Battle It Out Read online

  Maddox began rolling out the details of the mission and Zane let his eyes wander around the room. Eventually, they landed on Isaac. Their gazes locked and held and he couldn’t look away from the sky-blue color. And neither could Isaac.

  Isaac finally snapped around, giving him the back of his head, and gave Maddox all his attention.

  Zane pulled his fingers down his cropped beard, remembering the brief kiss in the hallway. Press of lips, really. It didn’t matter how short the kiss had been because one thing became very clear, there was something between them. Something that went beyond mere friendship.

  Now, he just needed to convince Isaac he wasn’t crazy.

  Isaac

  One week later

  “Thorne, you copy?”

  “Copy, Captain.” He adjusted the mic in his ear.

  At his side, Pia gave him a thumbs up.

  Leads starting coming in about the Chamber brothers a few hours after the meeting. None of the locations had panned out except for this one in Arizona.

  His step was light, being back with his unit was like a dream come true. There was only one bummer, Maddox had separated him and Zane this past week.

  He stepped around the black SUV that sat parked in the secure area and pulled on his vest, double checked his weapon, and closed the back of the vehicle.

  He gazed at Pia. “You ready?”

  “In a heartbeat,” she said, slamming a clip into her weapon, and stepped in front of him. Disconcerted, he stopped. It had been like this all week. Why couldn’t they have left things the same? He always went first with Zane on his six. Why had they messed with a good fucking thing? Had it been a good thing, though?

  He scowled, ignoring that niggling voice. Zane was paired with Blade and there wasn’t jack shit he could do about it.

  “Hurry up.” Pia had stopped when he didn’t follow. She wasn’t happy being paired with anyone but her usual partner.

  This wasn’t his idea, he wanted to snarl at her. Maybe this had been Zane’s idea all along. Was it because of the kiss in the hallway? Zane probably wanted to forget it ever happened. Well, that was just fine with me.

  “Are you with me?” Pia hissed, and he realized she’d said his name more than once.

  “Of course, I am,” he managed and waved her on to keep going. She snorted and crept through the dark closer to the structure. They weren’t alone, but each two-person team had a job to do.

  Blackout windows covered the building they suspected a local drug runner used for transporting contraband.

  With a window breaker, he tapped out a piece of the glass for their entry. He pushed everything but the mission aside, going to the place where everything in his brain fired with a precision that had gotten him on one of the best Special Forces units in the world.

  Reaching through, he unlocked the window and slid over the ledge without thinking. He stepped aside and waited for Pia. Once she was inside, she slipped in front of him and along the wall until she reached a darkened hallway.

  Lifting his weapon, he moved after her. The infrared goggles gave the area an eerie green glow. A sliver of light shone beneath a door at the end of the hallway and he nudged Pia just in case she’d missed it.

  “I see it,” she whispered and plastered her slim form along the wall on the other side of the hallway.

  He studied the sliver and when a shadow moved past it, he murmur quietly into the mic, “Movement in the south side.”

  “We’ve got movement on the north,” came Zane’s clipped reply.

  “Anyone have eyes on suspects?” Maddox growled.

  Nobody responded and after another moment, he slipped closer to the door. Pia stepped back and covered his flank. This he was trained for.

  “Ready?”

  “Flash grenade in two?” Pia quietly asked.

  “Let’s go in first. We don’t know what’s in there.”

  She gave him a grimace. “I’m not used to this.”

  She was right, Pia and Blade were not first entry like him and Zane. The pair usually came in through the ceiling after the guys busted down the door. And it wasn’t because they were females, it was because they, along with Oliver and now Colin, were the lightest in the unit. They were more geared for getting into small spaces and were less likely to fall through an unsteady roof.

  “I know. Just cover my flank. I’m going to drop and roll when I go in. I’ll take out the bad guys.”

  She snorted, but stayed silent after that. He eased closer to the door.

  On the internal count of three, he turned the knob, slammed open the door and entered with a forward roll into the hot, rancid room. A figure scrambled up, and the barrel of a gun flashed. Isaac popped the guy in the chest. The perp crumpled to the floor just as the other man rolled from the woman laying tied and gagged on the bed.

  Pia was across the room, kicking away the weapon from the fallen perp.

  The man from the bed lunged toward the door, but he didn’t get far because his pants were around his ankles.

  The sobs of the woman filled the room and Isaac lifted his gun, aiming it at the guy’s head. After a second, he sighed and shot the fucker in the knee cap. The suspect screamed and fell in agony to the floor.

  Approaching the bed, Isaac sliced the rope holding the woman and then lifted a blanket from the floor. She shrank back from him.

  “Let me do it.” Pia shouldered him aside. “You call it in.”

  “Captain, you copy?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Two suspects down, a woman recovered. There may be more hostages.”

  “Roger that,” Maddox growled.

  Isaac tore off a long piece of the bedsheets and tied it around the man’s leg above the knee to prevent the fucker from bleeding to death. He wanted the guy to pay for his crimes, not take the easy way out.

  “Let’s take her out,” Pia whispered, wrapping the blanket around the woman. After helping her stand, Pia guided her to the door.

  Isaac turned and yanked the guy’s hands to the frame and zip-tied them to the railing of the bed. Yanking tape from his vest, he tore off a piece with his teeth and slapped it over the guy’s mouth.

  Once done, he slipped past Pia and the hostage and back out into the damp, dark hallway. A few moments later, they made it back outside with the girl to safety.

  They delivered the woman to waiting FBI agents who’d moved closer to the building for this purpose.

  Gunfire broke out on the north side of the building.

  “Isaac and Pia, come back in from the east,” Maddox ordered.

  “Roger that,” he said.

  Slapping a fresh clip into his weapon, he jogged through the night to the east side of the building. Approaching the small side door next to the large warehouse door, he spotted a familiar figure.

  There was no mistaking that large build or the muscled arms crossed over a wide chest.

  Beside Zane stood Blade, who pulled Pia aside when they approached.

  “We’re switching,” Zane said.

  “Fine!” he snapped. “Just make sure we don’t catch shit for this.”

  “I’m Master Sergeant, I’m making the call,” Zane growled, getting right in his face.

  “Stop it, you two,” Pia snarled. “Stop it right the fuck now.”

  Zane leveled a dark look at him before stepping back. Like this was all his fault. Frankly, he was sick of it. He wasn’t the one sneaking a kiss in a dark fucking hallway. That had been all Zane’s doing. I didn’t resist. So the fuck what? I’m not the one claiming to be straight. What was he supposed to have done, shove the guy down the stairs?

  “Look,” he stepped back closer to Zane, “are we good right now or not?”

  Zane scowled and gave a quick nod. “For now.”

  For now? He clenched his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. His fist curled and it was all he could do not to punch Zane in the chin, but Zane pulled up his night vision goggles and turned away to ease open the side door.

  Isa
ac tossed a glance at Pia and Blade, but the pair were already attaching ropes to climb the side of the building. Drawing on his patience, he followed the familiar wide set of shoulders into the dark structure and pulled up his infrared goggles.

  Zane obviously didn’t care about what happened between them.

  So why should he?

  Zane

  “If you had a problem being my partner, you should have come to me,” he said.

  Stopping just inside the door, he turned on Isaac. The light from his helmet flashed into Isaac’s attractive face. He couldn’t see his expression because of the goggles, but when Isaac furiously yanked them down, he got a good look at those flashing, crystal blues.

  Colonel Cobalt put him with Blade, but he knew for a fact that Liam would have put him back with Isaac if Isaac wanted.

  “Look.” Isaac poked him in the chest. “This is your fault, not mine,” Isaac snarled and advanced farther into the building.

  Fuck! He gnashed his teeth. Yanking his earpiece out to save the unit from the argument that was coming, he stalked after Isaac.

  “Wait one goddamned minute!”

  “Fuck off, Gannon!”

  “I’m tired of you fucking saying that!”

  Zane grabbed Isaac’s arm and pulled him around.

  Granted, it wasn’t the best place to be having this discussion, but he wasn’t going to take the blame for being separated. He wanted Isaac as his partner. He would have told Isaac that, but he hadn’t had the nerve to talk to him all week.

  “I said fuck off,” Isaac said through his teeth.

  “Look! I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you,” he bellowed, completely out of patience.

  “Me?” Isaac spat and turned on him so god dammed fast that he stepped back, but that didn’t stop Isaac from shoving him backward. His back hit the wall with a loud crack.

  “You’re the one who can’t handle it, so don’t you dare fucking turn this back on me.”

  He gaped down at Isaac. “Handle it? Handle fucking what?”

  “That kiss!”

  He gnashed his teeth and glared into Isaac’s face. “It’s not about that,” he argued.

  “You know it is,” Isaac gritted.

  “You’re way off base,” he muttered, fisting his hand in Isaac’s vest to keep the guy from turning away from him.

  “Then why are you acting so fucking weird around me? You give me dirty looks, and you haven’t said two fucking nice words to me since!” Isaac’s voice was hard and angry, and filled with hurt.

  “Have you thought about anything else but yourself for one minute? Or is this all about you? All about the way you feel. What about the way I feel, huh?” he rasped.

  “How do you feel, Zane? You never say a fucking word about how you feel!” Isaac got right in his face.

  He couldn’t argue because Isaac was right. He sucked at feelings and shit. There was also no denying that he wanted more of what happened in that hallway. Was he ready to come out? Wait, hadn’t he already come out with that kiss?

  “I -”

  “Gannon, Thorne, take up positions now!” Maddox shouted, cutting him off.

  Zane shoved Isaac away at the snapped order from their captain. The shorter man slammed against the wall and almost toppled over. Zane sprinted down the hallway without looking back.

  What the fuck was he doing? You’re fucking losing it, that’s what. He’d dropped the fucking ball. His team could be in trouble while he was having a lover’s spat.

  Fuck, fuck.

  “Coming through the east stairwell, Captain.” He lunged up the stairs.

  “You better fucking be,” Maddox angrily responded.

  “One more level and we’ll be at your location,” Isaac’s calm voice came over the mic.

  Zane paused and let Isaac take the lead. They didn’t look at each other, as if what happened back there hadn’t happened, but it had. And there would surely be hell to pay if anyone found out.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Dillon’s snarl came through the mic.

  “Report when you reach the top floor,” River followed up.

  With gunfire echoing over their heads, Zane continued upward after Isaac. Reaching the top of the stairs, he covered Isaac’s flank. The warehouse floor covered the whole top level of the building, but thankfully, stacks of building supplies lay scattered around. Isaac took cover behind a stack of boxes.

  Dodging behind a pallet of wooden crates across from Isaac, Zane crouched and surveyed the area.

  Pia and Blade had already entered from above and the rest of the unit was in place.

  Only he and Isaac had been late.

  “We’re here,” Isaac reported.

  They’d never been late before. The impact was immediate when four suspects converged on their location with the rest of the unit on their asses.

  Gunfire flashed, lighting up the room. Two suspects dropped to the ground; another reached the crates. Zane lunged upward and took out the fucker with the butt of his rifle to the head.

  Isaac tripped the fourth suspect and disarmed him in seconds, face down, hands zip-tied.

  By that time, the unit had reached them, all suspects were down.

  Zane avoided everyone’s eyes and reached down to zip-tie the perp he’d knocked to the ground.

  “No signs of the other two hostages,” Dillon said.

  “Ethan, Isaac, Zane, and Pia take the suspects outside. Dillon, Greene, and the rest of you comb the building,” Maddox ordered.

  Zane hefted up one of the perps and started the long walk out of the building. Isaac and Pia disappeared briefly and then reappeared with another suspect limping on one leg. Suspects were handed over to local PD and Forest Taylor’s men.

  Isaac tore off his helmet and guzzled down water from a flask. The man’s sweat-slicked hair stuck to his temples and Zane couldn’t take his eyes from the sexy sight.

  “The Chambers brothers were either not here or escaped,” Ethan said from his side.

  “Fuck,” he growled, dragging his eyes from Isaac. He yanked off his head gear and tossed it into the back of one of the two rental vehicles.

  Long strides brought Maddox over after speaking to the FBI.

  “I want to see both of you in my office when we get back to base,” the captain snarled, pointing to him and Isaac before stalking away.

  He stared after Maddox and then caught Ethan’s gaze.

  “Isaac’s mic was in,” Ethan whispered. “We heard the whole thing.”

  Oh, fuck me. He lost his ability to breathe and turned to Isaac. The look on the man’s face gutted him.

  With pure horror on his face, Isaac reached up and yanked out the earpiece and stared at it as if it were a snake.

  “It’s stuck,” Isaac’s voice shook.

  Zane had the insane urge to comfort him, but before he could say one word, Isaac was gone, racing for the second SUV.

  He didn’t move until the vehicle faded in the distance.

  “You okay?” Ethan grimaced.

  “No.”

  Isaac

  He’d been waiting about an hour.

  What the fuck was taking Zane so long? They’d arrived back from Arizona over two hours ago. Every minute that went by, he could feel Maddox’s annoyance increase.

  The captain sat behind his desk and Isaac had been standing at attention since he’d entered.

  “At ease, Sergeant,” Maddox growled, finally glanced up from the file he was reading.

  “Thank you, Sir.” He spread his feet apart and hooked his arms behind his back, releasing the tension in his spine.

  “In fact, just sit in the god damned chair,” Maddox said with a dark look.

  Isaac didn’t argue. He sat in one of the two chairs in front of the captain’s desk.

  The clock ticked on the wall and sweat gathered in his armpits and soaked his shirt. He was dying of thirst, but didn’t ask for water. Ten long fucking minutes went by before there was a knock on the door.
>
  “Enter!” Maddox snapped, and Zane stepped into the room.

  The soldier shut the door and took two steps into the room and stood at attention.

  Isaac went to stand up, but Maddox lifted a hand. “Sergeant Thorne, stay sitting and relax.”

  His breath stuttered, but he stayed put, not willing to challenge the look in Maddox’s eyes. The man was more pissed than Isaac could ever remember him being.

  “You, on the other hand, Master Sergeant, can stay standing.”

  “Yes, sir,” Zane said abruptly.

  Maddox closed the file he was reading. From this angle, Isaac could see that it was his personnel file and his heart sank. The captain finished with a notation and then tucked his file away into a drawer before pulling out another one. This one had Zane’s name on the front. Maddox slapped it open loudly in the room and started writing.

  Thirty fucking minutes went by before Maddox closed the file. Of course, he hadn’t been writing the whole time, but he’d managed to work on his computer between making notations.

  Zane hadn’t moved, not even to reposition his body. It was a test of wills on Maddox’s part and Isaac suspected that Zane got the message that Maddox wasn’t one to be fucked with.

  Maddox took a deep breath and began. “I don’t care what’s going on in your personal lives, but when it affects the running of my team and puts our unit in danger on a mission, it boils my fucking blood.” The words were measured out slowly, each one over pronounced, the last few said through the captain’s teeth.

  Isaac gripped the arms of the chair. Fuck. Was Maddox going to toss them off the unit? He could do it. Of course, he’d have to answer to Colonel Cobalt later, but if Maddox said they were out, then they were out.

  Fucking Zane! Creating problems where there was none. The guy wanted the kiss buried, check, but why did Zane pick a fight about it? Perhaps it was time to get a new partner. Obviously, they didn’t work.

  But they did work. They worked as partners. They were in sync every single way except for the way he wanted them. So the fuck what? Suck it up and deal, he sighed.

  “I separated you two for a reason. I could see the storm brewing and made an attempt to thwart it. While you do have the authority to switch partners in the field, Master Sergeant, you don’t have the right to hash out your personal shit on a goddamned mission!”