Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
ORION
“How the fuck did he do this?!”
Every head in the room turned towards Memphis at his shout. I raised my brows at Sinclair, wondering if maybe he’d forgotten to feed his boyfriend again. Hangry Memphis was scary. About as scary as the non-caffeinated version.
“He got an email,” Sinclair said in reply to my stare.
“I didn’t just get an email. This is claiming they know exactly where to find Lune.”
Ronan stood, moving quickly to reach Memphis’s desk. “Who sent it?”
“Kendall did.” Tank spoke with purpose as Chance walked with him into the room.
He didn’t look all that rested. In fact, from the way he was speaking, I doubted he took any time off at all. Especially not if this Kendall person had been working for him too.
This screamed boss man behavior.
“Who is Kendall?” I asked.
“Tank’s brother. He’s a good kid from what I could tell. Very smart. A bit of an ass like his older brother too.” Chance smiled at Tank as he said the words.
Our boss rolled his eyes affectionately before leaning over to whisper something in Chance’s ear. Whatever it was made the pair share a very dirty look.
I cleared my throat to remind them they weren’t alone. There was a room down the hall if they wanted to be together like that.
“You two want to tell us what Kendall sent over?” Ronan questioned as he came back to the table where everyone else had gathered.
Tank dropped into one of the empty chairs as Chance took position behind him. They looked like some power couple about to lead their mafia family in a meeting or some shit. I almost snorted out a laugh, only barely catching myself when Arick shook his head at me.
“It’s just like Memphis said. Kendall found Lune’s hiding spots. There’s more than one technically, though we think he’s in the one closest to the city,” Chance told us.
“Chance is right. My baby brother is apparently better at this hacking shit than I thought. I’m going to have to give him some kind of work soon. Or maybe invest in whatever business he wants because I owe him for this. Lune has overstayed his welcome in this city. I need him gone.”
We all nodded at his heated words.
Lune had been a problem for too long. The minute we began taking out his colleagues, we got on his radar. Since then, he’d bided his time until he was ready to attack.
And attack he did.
It still bothered me greatly that he’d gotten to Tank. Our boss wasn’t the type to be caught off guard like that. He wasn’t the person who became the damsel in distress during the dark times.
Which meant Lune had planned everything perfectly to be able to get to him.
“How is it he found something when Memphis couldn’t? Do we trust him?” Cohen said, his tone bitter.
He’d had the hardest time adjusting with the news of Chance being a long-time secret. Adding in Kendall was destroying his confidence in the team.
It was obvious in little ways, like how he spoke and the way he purposefully avoided looking at Chance. Tank hadn’t been coherent enough to notice until now.
He stood from the seat he’d taken. Leaning forward, he placed his palms on the table as he stared down my teammate.
“Do you have something you want to say, Cohen?”
“No.”
Tank scoffed. “Nah, bud. You don’t get to pull that shit with me. You’re going to fucking say what’s on your mind right here and now. We won’t let this shit infect the team. We don’t need to be torn apart when we have bigger problems.”
Cohen stood in a rush too. “Why are you so quick to rush past this, huh? You didn’t tell us about Chance or Kendall. And it’s been YEARS, Tank. What the fuck else are you hiding? How do we know that anything you’ve told us is even true!?”
His yelling had Godric standing next. He attempted to wrap his arms around Cohen, only to be thrown back by a glare. “Just trying to be there for you,” he said.
“Be there for me by supporting this. By supporting my feelings.”
Tank interrupted them, his fist knocking on the desk. “How about I support you, then?”
Cohen’s brow dipped in confusion.
“Oh, you think I wouldn’t understand you being upset? Of course I do. I lied to you. To the men I consider my family. But what I need you to remember is that this was so much more than me. Chance wasn’t out yet. And given his family, even one of you slipping with a joke in front of others or someone overhearing could have been devastating. I couldn’t risk it when I loved him. Plus, I loved the idea of having him to myself. Now I have to share him with you assholes.”
I laughed along with the others.
“We’re not all assholes,” Arick mumbled.
Tank smiled at him. “Now of course. I was talking to the OG group of guys mostly. You’re my little newbie.”
My boyfriend rolled his eyes at the statement, which weirdly made my heart flutter. I loved having him be a part of this. Loved knowing he was completely involved in this life. He wasn’t going anywhere away from me ever again. Him and Sol.
Which reminded me… I needed to check in with the sitter. Though sitter was an odd term for what Frost was doing. He’d taken on the role when we realized the teenage girl we’d been using wasn’t trained enough should someone come after our son.
I shot off a text to Frost while the others kept talking. He replied instantly with a selfie of them playing video games.
“If you agree with me, then what happens now?” Cohen asked.
“Now you decide if you can get past my lies and trust that I hid the truth for valid reasons.” Tank took a deep breath. “Or you decide you don’t want to be here anymore. It’s as simple as that, Cohen. I love you deeply. You’re my friend and my family. I don’t want to lose you. And as much as I want to say I’d change the past, I wouldn’t. It all had to happen this way.”
Godric placed his hand on Cohen’s neck. He didn’t shake him off this time.
The room stilled as we waited for what Cohen had to say. I hated the idea of him not being part of the life we’d built, but I also understood where he was coming from. At the end of the day, I’d hidden my own past though. I’d been in Tank’s shoes. It just didn’t matter as much because mine was a trauma versus a whole ass relationship.
Or I figured that’s how Cohen saw it anyway.
“We all have secrets,” Memphis eventually said.
Takeshi snapped his finger to draw our eyes, then signed, “He’s right.”
Knowing I was the last of the “OG group” as Tank called us, I nodded as well. “Think about this Cohen. You know it’s true. Through the years, we’ve all kept certain things to ourselves . No matter the amount of time or how big the secret, one thing has remained the same.”
“We’ve remained supportive of one another.” Godric’s words had Cohen’s spine straightening.
I wasn’t sure if it was from anger or because he’d finally seen it in him to forgive Tank and move on. I really hoped it was the second one. We needed to remain a united front. We were too close to ending this shit once and for all for it not to be.
“Fuck,” he bit out scrubbing his hands over his face. “I’m sorry for being such a dick about this. It felt like everything was changing all at once. I thought we were finally getting back to the good old days.”
“The good old days as in when you and Godric weren’t together? Or when none of the guys had partners? When we were just living but not truly happy?”
At my passionate words, Cohen’s jaw dropped.
“Damn,” Damari whispered.
Everyone turned to look his way. It was very rare for him to pipe in with an opinion these days. The more we grew in number, the more introverted he’d become.
Him speaking, even just one word, felt like a blow.
Cohen dramatically fell onto the table. “Shots fired. Damari got me.”
We all laughed, taking the mood in the room from a subzero chill into a friendlier mode.
“If we’re all done holding hands, I’d like to go over this email with everyone,” Memphis called out.
“Before we get to that, there’s something else you should know.” Tank then dove into the explanation of Pratt and his brother. He told us of how they’d been living under the radar, and how Kendall had uncovered everything.
Ronan grunted. “We need to contact Stabler again. He needs to get here pronto. This is getting too twisted to not include him.”
“He’s been included from the start,” Tank reminded him. “The issue is that we don’t work within the confines of the law. He can’t be linked to what we do at the end of this.”
“But what if he gets linked to what we’ve already done? There’s no walking away clean from this if he’s helping at all. It’s too risky for him to be in the dark.”
Tank considered my opinion on the matter for a minute before nodding. “Ok, fine. Let’s call him in.”
As a group, we decided not to tell Stabler what was going on over the phone. There was no telling who else was in on everything.
“You can’t possibly have more to tell me already,” he sighed as he answered his phone.
Tank chuckled. “Don’t say you don’t miss us all the time. We’re your favorite people.”
“Sure. Let’s go with that. What can I help you with now?”
“You need to get to NightShade. As soon as possible, preferably. Tell me you’re still in the area.” There was a mix of pleading and demanding in Tank’s tone. It gave just the right amount of urgency for Stabler to turn serious.
“My partner and I are still here, yes. You just barely caught us. She wanted to do one final walk-through before we left. Which was good because we found a few more things.”
Tank’s eyes closed at the reminder of where Stabler was. At what he’d just lost.
Chance took over speaking. “Hey, Stabler. Chance here. Bring your partner with you if you need to. Just… get here so we can talk. There’s a lot to go over. It’s best to do it in person.”
Nothing could be heard other than Stabler’s steady breaths for a moment before he hummed his agreement.
“Very well. Mindy Strong, my temp partner, and I will be there in a couple of hours. I’m going to update my director under the excuse of delivering the news in person since I know Tank. That will buy us some time for whatever you guys are cooking up.”
“Perfect,” Tank said, finally calm enough to jump back in. “You’re going to want to hear all of this. It’s big, Stabler.”
“It always is with you.”
The room broke into laughter at the innuendo as Stabler grunted, “Fuck you guys” before hanging up. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but it was what we had.
“We’ve got to get everything in order for him. And we need a plan. If we rely on him to sort it out, there will be too much red tape,” Ronan said.
I stood. “Before we start that, I do have one suggestion.”
“Hit us with it.”
“Wouldn’t Pratt have tracking on his FBI issued phone? Couldn’t we track him to see if he leads us to where his brother is? If it’s all linked, and Lune is behind the murders and connected to the Gilded Ones, then we could find him quicker, right?”
Memphis’s mouth dropped open. Sinclair reached over, closing it as he giggled. “I’m going to take his shock that you thought of this when he didn’t as him saying yes. He doesn’t do well when someone one ups him, you know.”
I smirked. Yeah, I knew alright.