Page 7 of Escape into the Night

Taz hesitated, weighing his options and the potential repercussions of them all. Snatching up a black pencil, he drew a rough square around the computer sketch and then added thick black bars. It was a shitty drawing, but he hoped the concept of jail cells conveyed. “Yes and no. We all need to be careful.”

“Well, cover me in shiitake mushrooms and call it glitter.” Caleb's lips pursed as his pencil resumed aimlessly scrawling over the page. “Scale of one to ten, Taz. Gimme the deetz.”

“Like a seven or eight.” Taz deliberately perched his chin atop Parker’s head and made eye contact with Cay as he wound an arm around the little boy’s belly. “Leaning eight, if you catch my drift.”

“Nah, I'm nine. You remember my party, Tazzy?” Parker snugged in closer with a contented sigh. “That was a good party.”

Gutted, filleted, and dragged over hot coals. Taz squeezed the small body closer and sighed softly. “Best party, little dude. You can plan my party next, okay?”

“Heck yeah! Are you gonna be… forty?”

Taz blinked and boggled before breaking into stifled cackles. “Little bro, I'm turning twenty-three.”

“Oh. I don't know! Everyone old is forty!”

“Park, your dad isn't even forty.” Caleb wagged the end of the pencil in Parker’s face.

Parker gawped, stunned into silence as if they'd all completely blown his little mind. Ah, to be so innocent again. Taz felt the pang deep in his chest, right alongside the warmth and affection he refused to give a voice to.

“Huh,” Parker expressed, bemused and thoughtful.

“Huh is accurate,” Taz agreed. The whole shit show was one giant “huh” that pretty much encompassed it all. 404, logic not found. There really weren't any other words suitable enough todefine the maelstrom of his mind. Huh would have to work. At least until he could dig a little deeper.

Chapter Four

Connor

NomatterwhatjobConnor did, they all had one thing in common and that was too much report writing. Marines? Reports. Secret Service? Reports. Private military contractor? Reports. The only silver lining to the whole thing was that he was now officially working alongside his fiancé. That suited Connor’s obsessive need to keep Theo close just fine. Granted, they worked two very different angles of the same company, but he reckoned it was the only circumstance that would keep them together without it coming across as clingy or possessive. And Connor was nothing if not those two things, not after everything they’d been through in their lives. Almost losing Theo, not once but twice, was enough to send chills down Connor’s spine. The fact that he himself had almost died the last time around made the neediness reciprocal.

Connor pulled the SUV into the driveway of Amarat Associates headquarters and killed the engine. HQ wasn't some big brick building in the heart of DC—it was a family home in Anacostia, burgeoning to the brim with a boatload of people at any given time of the day and night. The fact that his own mother oftenspent most of her free time there was icing on the cake. He loved having all his loved ones close. His mama lived with them, so the time they spent together at the Gendry house was another added bonus. Fact of the matter was, Connor had missed having her nearby. His brush with death had put a lot of things into perspective for him.

The weather was warm for September, and the fact that it was a Saturday morning meant the neighborhood was alive. The Gendry household seemed bursting at the seams with the same liveliness. The twins were teasing Luke’s dog in the front yard. Loud music could be heard through the open windows of the house. Lance was, strangely enough, standing on the roof of the front porch with a new gadget in his hands, pointed at the sky like someone from a sci-fi movie. Connor wouldn't ask. It was easier not to ask when it came to the Gendry boys.

“Let’s try to make this quick,” Theo groused from the passenger seat. Theo hated driving, but was forced to do a lot of it. Connor thrilled over the opportunity to lessen his load and be the driver for their work commute.

“I only got a handful of reports. We’ll be in and out in a jiffy, Teddy.” Connor climbed out of the vehicle and met Theo around the front.

“I swear, they're worse than children.” Theo dubiously eyed the shenanigans and scrunched his nose. There was no heat behind the words and Connor found Theo’s morning grouchiness endearing. It was good to see him more and more like his old self as they settled in for the long haul. Connor snagged Theo’s hand and brushed a thumb over the band around his ring finger as they moved toward the front door.

“Good people.”

“The best,” agreed Theo with a fleeting smile.

They exchanged greetings all around before slipping into the home, bypassing the living spaces as they ventured to the Lair.At least, that’s what Connor called the basement of the house. The majority of the space was dominated by the imposing bank of monitors and servers and whatever the heck else Theo and Taz had built up to becoming the technical backbone of the business. The rest of the space was home to a workroom-slash-storage room, built up around the washing machine, dryer, and all the other guts that kept the house running.

Connor parted ways with Theo at the base of the stairs. They had a little work to do—Connor with his reports and Theo doing something involving network security for a company on their books. He didn't understand, nor would he try to. He could barely manage the basics, evidenced by his single-digit typing style as he settled into a beat-up old futon in the workroom and input his password into one of the company’s laptops. Theo and Taz had both ribbed Connor over it more than a time or two.

A few careful clicks on the track pad brought up the report system. It was all routine stuff. Simple security duties and a few reports on the other jobs he’d gotten done over the week. He sighed and clicked on a button a second time, but the machine didn't respond. Muttering under his breath, he clicked a third time. Stupid computer. He gave it a little shake to see if that would get things moving.

Things got moving for sure. Connor startled as a loud chiming sound came from the shitty speakers of the laptop. The once frozen screen lit up like an emergency beacon as pop-up boxes with red alert symbols began appearing. When even louder alerts started clanging in the Lair, Connor real quick dumped the laptop on the table and backed away before it could burn him or something.

“Teddy!” Connor’s voice bellowed over the cacophony as he stared at the laptop. “Baby, I don't know what I did!”

Theo sprinted into the room and skidded to a halt at the table, mumbling curses under his breath as he pulled the computercloser. All Connor could do was stand dumbfounded as his partner’s hands dashed over the keys. His movements were deft and hurried. The cussing stopped as Theo’s concentration took over, a wrinkle appearing between his brows. Within seconds, the laptop stopped chiming and whining. Hell, the thing stopped working all together, the screen pitch black where it had once been a flurry of boxes and alerts. Evidently, whatever happened wasn't over yet. Theo took off again, disappearing back to the larger bay of bigger computers in the adjacent room. More than a little lost, Connor trailed behind with an apology hanging on the tip of his tongue.

“I'm sorry—”

“Call Taz.” Theo didn’t glance toward him, his eyes locked on the largest screen. Suddenly, the computer chair sailed across the room on whining wheels as Theo kicked it out of the way and stepped into the free space, his hands jumping back and forth between two different keyboards, his eyes darting all over the half dozen monitors clinging to the cinderblock wall. Connor knew enough to know he better do as asked and stay the hell out of the way. He wrangled his cell from the pocket of his cargo shorts and dialed the number for Theo’s ex.

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