Page 2 of Christmas Trouble

At first, Joshua saw nothing, so he inched a bit past Travis and casually glanced around. It was ingrained in Joshua to be cautious, and he was glad to have a brother who had taken the time to teach him things that other teenagers didn’t know. Things like surveillance, spotting a perp, reading the room, knowing when to get down, and knowing when to run.

Sweeping his eyes over the next line, he didn’t see anything odd about the woman with the toddler in a shopping cart filled with toys. In the line on the other side of the mother, an older couple was conversing with two teenage girls. Nothing unusual about that.

Joshua kept looking, one more line over he found what Aaron had spotted. Damn, the kid was good, but then Aaron lived with two Pegasus agents so it stood to reason that the kid would know his stuff.

The tall, thin man wearing beige coveralls a few checkout lines down from them cradled a gun against his chest. The weapon was positioned in a way that nobody could really see unless they happened to look very closely, like Aaron had.

Out of curiosity, Travis stepped forward to get a look, but Joshua wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder to stop him.

Joshua moved Travis over next to Aaron. With one slow measured step, Joshua placed his bigger body between the two slighter boys and the gunman.

Other people in the store seemed oblivious and Joshua hoped that it stayed that way.

If anyone panicked, it could cause a chain reaction of terror.

The gunman juggled one present, a box filled with a squirt gun, and another box containing a brown, toy revolver and plastic handcuffs.

Fuck. Joshua released a long breath.It’s a toy.For a minute there, he thought it had been a real gun.

“It’s a toy,” he muttered at Aaron.

Aaron flushed and shrugged. “Sorry.”

“No worries.” Joshua released another deep breath, feeling his nerves calm a bit.

Shit. He was becoming super paranoid just like his older brother. In some ways what his brother taught him was good, in other ways not so much.

“You guys need to hurry up,” Tyler Carson said, stepping up beside them. The tall, blue-eyed, sixteen-year-old wasn’t related to anyone they knew, but the boy did live with Pegasus operatives Link and Eagle. And if Joshua were to be asked, he’d say that Tyler was just about as observant as he was. Tyler had some skills, too. He’d sparred with the teenager not too long ago.

“The line is long, dude.” Travis glared at Tyler.

“Stand down, I come in peace,” Tyler joked with a smirk.

Travis gave a wobbly smile, and it was the most beautiful thing Joshua had ever seen.

“But seriously, the guys are getting restless in the car,” Tyler said, moving up to stand next to them after assuring the customer in line behind them that he wasn’t buying anything.

“Let them wait,” Joshua said. “We’ve waited plenty for them.”

It was true, and none of the boys could argue with him. They all spent a lot of time waiting at home for the men who raised them to come through the door.

But with the jobs those men did, was it really any wonder they were seldom home?

“It can’t take this long,” Azrael huffed.

He watched as Tyler disappeared through the Target store doors. The teenager had volunteered to go in and get the others.

“Maybe they can’t make up their minds,” Seven said from where he sat behind the wheel.

Hunter, who sat in the front seat, lifted his shoulders and said, “It hasn’t been that long.”

“Long enough to make my ass numb,” Creed grumbled from one of the middle rows of the passenger van that could hold twelve people. Next to Creed sat Kellum, with little four-year-old Dylan out of his seat belt and climbing over everyone and everything he could reach.

In the far back of the vehicle, Ice snoozed with the hundred-pound Labrador retriever next to him.

On the other side of the dog sat Echo, scrolling through his phone with his free hand running over Grit’s back and scruff. Echo paused long enough to snort.

Azrael twisted around to glance at Creed, who was also scrolling through his phone. Azrael remembered being in awe when he caught a glimpse of Creed and Stone standing side by side. The two men were cousins and looked almost identical, with the exception that Stone appeared slightly older.

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