Chapter 11 #2
Twenty minutes and one and a half cups of coffee later, there was a knock at the cabin door.
Will glanced out the window, then opened the door.
He found Reed on the doorstep, a Styrofoam cup in one hand and a laptop bag in the other.
He was wearing torn, faded jeans and had a vintage Metallica T-shirt on beneath his red flannel shirt.
A shock of black hair fell over his forehead, obscuring one eye, and Will could just make out the chain of his dog tags around his neck before they vanished under the shirt.
“Hi,” he said, raising the cup in an awkward air-toast. Somehow, awkward seemed appropriate for him. “Um, I’m here.”
“Right on time,” Will said. “Thanks for meeting us here.” He gestured for Reed to come inside, then pulled him into a quick hug once he was over the threshold. Reed, like every time he ever got a hug, took a few seconds to get over the shock of it before returning it with the cup hand.
“I mean, you said you need my help and I was close enough, so…yeah.” He glanced around after they separated, eyes wide and interested. “I’ve never been to this one before. Did you know Shelly’s store sells maple creemees?”
“Yeah, they’re good,” Will said as he headed for the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“No thanks. I need to finish my creemee first.”
What the… “You got an ice cream at nine in the morning?” Will demanded.
“I mean…yeah?” Reed pried the top off the Styrofoam cup, took a plastic spoon out of his pocket, and stuck it into the mound of maple soft-serve ice cream that was a local favorite.
How Reed had survived in the military was beyond Will. “Let me know if you end up wanting some caffeine with your morning ice cream, ‘kay?”
“Sure.” Reed sat down on the couch, which creaked ominously, and began to set up his computer. “Where’s Mr. Dalton?”
“Still sleeping, so if you could keep your voice down, that’d be great.”
Reed blinked. He had big, brown cow eyes that were the focal point of his face, and they showed every emotion he felt. Right now, it looked like he was pretty damn confused. “Why is he asleep? It’s after nine in the morning.”
“We got in late,” Will said as he refilled his cup. “He’ll probably be up soon.” He sat down next to Reed on the couch as quietly as he could. “All right, talk to me. You find anything at all about Marcus?”
Reed shook his head as he plugged a private hot spot into his laptop.
“I can confirm he was in Montreal at the same time you were, at least for a few hours, but I don’t know how he got in or out of the city, and I’m fairly confident he’s not there any longer.
There hasn’t been any chatter among his known contacts in the city, although that might be because everyone’s been busy talking about you and Mr. Dalton. ”
“Just call him Cole.”
Reed blinked. “Oh, I couldn’t do that, it’s—I don’t even know him!”
“Well, you’re going to give me a headache if you keep talking about him like he’s your school principal, so at least drop the mister.”
“It’s not polite.”
“This isn’t finishing school—we don’t have to be polite!”
Reed poked him in the side. “This is why you annoy people, you know. Because you’re overly casual.”
“I annoy people because I’m overly right and exceptionally hot while being so, thank you very much.”
“And you have a problem with chronic hyperbole,” Reed continued with a shit-eating grin on his dumb face. “Not to mention—”
“Boy, you’re asking for a beatdown.”
“Plus you make threats you can’t back up—”
That’s it.
Will pushed the coffee table back with his foot, then lunged for Reed, wrangling him into a headlock.
Reed, being a feisty little fucker and the youngest of five boys, managed to escape almost immediately and fought back, whipping one of the couch’s throw pillows out from behind his back and smacking Will in the face with it.
Will wrenched it away and threw it at Reed, then followed it with two more in close succession.
Reed had to curl over his creemee to keep it from getting knocked out of his hand, which opened him up to another headlock, and—
“What the hell?”
They froze for a second, then Will let go of Reed and turned to look at the hallway, where Cole was standing in his sleep clothes and bare feet, staring at them like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
It was the stare of a man who had never been attacked by a sibling with a pillow to the face. Poor thing.
“Morning, honeybee,” Will said with a grin. “Sleep well?”
He didn’t grace that question with a response, which meant yes. “Who are you?” he asked Reed directly.
“Hi, Mr. Dalton.” Reed stood up and paused, like he was considering saluting, before coming over and offering his hand. “I’m Reed Machado. I—um—I work with Will sometimes. It’s nice to meet you.”
“It is, huh?” Cole was giving off vibes that read like he was going to make Will pay for surprising him, but he shook Reed’s hand anyway. “Likewise, but it would have been nice to know you were coming.”
“Right, of course. Um.” Reed glanced at Will, who took pity on him.
“What, like you’d have remembered anything I told you last night?”
“We had all of yesterday as well,” Cole said.
“I wasn’t sure Reed was available,” Will lied through his teeth. “Didn’t want to disappoint you, sugar. But now that he’s here and you’re awake, you two brainiacs can start figuring out where Marcus has run off to.”
Cole eyed Reed with a little more interest. “You’re the person behind the glasses?”
“Yeah. I mean, yes.”
“Did you bring a—”
The conversation descended into tech-babble, and Will took refuge in the kitchen, making a cup of coffee for Cole and bringing it out to him. He and Reed were sitting now, staring at something on Reed’s screen while Reed chatted about security protocols around a mouthful of creemee.
“Here you go, honeybee,” Will said as he handed over the cup. Cole took a sip, then paused and stared at it for a moment. “What, did I get it wrong?”
“No.”
Will rolled his eyes. Only Cole Dalton could look so offended over someone getting his coffee order right. “I do pay attention, you know,” he said, his own annoyance starting to come through.
Fuck this, he needed to burn off some steam.
He went back into the bedroom and got changed, picking sweatpants instead of jeans. No sense in making himself suffer more than he had to after not running for over a week except to chase someone down. He left the Air Force hoodie on, grabbed his phone again, and—
Shit. Dead. The alarm had killed the last of his battery. He dug out the charger and plugged it in, then headed for the front door. “I’ll be back soon.”
Reed nodded, but Cole did a double-take when he saw him. “Where are you going?”
“Just on a run,” Will said. “Not far, and nobody knows me here but Shelly. It’s fine.”
It didn’t seem that way according to Cole, though. He got up from the couch and came over to the door, pushed them both outside and shut it behind them. It was chilly out here, and Cole immediately wrapped his arms around himself. Will’s hands twitched with temptation.
No. Stop it.
“You seriously expect me to just take it on faith that this guy is trustworthy?” Cole demanded in a low, intense voice.
“Not on faith,” Will said. “On my word. I’m tellin’ you he’s trustworthy.”
“No one in our circle is trustworthy.”
Ouch. He ignored the sting and pressed on.
“Reed is. He was my brother’s buddy first, and I brought him in when I asked him to help me out on a job—shit, seven years ago now?
Eight?” He shrugged. “Something like that. He only works with me, and I trust him with my baby brother. Reed won’t screw us over. ”
Cole stared him down, a look that was promptly ruined when he shivered. Will gave in to his earlier urge and ran his hands briskly up and down the other man’s arms, grinning when Cole started.
“It’s too early for honeybees to be buzzing around,” Will chuckled. “Go drink your coffee and do smart shit. I’ll be back.” He reluctantly let go, then turned and began to jog down the path before he did something stupid.
Running was the worst form of exercise, except for all the others.
Will didn’t particularly like it, but he ran whenever he had time anyway; it was a necessary skill, at this point.
He spent close to an hour on the trails around the farm, waving occasionally to other visitors but never stopping to talk.
By the time he got back to the cabin, he’d stripped off the hoodie and was more than ready for a glass of water or three, but—
“Oh, thank God.” Reed appeared in the door and threw—literally threw—Will’s phone at him. “Call your brother before he sends a hitman after me.”
Will frowned. “Why would he do that?”
“You missed a check-in.”
Aw, shit.
Will squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then turned the phone on and watched a cascade of messages pile in. He didn’t bother to read them, just hit send.
“Will.”
Completely flat intonation. Davey was either anxious, pissed, or both. Probably both. “Hey, Baby Boy.”
“What the fuck?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, immediately owning his mistake. Posturing was for everyone else; Davey got honesty. “It was a really late night and I got tired. I let my phone die and I forgot completely about texting until Reed reminded me.”
“You can’t…Will.”
“I know.”
“You never forget to text.”
“It’s been pretty damn busy lately,” Will defended himself—weakly, but it was what he had. “This is turning into a more complicated job than I anticipated, but it’ll be all right.”
There was a long moment of silence. “I’m coming to you.”
The hell? “No, you’re not,” Will snapped. “I’ve got it handled.”
“Reed says you look like hell.”
He scoffed. “I’m totally fine.”
“Yeah? Then that’s some other person I saw dangling over the edge of a window in Montreal?”
Will deflated. Shit. “You saw that, huh?” He plowed over his brother’s outraged exclamation. “I’m fine! I had help. I have help. Between him and Reed I’ve got more help than I know what to do with. We’re completely safe, Baby Boy, I swear.”
“You almost fell out of a window over a hundred feet off the ground. How is that safe?”
“Cole wasn’t going to let me fall,” Will said confidently.
There was another pause, then—“Cole, huh?”
Will groaned. “Stop.”
“You’re on a first-name basis with this guy now?”
“No.” He sighed. “Yes. But only because I’m pushy.”
“So he’s an ally?”
There was a lot inherent in that word, and yet it still wasn’t complete enough to describe exactly what Cole was…or could be. But he could give Davey this much, at least. “Yes. I promise. We’re good.”
Davey sighed, and Will knew he’d won the battle. “Text me, asshole.”
“I will.”
“Or I’ll sic Ellie on you. Tell her you’re not coming to her next birthday party.”
“You’re a monster.”
“Worse, I’m your brother. I mean it, too.”
Will knew he did. “I’ll text, I swear.”
“Good. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Davey ended the call, and Will smiled down at his phone for a second before he put it in his pocket. Phew. One source of stress handled. Now to shower, get some breakfast, and—
Reed burst back through the door just as Will got to the top of the stairs. “We’ve got a problem,” he said, his eyes even bigger than usual.
“Uh, yeah?” They had, like, ninety-nine of them, but—
“Get packed,” Cole said from inside as he stood up. “We’ve got to leave.”
Will frowned. “Why?”
“Because someone is after us now.”