Page 7 of Vail

“No, I normally don’t. Anyway, I need you to stay low and Jordan too once he’s home. Lana will get him out.” He glanced toward Reghan. “You need to find Gil. I don’t care what you have to do, but he needs to be found alive, so they get off Jordan’s ass about this.” Reghan nodded. “They had trouble getting the search warrant. There was no sign outside of the shit Gil had in his place that he could be here, but they’ll do anything to take Jordan down.”

Before going back to pretending like he was working, Barrett petted Tahoe, who immediately got on his feet and started licking him.

“That’s enough of that,” Reghan said, pulling Barrett up by his jacket.

Barrett spun but didn’t lay a hand on Reghan. “Don’t touch my jacket again unless it’s to remove it from my body.”

“You’d like that too much.”

“You have no fucking idea.” He stepped closer. There were a few inches in height difference between them with Barrett being shorter. Barely a breath separated their bodies as they stared each other down. I almost fanned myself. To think of them together was not a terrible picture.

That was all they could say before shoes on the stairs drew Barrett to the other side of the room, where he went back to searching for nothing.

The cops didn’t say a word as they got into the elevator with Barrett to return downstairs.

Reghan started pacing, his anger needing an outlet. He and Barrett had to have a backstory. There had to be a reason they hated each other. Although, hate might not be the right word.

Raiden stepped into his path and put his hands on his brother’s shoulders. “Stop letting him get to you.”

“He needs to be knocked down a few stories,” Reghan growled.

“I agree, but he says that shit to rile you up, and it works every time.”

“Just fuck him,” Sheldon said casually, where he leaned against the floor-to-ceiling windows. All our heads turned in his direction. “I didn’t say anything we weren’t all thinking. Sex is a great way to work out aggression.”

Reghan turned like he was going to strangle Sheldon.

“I’d love to see you try.” Sheldon grinned.

“Do you guys ever spar in the gym downstairs?” I asked. It was partially out of curiosity and partially because I’d love to see them do it.

“They used to,” Sheldon answered. “But Barry ended up with a broken arm, so that was the end of it.” Barry was Jordan’s head of security. I’d only met him a few times. He was nice enough, not as big as the other guards. Then again, neither was Sheldon. “If we keep getting hurt, that puts us out of the rotation and leaves holes in Jordan’s and your protection. Instead, we work out and try not to kill each other.” He raised an eyebrow at Reghan.

The elevator dinging had Reghan, Raiden, and Sheldon all moving fast, so they were closer to it, forming a wall between us and the elevator. Were more cops coming up?

When the doors opened, it was Barry who stepped out. Slicked back dark hair with eyes that had dark circles under them, Barry looked rougher than he usually did.

“Okay up here?”

“Oh yeah,” Sheldon said calmly. “We’re just passing the time by threatening each other. Another day in the Altair organization.”

“How many floors do they have left?” Raiden asked.

“About half. They didn’t bring enough men to do them at once, like they have in the past. There isn’t shit here, so it shouldn’t take them too long. I just hope they get out of here before the boss comes back. He’s going to be pissed as it is. If he sees cops crawling all over the place, he’ll lose his shit.”

“What about your poisons?” Vail asked Sheldon.

“Hidden. Everything I own is.”

“I thought it was in a closet.”

“It is. But it’s a closet within a closet. I have an app on my phone to get the panels to drop and a secondary closet appears. I just have to move clothes out of the way.”

“I hope no one ever steals your phone,” I muttered.

“They’d have to unlock it, get into the building, fight their way through guards, get past my front door, which has its own protection, and then get to the closet. Chances are really slim of that happening.”

God, my life was so fucking boring until I met Jordan and moved in. I thought designing clothes was exciting. Sheldon had hidden walls and a room with safeguards. Reghan was going toe to toe with a detective, and one of my boyfriends was in prison.

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