by RJ Scott
"Don't get caught," Cain said very carefully.
I never get caught, Manny thought. He followed the sound of a raised voice. Seemed like one person had a lot to say and get it off his chest. Manny stopped outside the door that was open. He chanced a quick look but all he could see was the back of tall, dark, and handsome whom he clearly identified as Josh. Josh was the one doing all the talking.
"…naive to think I wouldn't find out. What was it?
That day at the club? Was that you muscling in on someone who you could keep your eye on?"
"Josh, please—"
"What did you do, E?"
E? Eric Santez. The lawyer's eldest son.
"He's my dad. He said it was important—"
"Did you report back to him every time I let you bend me over the sofa? Or the night we fucked in the back room—"
"He'll hear you—" Eric was sounding way past overwrought and working his way up to really damn worried. "You need to go."
"Did you ever mean it?" Josh's voice again. "When you said you loved me?"
Manny thumped his head back against the wall.
Shit. Why had no one joined the dots? The boyfriend Josh wanted to say goodbye to was the Bullen lawyer's son?
That made an awful lot of shit-filled sense. Josh had been played. Clearly he'd found out.
Cain's voice echoed in his head. "Jennifer called in.
There's a load of intel that Josh has pulled together on Emilio Santez and Eric Santez. It's all on the PC. Josh wasn't hiding what he found. He broke the code on the shutdown."
"I didn't," Eric was saying. "I couldn't love you. It was never going to amount to anything—"
Manny heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh, followed by the noise of someone falling back on maybe a table. Fuck. Josh was going to be bringing down a rain of crap if he didn't cool it.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Manny entered the room gun high. He catalogued the room in an instant.
Eric Santez sprawled on the floor, his chest rising in a breath and blood trailing from his nose. Josh Headley stood over him with cold fury etched onto his face. Then Josh looked at Manny with glassy-eyed shock.
"I hit him," was all Josh said as he raised his hand and shook it disbelievingly at what he had done. "Shit."
Shit indeed.
"Hands where I can see them."
"I'm not going anywhere—"
"We're leaving," Manny instructed brusquely. He indicated with the gun and Josh got with the program fairly quickly. He strode out of the door with his hands high and Manny followed. Only after they passed out of the main room with the unconscious Eric did Josh try his luck. With a move worthy of a man who watched too many action
movies he twisted on his heel and grabbed for the gun.
Manny allowed him to move his balance and in a practiced move of his own he had the other guy face to the wall and one hand pushed up and held hard with the barrel of the gun in the small of Josh's back. Six foot of man was effectively imprisoned between wall and hold. Manny felt a small thrill that yet again someone had underestimated him based on his size and felt he would be an easy target.
"Manny Sullivan," he whispered harshly.
"Sanctuary. Stop fucking fighting me and get yourself out and over the damn wall."
Josh relaxed in Manny's hold and without turning he moved out of the house as soon as Manny released him.
Lights began to switch on as they reached the wall and as they dropped to the other side the sound of an alarm from inside the house interrupted the silence. Manny put his gun back in the space at the small of his back and started to half jog to his car. Josh was on his heels and without argument he climbed into the passenger seat.
Within a minute they had moved away from where Manny had parked, and the car was pointed back to Sanctuary.
"I'm sorry—" Josh started.
"Shut the hell up," Manny snapped as he exited the housing area and entered the city again. Josh did as he was told and in a few more minutes they were back in Sanctuary's underground parking and out of the car to the elevator. Josh remained quiet when Manny pressed in the code for the right floor and then leaned back against the wall.
"What—"
"I said shut up." Manny was pissed. Why did Sanctuary bother with any of this shit when people like Josh screwed it all up?
Josh bristled and stood away from the wall. Clearly he had something to say. Manny simply pulled his gun from where he'd placed it, made a show of checking it and refused to meet Josh's eyes. Josh in return heaved a sigh and relaxed his stance.
CHAPTER 2
The elevator doors opened and Manny stalked out onto the office floor not even telling Josh to follow him but assuming he was anyway. Jake met them just outside of ops and Cain was hovering in the background.
"Okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Idiot knocked out the lawyer's son. Eric. Who it seems is his boyfriend."
"Why didn't we know that?" Jake looked from Manny to Cain.
Cain shrugged and Manny frowned.
"We never dug too deeply into Josh Headley. We were too busy saving his freaking life."
"I'm right here," Josh protested.
Manny and Jake rounded on him immediately.
"Shut up," they said in unison.
Jake stalked to his office and pushed open the door wide. "Get in here," he snapped.
Manny watched the play of expressions on Josh's handsome face. Anger, frustration, hurt, and finally acceptance. With tight-lipped submission he walked into the office and Jake stepped back out and pulled the door closed behind him effectively shutting Josh inside.
"What the hell, Manny?" Jake asked.
The elevator dinged to indicate another arrival and Nik Valentinov exited the steel cage and joined them. His eyes narrowed as he looked around, clearly expecting Josh to be standing there.
"What the fuck was the idiot thinking?" Nik immediately snapped. "Where is he? Does he not realize he could jeopardize the whole case against Alastair Bullen? If his dad finds out we couldn't keep him safe—"
"He won't," Jake said simply. "He's in my office."
"It was a clean extraction," Manny said. "Though Josh did knock Eric flat on the floor."
"Eric, the lawyer's son?"
"Also the ex-boyfriend, it seems."
"How the hell did Josh even get away from the safe house?" Nik looked confused. And tired. Manny knew for a fact he and Morgan were in the city at the moment as Morgan was presenting to everyone in the morning the details of the case they had begun against the senator. He guessed there hadn't been much sleep so far tonight. Manny wished he had an answer to Nik's question.
"I don't know, but we'll find out."
When Manny opened the door to Jake's office he wasn't surprised to see Josh sitting at Jake's desk with the computer switched on. Josh glanced up at him with a look of frustration on his face. Clearly he had been attempting to break into the computer and had met Manny's security. He stood and pushed the chair away from the desk.
"I'm out of here," he snapped. Manny stood his ground—a barrier between Josh and the door. He crossed his arms over his chest and spread his legs a little for balance. Josh may well outstrip Manny in height by a good three inches and a healthy amount of muscle, but that didn't mean he was getting past.
"Nope," Manny said simply. "Not going anywhere."
"You can't stop me—"
"Do you realize what you've done?" Manny tried to remain patient and calm but Josh was simply belligerent and that didn't bode well for him actually listening to anything Manny said. "If your father finds out we couldn't keep you safe, if for one minute he thinks you are in danger, then he'll revert to his default position. We'll have lost Alastair."
"I know what I'm doing," Josh snapped quickly. "I'll take care of Alastair myself—"
"How? You gonna kill him? Like your dad killed Elisabeth?"
Josh's face lost all expression and he paled. Manny noticed his hands curled into fi
sts and a dead look entered his dark eyes. Okay, it had been a low blow to bring up his dad and the murder, but hell, Josh needed to see what he was doing. He was causing chaos where there needed to be calm.
"Fuck you," Josh finally said. "You don't know what it's like."
Manny didn't even rise to that one. He knew exactly what it was like but he wasn't about to share that with Josh.
He brushed off the flood of shame inside him and focused instead on Josh who had walked around the desk to stand toe-to-toe with him.
"Tell me then," Manny said instead.
"Tell you what?"
"What I don't understand. Tell me why you jeopardized the whole case against Alastair by putting yourself in danger."
Josh twisted his hands in his short dark hair. The action was one of frustration with a touch of that temper Manny had seen before. "Because I needed to do something. I'm not my mom. I'm not just gonna sit on my ass in a safe place."
"Okay…" Manny encouraged Josh quietly.
"Hell. She sits there like she has to be this victim.
She'll let you hide her away until it's all over, give her a new life, whatever the fuck you think you need to do. She'll go with it. She craves it. That safety. I don't want to hide. I want to fight. My dad—what he did—it's a mark on me and I want to do something to make things right. You can't stop me."
Manny considered the impassioned speech. Wasn't it exactly the same tone he had used on Jake back in the department interview room at MIT eight years ago? The passion and life and need to do something.
"I can," Manny started. Josh began to reply but Manny held up a hand to stop him. "I won't though. I know what it's like to have the need for action eating away inside you." God. Manny thought he even sounded like a well-reasoned adult. That was a first. Jake would be proud. "I have a question for you." Something that intrigued him.
"Okay," Josh sounded hesitant. He frowned.
"How did you break out of the safe house in a lockdown?"
Josh shrugged. "Usual trope. I imagine most of your residents," he paused. He had imbued residents with enough disdain to make it sound like a curse word. "I imagine they aren't looking to get out. I just watched Jennifer input the code."
"That doesn't explain the fact you managed this without tripping an alert to Sanctuary or Jennifer."
Josh shrugged. "I know enough to do stuff," he said.
He had evidently decided that being deliberately vague was the way to communicate with Manny.
"You've been in this room about ten minutes yet you haven't broken into Jake's computer," Manny observed.
Josh narrowed his gaze thoughtfully. "I wasn't trying."
Manny thought of the various alerts that had popped up on his phone in the last ten minutes. "Yes. You were."
Josh shrugged again. He wasn't giving anything away.
"Yet you are aiming for a post-grad in criminology and not computer security."
"Are you going to let me out of here?" Evidently Josh wanted to change the subject.
"This room, yes. The building, no. There's a room with a bed. It's not much but it's a place to sleep."
"You're not taking me back to the safe house with mom?" Josh's voice held an incredulous tone.
"No. Not tonight. Follow me."
Manny walked the convoluted corridors to a small room at the end. It was one of three for people to use as crash pads when work ran over and consumed normal life.
Nothing much to look at it contained a bed, a table, and a static computer. Josh walked in and stood by the bed.
Manny caught the quick glance Josh threw at the computer.
If he was anything like Manny then the minute he was alone Josh would be digging for information.
"Stay in the area. There's a kitchen a few doors down with bread, milk, coffee, the usual. Help yourself.
Stay on this floor. Okay?"
"Okay," Josh lied.
Manny smirked inwardly. There was no way off of this floor. Not even Josh with his sparkiness could get out of this level.
"Do you know SorayaCrypt encryption?" Manny asked conversationally. Josh's eyes widened. This was a test of what Josh actually knew and how fast the man could get into the first level of Sanctuary files. If he was a hacker worth his salt that Soraya would be on his to-do list to break into Sanctuary files. They needed another tech guy.
Maybe, if Josh could get past the shit in his head over his dad, then he could be suited to Sanctuary. Hell, getting involved with Jake had worked for Manny hadn't it?
SorayaCrypt wasn't the be all and end all; Manny had several layers of encryption in place that stopped access to the core. Yet, somehow Sean Hanson had managed to upload a worm to the system that had made it some of the way in. Josh could be useful. Maybe track down what the hell had happened? After all, Manny couldn't do it. He had other things he should be doing.
As he walked away from the room and his thoughts turned to the briefing that would be taking place in less than five hours he was tense inside. Five hours to come up with a reason why he needed to put himself in the firing line. Five hours to think of why his way was the right way.
Twenty minutes into his five hours and comms informed him that Josh had made it to level two encryption on the computer in the sleep room.
Manny considered this thoughtfully. He could probably have broken a new system and had access in ten.
But twenty wasn't bad.
Not bad at all.
CHAPTER 3
Manny had spent so long tracking code that for one of the only times in his life, he was running late. Josh intrigued him and he had found his thoughts jumping from code to the dark-haired guy who was conscientiously breaking through each layer of security before Manny shut him down. The whole thing had turned into a game and Manny could only imagine Josh's frustration at so many doors being closed in his face.
He slipped into the back of the large briefing room and exchanged a quick look with Jake who narrowed his gaze and frowned. Manny was never late to meetings—in fact he was never late for any event. If anything, it was Manny that was always first to the coffee and the best seat.
Always to the side so he could observe reaction, Manny was, simply put, a meetings expert.
Jake didn't yet know that Josh Headley was still in the building and wasn't that going to be a hard one to explain to his already stressed boss. Jake had tasked Nik with taking Josh back but Manny had thought otherwise.
He had assured Nik that Josh didn't need to be taken back yet and Nik had been happy to return to his and Morgan's place for sleep. That left Josh in Manny's care and Manny was determined to see what the hell had made the idiot leave safety just to find answers. Biting his lip Manny stifled the laugh that started inside him at the memory of a pissed off Josh facing off with the lawyer's son. All anger and fury Josh wasn't immediately pounding on the guy but was asking questions fired one after another. Manny liked a man who led with his brain. Especially tall men with dark hair and green eyes. He had gotten over his initial anger at Josh's stupidity. Could be interesting to see how the gorgeous man would be useful to Manny, and Sanctuary of course.
Thing is, not only was Jake working with the fallout of Sean Hanson's betrayal but Manny had a protected witness on the premises. Jake's day was about to get interesting—well, as soon as Manny admitted to what he had done. He grinned his widest of grins but all Jake did was look even more suspicious. Choosing a seat, Manny sat very still and checked out who was in this first of the more meaningful Senator Bullen briefings.
Jake, as usual, was standing at the back of the room.
The man never actually sat anywhere. Nik Valentinov was here in the last of the three rows of hard chairs. He was sprawled this way and that; giving the impression that he was unconcerned with what was happening in the room.
But Manny knew better. Morgan Drake was here to give his first ever Sanctuary briefing and Nik had confided in Manny that his lover was literally paralyzed with fear at facing all the hardened
Sanctuary operatives.
Dale and Michaela were here, fresh from their short, sharp gun fight with the guys who had worked with Sean.
Dale was still pissed that he had let himself get caught out so badly. Manny only knew that because he had been on the sharp end of a tongue lashing about dead comms only a few days before. Hell, it hadn't been his fault the bad guys were getting clever. He gave back as good as he got, facing up to the ex-SEAL without too much concern. Dale had backed down with an apology, muttered something about how he was sorry. Apparently Joseph had managed to get an email to him and he had informed Dale in some kind of weird SEAL code that his team was going dark for a while.
Manny could understand Dale's stressed concern. Joseph, an active SEAL, was somewhere in the world doing something that would probably be considered black ops. It didn't matter that Dale and Joseph had this relationship based on meeting when they were in the same country.
Getting a message from Joseph like that had to be hard.
Seemed like everyone was paired up. Except him, of course. He didn't really do all that relationship stuff and, hell, the only single one in the room, besides Michaela— who was ballsy but didn't have a dick, was Jake. Serious, introverted, enormously responsible Jake. Manny didn't lust after Jake. Manny liked a different kind of guy. Stubble was good, rough round the edges was good, sea-storm eyes were way past good. He pulled himself together to concentrate when he realized it was Josh Headley's face in his mind.
Fuck no. Manny did black and white. He didn't do all those shades of gray that were hidden in Josh's green eyes. No way.
Shaking his head he checked out the others in the room; two operatives from the West Coast sat in the front row clutching files. Their presence was interesting given his own connections to LA and his old life. He focused back on Morgan who looked confident despite the nerves Nik confessed to.