Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
“ C owboy, did you get a hotel room yet?” Kade asked as he settled back for the bumpy ride.
“Yeah, under a fake name. Leo, you’re my brother Arman and I’m Jasper. We’re here for a family reunion.” Cowboy told Leo as he passed him a paper that had all the details he needed to know about this ruse.
Leo nodded, reading the paper and branding the information into his brain before he tore up the paper and handed it back to Cowboy who grinned at him proudly.
“As soon as he gets to the hotel, I’ll take you to a room where I’ll set everything up. You will be my partner in monitoring everything sound good?” Cowboy asked, grinning.
Leo nodded and smiled back. It really did. He wanted to see what Torres did for a living and this was just an excuse to see the man in action and he really hoped he made the man hurt for what he had done. Leo waited patiently as Cowboy unloaded all the gear.
“You ok?” Torres asked as he walked up beside Leo, being careful not to touch him in any way. It was going to be hard. He’d had the man to himself for months now and all of a sudden he couldn’t touch him.
Leo smiled knowingly at Torres. His man’s fingers were curling like he desperately wanted to touch him and he felt that deep in his soul. “Yes, I am. Are you?”
Torres sighed deeply. “I have a feeling this is going to be rough all around. Just make sure you stick with Cowboy. He’ll protect you. I’ll have an earpiece in if you need to talk to me at any point. Let Cowboy know and he’ll patch you through.”
Leo nodded. “I got it. I’ll be ok Vince, I promise. It’s time to focus on the bigger picture and to get your son back.”
Torres nodded. “I know. We’ll sneak in in a few hours. Cowboy, watch my man, please.” He said as he turned back to the car.
“Will do brother. Come on, Leo, I’ll show you how to set up all this gear.” Cowboy said excitedly as he waved the briefcase in his hand and smiled like a child on Christmas.
Leo snorted. “Lead the way, master.”
Cowboy cackled. “That’s right Padawan, I’ll teach you the ways.” he relaxed his body and loosened his muscles as he ushered Leo to their room, but he watched everything, noticing every little thing that happened. God forbid he let something happen to Leo and Torres would fucking kill him, and he quite liked his face how it was. He entered first, making Leo stay by the door as he checked all the rooms and under the beds and the bathrooms. He had gotten them a suite with four rooms and bathrooms connected for the rest of the guys. He had a feeling Jett would stay on the plane just in case they needed to make a hasty getaway. “You can pick any room you want for you and Torres. I’ll most likely be bunking with Sniper and Kade will be with Hawk.”
“What about Jett?” Leo asked as he looked around in amazement. The architecture and oil paintings that lined the wall were very beautiful. He’d never stayed in a hotel like this before. There was a massive common room that had the basic kitchen with a fridge and an oven and the room was done up tastefully in earth tones while the bathrooms seemed to be a crisp white with pale blue towels instead of the normal white which was nice.
“He’ll stay with the plane in case we need to book it. The other room is for Doc and Scorpion if we need them.” Cowboy said, tossing his bag on one of the couches and immediately heading to the coffee machine to start a pot.
“Let’s hope we don’t need them.” Leo said uneasily.
“True that. Doc is well a doctor and Scorpion is well...he’s our boom expert.” Cowboy tossed a grin over his shoulder as he made his coffee.
“Boom expert?” Leo asked, not sure if he really wanted to know what that meant.
“Yup, he was a demolitions expert. He used to blow shit up in the military. He can pretty much make a bomb out of anything. He usually carries around C4, which we call his danger putty or danger clay depending on the atmosphere.” Cowboy sat with his coffee and studied Leo, who was looking at him like he’d lost his mind.
Leo blinked, surely he misheard that. “I’m sorry danger clay?”
Cowboy chuckled. “Yeah, it’s like his security blankie.”
“I worry about you guys.” Leo said deadpan. “I have an amazing shrink on speed dial. He would have a fucking field day with you guys.”
Cowboy laughed, keeping it low to not make a racket but this dude killed him, he was so happy for his friend. “Yeah, we get that a lot, but I promise we are extremely safe when we do these missions we trained for this type of stuff most of our lives. I won’t lie and say shit never happened, but with this team, we always have each other’s backs. Kade is pretty much the only one that gets hurt regularly, and that’s just because I swear the man is a bullet magnet.”
Leo snickered. “So I have heard from…well everyone.”
Cowboy grinned. “Yeah, we ain’t shy about telling it like it is, but Kade’s a good man and we all do everything we can to make sure he makes it home, whether he likes it or not.”
“You guys seem to be really close to each other.” Leo stated as he sat on the couch across from Cowboy.
Cowboy nodded. “Yeah, we are—near-death experiences will do that to you. We all met Kade in basic. He was one of the drill sergeants and we all seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Kade was tasked with another team to do a mission in the Hindu Kush.”
“The mountains across Asia?” Leo asked, fascinated.
“Yeah, his team was sent to Tajikistan to search for a photojournalist that had gone missing around that area of the Hindu Kush.” Cowboy swallowed roughly and took a sip of his coffee, not caring how hot it was.
Leo’s brows furrowed. “What happened?”
Cowboy sighed. “Kade and his team were captured even though they had been granted access and were allowed to be there to find the missing guy. We still don’t know who gave the orders and who they worked for, but they captured Kade and his men. I won’t go into many details, but Kade is the only one who survived the torture.”
“How did he get out?” Leo asked softly, not really sure if he wanted to know or not.
“Saint lead a team to find him, but by that point Kade had already been blinded by acid and god knows what else that was thrown in his face, Kade escaped but ended up falling into an old well that they used to toss the soldiers in for another form of torture. The elements. The well wasn’t covered and in the blazing heat, it could kill a man very quickly or drive him insane, not to mention the snakes, scorpions, and spiders. Kade apparently found some explosives before he was blinded and took out that part of the mountain before he got trapped in the well. Saint found him there, and they took care of the guys that were left. They had to leave the bodies of Kade’s men though and they were banned from the area. It almost started a war, until things could be cleared. Then Kade will go back to bring his men home.”
“Jesus.” Leo muttered. Kade had been through so much shit in his life it was a wonder the man could smile at all. “He’s an amazing man. I’ll give him that.”
“He is.” Cowboy studied Leo for a moment. “I think your uncle has a thing for Kade.” He said nonchalantly.
Leo grinned at Cowboy’s attempt to act like he didn’t really care about the answer. “Yes, I think he does, he wants to heal Kade’s wounds. Ram is a vet. He hates to see anyone in pain just like my mom who wants to mother Kade because she knows he was never really loved as a child and to see that breaks her a little. My whole family adores Kade whether he can see that or not and we are going to show him what a real family is like and that he won’t have to stand alone anymore, he has us and we’ll fight for him because he’s worth it.”
Cowboy cleared his throat. “Thank you.”
Leo nodded. “I know you guys are his family too, but mine is more than happy to welcome you guys as well. We know most of you don’t have family you see very often and sometimes all we need in this world is a mom or a dad to tell us things will be ok. My mom and dad have fostered kids throughout my whole life, they have so much love left in them, and had my mom not had a high-risk pregnancy with Indiana my youngest brother they would have had kids until they couldn’t but my father refused to put my mother at risk anymore, so she settled with loving anyone who comes through her door. It doesn’t matter the color, religion, background, gender or whether they voted for Trump or Biden, she’ll love you no matter what.”
Cowboy smiled softly. “I’ve noticed that about her.”
“Do you have any family around?” Leo asked softly. He didn’t want to push if the man didn’t want to talk about it.
“Yeah my mom and dad, Thomas and Stephanie, they still run a cattle ranch just outside of Dallas. My older sister Alice is a school teacher she teaches little kindergarteners, and she loves it, she’s engaged to a nice guy from New York and she can’t wait to have a bunch of littles running around herself.” He rolled his eyes, making Leo snicker. “My younger brother Colin is working on becoming a cardiologist. He’ll graduate in May.”
“Oh wow, that’s awesome. They sound like really good people.” Leo smiled at him, happy at least one of the guys had a good family. “What is your name? If you're allowed to tell me that is.” He held up his hands sheepishly.
Cowboy threw his head back and laughed. “It’s not some big secret, they just call me that because I’m actually a cowboy. I used to work the ranch before I joined the military. My name is Samuel Thomas Hart.”
Leo smiled. “Can I call you Sammy?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“If you want me to kill you.” Cowboy said, waggling his brows back.
Leo snorted. “Point taken. Cowboy suits you. You’re more rugged than the others.”
Cowboy shrugged as he lay out on the couch and sighed, patting his stomach. “Comes from the hard labor on the farm, all my muscles were made from that work, not a gym. it’s a different type of lifestyle out there, it’s not for the weak.”
“Did you not enjoy it?” Leo asked yawning as he lay across the couch mirroring Cowboy’s posture.
“Yeah I did, it just wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, you know? I wanted to travel and see the world and see all the amazing wonders of the world. The fact that I got to fight for my country and save lives at the same time was just icing on the cake.” Cowboy chuckled. “After my time in the military, I enjoyed doing this type of work so much I joined Clairvoyant Sight. Every time we get a break from missions I still go home to see my mama and check in with the family, I get a little homesick sometimes but it’s really nice to be able to just pop in whenever I get the chance ya know?”
Leo grinned as he smacked his lips and his eyes drooped close. “I know exactly what you mean.