with a swift double take. Asshole. She looked over to them but quickly looked away and grabbed Six's hoodie that was on the table, yanking it over her head. Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment and Six felt shitty for not warning her they had company. On the other hand, she probably had no clue how utterly delicious she looked in his clothes. Quickly, she made her way over to the fridge. "Did you guys eat?" she asked.