Chapter Thirteen
The chair was cold steel, bolted to the concrete floor, cuffs biting into Kai’s wrists.
He knew this place—DEA black site, one of their buried little secrets—and the familiarity made bile crawl in his throat.
The stink of bleach, blood, urine, and fear was thick, a reminder of how many lives had been chewed up here.
Carter paced in front of him, a smug-ass grin plastered across his ugly face. “You see, Kai, I managed it all. Two years in the shadows. You thought you were smart, thought you were watching. But I’ve been right here, pulling strings, and none of you ever came close.”
Kai let him talk. That was what men like Carter did best—monologue their way into a hole. He leaned back against the hard chair, wrists burning, head tilted as if he was bored. Inside, he was wired tight, counting heartbeats, certain his team would come. His man would come.
The comm bead behind his ear, a gift from the Pathfinders, was still broadcasting clearly.
Hogan’s voice had been a constant for the last twenty or so minutes.
Sometimes low and rough with encouragement, sometimes savage with rage, promising him vengeance and slow-burn payback, then dropping suddenly into words thick with love.
When Kai was struck, and a grunt or cry escaped his gritted teeth, Hogan begged them to stop, whispering words of care.
It was obvious he needed that connection as much as Kai did, and the others had gone quiet to give it to them.
“Kai,” Hogan’s voice murmured in his ear now, harsh with control. “Hold on. We’re close.”
Kai’s lips twitched, almost a smile. He worked the words to acknowledge he heard into what he said to Carter, voice dry and mocking. “Close? That’s generous. You’ve been sloppy, Carter. All this bragging, and for what? A little empire built on borrowed time.”
Carter sneered, stepping closer. “Borrowed? No, I’m cashing in. This—” he waved around the room “—this is where I lay it all on your shoulders. Every deal, every corpse, every double-cross. You’ll take the fall, Agent Kealoha. And me? I walk out clean.”
In his ear, Hogan growled, “Breaching now.” Then there was a muted explosion, the sound shaking the walls.
Kai’s gaze sharpened on Carter. “You hear that?” he asked lightly, spitting the blood that still coated his lip from before. “That’s inevitability. You’re not walking away from this, Carter. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
Carter’s smile widened. He leaned in, hot breath against Kai’s face. “You can’t scare me with ghosts, Kai. This is my game now.”
“Funny thing about games,” Kai murmured. “There’s always someone better waiting to play.”
Static fuzzed in his ear and Hogan’s voice pressed through, tight and clipped. “We’re outside in the hallway.”
Kai’s chest surged with anticipation. He kept his face flat, giving Carter nothing. But inside, every muscle coiled, waiting for the storm.
Then it came—shouts, the staccato burst of gunfire rattling the walls. Boots pounded, men screaming. The fight was short, brutal, muffled by concrete, but every sound lit fire through Kai’s veins. His team was here.
The door slammed open. Hogan entered first, Bateman right beside him, weapons raised, faces carved from fury. Behind them, smoke and noise spilled in.
Carter reacted fast, faster than Kai had given him credit for. He grabbed Kai’s hair, jerking his head back, pistol jammed hard against his temple. “One more step and he dies!”
The gun dug into his skin. Kai felt his pulse thundering. He could hear Hogan breathing through the comms, steady but deadly.
“I mean it!” Carter barked. “Back up!”
Kai’s heart pounded. He thought briefly of Hilo, of sunlight on the water, of Hogan’s laugh, of the promise of a life they had never really gotten to have, of their time in the van out at their waterfall. He refused to let Carter see fear.
“You’re already dead, Carter,” he said, voice low enough for Hogan to hear through the bead. “You just haven’t hit the ground yet.”
Carter snarled, pressing the gun harder into his temple. “Big words for a man in cuffs. Back the fuck o—!”
Hogan didn’t pause, didn’t blink. He lifted his pistol in one clean motion and fired as he continued to walk toward Kai, face like thunder.
The shot cracked like a hammer blow. Carter’s head snapped sideways, red spray painting the wall, and his body crumpled before his words were done.
He was no doubt dead before he even hit the ground.
The two guards still standing in the room didn’t last either. One went down to Bateman’s round, the other to a knife thrown with lethal precision by Surge from the doorway. Silence slammed down as hard as the shot itself.
Kai exhaled slowly, head dropping forward, relief a tidal wave through him. Hogan was there in an instant, yanking Carter’s dead weight away, snapping the cuffs free with a key ripped from the corpse’s pocket. His hands were on Kai’s shoulders, steady, grounding.
“You okay?” Hogan rasped, eyes searching his face like he was memorizing every line.
Kai gave him a bloody smile. “Took you long enough.”
Hogan huffed, half a laugh, half a growl. “Never again.” He pulled Kai to his feet, arm around his waist as if he’d never let go.
Bateman’s voice was already snapping orders, clearing the site, checking exits, but Hogan didn’t look away from Kai. Not once.
Kai leaned into him, letting the warmth of Hogan’s hold chase away the cold steel of the chair. His ribs hurt, his wrists were raw, but none of it mattered with Hogan anchoring him. For a moment, Kai felt weightless.
“You kept talking to me,” Kai muttered, voice hoarse. “Even when I couldn’t answer. You don’t know what that did. How that helped.”
Hogan’s jaw flexed, his voice low. “Yeah, I do. Kept me breathing, too.” He squeezed Kai’s shoulder. “Next time, we don’t get separated. I’m done letting you walk into hell without me.”
Kai’s laugh cracked in his throat, part sob, part joy. “You always were bossy.”
“Damn right,” Hogan said, softer now, but his eyes still burned. “And you’re mine to be bossy with.”
****
The van was parked back on the patch of land Hogan was starting to think of as theirs, the rain easing into a soft drizzle outside, waterfall echoing like a lullaby through the trees.
Inside, shadows pooling in the corners, the scent of clean sheets, sweat, and Kai thick in the air.
Hogan had Kai beneath him, pressed into the mattress, handcuffs traded for his grip, every thrust grounding him, every gasp from Kai anchoring him to the only place he wanted to be—buried deep, holding him close.
It was quick, intense, but threaded with laughter and love.
Hogan slid his hands down, coaxing Kai into release with a mix of practiced touches and whispered words that had Kai shuddering apart beneath him.
Hogan followed, the rush crashing over him like the waterfall outside, heat and light and the certainty that this—this man—was his forever.
Afterward, Hogan cleaned them up, not caring how clumsy or tender it made him look. Then he pulled Kai against his side, his lover’s heartbeat a steady rhythm beneath his palm. The rain tapped the van’s roof, the falls roared nearby, and for a moment, there was peace.
“They’re sending this van to Wyoming for us,” Hogan said quietly. “Surge offered it. I told him I’d pay. He told me to shut the hell up.”
Kai chuckled, lazy and sated. “Sounds like him.”
Hogan brushed his lips over Kai’s hair. “I remember it all now. Everything. Us.”
Kai shifted to look at him, eyes dark in the low light. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” Hogan said. “Before Chechnya ... that little apartment here you had by the water, the time we camped here at the waterfall but no campervan, just a tent, the way you laughed when you pretended soy milk was better than the real thing. The fights. The kisses. Every damn second. And the way you used to steal my shirts and claim they looked better on you. The sunrise runs where you always beat me but let me think I was close. All of it, Rip—I remember it. I remember you. I remember us.”
Kai’s throat worked. “I didn’t feel fear today, Hogan. Not once. Even with Carter’s gun on me, even when it looked like it might be over—I knew you’d come. You. All of you. Your code, our code ... it’s what we all live by. It’s what kept me alive.”
Hogan swallowed hard. He hadn’t cried in years, but the burn behind his eyes was there. “Our code kept you alive. Because you’re mine, Rip. Always have been.”
They lay in silence for a while, the sound of water and rain filling the space. Eventually, Kai broke it. “You’re flying the Pathfinders and Bravo back to Wyoming tomorrow. Black Tide has to figure out what’s next.”
Hogan nodded. “Yeah. Did you see Dev, Bateman, and Surge sitting down, bottle of Okolehao between them when we left?”
Kai frowned. “Okolehao? Hawaiian moonshine? You leave three egos with a bottle of that, and nothing good comes out of it. What were they talking about?”
“My guess? The future.” Hogan’s mouth twitched.
“After a similar initiation of fire between Bravo and the Pathfinders a few years back, Dev and Bateman sat down with a bottle of whiskey to talk about the future. Bateman had seen what Bravo had built at Cottonwood Farm, and he wanted something similar for us. I reckon Surge is looking for advice for what Black Tide needs to decide what they want for the future.”
Kai scowled. “Shouldn’t I be in that conversation?”
“No,” Hogan said firmly, tipping Kai’s chin up until their eyes met. “You’re a Pathfinder now.”
Kai blinked, startled. “That so?”
“Yeah.” Hogan smirked. “Means forever with me. You got a problem with that?”
Kai’s scowl softened into something warmer. “Nope. Guess not.”
Hogan tightened his arm around him, voice low. “I love the way you never back down, even when you should. I love the way you look at me like I’m worth saving. I love the way you laugh, the way you fight, the way you push every button I’ve got until I’m half-mad. I love every part of you, Rip.”
Kai’s eyes glistened as he pressed closer.
“I love the way you make me feel safe when the world’s burning, Ace.
I love your stubbornness, your loyalty, the way you’d burn the world to ash just to find me.
I love your sarcasm, even when it drives me nuts.
And I love that when you call me Rip, I remember exactly why I stayed alive. ”
The van was quiet except for them, their breath mingling, the weight of everything they had survived settling between them. Hogan kissed him slowly, tender, reverent.
When they broke apart, Hogan whispered, “Dead reckoning.”
Kai tilted his head. “What?”
“Think about it ... it’s like I told you.
It’s a way to navigate when you can’t see the stars, when you’ve got no map.
You plot where you’ve been, track your speed, your heading, and you trust it to take you home.
” He cupped Kai’s face, thumb brushing his cheek.
“That’s us, Rip. I’ve been lost for a long damn time.
But you—you’re my dead reckoning. You’re how I find my way back. ”
Kai’s chest rose on a shaky breath, eyes locking on his. “Then let’s never lose course again.”
“Never,” Hogan promised. And with the rain falling, the waterfall singing, and the future waiting, he knew it wasn’t just a vow. It was truth.