Ricochet (Out for Justice Book 1)

by Reese Knightley

  Silence. The front seemed as secure as possible, which left the remainder of Manning’s men coming through the back. He had no doubts this was Manning’s doing. Too bad he didn’t have time to finish the job.

  A cocky voice came from the darkness. “Get your ass moving and get him to safety. Me and the boys will take care of this,” Wild said.

  Fucking Wild. Noah wasn’t even going to ask how the man knew where the fuck he was. Over Wild’s shoulder, Noah caught a glimpse of Storm.

  “I called the cops. Watch your backs,” Noah said and nodded. He didn’t have time for this shit, but when he got Stefano alone, they were going to have words. Not that he wasn’t grateful, but a man needed privacy upon occasion, damn it.

  Within seconds, he was back at Mac’s side. The marshal seemed to have gained some of his energy back after a few stumbling steps forward. Noah caught Mac’s arm again and they jogged with Noah half-carrying Mac down the beach.

  “Who were they?” Mac asked.

  “Friends,” was all Noah could say. They were more like family, but Noah wasn’t sure if Mac would understand.

  Keeping close to the rocky banks, he led Mac down the beach before stopping. Lifting the edge of his shirt, he ripped off the bottom of the material and wrapped it tightly around Mac’s arm.

  Sirens grew closer and closer until they filled the night around Mac’s beach house. Not just a few, either. In the distance, Noah saw a whole fucking slew of flashing lights, red, blue, and white, followed by more gunshots and police yelling. A helicopter swooped in to land on the beach.

  Reaching his jeep, he poured Mac into the passenger side and ran around to hop behind the wheel. Peeling out of the parking lot, Noah raced out of the area and toward the nearest hospital.

  “Hang on, Mac.” Noah tossed the quiet marshal a quick look. The gray pallor of Mac’s skin worried him. He couldn’t remember being this scared since he’d reached adulthood. Maybe the bullet hit something they hadn’t seen.

  The hospital emergency room was packed. The alarms went off from their weapons. Security converged on them, but they were escorted right through when Noah flashed Mac’s US Marshals badge.

  “It’s a gunshot wound. Why don’t you get that later?” He scowled at the poor woman behind the desk who tried to ask for Mac’s insurance information. She buzzed them through and hurriedly led them to an emergency room bed. Mac eased up on the bed, resting on his back, and closed his eyes. Noah stood, feeling useless next to him. A doctor hurried into the room, and two nurses shouldered Noah aside.

  Just before the curtain was yanked closed and just before Noah went to step back, Mac grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave,” the man ordered, cracking open one bloodshot eye.

  “I won’t, I’ll be right here,” Noah promised. “We have some unfinished business.” He tried to smile, but his lips wouldn’t work, and then the woman was pushing him gently away and closing the curtain on the man Noah knew without a shadow of a doubt he completely and irrevocably still loved.

  The years had done nothing to diminish his feelings for Mac. If anything, the time apart had shown Noah just how much they had grown. He sat in one of the hard-ass plastic chairs and tried to get the smell of antiseptic off of his mind. Hospitals reminded him of his childhood. Deciding to get it over with, Noah pulled his cell phone out and made a call.

  “You’re starting to cause quite the stir,” Stefano sighed into the phone.

  “You said I had some personal time,” Noah said. “I haven’t taken a break in years.”

  “I said time off as in a vacation, Noah. I didn’t say to go off half-cocked and start hunting down drug dealers,” Stefano argued.

  “You’re wrong,” Noah said. “I’m not going around half-cocked, I’m going around fully cocked.” And heaven help anyone who got in his way. “I’m not coming back until I kill Terrance Manning.”

  Quiet came over the phone. “I wish you wouldn’t mess with Manning,” Stefano complained. “I told you years ago, he’s very bad news.” Apparently, bad news nobody wanted to take care of.

  “I have to do this. You of all people know why,” Noah said. Stefano knew Manning had killed his mother. But what the man didn’t know was that it had been Terrance Manning who had yanked him from beneath that bed all those years ago. How Terrance Manning had forced him to look down at his mother, already dead from a bullet to the head. Manning had been the one to warn a terrified young boy that if he said a word, they would do the same to him. The other things the man had done to him paled in comparison to what he’d taken from Noah, and if it was the last thing Noah ever did, he would end Terrance Manning once and for all.

  “Need me to call in the cavalry?” Stefano offered, sighing in defeat.

  “They showed up already,” Noah informed Stefano. “I thought you sent them.”

  “Ah, no. How many?”

  “Just two that I could see.” Hell, there could have been four more of his team out there.

  “I can send the rest,” Stefano said decisively.

  Noah half-smiled and knew if he gave Stefano the word, the man would send the hounds of hell, if he could, to help. It was weird, but he always felt so connected to this man.

  “No, I just need you to make a call to your contact at the Marshals office.”

  “Why am I doing this?” Stefano grumbled.

  “US Marshal Robert McKenzie is in the emergency room at St. Mary’s hospital,” Noah said, running a hand over his face. “And I don’t know who all is dirty in that office,” Noah told Stefano. “But they have a leak, a Camren Anderson.”

  “Okay, sit tight. I’ll make that call,” Stefano said. “And Noah, watch yourself. Manning’s not to be taken lightly. And the chief will have my ass if anything happens to you.”

  “I doubt that. If the chief is so worried about any of us, then why the secrecy? I’ve rarely spoken to the man in the five years I’ve been with the team. So if the chief has a problem with me doing my job, then he can fucking call me himself.” Noah hung up.

  The chief could just continue to do what he was good at, cutting red-tape in Washington, and leave the rest of it to the team. Noah didn’t really have a grudge against the guy, but he did find it odd that the man couldn’t be bothered with meeting his own goddamned team. To Noah, the chief was just a robotic voice giving orders over the phone.

  Going in search of coffee, he returned with a full cup and resumed his seat. Years of training had him sinking into the hard plastic, slowing his breathing, only his hand lifting occasionally to take a sip. Nothing good comes from stressing out. Mac’s injury wasn’t life-threatening.

  Someone tried to kill him and Mac. He spent the time imagining all the different types of torture he’d do to Ben. That little fucker was going down if the team hadn’t already killed him. Noah didn’t doubt that Ben had been instrumental in the beach house hit. The guy had probably called Anderson or Manning while hightailing it out of Mac’s house. Manning didn’t know the shitstorm he’d just unleashed, but before too much longer, Noah was going to make it very clear to the man. He finished the cold coffee before he finally stood and stretched.

  “Noah?” A voice spun him around.

  “Jake?” Noah turned, easing his hand from behind his back, releasing the gun he had tucked back there.

  “I sure am glad to see you,” Jake said. The man came right up to him and grabbed him in a brief, hard hug. Noah gripped the man back.

  “How’s Mac?” Jake asked, the man’s eyes filled with worry.

  “I don’t know yet. They haven’t come out.” Noah pointed to the closed emergency room doors.

  Jake took a seat next to him. “So what happened?” Jake asked.

  Noah studied the man for a long time without answering. Was Coleman to be trusted? Noah had known the man so many years ago, but he had no idea if Jake was involved.

  Mac surely trusted the guy after all these years, right? But Coleman could be in with Anderson and not have told Mac. “I don’t know who to t
rust,” Noah said bluntly.

  “My partner is in there with a bullet wound, I’m sitting here with a WITSEC rogue-gone-covert-badass and you’re telling me you don’t know who to trust? I think that’s my line.” Jake blinked at him.

  “Your office has a leak, Marshal,” Noah pointed out.

  “I know.” Jake seemed to deflate. “Mac and I, along with the FBI, have been trying to figure out who the fuck it is.”

  “FBI? As in Kane Quintana?” Noah slightly remembered the man.

  “Yes.”

  At that point, Noah took a leap of faith and told Jake that if the leak, a man named Camren Anderson, found out that Mac was here, Noah would be waiting. Jake looked shocked and left the room.

  Noah figured the man was filling his boss in on Anderson. Jake came back, slipping his phone into his pocket. The marshal didn’t say anything, just took a seat next to Noah.

  They sat like that for some time, not talking. Then the man turned to him with a slight smile. “So…Allison is your partner?”

  Noah snorted. So that was how it was. Ally strikes again. “We don’t have partners, but she’s part of the team.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jake mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed.

  “She’s something, that’s for sure,” Noah added. The door across from them remained stubbornly closed.

  Jake laughed and nodded. “Yeah, she sure is.”

  “Please tell me you’re not going to ask me for her number.” Noah shook his head.

  “Weeeeeell…” Jake drew the word out dramatically, and Noah finally relaxed enough to smile, but couldn’t quite bring his gaze from the closed door.

  “I can’t give you her number,” he murmured and glanced at Jake. The man looked dejected, so Noah added, “But I’ll tell her to call you.” He stretched out his legs, cupped his cold coffee between his hands, and once again studied the closed, faded blue door. What the fuck was taking so long?

  “Yeah,” Jake snorted. “Like that will happen.”

  “Hey, she might call,” Noah said. But in reality, Mamma Bear, Allison’s code name, would probably eat Jake whole.

  Leaning a shoulder against the room’s open door, Noah waited quietly. The marshal appeared smaller beneath the large white sheet, and his face looked haggard.

  Noah fucking hated hospitals. Only a handful of people on earth could ever make him enter one, and one of those people was the man on that bed. Mac’s lids slowly lifted, sleepy blue eyes glancing wildly around before landing on him, and damn it, Noah felt a warm rush beneath the penetrating gaze.

  “Come here,” Mac ordered with a look that scorched the distance between them.

  “Bossy.” Noah quirked a brow, hoping to hide the way the marshal’s deep voice affected him.

  “You’re just now realizing that?” Mac looked incredulous.

  Biting back a smile, Noah shoved the door closed and crossed the floor. His hand closed over Mac’s outstretched one. “You scared the shit out of me,” he rasped. Yeah, his anger felt all out of proportion.

  “Hurts like a mo-fo too.” Mac grinned, certainly still dopey from the drugs.

  Noah couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Goof.”

  “It seems like every time we’re together, I get shot at,” Mac complained.

  “Oh hey, last time was so not my fault,” Noah teased. “We were on the run. You got in the way of a flying bullet.”

  “Well, there was that,” the marshal admitted with a grimace.

  Noah moved closer and sank into the bedside chair, still holding Mac’s hand, their fingers interlocking. “Need more pain meds?” Noah brushed his thumb along the top of Mac’s hand. The steady beeping of the heart monitor felt comforting. After years of hardening his heart, why was it that this man brought out his tender side?

  “No, I’m not taking any more meds. I need a clear head.”

  “Why’s that?” He searched Mac’s face. Lines of pain bracketed the man’s mouth.

  “Because we have a bad guy to catch and a couple of snitches to deal with.” Mac looked determined, almost petulant, as if expecting him to argue. But there was no arguing about this.

  “No, we don’t,” Noah said abruptly. “But I do.”

  “Like hell you’re doing this by yourself.” Mac narrowed his eyes. “That’s what we have teams for.”

  “I don’t work well with teams,” Noah lied coolly, needing to wrap this up.

  “Well, you do now!”

  “How so?” Noah asked, not giving an inch.

  “You’re part of my team,” Mac murmured, drawing his hand closer with a gentle tug before brushing a kiss over his knuckles.

  So not a fair move. Yet Noah went willingly because who the hell was he kidding? Mac saying he was part of his team melted him, and well, the lips touching his skin set off all kinds of bells and whistles and cravings.

  “Mac,” Noah breathed out, clenching his teeth. He briefly closed his eyes. “I’m afraid to hope.” Their kiss seemed like a dream.

  “Just give us a chance.” Mac’s words fanned warmly over his fingers.

  Noah could hardly breathe after the gentle, impassioned plea. “Okay,” he promised, and gently leaned over to brush Mac’s mouth with his own.

  Intending on a gentle kiss, it ended up nothing close to one when their passion exploded upon their lips touching. Lips parted, brushed, and came in slow, then hungry and hard, tongues warring desperately and then languishing, tasting, until they came up for air. Each time they touched, the attraction exploded between them. Noah couldn’t ever remember a time when Mac’s eyes were so blue. He brushed his thumb over Mac’s jaw.

  “Sir! Sir! You can’t go in there!” One of the nurses was speaking to someone in the hallway, and Noah turned, shielding Mac, and pulled his gun. Aiming the silencer at the door, he reminded himself to check for friendlies before he fired.

  “I’m a US Marshal. Let me past.” Jake sounded pissed, and Noah tucked his gun away. Opening the door, Noah poked his head out. “It’s okay,” Noah said, vouching for Jake, who in turn flipped him off, making Noah laugh.

  “It’s against regulations. Only one visitor,” the nurse said primly.

  “Like I said,” Noah answered the woman and pulled Jake into the room at the same time, “it’s okay.” He closed the door with a snap, leaving the woman standing with her mouth open in the hallway.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “I could have handled her.”

  “I sure hope so if you plan on dating Allison.” Noah smirked and returned to Mac.

  “Yeah, yeah, real funny guy,” Jake snorted.

  “Who’s dating Allison?” a deep voice asked from the quietly opened door. Wild moved inside like a predator and closed the door. Jake’s mouth gaped and Noah wanted to laugh. Wild had that effect on people. With his long hair, cool blue eyes, and rock hard body, he was a gay man’s wet dream. Noah wasn’t sure if the guy was gay though.

  Jake swallowed and turned to Mac. “You good?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. Won’t be in here much longer,” Mac said, watching Wild as the man stood with his arms crossed against his chest and leaning in the shadows of the far side of the room.

  “We’ll see,” Noah said, ignoring the scowl Mac shot him.

  “So, bad news, guys, Anderson is on the run and there’s no sign of Ben,” Jake told Mac. “Good news, the captain said that Anderson only accessed the safe house address, he didn’t access Clair’s reports on Noah.”

  Noah breathed a sigh of relief. That meant Manning still thought of him as a WITSEC victim.

  “Sir! Sir! You can’t go in there!” The nurse’s voice drifted through the door.

  Noah, Wild, and Jake pulled their guns, but it was Wild who slipped over and cracked the door.

  “The hell I can’t!” Kane Quintana snarled at the nurse and then shouldered through the door and tried to get past Wild. When the larger man didn’t move, Kane stopped and stared up with a frown. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Who the fuck are you?
” Wild growled back.

  “He’s good, Wild, ease up,” Noah offered as Kane skirted around the man and advanced on Mac.

  Wild grunted and did the honors of shutting the door in the nurse’s sputtering face. He then took up residence back in the shadows.

  Noah walked over to Wild. “Why are you here?” He kept his voice low.

  “Someone tried to kill you, little brother. We don’t take that lightly,” Wild growled, just as low as Noah. The little brother was a tag the man had given him. Wild had told Noah that he reminded him of his little brother who had been killed a few years ago. After hearing that, Noah hadn’t minded the tag. “We picked up the boyfriend.”

  “Ben?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He’s not Mac’s boyfriend.”

  “Whatever.” Wild smirked.

  Noah smirked back. Phoenix would hold Ben indefinitely if they wanted. “Does he know anything?”

  “No, just that the Anderson guy asked him to search your marshal’s house to get information on your whereabouts.”

  “Hold him. I can’t have him telling Anderson.” If Anderson knew, he’d tell Manning. Noah rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He needed Manning to think he was on the run.

  “We figured that out, little brother. You need the element of surprise.”

  “Thanks, Wild,” Noah said.

  The man nodded and slipped from the room.

  When Noah turned from Wild, Kane was hugging Mac tightly despite the marshal’s grimace of pain.

  “What have I told you?” Kane demanded.

  “Don’t get dead?” Mac replied, winking at Noah over Kane’s shoulder. The wink sent all kinds of warmth through him.

  “No, don’t get shot!” Kane yelled with a frown and released Mac before he stepped back.

  “Oh that, yeah, sorry. Noah and I already decided that I got shot because we are together,” Mac said, looking smug.

  “I didn’t decide that!” Noah snorted, even though Mac’s words made him smile.