Page 33 of Agony

The commander of Genesis had thus far remained quiet. They all knew Real ran a newly formed group of military assassins and that there had to be a specific reason why the man was here.

“I gave the order to have Fisher and Rogue contained the night we went after Blue, so this falls on me,” Real said.

“I was there,” Savage shook his head at Real, “and a whole shit ton of other people made the call on how best to take Blue down.”

Justice hadn’t been at the meeting but he’d gotten the call to keep Fisher out of the line of fire.

So technically, he’d been following orders.

But that didn’t mean shit now.

Everything was all fucked up and going sideways. All he wanted was to find Fisher and make things right.

“We failed to get Blue,” Justice pointed out and rubbed a tired hand down his face.

“It doesn’t matter. I was in charge,” Real said, his words clipped out with a flat tone of voice and the man leveled a hard look at Savage.

Their boss leaned back in his chair. The two powerful men stared at each other, neither one backing down.

“The call was made. There’s no going back. You’re all dismissed. Real, can you stay for a minute?” Savage said.

Justice quickly left the room. Keeping his eyes forward, he jogged down the stairs and shoved open the warehouse door.

Stepping into the hot September sun, Justice took a moment.

He didn’t normally have regrets, but now that was all he seemed to have.

Placing his fingers to his lips, he let out a shrill whistle and Axel came crashing from the trees that bordered the rear of the parking lot.

“Heel,” he said when Axel reached his side.

The dog sat tightly against his leg, muzzle open, tongue lolling out, eyes locked on him. Justice ruffled his fingers behind the dog’s perked ears and plucked out a few weeds sticking to the top of Axel’s head.

An SUV pulled into the parking lot and Ice and Echo got out along with their chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever.

“Shit!” Echo shouted when Grit charged across the asphalt toward him and Axel.

Justice grabbed the handle on the back of Axel’s vest and swung the dog up and around his back. He slipped his arms through the backpack straps that would put the animal safely on his back.

As the big body of Grit barreled toward them, Justice braced himself for impact.

Going on a few months now, they had avoided the two dogs going toe to toe—it appeared they were out of time. If this ended in a blood bath, then he wasn’t footing the bill.

“Down!” Ice snapped, his voice ringing with authority.

The Labrador immediately dropped to his belly in the parking lot about halfway to where Justice stood.

Grit was fucking impressive.

“Nice,” Justice called over.

Echo slammed the door to the SUV and jogged over to grab Grit by the collar.

The next moment, Echo blasted him with a glare full of anger.

He understood why…Fisher and Echo were friends. They went way back…all the way to boyhood.

Ice gestured to Grit and then Axel. “Think they’ll ever be friends?”

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