Chapter Ten
Neil
HE WAS being followed. He had been for two days. Why? He wasn’t sure. So far, there hadn’t been an attempt on his life but that could change in an instant. He was supposed to be heading home to Marco but as long as someone was tailing him, he wasn’t going anywhere near Baltimore. He was staying as far away from Marco, Alicia, and Dante as possible. Which was why he was heading south. Toward Langley.
He’d already given Marco a heads up and he knew Rome would be on high alert. As much as they butted heads, he didn’t doubt Rome’s ability to keep Marco safe. He didn’t have to worry about the Serranos.
He’d called Ty on a secure line and the man was ready for the trap they’d be laying for the two men tailing him. He wanted them alive. He wanted to know who the fuck was gunning for him.
He turned into an apartment building and made his way up the stairs in search of the apartment he knew Ty would be waiting for him in. He pulled out the key Ty had handed him in a drop-off two hours ago and used it to unlock the door to the apartment. He stepped inside and made his way down a narrow hallway.
“Ty?” he called out.
“In here.”
He followed the voice and stepped into a large kitchen. Ty was standing behind the island, looking down at the photographs he had spread across the counter. Next to them was a secure laptop as well as two unopened beer bottles and a gun. He walked closer, giving Ty a nod when he looked up.
“I’ve already run them through every database I have access to,” Ty said, motioning at the pictures he’d taken of the men following Neil. “Nothing.”
Neil sighed. “Just like the first two.”
He didn’t like it. Not one fucking bit. Whoever was after him had some serious resources which made him even more confused about the lack of attempts on his life between the first and this one.
“Let’s hope dumb and dumber has some answers,” Ty said though the weak smile on his face told Neil he wasn’t holding out hope. Neil wasn’t either. The men were likely just hired for the job, their information extremely limited.
Footsteps had him whirling around while Ty grabbed his gun off the counter. The man appearing in the doorway, slowly stepping out of the shadows, had his heart picking up speed. Marco’s lips twitched but he didn’t smile, gaze moving from Neil to Ty while Rome stepped into the room behind him.
Neil put a hand on Ty’s gun and pushed it down, his emotions warring inside him. As much as he loved seeing Marco, he didn’t want him in danger.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“He insisted,” Rome said, gaze dark as he glared at Marco.
Marco shrugged. “Did you honestly expect me to sit on my ass while someone’s trying to kill you? Again?”
Neil dropped his head back with a groan. Fuck. Yeah, he should’ve known.
“If you’ll recall, I did quite well the first time,” he said and raised a brow.
Marco shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Friends of yours I assume?” Ty said, brow arched at Neil. There was something beyond caution in the man’s eyes. There was curiosity, which was dangerous because Ty loved unpacking a good mystery and Marco was not a mystery he needed Ty to solve.
“Something like that,” Marco drawled, gaze clashing with Neil’s.
Rome snorted, the sound coming out almost startled as if he’d tried to hold it back.
Neil crossed his arms and leaned back against the island, brows furrowing as he cocked his head to the side.
“How did you find me?”
Marco shrugged. “You weren’t exactly making it hard.”
He shook his head, a smile creeping onto his face.
Ty leaned close and kept his voice low as he said, “Now, I might not be too versed in domestic criminals, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen his face in a file or two.”
As much as he wanted to snap at Ty, he recognized that this was his mess, not Ty’s.
“Probably,” Neil muttered. “Which is why you’re gonna forget you ever saw him.”
Ty lit up in a smile that meant Neil was about to wish he could smother the man without feeling guilty for killing him.
“You wild boy,” Ty said and hit him playfully in the arm.
Ty put his gun on the island counter and took off toward Rome and Marco, leaving Neil cursing under his breath before following.
“I’m Ty.”
Ty thrust his hand toward Marco who had a skeptical look in his eyes as he shook the man’s hand.
“Marco.”
“Does Marco have a last name?”
Marco cocked a brow at him and said, “Does Ty?”
“Touché.”
Neil ran a hand down his face. How had his life come to this?
“So, what’s the plan?” Marco asked.
Ty slung an arm over Marco’s shoulders and talked a mile a minute as he led him to the kitchen island where he showed him the photos before pointing at something on his computer screen.
“Is he gonna be a problem?”
Neil turned his head, gaze meeting Rome’s cautious eyes.
“No. He’s the only person I would ever trust with Marco.”
He and Ty had been through too much bullshit together for either of them to throw away that kind of loyalty. That kind of… friendship.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
The trap wasn’t complicated. It was actually quite simple. All he had to do was show the men following him that he’d spotted them. Then he needed to run. Right into the trap. They would follow because whoever had sent them clearly didn’t want to lose sight of him.
He’d left the apartment almost an hour ago. The others had left before him to put everything in place. It had taken almost ten minutes before he’d caught sight of the men following him. They were good, but he was better.
He stopped at a little coffee cart and bought a cappuccino. He took a sip and began walking again, waiting for the men to get a little closer. He waited until he was in front of a large window display and then he came to a halt, eyes on the reflection that clearly showed the men following across the street. He knew they’d be suspicious if he had too obvious a reaction so he started walking at the same tempo as before, dropping his still mostly full cup of coffee in the nearest trashcan, then slipped down a narrow alleyway he knew would lead them exactly where he wanted them.
He heard a shout behind him, probably someone the men had pushed out of the way because next came running footsteps. He started running too.
He caught sight of the door Ty had ensured was unlocked for him and he pushed through it, running down a hallway that led further into the building. He heard the door slamming against the wall behind him and threw a quick glance over his shoulder. The two men were average height, one with black hair while the other’s was brown. They were both dressed in dark clothes, which wasn’t exactly a surprise.
He ran through the door at the end of the hall and continued until he reached the middle of the room. There he came to a sharp halt and whirled around, Marco stepping up on one side of him, Ty on the other. All three of them had their weapons pulled and when the two men ran into the room, they didn’t have a choice but to either stop and stand down or try to get a shot off before they got riddled with bullets themselves.
Two against three might’ve made them choose the latter option just because they might stand a chance, but then the door shut behind them, Rome stepping in front of it with his gun in one hand and a brow raised.
“Fuck,” the one with brown hair muttered, throwing a glance at the other man.
The man with black hair seemed indecisive, gaze running across them all while his fingers squeezed the handle of the gun he was holding.
“Put them down,” Neil said.
He wasn’t surprised when the man jerked his gun toward him. He never got a shot off before their bullets tore through him.
The other man held his gun out and slowly crouched down to place it on the ground. He stood back up and kicked the gun toward Neil.
“I guess that makes him Dumber and you Dumb,” Ty said and smiled at the man. “Unless, of course, you wanna tell us your name?”
Dumb stared at Ty unblinkingly, his expression completely blank.
“Right. Didn’t think so.”
Neil motioned with his gun toward the two chairs they had set up off to his right and Dumb kept his hands up as he walked there and sat down. Rome was ready with a roll of duct tape and while the others kept their guns trained on Dumb, Rome got the man’s arms and legs tied to the chair.
Ty pulled out a handheld fingerprint scanner and held it toward Dumb who gave him a toothy smile as he willingly placed his fingers on it.
The device hummed and while it searched for a match, Neil walked over to Dumber’s body, crouching down to search the man’s pockets. He held back a frustrated sigh when he came up empty.
He walked back to the others just as a beep came from the scanner.
“Nothing,” Ty said, a dejected look crossing his face.
“You’re not surprised,” Neil said to Dumb when he noticed the man’s lack of reaction to that information.
“Why would I be?”
“Your photo doesn’t match anything in any database and neither does your fingerprints,” Neil said, gaze running over the man’s face. That didn’t happen easily. Erasing someone like that took a hell of a lot of money or power.
There was a wicked smile on the man’s lips as he said, “Does yours?”
Neil couldn’t keep from rocking back on his heels in shock. Holy shit. Yeah, that was an option he hadn’t wanted to even consider.
“What does that mean?” Marco asked.
Neil swallowed, gaze dropping to the ground for a second before he lifted his head and looked into Marco’s eyes.
“It means,” he said and took a breath, hand rubbing the back of his neck, “that someone in the Agency wants me dead.”
Marco’s lips parted and the look he gave Neil had a lump forming in his throat. He knew Marco wanted him to quit. Marco didn’t hide that he wanted him out of that life and fully into his. He just couldn’t… He just couldn’t .
“Why am I not surprised that you got yourself on someone’s shit list?” Ty mused, brow arched at Neil.
He didn’t even have it in him to curse the man.
He knew exactly who wanted him dead, he just didn’t know who inside the agency the man had his claws in. Hughes, the terrorist he’d caught years ago, was pulling the strings. He knew it. Finding out whose strings he was pulling wouldn’t be easy, but he’d do it. He needed this to end.
He met Ty’s gaze and when the man gave him a nod, he pulled Marco toward the door. They stepped into the hallway and when the door closed behind them, Neil met Marco’s worried gaze.
“This is worse than you thought,” Marco said, his voice low but steady.
Neil released a pent-up breath and nodded.
“It means that I have to be careful. Really careful.”
Marco’s brows furrowed and he tilted his head just slightly to the side, eyes burning a path into Neil. “Say it.”
He swallowed hard, the words stuck in his throat because he didn’t want to say them.
“We shouldn’t be seeing―”
“No,” Marco snapped, hands grabbing Neil’s face. “We’re not gonna let some asshole spook get between us. We’re not gonna let him pull us apart. No fucking way.”
This was why Marco was the strongest one of them. He needed Marco so fucking desperately just to function nowadays. He wasn’t sure he knew how to breathe without Marco anymore.
“Do we need to go back in there?”
“Ty will take care of it,” he muttered.
“Good.” Marco nodded and ran a hand down Neil’s arm to grab his hand. “Then we’re going home.”
He opened his mouth to protest but he knew from the sharp look Marco gave him that he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Marco was getting his way.
Ty was more than happy to stay behind with Dumb. Neil knew the man well enough to know that if Dumb knew anything, Ty would get it out of him, though he doubted the mole was stupid enough to have revealed anything important. The important thing was that he now knew for sure that someone at the agency was not only working with Hughes but that they wanted him dead.
They walked to the garage where Marco’s car was parked and got in the back of the car, Rome getting behind the wheel to drive them to Baltimore. He must’ve fallen asleep at some point because he woke up with his head in Marco’s lap, fingers carding slowly through his hair.
“We’re home,” Marco whispered.
Neil hummed and blinked a few times before he pushed himself up into a seated position.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, giving Marco a sheepish look.
“Don’t be.” Marco’s lips spread in a soft smile. “Seemed like you needed it.”
He’d been on high alert for several days and Marco was his safe space. It was no wonder he’d fallen asleep. He’d needed it desperately, though not as much as he needed Marco.
“I already sent Rome home,” Marco said.
Neil turned his gaze toward the front of the car and found it empty.
They were alone.
Marco got out of the car and Neil followed, a smile on his lips. Marco grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door. As they stepped into the house, he noticed how quiet it was. When Alicia was around, silence usually wasn’t an option.
“Where’s Alicia and Dante?”
He hadn’t seen them in three weeks and despite how terrified he was of hurting or dropping the little guy, Dante had taken a real shining to him, and he was barely allowed to put him down. He was almost a year old, and he’d just started walking and was making his mother’s blood pressure rise any chance he got. The kid reminded him of someone he knew.
He looked at Marco, the corners of his lips creasing.
“Last I saw her, she was packing,” Marco said, grabbing Neil’s hand to tug him toward the stairs.
“Packing?” he asked with a frown, uneasy spreading through him.
Marco nodded. “She wants to go on a little getaway. Our father had a cabin built for Mamma for when she wanted to escape the life for a little while. Alicia invited us to come but I figured we should stay. We’ll have the whole house to ourselves.”
Now that he could get behind.
Marco turned, backing toward the stairs while he shrugged out of his suit jacket. Neil followed, catching up to him before he reached the staircase, hands sliding around the man’s waist to jerk him against his body, lips crashing together in a deep kiss.
He groaned into Marco’s mouth, their tongues tangling desperately while he pulled Marco’s shirt free of his pants so he could slide his hands up the man’s back.
A phone rang and they both groaned. Marco shook his head and pressed a quick kiss to Neil’s lips before untangling himself and walking to where he’d discarded his jacket on the floor.
He watched Marco, a smile teasing his lips. Marco’s eyes were on him, dark promises in them as he picked up his phone. A frown formed on Marco’s forehead and a second later, he went pale, staring at Neil with panic in his eyes. He shook his head, his phone landing on the floor and Neil barely made it in time to catch Marco before he too hit the floor. Marco’s heartbreaking scream would forever be seared into his brain.