Page 80 of Agony

The boy’s chin tipped up and fire spat from his.

It appeared that Real might be at the end of his rope. The big soldier’s hands clenched and Justice fully expected Azrael to run.

What he hadn’t expected was opposition. Clearly, he had underestimated Azrael.

Instead of running, the teenager poked Real in his muscled chest and glared up at the big intimidating man. The boy’s long black hair spilled down his slender back.

“Don’t you start bossing me around! You don’t get to ignore me and then show up here and—”

The rest of Azrael’s words were cut off with a squeak when Real tossed the slender boy over one shoulder and stomped up the stairs.

Azrael shouted a spew of curse words that blistered the stairwell.

A few moments later, an upstairs door slammed.

A minute after that, Real came back down the stairs.

“Let him calm down and then you can talk with him,” Real said and walked out the front door. It closed quietly behind him.

“I thought for a minute there, Real was going to hit him,” Justice told Dave.

Stone made a sound under his breath and walked out of the entryway.

“No, Real wouldn’t lay a hand on Azrael,” Dave said, walking to the door that led to his study.

“The kid’s having a rough time,” Justice said, following Dave into the room.

“Yeah, his whole world has been upended. Now his brother and Cash are living at the dorms and Azrael is lost,” Dave sighed.

“I take it that he doesn’t want to go to school?”

“No. I guess it was too much to hope that all of them would pick another way of life.”

“You rescued how many, nine?” Justice said, following Dave farther into his study. “And one refuses to change? I’d say you beat the odds.”

“Maybe.” Dave settled into one of two leather chairs that sat in front of the wide window. Beyond the glass lay a garden with wandering paths and blooming summer flowers.

“I don’t have time tonight,” Dave said. “But I want to go over with you what I have on Blue, Crow, and Tanis. Can you stop by tomorrow night? Say around twenty hundred?”

“Can you just text me the info?” Justice had stayed standing.

“I’d rather not,” Dave said. “Come for dinner.”

Dinner? That was odd. Were they having a meeting he didn’t know about? The soldier in him wouldn’t allow him to decline the former Secretary of Defense’s offer.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. I might not be able to stay for dinner, but I’ll try.”

Dave smirked and nodded.

“I won’t keep you,” Justice said, turning slightly toward the door.

“Have you spoken to Fisher?” Dave asked, preventing him from leaving. The man lifted a pair of reading glasses from the table before picking up a thick book.

“Yes, but nothing has been resolved.”

“Don’t give up,” the man murmured.

He wanted to assure Dave that he wouldn’t, but he couldn’t do that. The only thing he could give Fisher was space and a lot of it.

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