Page 5 of Agony

Fisher climbed out the window and caught the rope they’d earlier used to climb up the building’s exterior. Shoving off with his feet against the building’s outer wall, he rappelled downward with Justice coming quickly down after him.

When Fisher hit the ground, he glanced around.

Justice’s beast waited for them.

Axel looked like one of those black and brown police dogs, he couldn’t remember the name of the breed. The animal had been waiting in the shadows just below the window but upon spotting him, the dog leaped to his feet.

Justice joined them and jerked the rope free. The man coiled it around his arm, did some hand signal to Axel, and they headed through the dark and across a nearby field to where they’d left their nondescript vehicle.

Hemet’s weather in mid-July ranged from the nineties during the day and got into the lower sixties at night. The desert town was not one of the safest in the country with a violent crime rate of one out of every thirty-nine. It was no wonder the now-dead sex trafficker had bought a building there to establish his growing business.

They hadn’t taken out all of them, but with the boss dead, perhaps the others would scatter like the wind.

Or maybe Savage would have the assassins round them up.

He smiled at that idea.

“What?” Justice asked and slung an arm around his shoulder as they walked.

He jumped like he had when Justice had first started with the unexpected touches. An arm slung here, or hands on his waist to move him out of the way, or cupping the back of his neck when he wanted his full attention. At first, he’d been freaked out at the touches, but after a while, he understood that it was just the man’s way.

Justice ignored his involuntary jerk and wrapped a hand at the top of his arm to keep him in place. Fisher wasn’t sure why he allowed the touch, but he figured it had something to do with trust.

While he could have done without contact for the entirety of his life, Justice, on the other hand, was a toucher.

“Just thinking about our next job,” Fisher lied and lengthened his stride to keep up.

Justice squeezed him and slowed his steps. “Why don’t we take a break and have dinner?”

That was another thing they didn’t have in common. Justice could eat like a linebacker after a game. He, meanwhile, only ate maybe once a day, if that.

“Fisher?”

“Yeah. I could eat,” he agreed.

“You hungry, boy?”

It took him a moment to realize that Justice was talking to his dog. That was another thing. He wasn’t an animal person, whereas Justice talked to Axel like he was human.

Fisher rolled his eyes when the dog acted like he understood.

Two days later at the crack of dawn, Justice sat in one of the two chairs in front of Savage’s desk in the Erebus headquarters—Fisher sat in the other.

The office was located in Ventura County on the top floor of a state-of-the-art warehouse that had been designed to fit their needs.

“You two good?” Savage leveled that steel gray gaze on Fisher.

Savage Markel’s voice came in a low, deep sound that made people want to pay attention just in case. It was one of those voices that screamed authority and kind of suited Savage for his new role of commanding the Erebus Assassins.

Justice stretched his arms over his head and linked his fingers against the back of his head before he slanted a glance at Fisher and wondered what the man was thinking.

“I don’t know. Are we?” Fisher said and shot him a chin tilt—a silent fuck you was in there somewhere, Justice knew it and he smirked.

Fisher glared.

Justice let his smirk flare into a grin.

“I’m good,” he said slowly, turning to face their boss.

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