Chapter Fifteen
W hen Rogue’s phone rang later that night, it was more of an irritation than anything and he groggily snatched it up to swipe at the screen.
Fucker, whoever it was, he scowled. He had managed to get two hours of uninterrupted sleep—which was almost unheard of.
Rogue rolled over, keeping his voice low to avoid waking Wrath, who was sprawled asleep at his side.
“Hello?” His voice came through all scratchy and shit.
“Hey, motherfucker, I have one of your boys.”
“Jagger?” He recognized the voice.
“Yeah.”
Rogue was suddenly thrown into the past when he, Jagger, and Quick had hung out about five years ago. Jagger was a ball buster while Quick was the quieter of the pair. Not that they were a pair or anything like that.
Like him, Jagger was a loner but had taken him along when it was discovered that they were all after the same child molester.
Rogue had been working for Solomon at the time. How fucking ironic was that? Solomon sold boys to a child molester and then sent him on jobs to kill them. It had all been for appearances, though. He knew that.
It had been after that job that the three of them had parted ways and Rogue had heard through the grapevine that Jagger and Quick actually worked in a covert ops unit.
When Quick had called him a year later, Rogue had gone to the Nevada ranch to visit, unbeknownst to Solomon. It was there that Rogue found out more about Phoenix, a group of operatives who were based out of California but worked all over the world. Quick had done his best to recruit him, and Rogue would have loved to say yes, but he had chosen a different path. Hindsight really was twenty-twenty.
“Are you there?” Jagger broke into his trip down memory lane.
Clearing his throat, Rogue scooted out of bed and walked out onto the balcony. He slid the door closed behind him.
“What do you mean you have one of my boys?”
“I have one of your fucking boys.” Jagger sounded out of sorts and Rogue’s senses went on high alert.
By saying one of his boys, did Jagger mean the previous boys of Solomon? And if so, how did Jagger even know about any of them or his connection to them?
Yet, Quick knew about Erebus, so maybe Jagger did too?
Rogue said nothing about Erebus for the moment.
“How do you know he’s my boy?” he hedged.
“Quick said he might have seen him with Crow,” Jagger said.
“What does he look like?”
“Brown hair, skinny.”
“Who’s Crow?”
“You’ve met him, right? He’s in the military but working on a joint op with Genesis?”
“Genesis…” Rogue murmured. Well, shit. He knew all about that group of military assassins. They, along with some active military, had helped take down Tanis and rescue boys being held.
“I can’t remember all the players, but I think I remember someone named Crow.” Rogue wracked his brain but couldn’t put a face to the name.
“He’s in the military,” Jagger repeated as if his mind was on a hundred different things.
“You already said that.” Rogue snorted. “So why don’t you call Crow to handle the kid?” he suggested, staring over the balcony at the twinkling city lights in the night skyline.
“I did, he’s not answering, so Quick said to call you.”
The buzzing on Rogue’s phone signaled a call coming through from Echo.
“Hang on, Jagger.” He placed Jagger on hold and answered Echo’s call.
“What’s up?”
“I can’t find Azrael and he’s not answering his phone,” Echo said. “Have you seen him?”
“It wasn’t my turn to watch him,” Rogue growled, clenching the railing with his free hand.
“You were training him,” Echo hissed and Rogue’s stomach suddenly dropped when he thought of something.
“Shit, hold on, Echo,” Rogue muttered and then flipped the phone line back to Jagger.
“What’s the boy’s name?”
“I don’t fucking know, man, he got caught in one of my stings,” Jagger said impatiently.
“A sting? Where are you?” Rogue ran a hand through his hair.
“I’m in fucking Redding, California,” Jagger said.
“What the fuck are you doing in Redding, don’t you live at the ranch in Nevada?” Rogue said.
“I live there, motherfucker, but I work all over.”
“Do you still work for Phoenix?”
“Not any longer, I was transferred to work for Genesis two weeks ago.”
That surprised him. Did Quick and Jagger no longer work together with Phoenix? Did they live together and work separately?
If Jagger worked for Genesis, did he know about Erebus too? Rogue would save his questions for another time.
“Can you bring the boy and meet me halfway? I’m in Keeler,” Rogue asked, thinking quickly—it was roughly an eight-hour drive from here to Redding.
“I can’t. I need somebody to come get this kid. I can’t get him out of the barn. When we tried, he stabbed one of my guys.”
Fuck! Now that sounded like Azrael.
“Hold on, Jagger.” Rogue flipped the phone call back to Echo. “Hey, Echo? I may have a lead on where Azrael might be, I’ll call you when I find out more.” He ended the call with Echo and got Jagger back on the line.
“I think the kid you have is Azrael,” Rogue told Jagger. Damn it. If it was Azrael there would be hell to pay when Real found out.
“Whoever he is, he took a stab at one of my guys,” Jagger sighed.
Rogue could picture that. Azrael stabbing one of Genesis. It brought a smile to his lips; the teenager was a badass. Azrael may be young, but the boy was fucking lethal. Azrael was already skilled with knives and the training with the short swords had been beyond his expectations. After only two weeks, the kid had shown great promise.
Real was still unaware that he had trained Azrael on short swords and Rogue wanted to keep it that way.
So…what the fuck was Azrael doing in Redding, California, when he was supposed to be at home in Dave’s Santa Barbara Estate?
“Hey, wait…you now work for Genesis. Why don’t you call them?” Rogue said, rubbing a headache that started at his temples.
“I did. I called Quick, he’s Real’s second-in-command, and Quick said to call you.”
Rogue wondered if he would catch flack if he mentioned Real’s connection or perhaps fascination with the eighteen-year-old Azrael—who worked for Erebus—so Rogue stayed quiet. After all, it sounded like Jagger didn’t know about Erebus and Rogue wanted to be the last person to talk about any of them.
He couldn’t be one hundred percent that it was Azrael up there in Jagger’s barn, but he needed to go and at the very least, rule it out.
“Besides,” Jagger continued before he could speak. “I heard you work for those assassins.”
“Those assassins?”
“Yeah, Erebus? Real gave me a brief update about the group when I was hired, but I still don’t know all the players.”
So, Jagger at least knew about Erebus and he didn’t need to keep it a secret.
“No, I don’t work for them. I’m still thinking it over,” Rogue stated.
“Listen up, Rogue, somebody needs to come get this kid and I’m banking on you.”
“Why?”
“Because I got shit to do and you’re trustworthy.”
No, he wasn’t. He was the last person on earth anyone should trust.
“I take it you’re on a job and can’t meet me halfway,” Rogue said.
“That’s right.”
Rogue rubbed at his face “Shit. Okay, I’ll be there.”
He ended the call and made a sound of irritation in the back of his throat. All signs pointed to it being Azrael up there interfering with Jagger’s job.
What the fuck was Azrael doing?
First, he needed to make a few calls and dialed Quick’s number.
“Did Jagger call you?” Quick said, answering on the first ring.
“Yeah, and I think it’s Azrael up there with Jagger,” Rogue said with a heavy sigh.
The phone went deadly quiet.
“Fucking hell,” Quick muttered. “Someone just shoot me now.”
“I’ll call Real,” Rogue said.
“I’ll try his number too,” Quick agreed and ended the call.
Rogue punched in Real’s number, but it went straight to voicemail, and he hung up.
He glanced back into the lowly lit room of the hotel suite and found Wrath still dead to the world. The assassin had told him that he felt comfortable enough to sleep when he was around. And that was saying something. Wrath felt secure and safe with him.
Several minutes later, he redialed Real’s number. This time, he left a message for Real to call him back.
Damn it.
He envied Wrath for his ability to sleep uninterrupted and he wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed with the sexy assassin, but he needed to find Rebel and then head to Nevada to introduce Wrath to people he considered friends.
That had been the plan.
Now, he had to make a quick run to Redding and figure this fucking shit out with Azrael.
With a quick decision, he made his way back into the room and slid beneath the covers. Wrath mumbled and turned into his arms, all sexy and warm. When the blond wrapped his body around him, Rogue sank into the man’s embrace.
Fuck. Wrath’s arms were starting to feel like home.
Gently, he carded his fingers through Wrath’s dark blond hair, holding him closer. He only needed five more minutes.
Then, he would leave for Redding and take care of Azrael while Wrath wrangled Rebel.
They had that dinner tomorrow night with Mrs. Jackson that couldn’t be missed.
Then he would meet Wrath in Nevada.