Chapter Eight
brYCE
Once Tom had given Matt his list, they headed out again. In wolf form this time, since the steep hill that Tom wanted to climb wasn’t particularly horse-friendly.
“It’s too far for a sniper, but close enough for recon,” Tom said. “I want to get eyes on it myself, see exactly what they’d have line of sight on.”
Although the hill lay outside pack territory, Bryce had gone with him.
He told himself it was because they didn’t want a Council-affiliated stranger wandering around unmonitored, but if he were honest, it wasn’t just security that had Bryce offering to show Tom the route up to the place they called Lookout Point.
It was the fact he enjoyed Tom’s company. And that he was plenty easy on the eye.
Up at the ledge, they shifted, and as Tom stood, looking out toward the distant ranch, Bryce pulled their stash box out from the crevice it was hidden in.
“Way too cold for casual nudity,” he said, and when Tom turned to him, he tossed some sweats and a hoodie at him. “Rolled-up socks are in the pocket,” he told him, and quickly dressed himself.
Then he passed Tom the binoculars they kept in that particular stash and sat on one of the boulders scattered across the ledge. The land was federally owned, but they treated it as part of their extended buffer zone.
The vantage point offered a panoramic view of the valley below, the town nestled amidst the rolling hills, bathed in the light of the sun.
He knew Dave loved to come here and meditate, and though Christian called what he did up here discipline drills, he had the feeling the spot held the same meaning for him.
Bryce liked it too, so long as he stayed away from the edge.
The problem was, while it was beautiful, it also happened to offer an almost bird’s-eye view of the rear of the ranch house and much of the back yard.
“Shit,” Tom said, as he swept the binoculars over the house and surrounding land.
“It’s always been a weak spot,” Bryce admitted. “But we had no reason to worry about it until Jesse came along. Before him, there’d never been any incentive for anyone to take an interest in us.”
Tom was silent a moment. Then he lowered the binoculars and stared out, eyes narrowed as he thought.
“It’d be a solid place to coordinate an op, multiple teams hitting from different angles. But if they had that kind of firepower, they wouldn’t be managing it remotely for a pack your size.” He glanced at Bryce. “Meaning no disrespect.”
“It’s true.”
Tom nodded, then turned back to the view. “Other than someone coming up for a quick recon—and why would they, when they can get satellite imagery on their phone?—I don’t see much tactical advantage.”
Bryce tilted his head in agreement. “S’what we figured,” he said. “Though really, that was Karl’s call.”
“Has he considered setting a trail cam up here? Something to flag if anyone’s casing the place?”
Bryce huffed a laugh. “Word for word,” he said. “I really must introduce you two. Yeah, we decided in the end it wasn’t worth it. There’s an eagle pair nesting just up the rock face, and they’d drain a battery faster than you could get back up here to replace it.”
Tom sat down beside Bryce on the sun-warmed rocks, looking out at the view before them. After a few moments, he sighed slightly, and wriggled into a more comfortable position, looking more relaxed than he had all day.
“Bit different from Washington?” Bryce suggested, and Tom grinned. There was an ease in his face that Bryce hadn’t seen before, as if he really were relaxing. Fresh air and sunshine would do that to a man.
“Just a little,” Tom said. “For one thing, my office is practically underground. No natural light to be seen, which means I can go the entire winter without seeing daylight.”
“How did you end up doing this?” Bryce asked, and then he realized he needed another answer before Tom got to that one. “I mean, what exactly is it you do?”
Tom settled back, propped against the rockface behind them.
“My alpha heard they were recruiting just when—when I’d gotten some bad news about what I’d planned to do.
It seemed as good a job as anything else, and it got me away.
It was straightforward security for the Council at that point,” he added, shading his eyes to watch the golden eagle swooping low over them.
“But then I was seconded to Councilor Steadman’s personal detail to bump up numbers because of a threat against her.
She liked the way I thought, apparently, and said I was wasted on security. ”
He wrinkled his brow. “I never much liked that statement. I’m not sure people who haven’t done it understand what good security takes. But her job offer came with better hours and better pay, so I took it. And that’s how I—”
He broke off abruptly.
So abruptly, it piqued Bryce’s interest. “That’s how you…?” he asked.
Tom shook his head. “That’s how I met my ex. He was heading a subcommittee on Infrastructure and Settlement. Not something of particular interest to Steadman, but she needed a presence. So I got seconded. Again.”
Bryce glanced over. Tom was looking out at the valley, and there was something tight around his mouth.
“That sounds like it could get complicated, working together.”
“It did.” Tom’s voice was level, but his fingers picked at a seam in his borrowed hoodie. “He was ambitious. Always thinking three moves ahead. Always on. I guess we were kind of a power couple. Until he got promoted.”
Had the ex upgraded his partner as well as his job?
That seemed to be what Tom was implying, but Bryce wasn’t going to be crass enough to ask.
He didn’t say anything, just let the silence stretch and watched Tom relax again.
A breeze moved over the ledge, lifting Tom’s hair and sending the scent of pine rolling past.
“So yeah,” Tom said finally. “I took the job with Steadman, and I never looked back. Never thought of doing anything else. But sometimes—”
He stopped again, then gave a dry laugh. “Well, sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to take what someone says at face value, rather than try to work out the angle or the spin.”
“That sounds a little like looking back,” Bryce said quietly.
Tom gave him a sideways glance, then he sighed. “You’d think it’d get easier, that you’d get used to everything being spun and nothing being what it seems. But somehow—it’s corrosive.”
He bit off his words suddenly, and he looked at Bryce for an instant, something akin to panic skittering over his face.
And Bryce couldn’t tell if that was because he’d just been disloyal to the Council he was supposed to be representing, or if it was something Tom had realized for the first time and was struggling to come to terms with himself.
Bryce hated that look on him and needed to take it away.
“I don’t know about that, but you seem to have been honest with us,” he said. “And I appreciate that.”
Tom smiled then, and it looked real. Like Tom, not a council aide. And something warm shifted in Bryce’s chest. He caught himself noticing the curve of Tom’s mouth, the way that hoodie clung to his shoulders.
They looked at one another for a long moment, long enough that the space between them felt like it changed again, warmed by something softer than sunlight. Not only attraction, though that was there. Something slower. More curious.
Tom eventually glanced away, shifting slightly on his rock before looking back at Bryce, eyes inquisitive.
“You don’t need to tell me, and I don’t intend to pry, but I am intrigued,” he said. “Your pack’s very small, and all men. Is there a particular reason for that?”
Bryce rolled off the boulder and headed toward the stash. Grabbing a couple of granola bars, he tossed one to Tom. And yeah, he was covering, playing for time as he decided how much to say.
“Matt never intended to form a pack,” he said, settling beside Tom once more. “But there are always strays out there, for one reason or another. And shifters need a pack.”
Tom made a low noise of agreement, his mouth full.
“As for us all being guys, that definitely wasn’t a decision Matt made. It just happened that way. So far, anyway. The rate at which we’ve been picking up new members lately, who knows?”
The corner of Tom’s lips twitched upward, and something in Bryce sparked in response.
They sat and finished their bars, basking in the sunshine and it felt peaceful.
It was becoming clearer to Bryce why Dave liked it so much up here.
Or maybe it was the company he was enjoying as much as the view, because Tom was easy to be around.
Which he damn well shouldn’t be, given where he was from and why he was here.
Bryce glanced sideways at him, and decided to prod. “Any reason for the two different security checks?”
He scrunched up the granola bar wrapper and stuck it in the pocket of his sweats, giving Tom time to decide how to answer such a pointed question.
“Councilor Steadman likes to be fully prepared for any situation,” Tom said.
“And you can give her intel the Council security team can’t?”
When Tom looked at Bryce, his eyes were rueful. He knew exactly what Bryce wanted to know, but he had his own loyalties.
“Let’s just say, Jax—head of Council security—has many talents. None of them involve interpersonal skills. And Steadman likes to get the small things right from the start. No calling someone by their given name if they’re always known by a nickname, that sort of thing.”
He stared up at the sky, and a sigh escaped him. Bryce wasn’t sure he knew it had.
“You mean she doesn’t want to burn any bridges with us,” Bryce said. “At least, not without good reason.”
Tom’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked at Bryce. “No one’s going to want to burn bridges where Jesse’s concerned,” he said. Then he sobered. “Though I’m not sure sucking up’s going to go down well with him.”
“Another thing you’re going to tell Steadman?” Bryce suggested, just a hint of challenge in his voice.
Tom sat up and looked at Bryce, his eyes serious. “I’m not doing anything underhanded here, but yeah, I’ll tell her what I’ve noticed if it helps her make a connection with this pack so you can have productive conversations.”
Bryce nodded, and found himself smiling. “See? Thank you for being honest with us.”
Tom flopped back down, staring up at the sky rather than holding Bryce’s gaze. But there was a softness to his face, as if Bryce’s words had meant something to him.