“You do this often?” Justin asked a couple minutes later. He could feel Gabriel digging around inside him with some kind of hard instrument, but there was no real pain. Just a strange, unnatural pressure that left him feeling uneasy and wishing he was done already.
“What? Dig around in another person’s organs?” His voice sounded distracted, as if he weren’t really aware of what he was saying because he was concentrating on his search for the missing bullet.
Justin threw his arm over his eyes to further shield them from the bright light beside the bed. “Yeah.”
“No. Not often. I’m usually just stitching myself up.”
“Ever stitch up a partner?”
“Shut up,” Gabriel snapped. “I’m trying to find this bullet. Or would you rather me just leave it in you?”
Justin paused, taking in the other man’s suddenly brusque tone. No talk about partners then. “You ever play that game Operation as a kid?”
“What?”
“Operation. You had to pull out things like spare ribs or a bread basket or water on the knee from little openings in this guy’s body without touching the sides.”
A few seconds ticked by, and Justin licked his lips, waiting.
“What happened if you touched the sides?” Gabriel asked. His voice was lower than it had been, almost cautious, as if he were trying to edge back out on the limb of uneasy friendship with Justin but he wasn’t quite sure he really wanted to.
Justin lifted his arm from his eyes so he could look at Gabriel. “His big red nose would light up and there was this loud EHHHH sound.” Gabriel gave a little start at the horrible noise, and Justin chuckled. “This is a lot like that game.”
Gabriel groaned and returned to his work. “You’re a disturbed man.”
“True.”
“But I would have beaten you at that game,” he said with a note of triumph as he held the bloody, battered bullet aloft with a pair of silver tweezers. Justin snorted but said nothing as Gabriel returned to work, sewing him shut.
“You didn’t expect tonight to go like it did.” Gabriel’s voice rippled through the silence unexpectedly, and for a moment, Justin couldn’t tell if he was asking a question or making a statement. It sounded like a little of both.
Justin sighed heavily, dropping his arm back over his eyes. The room was slipping away from him a little more with each passing second. At this rate, he wasn’t going to be conscious for much longer, and he really wasn’t sure if he wanted to pass out around Gabriel. “No. The hit on the doctor was done by a professional. The cops could tell at least two people were in the house, but they’ve found nothing else. I stupidly assumed that the same professional would be watching the house.”
“And a professional assassin is better?”
Justin lifted his arm to glare at Gabriel a moment before dropping it back in place. Only the barest hint of a smile teased the corner of his lips, but his face was otherwise expressionless. “Yes.” His other hand fisted at his side. “A professional, while harder to kill and evade, wouldn’t have gone in, guns blazing, ready to sort things out after everyone was dead. A professional understands the importance of information, information you can only get from a live captive. Fucking amateurs.”
“So, whoever hired the professionals to go after the doctor realized after the contract was up that they still didn’t have what they wanted, so they went cheap, hired some local gang members to keep an eye on the house,” Gabriel filled in.
Justin fought back a shiver that rose up when Gabriel’s fingers ghosted along a part of his naked skin that hadn’t been numbed by the local anesthetic. He tried to ignore the strong hands meticulously piecing him back together. Had it really been so long ago that he’d enjoyed a night of hot, meaningless sex that he found himself attracted to Gabriel Prescott? Well, other than the fact that the man was ridiculously handsome, even more so with the hidden tattoos, Justin wasn’t entirely sure that Gabriel wouldn’t kill him when this job was over. Was it just restlessness that was drawing him to Gabriel? Getting shot was the first bit of action, the first thrill he’d had on the job in too fucking long. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“You okay?” Gabriel asked, snapping him out of his aimless train of thought.
“Yeah.” Justin lifted his arm up, squinting against the bright light to see Gabriel now holding the pen light between his lips as he worked. “What were we talking about?”
“The fact that you’ve got a hard-on for getting shot,” Gabriel replied, still holding the light between his perfectly white, straight teeth.
Justin marveled at the man’s ability to speak so clearly with the light in his mouth before the words finally sunk in. He jerked upright slightly as if to look at his crotch to make sure that he really didn’t, but Gabriel’s snicker stopped him, and he settled with his arm over his eyes. “Fucker,” he muttered. “You don’t mess with someone when they’re drugged to the gills. It’s not nice.”
“Never claimed to be nice,” Gabriel said, his voice sounding slightly farther away. Justin could hear him rummaging through the kit. When he spoke again, his hands were back on Justin’s stomach, a reassuring pressure. “Hiring the locals was a mistake. Makes you think the money behind this is likely to make more mistakes that we could work to our advantage.”
“True.”
“Think there’s any financial benefit for us if we track down the money?”
Justin gave a little shrug of his shoulder. “Could save some lives.”
“Hmm.”
“What?” Justin snapped. He really wanted to lift his arm to look at Gabriel, but he was too damn tired.
“Marilyn warned me that this wasn’t just about the money for you.”
Justin shoved aside the overwhelming fatigue and dropped his arm on the bed so he could glare at Gabriel. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“That I am in it for the money and only that. If we can catch the bastard that killed the two researchers along the way, fine. But I’m not jeopardizing the final paycheck if it’s not included in the job.”
“Whatever,” he said with a roll of his eyes. There was no point in getting into it. It was the kind of attitude that he’d expected from Gabriel. For the mercenary, this was business. But Justin knew this was his chance at redemption, the only way of ever looking at himself in the mirror again.
“Am I ready to go back in, coach?” Justin asked when Gabriel stepped away from him. There was no missing the slurring of his words. His eyes were closed, and in truth he was too
tired to move. The painkillers had kicked in full force, and it felt as if his whole body was swimming. Cold air chilled his bare skin, but even that couldn’t get him to move from where he was stretched across the bed. He just wanted to sleep for several hours.
“Soon. Sleep.”
“But—”
“You’ve lost a considerable amount of blood. Sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
“I…I…need to…go,” he murmured. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. Every muscle in his body felt heavy, falling into a relaxed state. He couldn’t hold his eyes open any longer, but he could feel Gabriel untying one shoe and then the other before pulling them off. The heavy thumps caused him to jerk but even then, he couldn’t open his eyes.
“You don’t need to go anywhere.” Gabriel’s words were soft, almost a caress in the darkness. Gentle fingers threaded through his hair, moving it away from his forehead, and Justin sighed. “You’re safe.”
“Not…safe.”
“You are. I’ll keep watch.”
“But…”
“I said I would watch your back. I failed once. It won’t happen again.”
Justin wanted to ask what he meant. Was he talking about failing Justin or someone else? But he couldn’t hold onto the thought. Sleep was dragging him under, pushing his ragged thoughts further out to sea. Later. He’d ask Gabriel what the hell he meant later…
Chapter Five
Gabriel jerke
d awake, sitting up straight in his chair, his hands tightly clasping the arms. He froze, his breath trapped in his lungs as he blinked, looking around the room. Nothing had changed. The thin light leaking around the blackout curtains skimmed over Justin’s sleeping form just a few feet away from him on the bed. His soft, steady breathing was the only sound in the room.
Roughly rubbing both of his hands over his face, Gabriel swallowed a groan. A noise in the next room must have woken him. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, at least not for so long. From the long, sleepless flight in from Geneva following his last job to the previous day’s unexpected adventure, he hadn’t caught much sleep in the past forty-eight hours and it was starting to wear on him. Of course, a few hours of sleep in an uncomfortable chair certainly wasn’t going to be much help. But it would have to do for now.
Dropping his hands back in his lap, Gabriel pushed to his feet and walked silently over to the bed to stare down at Justin. The man hadn’t moved in the night from where he’d initially fallen asleep. Gabriel had woken once to draw the comforter over Justin after he’d pulled on a T-shirt, but Justin hadn’t stirred. Now lost in sleep, Justin’s face looked softer, younger. A wrinkle between his heavy brows drew his attention, and Gabriel had to fight back the urge to smooth it with his thumb, ease away the lingering concern that chased him even in his dreams.
Instead, he stepped back, mentally chastising himself as he turned toward the bathroom. Justin might look like a late-twentysomething with a teasing, goofy charm, but there was no forgetting that the man was ex-military, a highly trained killer, and a master at pretending to be anything he needed to be to get close to his target. The person he knew wasn’t real. It was stupid to be drawn in.
The mirror reflected a worn figure Gabriel hardly recognized. And maybe it was better if he didn’t. He didn’t want to know that person in the mirror any longer. The darkness was creeping, sinking its talons in deeper. The killing had never been particularly difficult, but then the argument had always been that if he didn’t, then he would be dead. Simple. But the bullets so easily placed in the foreheads of those two men had been accompanied by something else. Something angry and almost gleeful. There had been no thought about possibly wounding them, incapacitating them so he and Justin could escape. Hell, there had been no thought at all. Just aim and squeeze the trigger.
Fuck it. Gabriel leaned over and turned on the water for the shower. No point in debating it now when he was in the middle of a job. Not the first time he’d used that excuse to dodge the painful question of when would it be enough? When could he finally stop? Gabriel knew deep down the answer — never — and it didn’t give him hope to keep drawing air into his lungs.
He quickly showered, washing away the grit and doubts from the previous day. The hot water eased sore muscles and cleared the fog from his brain. Only a few minutes passed before he was wrapping a towel around his waist and gathering up his clothes. When he quietly opened the bathroom door, he found Justin sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing one hand through his hair and yawning wide enough to crack his jaw. The man looked adorably rumpled and sleep-warmed.
Gabriel dropped his dirty clothes in the chair he’d slept in and crossed his arms over his chest. “How do you feel?”
Justin’s eyes slowly skimmed over his bare chest as if appraising the muscular body in front of him. It was a struggle not to shift or flex his muscles under that sleepy gaze. When he finally met Gabriel’s eyes, a heated smile was tugging at his lips. There were more and more moments where he couldn’t tell if Justin was just doing things to tease him or if he was truly attracted to him. That long, slow look was not one from a straight man.
“Rough as shit and hung over. Someone drugged the crap out of me last night.” His voice was warm and thick like syrup.
“Drugging you meant that I got the bullet out without a lot of screaming, and you slept without moving, potentially tearing the stitches.”
“Thanks. I—”
A knock at the door caused Justin to jump. His hand searched around the bed for a weapon, bringing a smile to Gabriel’s lips. “Room service.”
Justin huffed, trying to relax again. There was no hiding the embarrassed flush to his cheeks, but then Gabriel couldn’t blame him for his anxiety. He was the one sitting in the bed recovering from a gunshot wound.
Gabriel walked to the door, not caring that he was still wrapped in only a towel. The room service attendant blinked and flushed, his eyes darting from Gabriel’s chest to the trolley of food in front of him. He held the door open, allowing the hotel attendant to push it in before he closed the door and followed him. Justin once again stretched out on the bed, the cover pulled over his legs and stomach enough to hide his wound while still appearing to be naked.
Justin smiled broadly, mischief twinkling in his eyes. “Aww, sweetie. You ordered me breakfast in bed. I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”
Gabriel accepted the leather folder with the bill from the server and signed it. “Well, I thought after last night’s rough treatment, you would need some time to recover your strength,” Gabriel drawled. The server coughed and blushed, trying to look anywhere but at the two men, while Justin laughed loudly, pushing his head back into the pillow.
The server accepted the folder and mumbled a nice day to them before quickly scurrying out of the room. Justin’s low chuckle followed him. Gabriel ignored his companion, pouring some hot water over a tea bag in a cup as he prepared his morning tea. He had intended to put in a standing order for breakfast, but he’d expanded it beyond his usual oatmeal and tea after Justin had fallen asleep. He known the man would need something on his stomach after being so heavily drugged and the blood loss.
“That was brave.” Justin winced as he pushed out of the bed and carefully approached the trolley. He lifted the various covers, looking over the assortment of breads, bacon, eggs, and eventually the pot of coffee. A soft cry of joy escaped him as he grabbed the coffee pot and poured himself a mug.
“Why?” Gabriel asked, trying not to be amused by his antics.
“Cincinnati… is not the most tolerant town.”
Gabriel lifted one brow, his fingers tightening around the spoon he’d been using to stir his tea. “But you have gay marriage.”
Justin snorted, snatching up a piece of bacon before dropping on the edge of the bed with his coffee. “It took a Supreme Court decision to get it.” But then he shrugged as if re-thinking his comment. “Well, it’s not all bad. People are coming around. There’s a lot worse places in the world.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Justin if he was gay. The question was practically burning through him, but he swallowed it back. There was no way in hell he was opening that door. If he asked Justin, then there was no doubt that Justin would expect him to answer the same question. No. He wasn’t talking about himself. He wasn’t fucking thinking about it. God, maybe he just needed to get laid. It had been too long and jerking off in the shower wasn’t cutting it anymore.
Taking his tea over to the desk, Gabriel leaned against the corner and sipped the hot liquid, allowing its warmth to settle his nerves and pull his mind back to the problem at hand. “How long do you think it will take you to go through the information on the hard drive?”
Justin crunched a piece of bacon and shrugged. “Assuming it’s not password protected or encrypted? Probably not long. If it’s either, could take a lot longer. Days even.”
“And there’s no guarantee anything on that hard drive will be helpful,” Gabriel muttered, talking mostly to himself. “Do you have a plan for getting into Iaso’s network?”
“Already started some hacks, but they’ve got a solid firewall. I was going to give it a month, maybe two, while trying a few other avenues for information, but after last night’s fiasco and the two bodies already dropped in the morgue, we’re gonna need to move faster. My last choice is to go in and actually sit at one of the terminals, but if we’re stuck, it might be our only choice.”
&
nbsp; “What if Iaso isn’t the only source of information on this drug?” Justin cocked his head slightly and stared at Gabriel, waiting for him to continue. “It is my understanding that most pharmaceutical companies will work with a local hospital when running drug trials. It means having access to more doctors should something go wrong and additional staff available to take in data.”
Putting his coffee back on the trolley, Justin picked up a piece of wheat toast and took a bite while sorting through the little bottles of jam. He frowned when he didn’t see what he was looking for but continued to munch through the buttered toast. “The hospital would have records. Lots of records. People coming in, test results, names of doctors involved in the trial. Not a bad lead.”
“Could you hack it?”
Justin lifted both his brows as he glanced back over at Gabriel. “Faster than the hack into Iaso? No fucking way. With all the regulation about protecting patient privacy, that shit is locked up tight. Got to be an inside job. Sneak in, grab a password or two, and then get out. But I’d rather sneak into a hospital right now than into Iaso.”
“Which hospital? This city has a few, correct?”
“Several, but if you’re going to run a trial locally, your first choice is going to be University of Cincinnati Hospital. They’ve got their own research division.”
Gabriel stood and placed his empty teacup and saucer back on the trolley before heading over to the closet. Inside, he’d neatly hung several dark suits he’d brought, along with a selection of slacks and long-sleeve shirts. The tattoos forced him to wear long sleeves at all times. He loved his ink, but it was too easy of an identifier if someone saw them. It was important that he moved through the crowd without the risk of being remembered. Of course, that was a pain in the ass when it came to the wretched summer heat in this city. After this job, maybe he’d spend a little time up in Canada, where the weather was at least tolerable.
The Exit Strategy Bundle Page 5