Zep and Knight advanced and kicked the Blades’ weapons away before they covered one another long enough to tie up their perps. Zep was just securing the second Blade when Hunt’s voice sounded calmly in Knight’s ear.
“Two, B.”
Knight spun around and was focusing on his target to fire. However, the few seconds it took for him to focus on the man were enough for the asshole to shoot him. Twice. Thankfully, the asshole was only using a handgun instead of an AK like the two dickheads he and Zep had just secured. Otherwise, the slug to his chest and the one that tore into his shoulder would’ve caused a shit load more damage. Death being the worst of it, because the shot that hit his chest was dead on.
“Son of a bitch,” Knight cursed and didn’t feel any guilt when two of his shots hit the center of the Blades’ chest and the asshole dropped.
Zep laughed. “Can’t take you anywhere.”
“Fuck you.” Knight attempted to grin though his pain. “I only get shot when you’re around.”
“Uh huh,” Zep agreed before they continued down the line of crates toward the other two Blades’ members they could see firing at the rest of the raid team.
***
Slade hit the concrete with a grunt when Fish launched his big-assed body toward him to take them down. His boss immediately rolled off him and Slade rolled in the opposite direction after only a glance at his bloodied hands and arms. He didn’t look back to check on Fish before he scrambled for the cover of the warehouse inventory. It wasn’t until he was behind several barrels that unfortunately had flammable warnings plastered to their sides that Slade was able to assess the chaos.
There was no sign of Fish or Spider. The women who were trapped in the trafficking ring were also nowhere to be seen. Slade could only hope the ICE agents had gotten them to safety before the shit hit the fan. Smoke from the flash bangs obscured the area where his team, Fish’s, and the Blades had stood. He had his weapon drawn, but couldn’t see a single perp to shoot. That should have made him feel better. Instead, it just frustrated him. He felt bloodthirsty and wasn’t ashamed to admit it. All he could do was wait for the smoke, literally, to clear, but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.
***
Payne was in fucking pain. He’d been shot. Twice. Once in the thigh and once in the upper chest. Both hurt like a motherfucker and what sucked more than the pressure in his chest that was making it hard to breathe was that he couldn’t move from where he lay on the cold ass, hard concrete floor in the middle of the warehouse.
“Fuck me. This shit hurts!”
Hunt heard Payne’s panted breath. He couldn’t see anything, but foggy smoke from Payne’s mini cam, but he had no doubt that the guy he’d been irrationally crushing on for over two years had been shot. He had no idea how bad Payne’s gunshot wound was, but the fact that there was no movement on the screen that showed what Payne could see couldn’t be good. If Payne was not moving, then it was bad, real bad. There was no way to ask Payne how bad he was hurt and that worried the shit out of Hunt.
“Zep, Knight,” Hunt spoke to the only two teammates that would hear him. “Payne is down. Shot and by his lack of movement, I’m guessing it’s got to be pretty bad.” Hunt hoped his voice was steady, but he had a feeling it wasn’t as professional as it should be. Not that he gave a flying fuck while he waited for one of his teammates to acknowledge they had heard him.
“I got him,” Knight told both Zep and Hunt without giving any thought to his own gunshot wound.
Zep gave Knight a nod and continued down the line of crates toward where they had last seen the Blades’ members before the flash bang smoke drifted to their part of the warehouse.
***
Spider did a whole lot of standing around and looking like a bad ass until the moment the INET agent, the huge fucker that could only be Slade’s boss, shoved Slade to the ground. The moment the large man moved, Spider dodged to the side away from Cutter and both INET agents. It was a damn good thing he did because if the sniper had been off by even three inches when he shot Cutter, Spider would’ve been clipped at the very least.
He wanted to be pissed about the close call, but he was too busy trying to find cover for the emotion to take root. It was nothing, but luck that he scrambled toward the crates on the same side of the warehouse where Zep, and the agent that looked like Slade enough to be scary, breached the warehouse. He watched both men take out two Blades, secure them, and the Slade doppelgänger get shot twice before the man headed toward the center of the warehouse.
Zep continued toward the two Blades that were still shooting like mad men at the raiding team. Spider followed Zep to offer his lover backup. The smoke from the flash bangs was still thick, but thinned out occasionally so it didn’t totally obscure his sight of the INET agent in front of him.
“One, B.”
Hunt’s voice warned Zep of the man who was creeping up behind him. He raised his weapon, spun, and shot on instinct. He didn’t shoot to kill because he tried not to kill perps unless his life was on the line.
“Fuck, Zep!” Spider spat out, grasped his arm, and instinctively dropped to the ground. He plastered himself to the floor to make himself a harder target to hit and prayed his lover wouldn’t fire again.
“Spider?”
Oh shit, Zep panicked. He had no doubt that he had hit his target. His target who appeared to be Spider. Please, not a chest or belly shot, Zep prayed as he backtracked toward his lover’s voice that cursed him. Zep found Spider sprawled flat on the floor and panicked.
“Oh fuck! Spider? Spider?”
Spider heard the panic in Zep’s voice and it made his heart swell even though his arm was burning with pain. Zep knelt by his head and Spider felt Zep’s hands frantically moving over his back.
“Fuck.” Spider pushed himself up with his good arm until he was kneeling next to Zep. “You fucking shot me,” Spider accused in a humorous tone. It wasn’t his first time being shot, after all.
“Shit,” Zep cursed. “Where? Tell me it’s not somewhere vital.”
Spider laughed. Zep had seen his multiple gunshot and knife scars. Some of which had been life-threatening, but this one wasn’t. However, just hearing the worry in the man’s voice made that warm feeling flood through him again.
How did I get so lucky after treating him like shit for so many years? Spider wondered for only a moment before another thought slammed into him. Shit, I love him. Oh, fuck.
“Spider? Spider!” Zep got right in Spider’s face when his lover didn’t answer. “Tell me where I shot you God dammit!”
Zep knew he was on the verge of losing his shit. He shot his lover and was freaking the fuck out because feelings he didn’t even realize he had for the bully from his youth were coming to the surface. He hadn’t given any thought to how he felt about Spider aside from the loss of the man’s company once the op was over.
Now, the thought of losing Spider forever shot a different kind of pain through his chest to the point that he almost couldn’t breathe. Losing Spider was not an option, especially if he was responsible. The guilt was already building and Spider not answering him wasn’t lessening it any.
“Arm,” Spider finally said and could practically feel Zep’s relief.
“Oh, thank fucking God.”
“You’re thanking God that you shot me?” Spider chuckled.
“No,” Zep answered before he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Spider’s.
Spider was caught off guard by Zep’s kiss and sadly for him he didn’t even get a chance to reciprocate before Zep pulled away.
“You good to finish taking these fucker’s out or do you need to sit tight?”
Spider chuckled again at Zep’s question. “It’s my arm, love. What do you think?”
“Love?” Zep paused in the middle of standing up.
“Later.” Spider pushed himself up to stand, but once he stood in front of Zep, he spoke again, “but yeah, love.”
Zep couldn’t hel
p but blink stupidly at Spider’s declaration. He was stunned senseless by the sexy-as-sin grin Spider was leveling on him and the man knew it.
“C’mon, duty calls.” Spider smirked and his words seem to tune his lover back into the chaos that still swirled around them.
***
Knight crouched and followed Hunt’s directions to where Payne was supposed to be in the center of the warehouse. The smoke was still thick, but somehow Hunt was able to lead him straight to their teammate. Maybe it was the bio trackers or just dumb luck, but Hunt led him directly to Payne.
The INET agent he had yet to have the opportunity to work with or even get to know was sprawled flat on his back. The man didn’t look good and if the pool of blood that surrounded his body was any indication, he was badly shot.
Payne saw the vague shadow of someone approach him through the smog of the flash bangs. The pain he felt was practically blinding, but not to the point that it stopped him from raising his gun to aim at the man who was obviously coming for him.
“Whoa.” Knight pulled up short when he was faced with the muzzle of a 0.9 mil. “I’m INET.” The gun didn’t lower even an inch even though it was more than obvious that Payne was growing week. “Hunt sent me.”
“Hunter?” Payne asked and couldn’t stop the image of the cute redhead from slipping into his mind.
“Yeah. I’m Knight, Slade’s partner, so lower that fucker.”
Payne attempted to chuckle because not only did the man look like Slade, but his words to order Payne to lower his weapon were exactly something Slade would say.
Knight didn’t like the gurgling sound that escaped Payne’s lips. He thought the man attempted to laugh, but all Knight heard was wetness moving in the guy’s throat. When he leaned closer and saw blood running from the corner of Payne’s lips down the man’s neck, he knew he didn’t have much time before his fellow agent would die.
“Hunt.”
“Medevac is enroute. Get him outside, Knight.” Knight heard the desperation in Hunt’s voice, but he didn’t take any time to analyze it before he spoke to Payne again.
“Gotta move you, bud,” Knight kept his voice light. “Your ride is going to be outside, but this is gonna hurt like a bitch.”
Payne nodded and Knight tried not to worry about the man’s lack of verbal reply. When he lifted Payne up he also tried not to worry about the amount of blood he could feel soaking the agent’s clothes.
***
Less than two hours later the warehouse was cleared. ICE had taken the girls to one of their shelters that would help them deal with their trauma and the Blades who weren’t killed outright were in custody and heading to a holding facility.
Knight didn’t bother thinking about ICE or ATF arguing over the Blades where the charges against the bikers were concerned. No instead, he stood in front of his boss and fought the urge to touch Slade since it was stronger than the dull throbbing ache in his shoulder.
It was the same urge he could see in Keg’s eyes when the man looked at the dark-haired agent who was one of the suits that Fish brought in with him earlier.
“We’re done here,” Fish looked at all of them. His gaze included Keg and Spider. “Your reports and ours will be shared across agencies.” Fish looked back at his agents. “Get your team patched up, Slade.” He didn’t say anything else before he turned and walked away.
***
“You’re shot,” Slade said when he scrutinized Knight more closely. “Again.”
“Zep’s fault.” Knight grinned at the look of astonishment on Slade’s face.
“He shot you, too?” Spider asked incredulously and chortled at his lover.
“I did not shoot Knight.” Zep met Slade’s raised eyebrow.
“Still your fault.” Knight winced when Slade started to remove his Kevlar vest.
They stopped at the back of an ambulance and the medics descended on them like vultures on fresh road kill. One was already moving to cut Knight’s T-shirt away from his wound while the other raised trauma shears to the shoulder of Spider’s vest.
“You cut this leather and you’ll eat those scissors,” Spider growled. “I was shot in the arm.” Spider pointed to his bicep and glared at the younger medic.
“By Zep,” Knight added sarcastically and laughed.
“It was an accident,” Zep defended quietly.
The flash of guilt Knight saw enter Zep’s eyes caused him to stop teasing his teammate. It was clear Zep felt like shit for shooting Spider even if Knight did find it funny as hell.
“I’ll read about it in your report,” Slade said to end the conversation. “We’re going to your house to help Hunt pack up.”
Slade looked around at the groups from the various alphabets that were standing around. He found who he was looking for and shook his head.
Lita had secured four Satan’s Blades’ members. When the smoke cleared, they found their teammate sitting on a crate like he was a cover model for some kick ass novel. All four Blades were sprawled unconscious on the ground next to the crate Lita was perched on and not a single one had been shot.
Currently, Lita was talking to the other suit that had walked in with Fish. Slade wasn’t sure which agency the man worked for, but knew he’d find out once the reports started to filter across his desk.
“Lita!” Slade yelled and his teammate turned toward them before turning back to the suit for a second. Slade saw the suit hand Lita a business card before their teammate jogged over. He raised a brow at Lita who just shrugged with a grin.
“Why are you two still standing here?” Slade asked when he turned back to Knight and Spider. “Get your asses to the hospital.” Slade received almost identical frowns from both men and promptly ignored them.
Slade started barking orders to his remaining two teammates. “Lita, get our shit from the motel and meet us at their house. Zep, take the vehicle you and Knight drove here and I’ll follow on my bike. You can give me a ride back for Spider’s bike.”
One back door to the ambulance was already closed when Slade turned back to the emergency vehicle.
“Keys.” Slade glanced at Spider and a second later caught the jangle of metal that the bastard threw over hand at him. “Let’s go,” Slade ordered at the same time the medics slammed closed the other back door of the ambulance.
##~~##
Twenty-six
Hunt went into full-blown panic mode when he got his first look at how badly Payne was injured. Seeing Payne’s body covered in blood and hearing the man drowning from his injury through Knight’s mini cam didn’t make it any easier to witness. Payne looked real fucking bad. Like going to die fucking bad.
The whirlwind when the paramedics that swarmed Payne and began to work on the man to save his life should have reduced Hunt’s panic. It did for a brief moment, even though he couldn’t see anything more than Payne’s legs through Knight’s view on his monitor.
That moment failed to last when the slow beeping sound of Payne’s heart being monitored turned to a solid tone. Hunt didn’t need the medic to curse to know that Payne coded.
“Clear.” The high whine of the defibrillator was heard seconds before Hunt saw Payne’s legs bounce on the stretcher.
Don’t die, don’t die.
Two more times the high pitched noise filled the dining room before there was a solid beep. Movement in the square on his monitor that was labeled with Knight’s name showed the three medics running the stretcher toward the medevac chopper.
One of the medics was steadily squeezing a bag that Hunt knew was the only way Payne’s body was receiving oxygen. The three medics loaded Payne into the helicopter before two climbed in with the stretcher and the third jogged around to the front. Hunt never saw the medevac chopper lift off because Slade called out to Knight and his teammate turned toward their team leader.
In a daze, Hunt quickly started breaking down all of their surveillance equipment. The quicker he could get all the shit packed up, the faster they could get to the h
ospital. Even though Hunt was focused on how badly Payne was injured, he was still aware that Knight and Spider had also been shot. As Hunt was bundling computer cables, he could only hope that the ATF agent and his teammate were being taken to the same hospital as Payne.
***
Slade pulled his Harley up to the curb in front of the house the surveillance team currently rented. He didn’t bother to go inside before he climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV.
“Let’s go,” Slade ordered and Zep pulled away from the curb.
Zep almost dreaded the forty minutes alone with Slade that it would take them to get back to the warehouse. He knew his mentor, the man was like his brother, and the only family Zep would claim would have questions for him regarding Spider. Even though Slade stayed out of his personal life, Zep knew this was one time Slade wouldn’t. He was right when five minutes into the drive, Slade spoke.
“Spider, huh?”
“Yeah,” Zep replied without taking his eyes off the road. Silence filled the SUV for a few minutes and Zep braced himself for whatever Slade was going to say next.
“I’ve been trying to recruit him for a few years now.”
“What?” Zep glanced at Slade because this was news to him.
“He always declined. In fact, was aggressively adamant that he wasn’t interested.” Slade paused and Zep knew his team leader could see him frown. “I knew you had a history with him even if you never talked about it. Shit, I knew how much the fucker scared you, but he was a good agent and a good fit for INET.” Before Zep could comment Slade continued. “And I wanted you to face your fear in a controlled environment where you knew I’d have your back.”
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